Skins at Cards – What to watch for?

The Cardinals will close out their preseason schedule tonight against the Washington Redskins in Glendale.  The last preseason game is usually the game filled with third stringers and guys fighting for a roster spot, but there are still a few things to watch out for.

1. Matt Leinart’s play – It has been a whirlwind week for the Cardinals QB.  The week started with Leinart questioning why he was demoted to the #2 spot on Ken Whisenhunt’s depth chart.  Then Leinart and his head coach had a discussion about Leinart’s comments and now rumors are swirling that the front office is looking to trade him.  Leinart probably won’t get a ton of playing time tonight, but when he does get out there, he can’t let all the rumors swirling around get to his head.  He needs to go out and play some good football to help Whisenhunt change his mind.

2. The Inside linebacker spot – Even though we have been through all of training camp and three preseason games, this spot still remains a question mark.  Paris Lenon has been solid in the preseason and has his spot is locked up.  The spot alongside him doesn’t have a set starter at the moment.  Monty Beisel started the first preseason game, but Daryl Washington has started the last two and has played well.  Of course, Gerald Hayes is in the mix, but it sounds as though he is going to miss the start of the regular season with his back.  Keep an eye on Washington tonight.

3. Injuries – This is the main thing on every head coach’s mind going into the final preseason game.  Sure you would like your team to win their final preseason game so to leave a good taste in your mouth heading into the regular season, but you also don’t want to lose any key players in the process.  With Larry Fitzgerald already dinged up, coming away from this game healthy will be tonight’s number one priority.

Tags: Daryl Washington, Ken Whisenhunt, Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Leinart, Monty Beisel, Paris Lenon, Preseason, Washington Redskins

Dock signs extension

The Cardinals locked up All-Pro defensive end Darnell Dockett to a four-year extension on Wednesday afternoon.  The new deal will keep DD in a Cardinals uniform through 2015.

With two years left on his current deal, DD will be in Arizona through 2015.  Dockett’s new deal is worth up to $48 million, $30 million of it being guaranteed.  The extension might come as a surprise to some because management had said earlier that they weren’t going to extend anyone’s contract with two years remaining left on it, but they made an exception with Dockett.

There are a number of reasons why the organization would break this rule with him.  The main reason of course is that Dockett has turned into one of the best defensive players in the league right in the prime of his career and he is the Cardinals most important player next to Larry Fitzgerald.  It also helps that the former Seminole hasn’t let the extension talk effect his play.  No one works harder than Dockett whether it be on the practice field or in games.

This extension could keep Dockett in a Cardinals uniform for the rest of his career.  He would be 34 after his deal expires, which could mean that he could have a few good years of football left, but he has made it clear that he remains committed to stay with this organization until his career is over.

We can only hope that this will happen and his number 90 will be in the Ring of Honor one day.

Tags: Darnell Dockett, Larry Fitzgerald

News & Notes: Warner to dance, Leinart speaks out & roster moves

With a little more than a week and a half to the start of the regular season, things are as busy as ever for the Cardinals.  Here is a rundown of the happenings of the past couple of days.

The recently retired Kurt Warner was named as one of the contestants on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars earlier this week.  Warner will continue a tradition of former NFL players to appear on the show.  Will he be able to dance as well as Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice have in the past?  That remains to be seen, but with Warner on the show, I will be watching this season until the point he gets eliminated.  Go Kurt!

The man that was suppose to take over for Warner, Matt Leinart, came out on Monday and begun to question his demotion to the #2 QB that took place last week against the Bears.  Leinart said that he has felt like he has outplayed the competition and that the decision to demote him went beyond football.  What exactly does that mean?  It sounds like Leinart believes that Ken Whisenhunt personally doesn’t like him.

Whisenhunt and Leinart have since met to discuss what the quarterback said on Monday, but it is unclear what has been discussed between the two and whether or not all of Leinart’s questions have been answered.  Leinart certainly has some legitimate reasons to be upset.  Overall, he probably has played a little better than Derek Anderson has in the first three preseason games in terms of completion percentage and QB rating and has yet to turn the ball over.  It just probably wasn’t the best choice to voice his displeasure through the media before discussing it with his head coach first.

