We'll recap Saturdays shutout win over the Raiders later in the day, but for now the bigger news is that ESPN is running with a story that according to "sources" the Arizona Cardinals will name Kurt Warner the starting quarterback. Matt Leinart had a horrible game against the Raiders and according to Chris Mortensen that was enough to seal the deal. Mortensen went on to say that the Leinart's training camp performance has been uneven and that the team is concerned with his "arm strength and consistency." The story hasn't been confirmed by Coach Whisenhunt or any member of the team but after practice today Whiz and Leinart will meet with the media.
Obviously Matt's performance against the Raiders was bad enough to warrant being sent to the bench but I'd still be surprised to hear Whisenhunt confirm this story and announce his starter. Kurt most likely will start the opener against the Niners but I'd be surprised if Whisenhunt announced that before the final preseason game. He's been coy about naming a starter so far and he seems content with letting this thing play out until the opener. What do you think? What would you do?
UPDATE: Ken Whisenhunt was on KTAR radio this morning and he refuted the ESPN story that claimed the QB decision had been made. He added that he hadn't seen the tape yet but that any decisions won't be made solely on this game:
“I haven’t read the paper today or seen the Internet,” Whisenhunt said. “Do we have a quarterback? … It seems like Chris Mortensen is making the decision on our quarterback for our football team. … But nothing has changed……... One thing I learned from (former Steelers coach) Bill Cowher is, you don’t want to make an emotional decision based on a half of football,” Whisenhunt said. “Look, we’ve put in a lot of work … and it’s based on a body of work. We don’t have to make that decision right now……We’re going to work on the things from the tape and correct it and when we do make a change of that magnitude, I’m sure you guys will know about it.”
This is about what we expected but I'm sure we'll get some more extensive quotes when he meets with the media. That should be a little later in the afternoon.