Question Of The Day: Who Is The Biggest Draft Bust In Arizona Cardinals History?
by Greg Esposito on Sep 4, 2010 1:31 PM MDT
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PrintSo Matt Leinart was cut today but we've beaten that subject to death in the question of the day. With that in mind, we have a variation on the Leinart topic for today's question. Who is the biggest draft bust ever for the Arizona Cardinals? Is it the former number ten pick Leinart? How about a guy like 1998's third overall pick Andre Wadsworth? What about 2002's number twelve overall pick Wendell Bryant who was out of the league by 2005? Maybe you prefer the number three overall pick from 1993 Garrison Hearst who gained a measly 1503 yards in three seasons as a Cardinal?
Vote in the poll and debate the topic in the comment section below.
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Wadsworth
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
by JoeCB1991 on Sep 4, 2010 1:38 PM MDT reply actions 2 recs
wadsworth
Dude had like 2 sacks in a full rookie year. 3 overall pic.
by fansincejakenrob on Sep 4, 2010 1:39 PM MDT via mobile reply actions
Hearst sucked a pretty big one too
He was sposed to be the RB that was gonna take the team to the next level. I believe Buddy Ryan made him push wheelbarrows of manure around to get the Cards monies worth out of him while he was on IR
hearst turned decent in San fran, then broke his leg, ouch!
wadsworth fizzled out and never amounted to anything.
by fansincejakenrob on Sep 4, 2010 2:33 PM MDT up reply actions
Ya I remember that he played good for the 49ers
Hate to say it but maybe I smiled a little when he broke that leg. The concensus on Andre is true he didnt amount to squat, hell I dont even remember Bryant, but I remember hating on Hearst the most
Hearst was suppose to be a game changer.
He was the running back this team needed. I think that’s why he hurts more than some of the defensive guys.
I once tried to quit a job using a dry erase board. Unfortunately I wrote the first part in Sharpie so I couldn't finish.
by Greg Esposito on Sep 4, 2010 2:48 PM MDT up reply actions
Exactly
Every one had really high hopes that Hearst was going to win those close games the Cards lost by. He didnt start really playing until after he left, probably like Leinart will do
Pace played good enough to collect a paycheck
Then upped his game in his contract year, to how he should have played the prior 4 years
add davis too
turned into an all pro guard with the cowboys. hate how we tried to make him a damn ot
by cardsfanforlife24 on Sep 4, 2010 4:01 PM MDT up reply actions
Well its safe to say its not
Levi hes a starter and may not be elite but hes good enough to be on the team. Matt is the only other player on that list I even recognize so I have to go with him considering he was a top 10 draft pick and hasn’t lived up to his college days
Remember no matter where you go in life...there you are!
by McCards010 on Sep 4, 2010 1:40 PM MDT reply actions
Matt's biggest problem is that Warner rejuvenated his career here.
And after a promising rookie year he got hurt, then he was stuck riding the bench for 3 years. And it looks like he lost his confidence after dealing with all of that.
If he was able to be the starter the entire time he was here he could have been a good QB. Not everything that went wrong for him here was necessarily his fault.
But then we would have never seen what Warner could do over the last 3 years.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
Come on people
Andre should be leading this poll.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
Wendell Bryant probably should be leading
He was the 12th pick in the draft and recorded just 29 tackles in his entire career and was out of the league after three seasons. Doesn’t get much worse than that.
I once tried to quit a job using a dry erase board. Unfortunately I wrote the first part in Sharpie so I couldn't finish.
by Greg Esposito on Sep 4, 2010 2:00 PM MDT reply actions 1 recs
Bryant or Wadsworth should be easy choices
Levi shouldn’t even be on this list, he’s already started 43 game for us and is our LT, not sure you can even call him a bust at all.
I have to think Leinart is winning for the same reason mccards010 voted for him, recent Cardinals fans who don’t remember all the terrible years full of true busts in the draft, and of course because he’s the hot topic right now.