Jay Glazer tweeted today that the team is calling around the league to see what they can get for Leinart.  Glazer is usually a good source, but it is hard to imagine the Cards starting off the year with two rookie quarterbacks behind Anderson as the starter.  DA will be the starter for the preseason finale against the Redskins on Thursday night with Leinart as his back up.  Anderson hasn’t officially been named the starter, so Leinart needs to impress in the limited action that he will receive.

On Monday, the Cardinals traded cornerback Jorrick Calvin to the Eagles for fullback Charles Scott.  Like Calvin, Scott was a sixth round pick out of LSU and was picked one spot ahead of Calvin in the April draft.  Calvin was expendable with Marshay Green moving ahead of him on the depth chart.  The Cardinals also signed receiver Isaiah Williams on Monday and released center David Moosman, tight end Dominique Byrd and tackle Casey Knips.

Arizona made a few other moves on Tuesday to trim down their roster to 75 for tomorrow night’s game.  Both Nehemiah Broughton and O’Brien Schofield were placed on the reserve/non-football injury list and Darren Mougey was waived.  Mougey could return though if he clears waivers as the organization is high on him.

Tags: Bears, Casey Knips, Charles Scott, Darren Mougey, David Moosman, Derek Anderson, Dominique Byrd, Emmitt Smith, Isaiah Williams, Jerry Rice, Jorrick Calvin, Ken Whisenhunt, Kurt Warner, Marshay Green, Matt Leinart, Nehemiah Broughton, O'Brien Schofield, Preseason, Redskins

Offense shows improvement in Chicago

Everyone going into the game on Saturday in Chicago against the Bears where looking to see how Derek Anderson and Matt Leinart were going to do and both didn’t disappoint in their third game of preseason action.

Once again, the Cardinals got off to another slow start in the first quarter, not managing any points, but DA lead a beautiful drive in the first series in the second quarter.  Anderson hit Stephen Williams on a couple of big pass plays, including a 27-yard touchdown throw to put Arizona up 7-0 for the Cards only touchdown in the first half of a preseason game so far.  If there was any doubt before, Williams locked up his spot for the #4 receiver going into the season with his play on Saturday night.

Anderson finished up the game going 7 for 12 with 94 yards and a score.  He still doesn’t have the ideal touch that you want to see out of your starting QB, but he showed drastic improvement over his first two preseason games.  One thing is for sure, DA mixes really well for the first team and that could be one of the deciding factors in Ken Whisenhunt’s decision.

Coming into the game, Whisenhunt wanted to see how Leinart would do in a two-minute situation and he was given the perfect opportunity when Leinart was thrown in with about three minutes to go in the first half.  Leinart led a nice drive all the way down to inside the Bears 10, but Beanie Wells fumbled and Chicago recovered.  The call wasn’t overturned even though it appeared that Wells’ knee was down on the ground before the ball came out.  It would have gave Leinart’s confident a major boast if they would have been able and gotten a score there with little time remaining in the first half.

The embattled QB did manage to come back and threw his first touchdown pass of the preseason to Steve Breaston midway through the third quarter.  Breaston was open on a short pass and then made a couple of great moves, including a beautiful leap, to get into the end zone.  Leinart finished up with only one incomplete pass in 10 attempts on the night for 84 yards.  With how well he played, he certainly didn’t make Whisenhunt’s decision any easier.

Besides Anderson and Leinart, there were a few other bright spots on the offensive of the ball.  The offensive line looked much better, although there were a few mental miscues in terms of blocking assignments and penalties.  The QB’s were given much more time to throw the ball and the running backs had more holes to run through, which included a 29-yard run from Tim Hightower.  It was also nice to see Early Doucet get a few reps out there and it didn’t look like he was favoring his abdominal strain injury that has been bothering him the past couple of weeks.

The defense was also extremely impressive on Saturday night and frankly has been throughout all of camp and the entire preseason in the first three games.  The front seven put a ton of pressure on Chicago’s QB’s all night long.  Now that might have something to do with how bad the Bears offensive line has been so far in the preseason, but you still have to come away impressed when your D-Line is putting pressure on the opposing teams QB on nearly every single play.  Calais Campbell and Gabe Watson had one sacks each and they continue to impress.

