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ShareThisDerek Anderson Also Has an Unbelievable Handshake
In the Football Outsiders Almanac 2010 (which I highly recommend, btw), Aaron Schatz compared Jake Delhomme's ongoing presence as an NFL starting quarterback -- despite all evidence that he could no longer perform in that capacity -- to this Onion article about a CEO whose rise through the ranks was attributable to nothing but his "unbelievable handshake", a.k.a. his ability to make people like him and convince them that he's a strong leader. With all due respect to Delhomme's firm handshake, though, I think one of the men he's replacing in Cleveland has possibly surpassed him as the master of that charade.
That man, of course, would be Derek Anderson, picked up from the scrap heap this offseason by Arizona. Despite a giving vote of confidence to longtime QB-in-waiting Matt Leinart during OTAs and training camp, Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt has soured on the former USC star to the point of giving Anderson the starting nod (which in turn has made Leinart so disgruntled that the team is considering trading him). What went wrong? The turning point for Whisenhunt was apparently Arizona's August 23 game vs. Tennessee, in which Leinart was unable to lead the offense to any kind of sustained ball movement and was pulled in favor of Anderson during the 2nd quarter.
Chief among Leinart's sins that night: a 2-yard completion on 3rd-and-3; a 7-yard completion on 3rd-and-16; and a deep incompletion on 3rd-and-1 when (ironically) one of his patented short checkdowns would have been enough for a 1st down. For Whisenhunt and the Cards' staff, it was a microcosm of Leinart's struggles since being named Kurt Warner's successor -- particularly when you compare Leinart's skills to those of Anderson, whose famously strong arm theoretically offers more big-play ability for an offense that has been starved for it (especially with Larry Fitzgerald injured).
That's the conventional wisdom, at least. However, if we look at the two quarterbacks' preseason performances on the whole, we see that even with Leinart's unimpressive play, Anderson has still done nothing to warrant supplanting him for the starting gig:
| Player | G | GS | Comp | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Sck | SckY | ANY/A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leinart | 3 | 2 | 19 | 23 | 161 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 29 | 5.6 |
| Anderson | 3 | 1 | 31 | 53 | 287 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4.3 |
And this isn't the first time Anderson has passed a QB on the depth chart despite statistical evidence that he was the inferior option. As I noted last November, Anderson also convinced Eric Mangini to start him over Brady Quinn (who, granted, wasn't exactly enjoying a banner year either) even though he was having one of the worst seasons by a quarterback in NFL history.
Just like the CEO with the amazing handshake, Anderson apparently has the special ability to come across as the best man for the starting job, even when his actual on-field performance doesn't back that up. Now, Anderson supporters will obviously counter by pointing to his breakout 2007 season, when he went to the Pro Bowl and almost led the Browns to the playoffs... but you can include that season in his numbers and he still comes out as the league's 2nd-worst QB to receive 1,000 attempts since 2006.
Is Leinart necessarily a good quarterback? No, he's actually been well below-average according to the numbers so far. But the evidence we have on Anderson says that he's actually even worse -- worse over his entire career (including 2007), and worse so far this preseason. I'm all for a good QB competition, but at least give the spoils to the on-field victor rather than the guy with the better handshake.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 10:16 am and is filed under Quarterbacks, Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Derek Anderson just knows how to win. How else do you explain this game?
I'll bet I could explain that game!
It's an interesting angle, but there's a lot of football that isn't represented by the stats you reference.
Good post, but I don't think it was Anderson who convinced Mangini to start him for all those games in the middle of last season. It was Quinn's playing time contract incentives.
The think that's so mystifying is that Anderson wasn't even great in college- he led the country in interceptions one year and barely completed 50% of his throws against the Pac-10, which is maybe the 4th- or 5th-best conference.
As a Cards season ticket holder perhaps I can offer a perspective on why Leinart is done. It comes down to 2 things. First, Leinart has become Captain Checkdown in AZ, which doesn't work with the weapons the Cards have at receiver. Add to that the fact that he holds on to the ball too long and locks onto receivers, which leads to DB's getting free kill shots once the catch is made. That's how Fitz got hurt in the first preseason game, and all Cards fans complain that Leinart is going to get one of his receivers killed one of these days.
That leads to the second and more important point which the stats don't measure. Everything being reported here in AZ shows that Leinart's teammates have no confidence in him. Especially Fitzgerald, which is the kiss of death. Add to that that Anderson has been a much harder worker and better performer in the offseason program and in practice. Whisenhunt is basically faced with a situation where the team has no faith in Leinart, and keeping him as the starter risks undermining the message the coaches send to the rest of the team about the importance of working hard at practice. Why do it if Leinart doesn't have to and can still keep his starting job? It would be one thing to let the QB operate under a different set of rules if that QB is Brett Favre, but not when he is not even the best QB on the team.
You should add Sam Bradford's numbers to the chart. It was assumed that he was not the starter, and even HE has gotten more respect than Leinart!
Thanks, Sean, for the perspective from someone close to the situation. I definitely understand your point, but I guess my point was that the issue isn't so much with Leinart as it is with Anderson. If you're down on Leinart and you think his character issues preclude him from being the starter, then by all means, find a replacement... but that replacement probably shouldn't be Anderson, who has proven to be arguably the worst QB in the NFL when given a chance to start.
Good points here about guys who have established themselves as bad QBs continuing to find work. One thing worth remembering is that there is a scarcity of talent at the QB position, and in many cases (including both Anderson/Leinart and Anderson/Quinn), we're talking about picking the best of two bad quarterbacks. Haven't done a formal study, or anything, but I'd wager that in the majority of these cases, coaches will go with the more experienced passer. All of my instincts say the less experience guy is always the better choice since he has an opportunity to improve. I did a study of backups QBs 6 or 8 years ago (can't remember if it was for my paper or for the Pro Football Prospectus) which found that, contrary to convential wisdom, veteran backups won fewer games when pressed into action than young quarterbacks did. Leinart might become an NFL quarterback, he might not. But we already know what Derek Anderson's peak is.
Neil, everyone here in Arizona wishes that Anderson wasn't the answer. Problem is he's the only guy on the roster who can replace Leinart right now. You can fault the team for pulling the trigger on signing Anderson too soon and not waiting for the Rams to release Bulger, but that's water under the bridge.
To me I would start Matt Leinart over Ken Anderson. I believe that Ken is a one-hit wonder who suceeded because he had weapons to work with. Even though Leinart has not lived up to the billing which was why he did not leave school a year early(a smart move considering the poor performance in the NFL) he has not had the weapons that Kurt Warner had to work with in recievers Anquain Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. Anquian Bolden is built like a tight end and presents matchup problem with cornerbacks while Larry Fitzgerald is a pass-catching terror who is on the brink of becoming one of the greats. Then you have Eggerin James who is one of the greatest all-purpose running backs that has ever played the game and you have a terrific three or four-way terror that is very difficult to defend. The Arizona offense was almost difficult to defend in 09 in their run to the superbowl which they nearly won. Matt Leinart does not have those weapons because Bolden is in Baltimore and Fitzgerald is injured so the Cardinals do not have an offense and frankly they are a terrible team. So we still do not know how good Matt can be and they got a one-hit wonder in Anderson who is not a good Quarterback. This looks like a season of uncertainty for the Arizona Cardinals!
The 49ers would have to fail pretty hard not to easily win the NFC West.
Anderson went 6/7 for 101 yards (hooray for penalties) and a TD on the game-winning drive yesterday. He's gone whole games doing less than that before.