+1
To the Leinart part.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
In terms of their playing ability to draft position
Wendall Bryant, I’ll never figure out what they were thinking on that one. Wadsworth got fucked by coaching staff, the goddamn idiots. He has a game where he beats Erik Williams for two sacks, injures his knee later that year. Rather than to get him the surgery he needed they continue to play him on effectively one leg and it never heals properly.
One name you missed was Tommy Knight, CB from Iowa (if my memory serves me correctly). I think we took him at #9 when most had him pegged as a 2nd/3rd round pick, was considered by most to be a major reach and he never came close to proving otherwise.
+1
he sucked..for us..& when he left us.
Levi—has been a solid player for us. 3 year starter and pro bowl alternate last year. Not a bust at all.
what about Buster Davis—3rd round pick—never even made it out of camp.
by Cuckoo for Coco Puffs on Sep 4, 2010 3:39 PM MDT up reply actions
Come on people. Speak up. If you voted for Leinart you should say something.
The only proof in these comments has been for Wadsworth (whome I voted for), Bryant and a little for Hearst. To me it is not even close. I think to vote in this poll you have to had at least seen all these players play. If not you should abstain. I am still under the impression that Leinart was never given his chance. When he started consistently he played well and lost his starting job to a Hall of Famer. AFter that he was not even given a real chance. It seems the team signed Anderson hoping he could unseat Matt. I think Matt is going to go on and have a much better career than Anderson could imagine. Anderson is not going to lead this team to the promised land (i hope he prooves me wrong). Leinart did that at USC and should have been given that shot. Leinart is not a bust yet. Has to wash out with another team and/or the league to do that.
by Suns Fan For Life on Sep 4, 2010 3:41 PM MDT reply actions
He's a bust for the Cardinals
but you’re right that he shouldn’t be considered an nfl bust yet. He could still prove himself elsewhere.
+1
He isn’t a guy like JaMarcus or Leaf who were garbage from the beginning. Leinart has shown that he can be a good QB, now he just needs to find a team with an offensive system that fits the way he plays the game. Probably a team running something like the West Coast Offense.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
Anderson
Don’t you always want a backup with the potential to surpass your starter? Why would the team have picked up a veteran QB that they didn’t think had that potential? I think what’s obvious is that the Cardinals wanted a guy who can throw it deep. They went after Whitehurst and Anderson, both long ball QBs.
But it should have been an indication
when we paid Anderson significantly more than Leinart to be a backup. I doubt there are too many backups making 3.6 million per season.
by Suns Fan For Life on Sep 4, 2010 5:46 PM MDT up reply actions
Leinart's contract ballooned like mad in 2011.
He may have been at 2.5 mil or whatever it was for 2010 but stood to make around 12 million in 2011. More reason to bring in competition if you have even a shadow of a doubt that he won’t perform to that level. Anderson’s entire contract is for less than that one year would have been.
I don’t understand the Leinart never got a fair shot arguements. He didn’t play like a top ten draft pick. He had four years to impress. If he wasn’t good enough to outshine a guy coming off of 2 seasons of complete garbage who was he going to outshine? Warner will probably be a first ballot hall of famer. At the time he won the job over Leinart he was a broke down back up that no other team wanted any part of. If Leinart had come even close to living up to the hype he had coming out of college then Warner wouldn’t have won the position either.
I didn't vote for Leinart but in light of what he accomplished it wouldn't have been a reach
He was given plenty of shots, as the Whiz noted this wasn’t based on two preseason games, which any long-time fan should have already known. Leading USC to the promised land, while a good achievement, isn’t the most impressive thing in the world – the talent level advantage they had on everyone while he was there was ridiculous. There was an argument made by many at the time that he wasn’t any better than the other QB’s who were turning pro out of the Pac-10, he just had the USC machine behind him.
Tell me who you think he could start for right now? Outside of maybe Buffalo I can’t come up with anyone else.