The secondary was pretty damn good as well.  For just being a preseason game, members of the Cards last line of defense were hitting like it was a December game against the 49ers.  Greg Toler got an interception, which cements his starter position.  Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie grabbed a pick of his own.  He’s pretty good isn’t he?

Arizona will close out the preseason at home against the Redskins on Thursday night.  The Cardinals will be showing off their new Black uniform’s for the first time in a game setting.  Rosters will need to be cut down to 75 ahead of the game and then will need to be cut down to 53 before the start of the regular season.

Most of the 53- man roster should be wrapped up even before the start of the game on Thursday, but everyone will be wondering who the starter will be at QB come Week One.  Both Anderson and Leinart played really well on Saturday night and both won’t be seeing much time if any at all on Thursday, so Whisenhunt will have to watch game tape and play in practice to make his decision.  My money would still be on Leinart to start in St. Louis, but I am far from 100 percent on that.

Stay tuned, ladies and gents.  This is going to be a bumpy ride.

Tags: Beanie Wells, Bears, Calais Campbell, Derek Anderson, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Early Doucet, Gabe Watson, Greg Toler, Ken Whisenhunt, Matt Leinart, Preseason, Redskins, St. Louis, Stephen Williams, Steve Breaston, Tim Hightower

Cards at Bears – What to watch for?

The Cardinals have a very quick turnaround after playing on Monday night with facing the Bears in Chicago on Saturday night.  What should we look for in the game?  I will take a look at what the third game of the preseason should have in store for us.

1. The QB Situation – I addressed this position yesterday, but news has now came out that Derek Anderson will be the starter on Saturday night.  Does this mean that DA will be the starter for Week One?  Not necessarily, it could just mean that Ken Whisenhunt wants to see more of Anderson with the first team, but it still isn’t good news for Matt Leinart.  With how long the starters tend to play in the third preseason game, it is hard to imagine Max Hall or John Skelton seeing much time on the field for this game.  Whisenhunt wants to do everything in his power to make sure that both Anderson and Leinart leave the game feeling confident and that hasn’t been the case so far in the first two preseason games.

2. Will the run game improve? The passing attack has been bad so far, but the Cards run game hasn’t been much better.  In two games, Arizona has had a pathetic 133 yards rushing.  If you are counting at home, that is a whopping 66.5 yards per game.  The offensive line has been a major problem in that department, but the running backs have missed some holes as well when given the chance.  If the run game improves, it will make it that much easier for the struggling QB’s to play well.

3. Will Greg Toler finally step up? – Everyone who is a fan of this team and the entire coaching staff knows that Toler is the best corner behind Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie on this team, but Trumaine McBride has started the first two games of the preseason.  What is Whisenhunt’s thinking behind all of this?  He wants Toler to work hard to earn his job as the starter.  He will be a better player because of it and expect him to cement his starters status on Saturday.

Tags: Bears, Derek Anderson, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Greg Toler, John Skelton, Ken Whisenhunt, Matt Leinart, Max Hall, Preseason, Trumaine McBride

What is happening at QB?

I decided not to do a recap of the game this week simply because things weren’t pretty on the offensive side of the ball and I didn’t want to go one a 1,000 word tangent about it.  Everyone in the country is talking about the play about the Cardinals QB’s so I will do the same.

Everyone, including myself, had Matt Leinart locked in to be the starter in Week One, but after his play so far in the preseason, no one can say that with 100 percent conviction.  He hasn’t been down right bad like some in media have made him to be, but he hasn’t been very good either.  For a guy that needed to prove that he was ready for the big time, he simply hasn’t done that yet, but there is still time to do so.

Leinart had four completions in six attempts on Monday night, but had only 28 yards and didn’t look comfortable in the pocket at times.  He missed a deep throw to Steve Breaston that was at least five yards short of the receiver and the former USC signal caller was clearly upset after the play.  I am far from an expert lip reader, but it looked as though he was upset with Breaston for not looking for the ball, but it wouldn’t have mattered with how poorly the ball was thrown.

With Leinart under center, the Cards had three consecutive three and outs.  Surprisingly, Leinart didn’t come back out for the fourth drive of the game after playing so poorly to start things off.  I am still not sure what Ken Whisenhunt’s thinking  was behind, but Leinart clearly isn’t a happy camper.  Then again, if he played at a higher level through these first two games than he wouldn’t be facing all of this scrutiny from the national media and fans.

