Kurt Warner – Should He Retire?

A lot of the talk during the playoffs has been about a loser, Kurt Warner. It is unknown if Kurt Warner, the Arizona Cardinals quarterback, will retire. The main question is “should he retire?”. I say yes. I am a Cardinals fan and want the best for the back-to-back NFC Champions. The Cardinals are lucky. They have a decent back-up in Matt Leinart. Leinart hasn’t had many opportunities to play since the 2007-08 season. During training camp last year,the main discussion is who will start: old Kurt Warner or the recently injured Matt Leinart? Leinart suffered a season ending injury which forced Warner to start. Ken Whisenhunt chose Kurt Warner to start the 2008-09 season, which wasn’t a bad choice. The Cardinals lost in the Super Bowl won the NFC Championship.

Warner has often contemplated his career. He has thought about retiring several times but this truly may be the year. This season, he suffered a concussion during a game which caused Leinart to finish that game and play against the Tennessee Titans. Leinart played decent but the defense couldn’t stop Vince Young and the Titans in the fourth quarter.

The thing about Leinart is, he never lost his job. If he didn’t get hurt, he would have been the Cardinals starting quarterback last year and possibly this year. However if he did start, they might not have made it into the Super Bowl without Kurt Warner’s experience.

My overall opinion on this situation is that Kurt Warner should retire. His inconsistency makes me and other Cardinal fans red in anger. Especially after suffering a big hit on an interception yesterday, he should consider retiring.

Is Kurt Warner a great quarterback? Yes. Will he be in the Hall of Fame? Yes. Is he injury-prone? Yes. Is Kurt Warner the best quarterback in the league for the Cardinals? No.

Leinart could easily be a starting quarterback on a struggling NFL team. It is now time for Leinart to prove his value to the Cardinals and prove to the 9 teams that passed on him in the 2006 Draft that they are missing out.

NFL Week 17 Overview

Today is the final week of the NFL regular season. There is only one key match-up in the NFL, in my mind. The game that will decide the NFC Playoff Standings is the Cowboys vs. Eagles in Dallas today. The winner of the game will win the NFC East. If the Cowboys win, the Arizona Cardinals will have a chance to be the number 2 seed and receive a first round bye, as long as Minnesota loses also. The Dallas defense will give the Eagles a run for their money, and Tony Romo is having his best year of all time. Coach Wade Phillips might be fired if Dallas loses today, and later into the playoffs. I believe that he will secure his job with a win today, and not be embarrassed in the playoffs.

Most other games don’t affect the playoffs in the NFC, but the AFC Wild Card teams have not been decided yet. If the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens win today, they will punch their ticket to the playoffs. All 6 teams in the NFC are set for the playoffs. It will be a good post-season in the NFC because all teams could beat each other. We will see where the NFC teams are seeded by tonight.

Cardinals Make History

For the Arizona Cardinals, their 31-10 victory over the St. Louis Rams was more than a win. Their Week 16 win was their 10th of the season. The Cardinals franchise has not had 10 wins or more in a season since 1976, when quarterback Kurt Warner was four years-old. The ten win season came when the Cardinals were 12 years away from moving to Arizona.

Kurt Warner, currently 38 years-old, joined an elite club along with Safety Adrian Wilson. Kurt Warner became only the second quarterback to throw 100 touchdown passes with two different franchises. Today, he threw #99 and #100 against his former team, the team in which he threw 102 TD passes with. The opponent seemed fitting for the occasion. Also, Adrian Wilson became the 10th player to join the 20/20 Club. The 20/20 Club’s members need 20 career sacks and 20 career interceptions. Wilson had his 23rd interception of his career and with 1:52 left in the game, he sacked Rams quarterback Keith Null, the 20th of his career.

“To me it’s not an individual goal, it’s team goals,” Wilson said.

Warner disagreed saying, “We’ve all known he’s a great player for a long time here. The one thing about guys like that is they never get the attention they deserve until they accomplish those kinds of records.”

Also, a newcomer in Arizona’s “Big 3″ receiving corps is making himself known. Early Doucet, a second-year player out of LSU got his first career touchdown. Docuet missed much of last year and parts of training camp due to injuries. Despite being the #4 receiver on the Cardinals, he could easily be a starter on any other football team. Docuet has the chance to learn from some of the best receivers in football; Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, and Steve Breaston.

Boldin is also looking to acheive a personal record. Going into the game versus St. Louis, he was 125 yards away from 1,000 yards on the season. After catching eight passes for 116 yards, he is only nine yards away from having 1,000 yards in a season, looking to do so for the 5th time in his 7-year career which has recently been plagued with injuries including fractured paranasal sinuses last year which came from helmet-to-helmet contact with New York Jet Eric Smith.

The Cardinals aim for a first-round bye in the playoffs with a win against the Packers next week. Most likely, Green Bay will return back to Glendale to take on the Cardinals in a Wild-Card Playoff Game.

NFL Week 16 Brief Overview

*From original Blogspot Blog. Original Date: 12-27-2009

Saints vs. Buccaneers: Drew Brees and the Saints must bounce back after a tough Saturday night loss to Dallas last week. Tampa Bay is also coming off their second win in Seattle. They key for the game is to limit turnovers and put points on the board early. Drew Brees was sacked on the final Saints drive in the game against Dallas and fumbled the ball. Without that fumble the Saints could have scored which would tie it or win the game with a two-point conversion. If the Saints scored in the first quarter, however, the game would have been completely different. They’re wouldn’t have been as big, if any, deficit. I believe that the Saints are no longer worrying about a perfect season and are aiming to make the Super Bowl. I believe that they will win today and will end the season at 15-1.

Cardinals vs. Rams: Arizona is coming off their second playoff berth in a row. After winning the NFC West last year, they lost two games against the Vikings and Patriots, only managing to score 21 points total in those two games. However, the Cardinals look to go 2-0 after making the playoffs again. The Rams, well, are the Rams. They boast a 1-13 record, posting a win against the currently improving Detroit Lions in Week 8. The Cardinals had trouble last week against the Lions. After being up 17-0 at halftime, Arizona gave up 17 points in the 3rd Quarter, including a 100-yard interception return for Louis Delmas and a 64-yard rushing touchdown for Maurice Morris. The Cardinals defense, which only allowed Adrian Peterson only 19 yards, let Morris rush for 126 yards. If the Cardinals want to beat the St. Louis Rams, they need to step up their defense. If they don’t step up their defense, I believe they can still win. Larry Fitzgerald is questionable, but the Cardinals will still win.

Jets vs. Colts: The Colts eye a perfect 16-0 record, which is easily within their reach. However, they recently signed QB Drew Willy to their practice squad. Peyton Manning says he wants to play the regular season out and prepare for the playoffs. With their first-round bye, however, they will have an extra week to prepare. To keep it brief, the Colts will go 16-0 with or without Manning.