Is he considered a bust now? Would he have been better off leaving a year earlier? Did staying that extra year hurt him? I remember when he decided to stay . . . everyone had him as a top 5 pick in the draft. . . if not the #1. The next year he is barely top 10 and never seemed to recover. QBs taken in 2005 1. San Francisco 49ers - Alex Smith*, QB Utah 21. Jacksonville Jaguars - Matt Jones, QB Arkansas 24. Green Bay Packers - Aaron Rogers, QB California 25. Washington Redskins (from Denver) - Jason Campbell, QB Auburn Would any of those situations been better for him? [I doubt Green Bay because sitting behind Farve is no better than sitting behind Warner] Rocket River <should this be in the Texans Forum or should the NFL have its own forum?>
The guy flat out just doesnt have the mental game associated with the arm...It really is all about confidence and at the collegiate level he could dominate but I bet he was getting eaten up in practice so often that he didnt really get to transition his ego over to the nfl. Best of luck to this bust...atleast he isnt Jamarcus Russel.
I'd say he's almost worse than Russell because a lot of people actually thought he was going to be an NFL superstar and he clearly would have been the #1 pick had he come out in 2005. Too many times these pretty boys from big schools with their big offensive lines coast into the NFL and once they have to face an NFL defense at NFL speed they realize they have to put in some actual hard work to succeed and if they want to be good it is going to take dedication they've never even dreamed of. That is why I think we've seen this trend of QBs from smaller schools have more NFL success because they play with a more level playing field, have to face good defenses which means they can't rely on good protection and actually have to make quick reads and quick throws, and learn how to evade the rush and get rid of the ball. Give me a Joe Flacco, who has all the tools over a Matt Stafford any day.
The "situation" had nothing to do with it. Matt Lienart doesn't have the combination of brains/dedication or athleticism/intangibles necessary to succeed as an NFL QB. He is a bust, pure and simple, and can enjoy living off his signing bonus once he's out of the NFL. I suppose it's possible this is a big wake-up call, he gets his act together and has a decent journeyman's career. Not holding my breath.
1000% correct. It's no coincidence that almost all DL and OL come from BCS schools... while skill position players are almost 50/50 split between BCS and non-BCS schools.... yet a staggeringly high percentage of QBs come from non-BCS schools.
The only way I'd ever take a big school QB #1 overall is if he had work ethic or leadership skills that could only be described as an anomaly. An NFL QB must have a commanding presence as a leader, physical tools are always there with these guys, but the QB position takes supreme mental agility. The problem is these qualities are hard to predict. You never really know how a guy is going to handle suddenly making millions of dollars. You don't know if he's going to keep that determination. This is why it turns into such a crapshoot. You don't expect a guy like Sam Bradford to come in Day 1 and start bossing people around, nobody is saying it doesn't take time and it doesn't take a lot of work... but you have to be a certain type of personality. There has to be a fierce competitive nature, he doesn't always have to be as fiery as Dan Fouts in the huddle, but he better damn well have confidence about him if he's going to be a little more quiet. Look at a guy like Rich Gannon, a small-school career journeyman who nobody thought had much of an NFL future as a QB due to his poor throwing arm and weird side-arm delivery. Eventually the effort he put into being a perfectionist on the field garnered him NFL MVP status. Drew Brees is another anomaly, he's not anywhere near the prototypical NFL QB in terms of size and arm strength, but nobody gets the ball out as quickly and as precise. Roethlisberger is about as calm as it gets, that guy never gets flustered, he holds onto the ball forever, takes a beating for it, but I'll be damned if he isn't clutch as hell.
I don't think this is the case. He has a ridiculously good senior season and did nothing to drop his value. Even after the Rose Bowl, most people thought Leinart to be the more solid QB than Vince. It wasn't until the combines that people really started questioning Leinart's arm strength. If he had come out the previous year, he'd have gone through the same issues - we don't really know where he would have ranked compared to Alex Smith that year after really going through the NFL evaluation process.
After the Rose Bowl, he claimed USC still had the better team. I will forever hate USC because of him. Scrub.
WRONG. Leinart was having elbow surgery shortly before the NFL draft in 2005; no way any NFL team, other than the Raiders, would risk the #1 overall pick on him. no, actually that was probably one of the best decision he has ever made. He got to enjoy one more year of stardom and adulation, something he has not / will never experience at the NFL level. Leinart just doesn't have the goods---arm strength, mobility, competitiveness, drive, dedication, etc---to be a NFL star. Petros Papadakis, former USC running back and current college football analyst and national radio talk show host, has this theory about Steve Clarkson-developed QBs like Clausen, Leinart, Matt Barkley, etc. who, thanks to Clarkson's reputation / influence, have never had to compete for the starting job in their football careers (pre-NFL). once they're thrust into a situation where they have to compete for a job, they falter. Clausen, at the outset the odds-on favor to be the first QB taken this past NFL draft, didn't compete well and slipped to the 2nd round Leinart could not succesfully compete against the aging, over the hill, Kurt Warner.
Leinart would have been the #1 pick had he come out early. But while he obviously lost out on #1 money, I really don't think he could have been put into a better position than Arizona. He had 2 Top 10 WRs at his disposal and a hall of fame QB to learn under for a few years. He just didn't have the mental toughness to make it, having an overinflated ego doesn't help either.
'Zona is gonna be in big trouble this year w/o Warner, Boldin , Dansby , Rolle and few other few keys .