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Take that, Denny Green.It was Green, then the Arizona Cardinals coach, who on draft day in 2006 called quarterback Matt Leinart "a gift from heaven.''
Well, as of Saturday afternoon, he's a gift to anybody who wants him. Anybody besides the Cardinals, that is, with Arizona having let him go.
In getting down to the league mandate of 53 players, coach Ken Whisenhunt and his staff decided that Derek Anderson, picked up during the offseason from the Cleveland Browns, will be the starter and Max Hall will be the backup with rookie John Skelton No. 3
Leinart will be given a chance to find a job elsewhere. It's quite a comedown for the former Heisman Trophy winner out of USC who came to the Cardinals with huge expectations and leaves with little to show for his four years in the desert.
He started for a bit, then got supplanted for two years when Kurt Warner came in and led the Cardinals to back-to-back NFC West titles. When Warner danced off the Cardinals' stage, it was supposed to be Leinart's time. It wasn't.
Once Whisenhunt had settled on Anderson as the starter, it would have been uncomfortable for all sides to have Leinart as the backup. He spoke up heatedly a couple of weeks ago when Anderson was moved in as the starter for preseason Games 3 and 4. Presumably It would only have gotten worse once Sept. 12 and the start of the regular season rolled around.
"In fairness to Matt, I think it would be a tough position for him to be in a backup role (in Arizona)," Whisenhunt told the Arizona Republic. "Maybe a fresh start for him would be good for all of us.''
One possibility is Seattle, where Leinart's coach at USC, Pete Carroll, is trying to revive a team that has won just nine games total the last two seasons. Leinart wouldn't move in as a starter over Matt Hasselbeck, but he might be able to give backup Charlie Whitehurst a serious bit of competition.
And while Hasselbeck is the Seattle starter now, bringing Leinart in might make sense as Carroll looks forward.
Leinart won't get the $2.485 million in salary that was due to him from the Cardinals this year, but he's made $17.6 million the last four years, so his prospects aren't all that bad.
Oh, and about Green. With Leinart's departure, there are just four players from the Green era still on the Arizona roster -- Darnell Dockett, Larry Fitzgerald, Deuce Lutui and Matt Ware.
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