If Kurt Warner Retires...

[RuthlessBurgher]

...Do not be surprised if we see a sudden collapse from the Cards. And I'm talking a significant collapse.

Because Warner is easily a top 5 QB, and the real reason behind Whiz's success. And all those people who found themselves pining for Whizenhunt at HC will be left biting their tongues. You watch.

Whis is smart enough to know his goose is cooked when Warner leaves which is why they took Beenie Wells. He is setting up for the offense to devolve into old style "Cowher ball" when Warner hangs it up. Warner is a unique talent who probably reads defenses as well as anyone and gets rid of the ball as fast as any QB I have ever seen.

Anyone who doesn't give him his due is deluding themseleves. He has single handedly carried on his back two franchises who were prerennial losers to the Super Bowl. He showed the league that Fitz had All Pro abilities. Think Fitz gets the attention he gets now if Leinert is QB?

The Cards will have real issues when Warner leaves even playing in the weakest of weak NFC West which has inflated their success rate exponentially. Playing in the NFC West has spotted the Cards 4 or 5 wins each of the last 3 years.

I think Larry Fitzgerald is a freak of nature no matter who his QB is. Fitz plus Johnson & Johnson (Andre and Calvin) are amazingly talented (and surprisingly humble) WR's in a league where we are used to having our star wideouts be insufferable divas.

[Iron Shiek]

Boldin is still looking for a contract too. Is his deal up? If not, I could see a trade to the Ravens (finally). They need a playmaker at WR bad. This would help Cards reload their defense a bit.

[SteelAbility]

If Warner retires, the NFC west division champ might be 5-11 team.

You may not be far off. 3-13 is the theoretical lower limit for division champ.

[Oviedo]

Boldin is still looking for a contract too. Is his deal up? If not, I could see a trade to the Ravens (finally). They need a playmaker at WR bad. This would help Cards reload their defense a bit.

Boldin has one year left on his contract and has stated he will not request a trade this off season. Doesn't mean it won't happen, but Boldin is developing chronic injury issues every season. Not a good trend for a guy looking for a big payday.

[Oviedo]

...Do not be surprised if we see a sudden collapse from the Cards. And I'm talking a significant collapse.

Because Warner is easily a top 5 QB, and the real reason behind Whiz's success. And all those people who found themselves pining for Whizenhunt at HC will be left biting their tongues. You watch.

Whis is smart enough to know his goose is cooked when Warner leaves which is why they took Beenie Wells. He is setting up for the offense to devolve into old style "Cowher ball" when Warner hangs it up. Warner is a unique talent who probably reads defenses as well as anyone and gets rid of the ball as fast as any QB I have ever seen.

Anyone who doesn't give him his due is deluding themseleves. He has single handedly carried on his back two franchises who were prerennial losers to the Super Bowl. He showed the league that Fitz had All Pro abilities. Think Fitz gets the attention he gets now if Leinert is QB?

The Cards will have real issues when Warner leaves even playing in the weakest of weak NFC West which has inflated their success rate exponentially. Playing in the NFC West has spotted the Cards 4 or 5 wins each of the last 3 years.

I think Larry Fitzgerald is a freak of nature no matter who his QB is. Fitz plus Johnson & Johnson (Andre and Calvin) are amazingly talented (and surprisingly humble) WR's in a league where we are used to having our star wideouts be insufferable divas.

No one is doubting Fitz is a remarkable talent. The point was that he would not be producing the stats he has now without Warner. Lots of great talents at WR rot because the have poor ro mediocre QBs. That was the point being made about Fitz without Warner.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Boldin is still looking for a contract too. Is his deal up? If not, I could see a trade to the Ravens (finally). They need a playmaker at WR bad. This would help Cards reload their defense a bit.

Boldin has one year left on his contract and has stated he will not request a trade this off season. Doesn't mean it won't happen, but Boldin is developing chronic injury issues every season. Not a good trend for a guy looking for a big payday.

With Boldin's yearly injuries piling up, plus the fact that they have all-world WR Larry Fitzgerald, plus solid complementary pieces like Steve Breaston, Jerheme Urban, and Early Doucet, who really emerged in these playoffs, they can afford to trade Boldin to improve their team elsewhere.

I agree that Baltimore would be a likely destination (trade for draft picks).