Even though he threw for more than 100 yards, Derek Anderson wasn’t much better than Leinart was on Monday.  He still continues to struggle with his accuracy on a consistent basis and his footwork is downright atrocious at times.  You would think that the coaching staff is working on both of these things with him.  Great accuracy and footwork are what separate the average quarterbacks from the great quarterbacks in this league.

With Leinart and DA struggling so far, Max Hall and John Skelton have probably been the most impressive QB’s on the roster.  Sadly, they are both rookies.  Hall got off to a bit of a rocky start in his first live NFL action on national television, but he managed to get the only touchdown for Arizona on the night with a beautiful throw to Max Komar on a 28-yard score in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Hall might not have the ideal height or size, but they said the same thing about Drew Brees and he turned out to be pretty good didn’t he?  Hall is a winner, intelligent, works his butt off and still has good enough skills to be a starter in this league at some point.  Skelton didn’t get to see the field on Monday, but expect to see plenty of him in the remaining two preseason games, especially in the fourth preseason game where all of the starters play very little minutes.

The question that remains on everyone’s mind is who will make the 53-man roster.  No team keeps four quarterbacks, so one of these will probably have to go if the guy that loses out doesn’t go to the practice squad.  Despite their poor play and the rumors that one of the two could be cut, Leinart and Anderson are guaranteed roster spots because of how much money is locked up to both players.  Plus, it is hard to imagine Whisenhunt keeping two rookies and only one veteran on the roster at a position with all kinds of question marks right now.  It is going to come down to Hall and Skelton.

The offensive struggles in the first two preseason games isn’t all on the quarterbacks.  The offensive line hasn’t been very good in either pass or run protection.  It doesn’t matter how good your quarterback are when they are getting hit on every play.  Both Larry Fitzgerald and Early Doucet have been out with injuries as well, so Leinart and company have had less weapons to work with.

However, at the end of the day, the QB’s will always get the blame for the media and the fans.  Everyone of them needs to play better if this team wants to return to the top of the NFC West this season.  A good offensive showing in Chicago on Saturday would be a step in the right direction.

Tags: Derek Anderson, Drew Brees, Early Doucet, John Skelton, Ken Whisenhunt, Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Leinart, Max Hall, Max Komar, Preseason, Steve Breaston

Cards at Titans – What to watch for?

The Cardinals and Titans are a few hours from their Monday night battle on ESPN.  These two teams played a thrilling game last season in Week 12, which the Titans ended up winning 20-17 when Vince Young hit Kenny Britt for a 10-yard touchdown pass with time expiring.  What will tonight’s game have in store for us?  Here are a few things to watch for.

1. Cards O-Line play – After being really good in camp, the offensive line struggled last week against the Texans.  They gave up a few early sacks on Matt Leinart and struggled throughout most of the night on run blocking.  Arizona only managed 68 yards on the ground during the game.  Tennessee doesn’t feature studs on their defensive line like Houston did last week, so the Cardinals should be able to handle them.  If the first team struggles again, there will be a real reason for concern.

2. Cards young receivers – The only good thing that could come out of the injuries to Larry Fitzgerald and Early Doucet is that some of the young receivers will get more of an opportunity to impress the coaching staff.  Stephen Williams continues to impress and he even ran with the first team offense earlier this week.  The undrafted rookie had two catches for 29 yards last week and also caused a pass interference call that gave Arizona great field position in the red zone late in the ball game.  The one guy to keep an eye on will be Andre Roberts.  Roberts caught only two balls for 14 yards and a had a few balls that he should have caught.  His hands need to improve if he wants to stay off Williams for the #4 spot.

3. Daryl Washington – After one preseason game, folks are already calling him the next Mike Singletary.  D-Wash was brilliant last week with 13 tackles, a forced fumble and a couple great rushes to the quarterback, but he is still a rookie and is going prone to making some mistakes.  The real question that remains is will he be starting this week?  Monty Beisel is hardly impressive on the inside and Paris Lenon is solid, but holds next to no upside and is best suited as a depth guy.  Whether if he is starting or not, it sure is going to be fun watching #58 throughout the rest of this preseason.  His upside is immense.

