Appearing on Saturday’s Notre Dame-Purdue halftime show (positioned just to the left of PFT’s Grand Poobah), Peter King of NBC Sports revealed the details of his recent conversation with Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt.
According to King, Whisenhunt called Hall “the best of our four quarterbacks” in training camp.
Whisenhunt is clearly comfortable with the undrafted rookie from Brigham Young as his primary backup, having released Matt Leinart to promote Hall. The Cardinals also are not known to have made a serious run at Sage Rosenfels, who was the best quarterback available on the trade market prior to his acquisition by the Giants.
But there could be more to this story. Much more.
Whisenhunt acknowledged that Hall outplayed current starter Derek Anderson, strongly indicating that Anderson could be on a short leash. Anderson’s contract is also heavily incentive laden, based on starts and statistics. If he doesn’t prove to be the answer, it will present a lose-lose situation for Arizona. The Cardinals could end up losing money, in addition to games.
Despite his recent elevation to the starting job, Anderson’s job security is weak, and his post-2007 track record inspires no confidence. At this point, we wouldn’t be surprised if Hall is starting games by the Cardinals’ Week 6 bye.