My RELUCTANT Defense of Matt Leinart On The Occasion Of His Benching

C. If you have designated your "QB of the future", please go out and get the types of players that will make your "QB of the future" effective.

The Arizona Cardinals did none of these with Matt Leinart. They drafted him too high. They made him the starter as a rookie, before he could learn the NFL game and master the team's offense. They had Leinart run an existing offense rather than run a scheme that suited his skills (seriously, Arizona should have been the one to hire Norm Chow, not Tennessee, but what Tennessee is doing to Vince Young is case of what I am speaking of, similar to how San Francisco has basically ruined Alex Smith). And they did not recognize that USC's offensive line, running game, and defense were key components to Leinart's success and thus did not build those things before Leinart took the field. All because Leinart was such a good QB in college eh? Sure, as if Chris Weinke, Danny Wuerrfel, and Tommy Frazier weren't good in college too (Frazier and Wuerrfel were actually better).

So guys inclined to make fun of Matt Leinart because he generally tended to get the better of your team in college (and this definitely includes me, the Auburn fan ... 23 - 0 at Auburn and getting the #1 ranking and Heisman after Auburn finished 13 - 0) had better temper your fun at his expense. It is true that Leinart, along with Bush and White and virtually everyone else from that program under their run with the exception of Troy Polamalu, have been proven to be just good players in very good situations rather than the all time greats that they were made out to be, which shows a lot of the hype that that program has received to be unjustified. But first: when it happens to the star QB from YOUR favorite college team, it won't be so hot, will it? I for one am very glad that Auburn's Jason Campbell was drafted in a position that better fit his ability (#25, still too high, but without the expectations to play right away and carry a franchise) and got to sit on the bench for a year and a half. Campbell is also mobile enough to survive behind Washington's not great offensive line, and has Clinton Portis running the ball.

Better still, Washington is installing the west coast offense that made Campbell a 5 star high school recruit and used to go 13 - 0 his senior year at Auburn (Campbell truthfully is not a west coast offense guy on the NFL level but at least it is an offense that he knows) and drafted the types of big physical receivers that Campbell, whose quickness of release and accuracy on short routes is not ideal, needs to succeed in 6'2" 215 lb. Devin Thomas,  6'3" 220 lb. Malcolm Kelly, and even better USC TE Fred Davis. Davis will allow the Redskins to run 2 TE offenses with Chris Cooley while Thomas, Kelly, and Campbell learn an NFL west coast offense, and that will spare Campbell from having to succeed or fail based on getting the ball to 5'9" Santana Moss and 5'8" Antwaan Randle - El on slants and timing routes (a task better suited to, say, MATT LEINART) while running an offense that he does not know.

So if Campbell ultimately succeeds and Leinart ultimately fails, it will not be so much because Campbell was a better QB to begin with, but rather because he was handled better by Joe Gibbs and Jim Zorn than was Leinart by Denny Green and Ken Whisenhunt. Although to be fair to Whisenhunt, he inherited a bad situation - including a terrible offensive line - from Denny Green. In that respect, Matt Leinart's short term humiliation may aid his cause in the long term: Leinart gets to sit on the bench while he learns from a veteran. Whisenhunt gets to win enough games in the meantime to keep his job, allowing him to upgrade Arizona's talent base.

So have your fun laughing at Leinart today. In a couple of years with more knowledge of the game and a better team around him, Leinart may well be the one doing the laughing just as he did to all of your teams in college (that is except Texas). And you know what? I hope it happens. Why? Not because I am a supporter of Leinart - truthfully I cannot stand the fellow - or the Cardinals (whose owner I cannot stand, plus they should be in SAINT LOUIS ... if only the Rams and the Cardinals could switch names and uniforms, and then there is BILL BIDWILL their owner). Rather, as a football fan, we need as many good QBs in the game as possible. So, whether it is an SEC fan who loathes PAC - 10 QBs like Leinart or ACC QBs like Matt Ryan, a passing game traditionalist who things Vince Young should be playing wide receiver, or someone who is just predisposed to want Tarvaris Jackson replaced because you never heard of him before he was drafted and believe that someone with a bigger name deserves the opportunity, the truth is that we should generally root for these QBs - if not necessarily their teams - for the good of the league. And that means hoping that more teams take QBs lower in the draft and give them chances to succeed.

The thing is that if you pay attention to the draft reports and the opinions of the NFL scouts, very few QBs that go in the first round, even in the top 10 picks, actually have first round grades. Also, many teams draft QBs when the biggest need or best value was at other positions. Case in point: the Atlanta Falcons, who passed up better prospects at their badly needed tackle positions (offensive AND defensive) and could have easily either traded for a veteran QB or drafted the very accomplished Chad Henne or Brian Brohm in the second round. The smart move would have been to trade down and draft Sedrick Ellis from the hated USC (yes, in the process passing up Glenn Dorsey from the noble LSU ... Dorsey is a better player, but Ellis would have better fit the Falcons' needs). Why do teams do it? Money. First round draft picks at QB brings exposure for the franchise, which translates into ticket and jersey sales and advertising dollars. Most teams are looking for "the face of the franchise" to the fans, advertisers, and media, and that isn't going to be your middle linebacker or right guard.

It is a ridiculous way to run a franchise, because the valuable picks, huge signing bonus, and obligatory "will he or won't he pan out" time sets franchises back. Even the players that do pan out ... you often give these guys a $70 million first contract and a $125 million extension based on where they were drafted when QBs drafted much later will get half that much even if they put up better numbers. So even if Chad Henne and Brian Brohm go to 8 Pro Bowls apiece and Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco only go to 6 between them, Ryan and Flacco will always make more money. The same is true if Tarvaris Jackson, Kellen Clemens, and Brodie Croyle are ultimately better QBs than Vince Young and Leinart. 

It has to change, and hopefully the huge number of highly drafted QBs' failing and the coming rookie salary cap will cause it to.

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