Matt Leinart’s Cardinals career likely wrapped up on Thursday night during an odd, almost sad performance in Arizona’s fourth preseason game.
Leinart directed two drives as the Cardinals backup. One drive was a three-and-out; the other picked up two first downs before stalling. He completed 3-of-5 passes for 14 yards as he mostly just dumped off his passes.
Derek Anderson went 2-of-3 for 47 yards during his one drive, leading the Cardinals to a field goal. But this whole minidrama wasn’t about Anderson.
It was about Leinart and his relationship with coach Ken Whisenhunt. Redskins TV analyst Joe Thiesmann said Leinart clearly looked “disinterested” during warmups, and not engaged in what was going on. He criticized Leinart’s body language.
We can’t verify what Theismann witnessed, but it doesn’t really matter. Whisenhunt gave up on Leinart and we can’t see him recovering in Arizona. Letting Leinart look for trade partners is probably the last step before a release that should arrive this weekend.
Leinart looked dazed on the sidelines and it’s easy to understand why. There’s no way he saw the miserable events of the last two weeks coming.