The Cardinals felt going into the season that the combination of former first round pick Matt Leinart, 2007 Pro Bowler Derek Anderson, and two promising rookies John Skelton and Max Hall would be enough to fill the void of retired future Hall of Famer Kurt Warner at quarterback and that this team would still be able to finish atop the NFC West. Well, they were wrong.

Matt Leinart struggled in the preseason and threw a hissy fit when benched for Derek Anderson. The development of rookies Max Hall and John Skelton in the preseason allowed Arizona to cut Matt Leinart. Leinart was such a hot commodity on the open market that he signed with Houston to be the 3^rd string quarterback behind Matt Schaub and the guy who ran out the back of his own end zone for the 0-16 Lions in 2008.

Anderson started the year at quarterback, but struggled and was benched for Max Hall. Hall led the team to one impressive victory over the Saints, but struggled in the rest of his games and was benched for Derek Anderson. Anderson was fairly mediocre for a few games, before an awful two game stretch from weeks 12-13 where he went 23 for 55 for 189 yards and 2 picks, blew up in a post-game tirade when asked why he was laughing on the sideline in a blowout, and lost consecutive home games to division rivals 27-6 and 19-6. This season just proved that Anderson is a one year wonder and nothing more.

Anderson was then benched for Skelton. Skelton had 3 decent games against crappy defenses and led the team to 2 wins before struggling in the finale and being benched for Richard Bartel (fresh off the practice squad) to deliver a fitting end to the Cardinals’ 2010 season, a 38-7 loss in San Francisco. The Cardinals ended the season 5-11.

Unfortunately, the solution might not be as easy as finding a simply new quarterback. The defense gave up close to a touchdown more in 2010 than they did in 2009 (6.8 more points per game). They ranked 29^th in fewest total yards allowed, 25^th against the pass in terms of YPA, and 20^th against the run in terms of YPC. Their 33 sacks were down 10 sacks from 2009.

Fortunately for the Cardinals, they seem to have the right man at head coach. Ken Whisenhunt, fresh off of back-to-back division titles and a Super Bowl appearance, did a great job of coaching this team. How they won 5 games with the lack of talent they had at the quarterback position and on defense is beyond me. Hopefully this team doesn’t do something stupid and blame the man at the helm because they have a keeper in Whisenhunt as coach.