Cardinals' Front Office: Still Behind The Times

thank god we didn’t trade for McNibbles, we need a QB of our own, not just aged veteran after aged veteran. Campbell would have been nice, but he became available during the draft long after our need for another QB, and the Rams weren’t going to release Bulger until we had already signed a QB, he was released later than Campbell. As for the other missing pieces, what were we supposed to do about it? Rolle and Dansby jumped ship, we have more TE than we know what to do with, and we have young talent at CB, ILB, FB, and OLB. I think our defense is poised to be one of the best in the NFL. Ya we might be removed from the playoffs for one year as we rebuild, and I know that means the world is going to end because it sure did in our NFL record playoff drought, but we’re going to be a strong team in the future because of it. Quit complaining and have some faith in your team man.

Its hard to keep up with an offense like the one the Saints have when two of your best defensive players go down. Especially when the depth at Corner was already pretty thin.

You can always make things sound they way you want them to with wisely chosen words.

Anyone who isn’t name Jones or Steinbrenner can be accused of frugality.

What about the signing of Joey Porter, Anderson, Rhodes, Feely, etc. When was the last time you saw the redbirds sign so many marquee players.

In prior years you’d see no name replacements. Before Warner/Leinart could you name our backup quarterback? Or who kicked prior to Rackers? A knock of version of Gramatica?

Michael Bidwell is a godsend, he runs the show and he isn’t frugal like his pops. Michael is likely the motive behind signing Denny Green, who was once a very good coach until we killed his career and no one will touch him now short of the UFL.

Unless you have deep ties to the Cards front office and can vet your claims of the Cards pleading for Bulger, I’m going to believe that you also believe their were shooters on the grassy knoll as well.

My thoughts on the DA move this week. Is that YES whiz wants to see DA run the starting offense but Leinart will continue to start for the season. Do you really think Whiz thinks Leinart lost his job over 9 preseason possessions? HELL NO… he’s holding his cards close to his body, figuratively..

and Mike Bidwill is not his father.

Welcome to RotB Walter Mitchell.

Seems like a whole lot of opinions in there, presented as if they were facts.
Sort of like ALL web ‘journalism’.
“many of the Cardinals’ coaches” stated as if someone actually substantiated this, when it originated as nothing but some Web columnists drivel, said columnist never identifying ANY actual cardinal source, in any story, anywhere, ever.

Your grade for this semester – F+.

and it appears a whole bunch of guesswork as well. Warner was considered to be a has-been when we picked him up, and he arrived before Whisenhunt did. It was the work of his staff that cleaned up his carelessness with the ball, but at the time it wasn’t a situation of having a clear Hall-of-Famer on the roster.

Everything I’ve read or heard states the good working relationship with Graves and Whisenhunt. What sources do you have that tell you otherwise? Before you blame Pendergast for our Super Bowl loss, you do remember the same issues with our pass rush knocked us out of the playoffs last season? You made reference to the 90 points allowed so I’m guessing so. The “D” looked remarkably good during our 2008 playoff run, I wouldn’t call the catch Holmes made in the end zone “loose coverage.” Apparently you don’t remember that Whisenhunt was denied permission to interview Steeler LB coach Keith Butler for DC position by the Steelers.

I think everyone associated with the Cardinals is more than happy with the direction Michael Bidwell is moving the franchise in. If Whisenhunt didn’t feel the same way why would he sign a contract extension? Please tell me your source for knowing we had an interest in Bulger isn’t Florio. Finally, Cleveland fans sit in the gutter right along with the Eagles fans for cheering the injury of a player. When has that franchise ever gotten the best out of a QB? If Kosar and Sipe is your claim to fame it’s no wonder they’ve been the Steelers punching bag for the past 40 years.

It’s too bad you felt the need to make this a fictional article, your writing style is easily readable and would make for some good future articles if you’d report what actually happened.

Here’s a slightly different perspective to aqdd to my original one (which, as some of you pointed out was perhaps a tad over-stated)…it’s always difficult for a head coach to dismiss his owner’s or GM’s opinions about players they put a great deal of stock and money into. If Michael Bidwill & Rod Graves say to Whiz, “Hey, you did wonders with Kurt, we still believe enough in Matt that we think you will do wonders with him.”

So…what is Whiz to say?