Tags: Andre Roberts, Daryl Washington, Early Doucet, Kenny Britt, Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Leinart, Mike Singletary, Monty Beisel, Paris Lenon, Preseason, Stephen Williams, Texans, Titans, Vince Young

Cards/49ers – The Rivalry

You may have heard that these two teams don’t like each other.  Lets take a look at all the things that have occurred between these two teams during the off-season and what to look forward to, shall we?

The highlight of the off-season was the Twitter battle between Darnell Dockett and the Niners tight end Vernon Davis.  They both tweeted back and forth about Dockett’s shower scene, which was something that DD didn’t take a likening too.  Dockett and Davis also got in a tweet battle over Adrian Wilson guarding Davis.  Here are a few of those tweets between the two.

Dockett: RT @VernonDavis85: I slept the whole way it’s so beautiful this morning<- did u think about #24 and u know what #24 I’m talking about!!!

Davis: @ddockett last time I checked I was standing over top of #24 with a football stuck to my glove and believe we were in the endzone

Dockett: @VernonDavis85 u better pack a big ass lunch! U think adubb almost killed u last year, u aint seen shhh! U just wait ohhh u just wait buddy!

Dockett has continued on with 49er related tweets in recent weeks.  He has tweeted about Glen Coffee’s retirement, Brian Westbrook’s signing and the 49ers fans disrespect for the Cardinals, but this is where the rivalry just warms up.

A few weeks back, Niners linebacker Patrick Willis signed on ESPN Chris Mortensen’s bus “NFC West Champs” and no, he wasn’t talking about the Cardinals.  Even linebacker Takeo Spikes got into the middle of the rivalry when he told Dockett at the ESPY’s that it was time for the Niners to win the division.

The fun doesn’t stop there.  Just on Friday on Sports 620 KTAR’s Doug and Wolf show, Beanie Wells said flat out that he hates the 49ers and didn’t give a reason on why.  He said that ever since he put on that Cards uniform, he had an “instant hate” for the team from San Francisco.  Don’t you just love it?

San Francisco is everyone’s favorite in the media to win the NFC West.  Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic said on their show last week that they have them winning 12 and 11 games respectively on the season.  Many in the media have been blasting whipping boy Matt Leinart for his play in the first preseason game and his so called lack of leadership.  Maybe some in the media forget who the two-time NFC West champs are.  Newsflash, it wasn’t the 49ers and they have a question mark at QB too in Alex Smith.

The trash talking between the two sides is fun and all, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot when the regular season hasn’t even gotten under way yet.  That Monday night game on Nov. 29 just can’t come soon enough.  Hopefully yours truly will be there live and in person.

Tags: 49ers, Adrian Wilson, Alex Smith, Beanie Wells, Brian Westbrook, Chris Mortensen, Darnell Dockett, Glen Coffee, Matt Leinart, Mike Golic, Mike Greenberg, Patrick Willis, Preseason, Takeo Spikes, Vernon Davis

Fitz’s knee, how concerned should we be?

Unless you have been living under a large rock the past couple of days, you have probably heard that Larry Fitzgerald injured his right knee in Saturday’s night preseason game against the Texans.  Fitzgerald got hit after a 16-yard reception and came up gingerly after the hit.

Fitz underwent a MRI on Monday that showed no structural damage to the knee, but he could still miss the rest of the preseason because of the injury.  The team has set no timetable for the star receiver, but expect the team to take a very conservative approach with this injury.

The news on the MRI could have been much worse, but there are a few things to still be concerned about.  One of the main ones is that this could be a type of injury that lingers all year long.  Fitz has played in 47 straight games, including the postseason, so he is as durable as they come at the receiver position, but a bad knee is tough even for a guy that battled through a similar knee problem last season.

Possibly the worse news of all out of all this is the fact that Fitzgerald and Matt Leinart more than likely won’t be able to seriously practice together for the rest of camp.  Timing is everything between a quarterback and his receiver and it is hard to work on that when your top receiver is going to be on the sidelines in a knee brace.  With Leinart having limited minutes the last couple of years, these two need all the time they can get  to work on their timing together.  It certainly didn’t look great at times on Saturday.

