So the retirement of Kurt Warner means that Matt Leinart is the new starting quarterback in Arizona, right?
Um, no.
Leinart has to earn the job, as coach Ken Whisenhunt told Bickley & MJ of Xtra Sports 910 in Phoenix on Tuesday, via Mike Sando of ESPN.com.
Though Whisenhunt said he has a “great deal” of confidence in Leinart, Whisenhunt also said that he won’t hand the job to the tenth overall pick in the 2006 draft until he “goes to three Pro Bowls” and the Super Bowl.
So, in other words, the job will never be handed to Leinart.
If Whisenhunt truly believed in Leinart, he wouldn’t have been unexpectedly benched on the eve of the 2008 season for Warner, and Leinart wouldn’t have been routinely yanked from games during the 2007 season (before Leinart’s collar bone when “crack”) so that Warner could pull the offense’s bacon from the bonfire.
The deeper problem here is that Denny Green drafted Leinart, not Whisenhunt. Thus, Whisenhunt wants his own guy, either via free agency or the draft.