In the history of the NFL, every team has had their legendary QB, but these are the guys we expected more from.
When it comes to professional sports, there are very few positions that are more important than that of NFL quarterback. In the history of the NFL, many teams have found their franchise guy, a player who has led the organization to Super Bowl victories, while earning Pro Bowl recognition on nearly a yearly basis.
However, we are not here to discuss those players, who reached their potential with their respective teams. This is a piece to discuss which quarterbacks each NFL team expected more from, like a draft pick that showed flashes early on, or a guy the team traded for that never really panned out.
The NFL is loaded with hits and misses, and for some of these players, the fact that they wasted their potential is almost sickening. Some had to deal with injuries, and others played during a time where there was very little talent on the roster, but all of them were expected to do more than they did.
Here is one quarterback from each NFL team that we expected more from.
Arizona Cardinals: Matt Leinart
During his time at USC, Matt Leinart developed a reputation of being a big-time quarterback, one who would eventually be a franchise player at the NFL level. During the 2006 NFL Draft, the Arizona Cardinals tried to do just that, selecting Leinart with the No. 10 overall pick in the draft.
After selecting Leinart, the Cardinals worked hard to get him under contract, and eventually signed him to a six-year deal worth over $50 millions dollar. That money would prove to be spent on a backup quarterback, as Leinart never really became the player that the franchise was hoping he would be taking him with a top-10 pick.
Over his four seasons with the team, Leinart served mostly as a backup to Kurt Warner, who eventually led the Cardinals to the Super Bowl against the Pittsburgh Steelers. For Leinart, he would be out of the desert by 2009, before bouncing around with the Houston Texans, Oakland Raiders, and Buffalo Bills.
Based on what we saw of Leinart at USC, he should have been a guy who spent a dozen years under center for the Cardinals. This is a franchise who has missed on quarterbacks in the past, but even for them, the lack of production from Leinart was a shock.