In the years since Matt Leinart lost the starting job in Arizona to Kurt Warner, no team has ever given Leinart another chance to be a starter: The best job he could get after the Cardinals cut him was as the No. 2 quarterback in Houston, and the best job he could get after the Texans cut him was as the No. 2 quarterback in Oakland.
But Leinart remains optimistic that he’ll eventually be a starter again.
“I still have the mindset and desire to play. I am obviously still competitive and I hate to be on the sideline sitting and watching,” Leinart said on ESPN Radio in Los Angeles, via the San Francisco Chronicle. “I know what I can do.”
Unfortunately for Leinart, the only way he’ll get off the sideline and on the field in Oakland is if Carson Palmer gets hurt. Leinart has backed up Palmer before in college at USC, and he’s ready to do it again in the NFL, even though he’d prefer not to back anyone up.
“We have remained close over the years,” Leinart said of Palmer. “He is a guy I have always looked up to, and it’s awesome 10 years later to be reunited.”
So if Leinart has to be on the sideline sitting and watching, Palmer is the quarterback he wants to sit and watch.