This is why I call the situation one of the last remaining albatrosses from the Dennis Green era. Had Whiz been the coach in 2006…does anyone think there was even a slight chance he would have drafted Matt Leinart? If he takes a QB at #10 that year it would have been Jay Cutler. Whiz wants the big arm…which is why he agreed to sign Derek Anderson and which is why the first QB he ever drafted in AZ is John Skelton, a player he traded up to get.

The thing is…Whiz has never warmed up to Leinart. If anything Whiz has seemed more concerned about ML’s fragile ego than anything else. Last year when ML was awful in mop up duty, so awful Whiz had to put KW back in the game on one occasion, Whiz called ML that night to try to keep ML’s spirits up.

This year when the team signed DA, the first think Whiz did was call ML to make sure ML was taking it in stride and that ML was thinking and saying the right things.

But…here we are on the eve of Week 1 and it seems very clear that Whiz is tired of the pampering and coddling…and clear that Whiz does not have the confidence that ML has the mindset or the big arm to make the Cardinals’ offense work.

Leinart looks numb out there…he looks overwhelmed and dispirited…he looks like he’s already read the writing on the wall. He looks defeated.

The added media scrutiny hasn’t helped…but this is only more deja vu for ML…he’s been the focus of media scrutiny ever since his struggles to secure the starting job in AZ and compounded by the beer bong pics. To the media, perception is reality. And what ML hasn’t changed is the perception that he is an over-pampered, over-indulged frat boi from SoCal.

Pete Carroll’s input on how to coach ML did even more to exacerbate the existing perception when he said that the trick to coaching ML is that you have to assure him he’s the starter. What? Carroll also stated that ML was not a very good practice player. So…if anyone was getting Carroll right what Carroll was saying was that if you are going to coach Leinart you are going to have to accept his inconsitent practice performances AND despite that concession you are going to have to assure him he’s the man.

Whiz is fed up. Leinart has never been his choice. What’s so peculiar is that Whiz has tried to play the pampering game with Leinart as long as he has. Sure it would have been great to coach up Leinart the way Michael Bidwill and Rod Graves were hoping. But, there comes a point where not only the head coach gets fed up but the players do as well, and as Mike Sando said in his blog yesterday, “you can’t fool the players.”

Cris Carter is tapped into the perception and the reality. Leinart lacks the leadership qualities and the arm strength to evoke confidence in his team.

This is speculative—-so bear with me here—-but I think over the past 4 years there are some aspects to Ken Whisenhunt’s outlooks and coaching style that are failry easy to pick up.

1. Whiz is going to focus on coaching up Derek Anderson and Max Hall. What he likes about Anderson is his size and his big arm (two things a coach can’t coach). What he likes about Max Hall is his grasp of Whiz’s offense—-especially the nuances of it—-and Hall’s nifty ability to maximize his vision by moving his feet into clear passing lanes, just as he did when he dodged pressure and connected with Max Komar for the TD.

If you recall, when Whiz inherited Kurt Warner, Warner had been struggling because he was holding onto the ball too long too often…and Warner tended to become especially tentative in the red zone. Remember those days?

Whiz—-through persistent coaching—-was able to iron out those deficiencies in Warner’s game—-and so much so that one could argue that in terms of getting rid of the ball on time and cashing in on points in the red zone Warner may have had his best year of all last year. Weren’t the Cardinals #1 in the NFL in Red Zone %?

This is what Whiz will attempt to do with Anderson. He’s already been working hard with Anderson on his touch in the red zone…and although, as we saw, Anderson’s touch last week on the throw to Breaston was awful, if you think back to the week before, Anderson did put some touch on the TD pass he threw up the middle to Beanie Wells. So, there is hope there.

Whiz harped quite a bit this week on the third and one pass that ML missed to Stephen Williams…

Well, what encouraged Whiz was that Anderson made the perfect throw on the same play…in a similar third and short situation…only Williams lined up to the left this time….which is the purpose of the play, for the QB to look off the safety to his throwing side and throw the go route up the opposite side.

2. Whiz realizes that if he goes with Anderson he cannot expect ML to be the backup again. It’s not good for Leinart, nor is it good for the team. Thus, the team will try to trade ML…but…the odds of a team trading for ML and picking up his salary (even at $2.5M this year) are extremely thin. Thus, they will likely have to release him.

