Leinart an afterthought while Cassel shines

Last night while watching NFL Live I saw a very interesting graphic appear on the screen.  I had to rub my eyes and shake my head once or twice because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

The graphic compared the statistics of Matt Leinart and Matt Cassel.  You know Leinart, the millionaire party boy who had a sloppy start to his NFL career who probably spends more time than anything else these days at USC frat parties, trying to hang on to the glory years.

Before I throw out numbers, let me refresh your memory for a second and remind you that Cassel spent his entire career at USC as a backup to Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Leinart.  Leinart had the starting position on such a secure lockdown that Cassel - get this - made his only collegiate start at the tight end position.  Heck, why not?  He's listed at 6'4", 230 lbs., and that start came against a small PAC-10 defensive front.  Pete Carroll knew how good an athlete Cassel was and now he must be scratching his head wondering what might have been had Cassel gotten all the reps instead of Leinart.  Not to take anything away from Leinart.  He was a stud QB in his college days.

Now onto the numbers:

Leinart was selected in the 1st round (10th overall) in the 2006 NFL Draft.  Cassel, on the other hand, almost went undrafted.  He was selected in the 7th round (230th overall) in 2005.  Leinart got millions with his contract and millions with endorsements.  Cassel got chump change by NFL standards.  This illustrates just how highly-touted Leinart was coming out of college and how much of an afterthought Cassel was.  Leinart was drafted to become a starter and make the Arizona Cardinals contenders.  Cassel was drafted smartly by the New England Patriots for purposes of being a career backup to Tom Brady.  The Patriots already had their quarterback and knew that Cassel was good enough to back-up Brady, but that's about it.  There were no plans for Cassel to become a standout football player.

But Week 1 of the 2008 NFL season rolls around and things changed.  Leinart had lost his starting job to veteran Kurt Warner and Brady went down with a season-ending knee injury.  All of a sudden Leinart was holding the clipboard and rolling his eyes, daydreaming about beer bongs and hot tubs, and Cassel was snapping his chin strap, gritting his teeth and trying to save a season in Foxboro.

For his career thus far, Leinart has started in 16 of the 18 games he's played with Arizona, throwing to two of arguably the best wide receivers in pro football.  (Personally I would put Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin both in the Top 5).  In these 18 games, Leinart completed 56 percent of his passes for 3,209 yards, with 13 touchdown passes and 16 interceptions.  His quarterback rating is 71.2.  Those are Derek Anderson numbers.

Cassel has started 10 of the 25 games he's played over his four-year career with New England.  Most of the 15 games he's played in as a backup were only for a series or two toward the end of the game after the Patriots had all but wrapped up a win.  He barely threw the ball.  These were series where he would mostly hand the ball off to run the clock out.  Case in point: Combining his 12 games played from 2006 through 2007 and he was only 9-for-15 passing for 70 yards.  But overall, in these 25 total games played, Cassel has completed 65.3 percent of his passes for 2,868 yards, with 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.  His quarterback rating is 88.6.  Let's not forget that the majority of these numbers have come this season, one of the worst seasons Randy Moss has had over his career.

With Leinart on the sidelines watching Kurt Warner lead the Cardinals into the playoffs and put together another career year, he must come to grips with the fact that the guy who backed him up at USC is now a budding star in the NFL.  And right now, that star is shining a whole lot brighter than Leinart's.

With Leinart now down to being hardly a blip on the radar of NFL quarterbacks, the only Matt that really matters is one named Cassel.