The one bright spot is that the seventh year receiver will get some much needed rest.  Fitzgerald is one of those guys that you basically have to drag off of the field because of his work ethic and even with the injury, he still probably wants to be out on the field playing with his teammates.  If Fitz doesn’t play at all this preseason, he will have nearly a month off before the start of the regular season.

With Fitzgerald out, the coaching staff will get more of a look at the younger receivers.  Andre Roberts has struggled with drops throughout camp, so he needs to step up in Fitz’s absence.   The coaching staff will also look at Stephen Williams, Onrea Jones, Ed Gant and Max Komar throughout the remainder of the preseason games and camp.

Tags: Andre Roberts, Ed Gant, Injuries, Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Leinart, Max Komar, Onrea Jones, Preseason, Stephen Williams, Texans

Texans at Cards – Wrap up

It wasn’t pretty at times, but the Cardinals escaped with a 19-16 victory against the Texans on Saturday night at the University of Phoenix Stadium.  There were many things to dislike about the game, but there were several things to like as well.  I will try my best to focus on the positives rather than the negatives.

Clearly the offensive star of the night was John Skelton.  Skelton was at the helm of the Cardinals last two scores in their last two possessions of the game.  During the two drives, the rookie QB completed five of his six passes for 84 yards and a touchdown.  One of his passes to rookie Max Komar was a thing of beauty and perfectly thrown to where only Komar could have caught it.  Skelton will have up and down periods throughout the preseason, but it was great to see him play well last night, especially after struggling throughout most of camp.

Matt Leinart had a horrible first series, which included a fumbled hand off to Tim Hightower and a sack, but he played much better in his second series.  He threw a nice pass to Larry Fitzgerald over the middle, in which Fitz came up hobbling, but it appears he is going to fine.  When given the time, Leinart looked comfortable in the pocket and looked like he a great feel for the offense.  The only problem was that the protection wasn’t very good when he was out there.

Derek Anderson was up and down throughout the game like he has been throughout camp.  He completed 13 passes, but only for 88 yards with a touchdown and two picks.  A lot of his passes were forced and he was lucky that a couple of his other passes weren’t picked off.  DA still has the number two spot on lock down.

One of the most surprising things about last night’s game was how much Beanie Wells played.  After I didn’t see him early on, I thought he wasn’t going to play at all, but he ended up with 11 carries for 36 yards and two catches with a touchdown on the night.  After taking part in nearly every drill the last two days at camp before the game and playing a good chunk of the game last night, it looks as though those ribs of his are fine.

If Skelton was the star on the offensive side of the ball, Daryl Washington was the star on the defensive side.  It seemed like he was in on every single play when he was out there and I only counted a couple of plays where he was either out of position or missed a tackle.  He had nine tackles and recovered a fumble at the goal line, but those stats don’t even show the effect that he had on the game.  Monty Beisel didn’t exactly light the world on fire last night as the starter inside, so it wouldn’t be a total shock to see Washington start in the next preseason game.

Pago Togafau and Cody Brown both played pretty solid at times as well, especially against the run.  Togafau caused the Steve Slaton fumble at the goal line, which helped turn the game around.  Brown made a couple of nice plays against the run and played well on special teams as well.

The corners were another spot that I was looking at closing going into the game last night.  Trumaine McBride started the game and was solid when he was out there.  He made a couple of nice plays on screen passes in the red zone during the first quarter.  Justin Miller got burned by Andre Johnson on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Matt Schaub, but Miller still managed to have a couple of nice kickoff returns.  If he makes this team, it will be doing just that because he is a liability in coverage.  Greg Toler was by far and away the best out of the three in coverage and made a nice pass deflection over the middle of the field.

The Cardinals will head up to Flagstaff today to start up another week of camp.  They will be there until Saturday morning and then play the Titans next Monday night on ESPN.

Tags: Andre Johnson, Beanie Wells, Cody Brown, Daryl Washington, Derek Anderson, Flagstaff, Greg Toler, John Skelton, Justin Miller, Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Leinart, Matt Schaub, Max Komar, Monty Beisel, Pago Togafau, Preseason, Steve Slaton, Texans, Tim Hightower, Titans, Trumaine McBride, University of Phoenix Stadium