Matt Leinart and Donovan McNabb are not of the same feather, but they should be.
Cardinals General Manager Rod Graves recently put the kibosh on the McNabb-to-Cardinals trade buzz.
Bird scat.
The best part of Leinart’s prospects as the anointed starter going into 2010?
More Beanie Wells.
Leinart says he has matured. He said so on the radio. And maybe all of his early-career shenanigans, as an assumption goes, were the standard collage of his demographic.
It was simply a coincidence that his sideline body language supported the stereotype. You wondered if the offseason stories were just figments of Deadspin.com and its filling in the blanks, or if they lived on in The O.C. They were the quarterback’s game day daydreams, as the long stares seemed to suggest.
And maybe we can buy the idea that Leinart’s charade as an NFL quarterback the last few seasons was simply the result of a lack of confidence. We can be sure it was a lack of preparation.
Which brings us to what should be the Cardinals’ most important personnel dilemma since they came to the Valley. What could be more critical to carrying on the organization’s momentum, as offseason activity suggests management is serious about, than replacing the Hall of Fame conductor of a pass-happy offense?
Ken Whisenhunt, for all intents and purposes, named Leinart his guy. It’s sort of charitable when you think about it, even if his designated backup was bad enough to get booted off quarterback Alcatraz.
But for a quarterback whose natural athletic talents were not at the top of the scouting report, it was his leadership skills and potentially seamless integration into NFL-style passing offenses that were supposed to be his selling point.
Through four years, it’s still a very hard sell.
Enter McNabb — in many ways his diametric opposite.
While Leinart squandered his development seasons under the backdrop of an often unnoticing fair-weather fan base, McNabb loyally toiled away for cruel fanatics.
Their poisonous ire trickling into the organization itself, the Eagles seemed tie-bound by their lunacy and are now considering trading McNabb to open up an opportunity for a dog-murderer.
Sure, McNabb’s Super Bowl performance was a bit mysterious. And yes, there are times when his urgency can be questioned. But McNabb’s toughness can’t be questioned, his consistency is elite and his mastery of a complex West Coast offense is top notch.
Besides, McNabb would play his best when the chips are down — he’s proven it.
Maybe McNabb isn’t the perfect fit, and maybe it would take time to assimilate into the offense. Though, when you combine McNabb’s ability to prolong plays, and Larry Fitzgerald’s Randy Moss-ness, maybe not.
All the Eagles want is a second round draft pick.
That even has the Raiders sniffing around.
So, what’s stopping the Cards?
It was Whisenhunt’s plan all along — to complete the Cardinals transformation. And for his philosophy to fully blossom, adding a player like McNabb would be counterproductive.
“Steelers West” is not where guys used to throwing 75 percent of the time go.
But handing the most important starting job over to someone criticized for his self-entitlement seems like a contradictory position for a guy trying to instill a hard-nosed identity.
McNabb has one year left on his deal.
If he fails, chokes or whines, the ties are not permanent.
At least consider it.
Reach Nick at nick.ruland@asu.edu
