Ken Whisenhunt and his QB situation

Ken Whisenhunt has done a great job as head coach of the Cardinals, taking a talented but underachieving roster and turning it into a playoff team. But he made a huge mistake this offseason, electing to go with Matt Leinart and Derek Anderson at QB, rather than finding a steadier hand.

The Cardinals, whether they wanted to admit it or not, have known for years that Matt Leinart is not the guy. They tried to hand him the job in the 2008 preseason, but he instead flopped miserably (3 INTs in against Oakland) and they instead started Kurt Warner, with whom they almost won the Super Bowl. Matt Leinart's career numbers are miserable, when you consider he was playing in the very same offense that Warner ran so masterfully. This offseason, with Warner retiring, the Cardinals had an opportunity to make a fresh start at QB, but instead opted for Cleveland castoff Derek Anderson to compete with Matt Leinart.

Of course, it's not enough to just say that a team should make a move at QB without having other options. But there were other options this offseason. Donovan McNabb was available. Jason Campbell was available. They passed on Jimmy Clausen twice. All of these QBs represented better options than what Arizona elected to go with, and now they're going to pay for it.

Matt Leinart's tenure in Arizona is basically over. He burned a lot of bridges this week, and it wouldn't surprise me if they outright released him. This means that the team is basically stuck with Derek Anderson for this season. I don't mean to put too fine a point on it, but Anderson was as bad, if not worse, than JaMarcus Russell last season. This is a team with enough talent to remain a playoff team, and they've left it in some very uncapable hands.

Derek Anderson will make a nice test case for the role environment plays in a QB's performance. When Anderson was teamed with Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow, he played well, although he was inaccurate even then. When Cleveland got rid of all of their NFL-quality receivers, he became one of the worst QBs in the league. Now he's in Arizona, throwing to good receivers (including Larry Fitzgerald, one of the league's best) and playing with good RBs, but also playing behind a potentially leaky offensive line. Even with that caveat, there's no doubt this is the best situation Anderson has been in, and he's not without his strengths. Well okay, he has one strength; he throws a really nice deep ball. He's immobile and inaccurate with questionable decision-making ability, but man can he throw some pretty rainbows. We will get a good idea for how much a good supporting cast can help a QB, because Anderson is pretty dreadful otherwise.

I feel bad for Arizona fans, who were just starting to taste some success, and now the team has gone back to being run like it was throughout the 1990s and early part of this decade. The Cardinals made a huge mistake entrusting their otherwise talented team with these shaky QBs. They are roughly going from a A quarterback in Warner to a C-or-worse QB in Anderson or Leinart. They'd better hope their receivers can make up for the shortcomings of their QBs, or this is going to be a long season in the desert.