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Even after benching him in the Arizona Cardinals’ pitiful loss to the St. Louis Rams on Sunday, Coach Ken Whisenhunt seems to still be toying with the idea of starting quarterback Derek Anderson against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
Anderson, as has been well-documented by New Times, sucks. He’s sucked all season — and that’s being polite. The fact that Whisenhunt is even considering playing him on Sunday is insulting to the other players on the team and fans.
From the Arizona Republic:
This
week, Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt is faced with yet another
difficult decision. Does he gamble and hope a terribly inconsistent
Derek Anderson passes his concussion-symptoms tests? Or does he roll the
dice even further and turn the starting quarterback job over to
third-string rookie John Skelton?Whisenhunt wasn’t ready to
say on Monday, a day after the Cardinals lost their seventh consecutive
game 19-6 to the St. Louis Rams.
In the loss to the Rams, Anderson completed seven of 20 passes for 93
yards. He had no touchdowns and an interception. In other words, the
decision that Anderson would no longer be the team’s started —
particularly considering the Cards’ playoff chances are now just shy of
zilch — should have been made at halftime in Sunday’s loss, if not
weeks ago.
“We
have injury issues there. We have performance issues at that position,”
Whisenhunt told the paper. “That’s something we’re going to look at as
we go forward this
week.”
The problem with starting Anderson, as many fans now see
it, is he will likely not be with the team next year.
Several news outlets, New Times
included, have already determined that the remainder of this season
should be seen as nothing more than practice for next year.
Republic sports columnist Dan Bickley’s column yesterday was titled “After Another Lifeless Loss, Arizona Cardinals Must Turn to the Future.”
In it, Bickley makes the case that the Cards should go with either Max
Hall or John Skelton as the starter because they — unlike Anderson —
stand a chance at being with the team next season.
Sports Illustrated’s Peter King made a similar argument:
This has nothing to do with his postgame fit at logical questions from Arizona Republic
beat man Kent Somers about why he was laughing on the sidelines in the
fourth quarter of an embarrassing loss. It has to do with his play,
which has been terrible. The Cardinals now are officially playing for
2011, which Anderson will have nothing to do with. Max Hall and John
Skelton, the rookie quarterbacks backing up Anderson, will probably be
on the team in 2011. They need to see all the time in the last 20
quarters of the season so Ken Whisenhunt can see which one will enter
next season competing for the starting job with whoever Whisenhunt and
GM Rod Graves import at the position.
If Whisenhunt
starts Anderson this week — or any week, for that matter — the next
head fans will be looking to make roll is his.
