Seattle Nabs Whitehurst and Cards Sign Anderson

Seattle and Arizona are shaking things up in the NFC West. The ‘Hawks have an aging and often injured quarterback with no backup while the Cards saw the leader Kurt Warner retire.

With Warner out of the picture the Cards were left with a huge question mark in former first round pick Matt Leinart who has never shown his potential. He will get a shot this year to be the starter but it won’t be easy.

That is because Derek Anderson was signed by Arizona today to a 2-year deal worth $7.25M.  While that’s a good deal of dough for a backup QB, the real money comes if Anderson can secure a starting position. As ESPN reports, the incentives of the contract could max out at $18.25 million which shows the Cards are bringing him in to compete for the starting position.

Two QB’s fighting for a job in Arizona all but dictated where San Diego restricted free agent Charlie Whitehurst would end up. 

Whitehurst is a backup with no snaps in the regular season but that did not stop Seattle from negotiating a trade that would see the ‘Hawks get Whitehurst and swap 2nd round picks with San Diego (dropping Seattle down 20 spots!) and also giving up Seattle’s 2011 3rd round pick.

Pete Carroll and Company clearly did not see enough potential in the early round rookie QB’s like Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow to gamble a draft pick. Think of Whitehurst as a 4-year rookie. He has no snaps but he does have the teachings of Norv Turner and Phillip Rivers under his belt.

All of this was created when Seattle traded their backup QB, Seneca Wallace, to Cleveland last week which in turn freed up the Browns to release Anderson.   Seneca Wallace was clearly not the answer at QB and the move to land Whitehurst, although costly, is a solid decision.