Multiple teams
There are a lot of people relying on old QB’s trying to revmp their careers and young guys they are hoping can tied them over till their answer comes. You mentioned Buffalo. I also see Cleveland, Carolina, Oakland, Jacksonville.
by Suns Fan For Life on Sep 4, 2010 4:15 PM MDT up reply actions
All the teams you mentioned are pretty weak at QB throughout their roster
but let’s see if any of them put in a claim for him.
Chiefs could be a possibility
Todd Haley also knows him from the time he spent in Az, he might know how to use Leinart. And they have Jamall Charles who could be what Reggie Bush was for him at USC.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
what ??
we picked up last year’s WORST NFL QB ……for approx. Leinarts salary
Say he had plenty of shots all you want, Whiz disliked him from day 1, so he in effect, had NO shots.
Other coaches aren’t going to be swayed by the ‘swagger/intangibles’ idiocy, they know if the coach doesn’t like you, it’s like a big flashing light, and VERY soon, the team will not like you.
I think a lot of teams are going to be interested in kicking the tires. They don’t think Whisenhunt is an infallible god, I would expect that they ALL to a man think they are smarter than Whisenhunt and every other coach too. So I don’t see Whisenhunt not liking ML affecting their decision to look/see.
How many times does he have to be quoted about not disliking Leinart for you to
finally pick up on it? He was the projected starter going into two different training camps and come up on the short end of the stick both times. He has what, 14 career TD’s to 20 INT’s?
I noticed “a lot of teams” were really lining up to offer trades for him when the opportunity presented itself…
It's not so much as Whisenhunt disliking him
As the team disliking him. The team didn’t release ML because he is a worse quarterback than DA. They released him because he didn’t gel with the team and with him under center, people didn’t try their hardest, which is tough for ML, because I think that people often mistake his calm and laid-back attitude as indifference or apathy. Yes, his TD-to-INT ratio isn’t that great, but most of those came in his first two years in the league, and rookie quarterbacks generally don’t have stellar TD-to-INT ratios.
No one wanted to trade for him because they were counting on the Cards releasing him. Then they could sign and redo ML’s contract. His contract ballooned after this season and teams didn’t want to give him 12 million dollars.
by YoungCardsFanatic on Sep 4, 2010 7:18 PM MDT up reply actions 3 recs
+1
And like we have talked about before, the O-Line seemed to take a nap when he was on the field.
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
And when you combine bad o-line + tons of blitzes
It’s no wonder ML had to throw those short passes.
by YoungCardsFanatic on Sep 4, 2010 8:29 PM MDT up reply actions
Now was not the right time to part ways with Leinart.
He’s always open. He catches a lot of balls. He’s un-guardable, no matter how old he is
At least the O-Line got their trip to Hawaii
I guess that trip didn’t do too much for the chemistry.
Wadsworthless hands down
Cripes, Leinart is only leading this poll because he’s the current bum in the spotlight and not as many Cards fans remember 1998. But for those who remember, Wadsworth is a no-brainer. Here’s a refresher:
In 1998, Andre Wadsworth was regarded as the “most sure thing” in the draft by the experts — a dominating defensive end (a-la Mario Williams), the future cornerstone of any defense, etc. He was taken 3rd overall by the Cards (7 spots higher than Leinart) and held out 44 days (much longer than Leinart’s memorable holdout) because he wanted to be paid like the second overall pick, the infamous Ryan Leaf. He wound up getting an even bigger contract than Leaf. Wadsworth finally signed the night before the regular-season opener for 6 years, $42 million with a $10.49 million bonus. (Leaf’s rookie contract was 5 years, $31 million with a $11.2 million bonus).
After 3 injury-plagued seasons, Wadsworth was cut, with a total of 96 career tackles and 8 sacks. He opted for controversial knee surgery with a doctor outside of the Cardinals organization, angering team management. Someone mentioned that his injury was mishandled by the coaching staff, and maybe it was, but Wadsworth never displayed much of a work ethic or passion for playing to begin with. Had he not been completely overshadowed by the guy taken one pick before him, Wadsworth would be far better remembered as one of the biggest draft busts in history. Overall, he was much worse than Leinart.