However, what about, if Warner retires and the Leinart-for-Hasselbeck trade that I proposed earlier does not come to fruition, how about a trade with the Eagles with Boldin and McNabb as the principals? Arizona would get an established veteran QB with playoff experience. Philly would have Kolb throwing to Desean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, and Anquan Boldin in a 3 WR set with Celek at TE and Shady McCoy at RB (I think Westbrook may be done with his concussion issues). I'd be happy to take UFA Leonard Weaver off their hands if they don't feel the need to re-up their FB since they will be using primarily single back sets with Boldin on board.

[feltdizz]

Boldin is still looking for a contract too. Is his deal up? If not, I could see a trade to the Ravens (finally). They need a playmaker at WR bad. This would help Cards reload their defense a bit.

Boldin has one year left on his contract and has stated he will not request a trade this off season. Doesn't mean it won't happen, but Boldin is developing chronic injury issues every season. Not a good trend for a guy looking for a big payday.

With Boldin's yearly injuries piling up, plus the fact that they have all-world WR Larry Fitzgerald, plus solid complementary pieces like Steve Breaston, Jerheme Urban, and Early Doucet, who really emerged in these playoffs, they can afford to trade Boldin to improve their team elsewhere.

I agree that Baltimore would be a likely destination (trade for draft picks).

However, what about, if Warner retires and the Leinart-for-Hasselbeck trade that I proposed earlier does not come to fruition, how about a trade with the Eagles with Boldin and McNabb as the principals? Arizona would get an established veteran QB with playoff experience. Philly would have Kolb throwing to Desean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, and Anquan Boldin in a 3 WR set with Celek at TE and Shady McCoy at RB (I think Westbrook may be done with his concussion issues). I'd be happy to take UFA Leonard Weaver off their hands if they don't feel the need to re-up their FB since they will be using primarily single back sets with Boldin on board.

with AZ's issue's on D I think it would be smart to treat Leinart like Ben... run the ball and limit his chances at mistakes... then chuck a few up to Fitz...

Philly isn't letting McNabb go.... I don't think Reid stays with Kolb.

[JTP53609]

i just dont get why so many people have a grudge with the cardinals, i could really care less if they are good or not, i dont hate them like i do the rats or cowboys, if we did not have our qb than i bet we would not be a good team either, just like the cards.....

[SteelTorch]

I disagree with a number of ideas in this thread - but the top one has to be that Kurt Warner is a top 5 QB in the NFL.....ummmm - No -

On his best days he needed a ton of talent to produce (i.e. Greatest Show on Turf, followed by Fitzgerald / Boldin / Breaston / even Hightower).

But Warner is barely a top 10 QB in this league right now.

In regards to the Cardinals dropping - well they are the Cardinals - however I think with their young emerging defense and with Beanie Wells getting his rookie season out of the way - a modest QB could still get them into the playoffs. Maybe it's Leinart, maybe it's someone else (Kyle Orton / Daunte Culpepper / Byron Leftwich...etc).

Keep in mind I'm just talking football here - I trust the Steelers got the guy (Tomlin) they wanted and they got him for the right reasons. I'm pulling for Whizenhunt, because he's a former coach of the Steelers and as long as we don't play him - I hope he wins games and helps the terrible franchise he became the head coach of.

But again - to reiterate - Kurt Warner Top 5 -

L.B.

You do realize that both the Rams and Cardinals - historically bad teams - have both gone to the Superbowl with Warner at the helm? By the way, he has a .750 record in the playoffs. That's second only to Big Ben and Tom Brady among active QBs. He was also a league MVP twice. As far as the talent around him, yeah, it's true he's had talent to work with. But even great wide receivers need a great quarterback to make their production truly stand out. Would you say Peyton Manning was nothing without Marvin Harrison? Or that Ben wouldn't be good without Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes? Do you see now why that argument doesn't work here?

And the Cardinals had almost the same personnel in '07 - including Larry Fitzgerald - but didn't even muster a .500 record. The year after, with Warner as the starter, they go to the Superbowl. Not a coincidence.

If you want to talk stats, we can do that too. He has a career rating of 93.7. That's better than Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees. He has the second-best career completion percentage in history (65.5%), and a career YPA of 7.9 - again, top 10 in NFL history.

So yeah, Warner = top 5 QB. :P

[RuthlessBurgher]

with AZ's issue's on D I think it would be smart to treat Leinart like Ben... run the ball and limit his chances at mistakes... then chuck a few up to Fitz....

You mean treat Leinart like we treated Ben 5 years ago. Or how the Jets are treating fellow Trojan Sanchez now.