The curious thing will be whether Pete Carroll will make a move to sign ML as a free agent. My instinct says no. Not this year. First of all, he’s got 3 QBs he likes and one they are hoping is the QBOF in Charlie Whitehurst. I could see Carroll bringing ML in to compete with Whitehurst next year, assuming they do not re-sign Hasselbeck. The other thing is that Pete Carroll may be trying to distance himself from the USC connections, particularly in light of the recent USC fallout and backlash.

The other chance for ML might be with another USC guy, Jack Del Rio in Jacksonville. He hasn’t been totally enamored with David Garrard. He has a backup in Luke McCown that he likes (but is unproven)…therefore he might be willing to throw ML into the mix.

3. While Whiz has said that he intends to play ML late in the 2nd and during the 3rd, the reality is, Whiz is going to be chomping at the bit to get Max Hall into the game. What Whiz wants to determine is whether Hall can be the #2 and a player that not only can fill in well if need be, but a player who can challenge for the starting job.

If ML plays well, it may create more controversy and that’s the last thing Whiz wants right now. The only upside of ML playing well would be that some team might actually see that and entertain a possible trade proposal. But, that is highy unlikely, as teams will figure that the Cardinals are going to turn ML loose anyway.

4. At some point, Whiz will be tempted to add a veteran QB for insurance…someone like Charlie Batch, if he is released from the Steelers.

But be sure of this: Hall and Skelton are safe and are very much in Whiz’s future plans.

The Bidwells are actually from a race of aliens called the Tightwadeans. They have been working closely with top officals of the U.S. government and the CIA.

Thier plan which, simply put is brilliant. They have infiltrated the NFL and plan to ruin Sundays for Arizonans in an attempt to initiate a mass exodus from arizona. Why would they do this you ask?

Water is being depleated from the desert at an alarming rate and threatens to change global climate conditions in years to come. If this happened the Tightwadeans plans to use earth as an intergalactic resort will be ruined and the u.s. government will loss their contract to sublease earth and put even further into global debt.

Mr Bidwell played in an antiquated baseball stadium in St Louis and after many empty promises finally was forced to relocate his team. Greener pastures out west, I think not what did he find but more empty promises St Louis realized they liked having the NFL and and built a shiny new stadium with all the revenue streams that the Busch’s prevented the Cardinals from getting. and guess what The St Louis Rams, become a playoff Superbowl Team. Meanwhile back in Tempe Mr Bidwell finds himself playing in college stadium, in an unbearably hot climate and again being blocked from the normal revenue streams that successful NFL teams take for granted. Mr Bidwell never had his own dot com empire or big oil money to use in reserve, while I am sure he has other outside investments, his money, since he was a boy has primarily come from the Cardinals.

After a 30 year wait. The Cards finally got a home they could call their own they built a team that came within a minute of being Superbowl champions and short of some late season injuries were poised to make another run the following year. Warner, Berry, & Okafefor were past their prime and left the game. Boldin, while talented was becoming a huge distraction and Dansby and Rolle were offered huge deals that fans of their respective teams agree are over paid. The Cardinals are 8th in payroll this season, well above the league average. They have drafted smart and built a team rather than throw huge money at a few key players. The Highest payroll? Oakland. How’s that working out? Dan Snyder overpaid a few free agents and doesn’t have the payroll to balance out a team. A football team is 53 players, not 5 or 6. Of the teams with higher payrolls only Pittsburgh and New Orleans has had more success since UofP stadium opened, than our Cardinals. Right now, the Steelers have some serious character issues that don’t seem to plague the Cardinals.

I have often heard Mr Bidwell as one of the worst owners in sports, the way I see it, he is the only respectable owner in the Phoenix . Compared to the Suns, Diamondbacks and Coyotes come on man, Mr Bidwell is a treasure. The Bill Bidwell I know is a quiet unassuming man, generous, charitable, friendly man. An owner that has strived to build the best football team possible with the resources available to him. Had the proper revenue streams been available over a thirty year period The Carcinals probably would be considered an elite team in the NFL

I have not lived in the Valley for many years now, but the Cardinals will always be my team. I have seen coaches come and go, Hundreds of players wearing the red and white. I have sat through putrid games with 10,000 people in attendance at SDS and been to games where UofP was bursting at the seems. Many things have changed over the years, but the constants have been the logo on the helmet and William V. Bidwell, a class act.

Go Cardinals.