+10000
Lifelong Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan [I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].
I can't stand fair-weather/bandwagon fans, stick with your team, throughout the good and the bad. And don't switch to whichever team wins the Super Bowl each year.
He needed microfracture surgery on his knee
but rather than having it done our brilliant management at the time decided to have him play on one leg his second season, so after a very promising rookie year when he totaled five sacks (two against Erik Williams) he only had two his second season. After finally performing a more minor procedure on it, and not correcting the problem he went to Dr. Steadman for the microfracture procedure, but by then the damage was done.
His work ethic and passion were never in question.
He tried to make a comeback as a LB a couple years ago.
Can’t remeber which team, I think NY, but word was he still had great work ethic and attitude just didn’t have the speed he needed anymore.
by Birdman from Mesa on Sep 5, 2010 9:54 AM MDT up reply actions
It was the Jets
I think they were going to try him at OLB. I really hated the way the team handled him, if they just had the surgery done after his rookie season he was looking like an earlier version of 9-0.
I still say Wadsworth was the bigger draft bust though
Management mishandled the injury but the bottom line is that Wadsworth was an even bigger disappointment than Leinart relative to his draft position. Yes he had a promising rookie year, but so did Leinart. Wadsworth was touted as being more of a “sure thing” than Leinart (who at least had some doubters), was drafted higher, held out longer, and ultimately produced even less. The only reason he isn’t better-known as a colossal bust is because of Ryan Leaf.
I guess it's all in how you define a bust
Can’t argue with your reasoning above, but when someone washes out when they’re still healthy enough to play I see that as worse than if it was an injury that did it to them. Either way, in the end they’re still stuck with the label.
Wow, what a bunch of Idiots.
So Warner comes in and resurects his career and Leinart sits and waits. Then Warner retires and Matt has a good preseaon and gets cut before he can play in a meaningful game. Rumor has it Fitz cried like a baby about him. Leinart never got a real chance to see what he can do…..so how can he be a bust?
PS, goodluck with that Anderson thing….6 wins, maybe!
Like what was said before
Most people that voted dont even know anyone else that is on that list, so they gravitate towards Leinart as the bust since thats all they know. We suffered through some pretty awful picks in the past, I wouldn’t even think Leinart is close to the worst.
by GivingThemFitz on Sep 5, 2010 1:35 AM MDT up reply actions
Kindly stop trolling the Cardinals message board
Rival fans are welcome here, but not if they are insulting and abusive. I’m sure you and the other Niner fans wouldn’t appreciate it if Cards fans posted on your boards like you are posting here. Be respectful or don’t post.
Rumor has it another player on your team just quit
oh wait, this isn’t a San Fran beauty parlor. Take the hairdryer and curlers off your head and go gossip somwhere else prom queen.
Could have sworn he had 17 starts
RIP Seasons of Discontent
by Scott Howard on Sep 6, 2010 11:00 AM MDT up reply actions
I believe that most of those were in his 2nd year, then came Warner.
by ericalancanty on Sep 6, 2010 4:46 PM MDT up reply actions
So they owed him how many starts this year before they dumped him?
If he wasn’t working for Whiz he wasn’t working for him.
I wish Matt the best.
RIP Seasons of Discontent
I voted for Wadsworth
Kelly Stoufer has to be the biggest bust, or was he a St Louis pick?
13- Warner, 23- Sandberg, 40- Tillman, 11- Walter
St. Louis pick
But only the year before the Cards came to AZ
by GivingThemFitz on Sep 5, 2010 2:37 AM MDT up reply actions
What about Tom Knight?
Have you not heard? I was under the assumption that everyone had heard.
by WellABirdBirdBird on Sep 5, 2010 8:45 PM MDT reply actions
wendell bryant and wadsworth were definitely the biggest busts
bryant johnson should be added to the list for sure.
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