Matt Leinart had to be relieved and excited upon hearing the announcement that Kurt Warner was retiring. Finally, after serving as Warner’s backup for four years the former USC star would take over as starting quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals. I mean he was a top ten pick the 2006 NFL Draft and a former Heisman trophy winner it is almost a give in that he will be tabbed as the starting quarterback for the Cardinals right?

Well, as ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso often says “not so fast my friend”.

Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt is apparently not convinced that Leinart is the right man to lead Arizona into the post Kurt Warner era. To make matters even worse for Leinart, Whisenhunt is becoming more and more impressed with former Cleveland Browns quarterback Derek Anderson. In fact, Whisenhunt has warmed up to Anderson so much that he has decided to start Anderson over Leinart in Arizona’s preseason finale on Thursday night. The Thursday night preseason start will be Anderson’s second straight preseason nod over Leinart.

When Leinart heard that Ken Whisenhunt had decided to start Anderson in the preseason finale he said that the decision not to start him is based on more than just football.

"It probably goes beyond football, beyond the field actually," he said. "For me, I am not making excuses. I am not going to complain. For me, I just really want an explanation and I haven't been given one."

Matt Leinart has obviously not materialized into the franchise quarterback that Arizona envisioned when they selected him with the 10th overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft and as a result the relationship between the Cardinals and Leinart has always been rocky. This recent development may just be the straw that broke the camels back though so to speak. Leinart is becoming more vocal about being traded and Arizona isn’t going out of their way to keep him around. In fact, one executive has told ESPN.com’s Mike Sando that the Cardinals are calling around the NFL and gauging the market for Leinart.

Right now the Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders, and New York Giants are the three teams most likely to make a trade with the Cardinals for Matt Leinart. Obviously, Oakland and New York have set starters in Jason Campbell and Eli Manning but their backup situations are dicey. Giants backup Jim Sorgi suffered a season ending shoulder injury leaving 2nd year quarterback Rhett Bomar as the New York’s backup. Oakland meanwhile has former Toledo product Bruce Gradkowski backing up Campbell, but Gradkowski has more career interceptions than touchdowns. So Leinart would definitely be an upgrade in both situations.

Matt Leinart has a big fan in Buffalo offensive coordinator Curtis Modkins who is pitching the Bills front office on why they should bring Matt on. The problem with the Leinart to Buffalo scenario is that the Bills are weary of taking on Leinart’s $2.485 million base salary and even more hesitant of his 2011-2012 salary of $7.36 million.

It appears that the Bills, Raiders, and Giants are picturing bringing Matt Leinart on in more of a backup role similar to his time in Arizona. A trade doesn’t seem to be a route that ends with a starting quarterback job as the destination. So what I’m wondering now is what will it take for a team to have enough confidence in Matt where they will hand over the reins of the offense to him. He has never been in any significant trouble off the field or been a cancerous force in the locker room. He looked great behind center in college when he ran that Trojan offense five years ago, but the question has to be asked whether that had more to do with Reggie Bush and Lendale White in the backfield in addition to an extremely talented supporting cast on offense.

You would have to think that had the Cardinals seen enough from Matt in training camp this offseason or in the past that they would have pulled the trigger and made him the starter. So the question is will Matt Leinart ever be a starting quarterback in the NFL or is he destined to be a backup. We will have to wait and see how it plays out, only time will tell.

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