He was on his way out with super coach denny green in charge. When whisenhunt came to town he couldn't keep Kurt off the field. At the beginning of the 2007 season Kurt was lights out in pre season. Then at the beginning of the season the whiz would bring Kurt on during games to kick start the cards offense. Playing leinart was probably a directive from their crappy owner. Whiz was doing back flips when leinart went down injured so he could put Kurt out there the whole game. He was lights out for the rest of his career.
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Which doesn't refute what Philly said. Kurt started wearing the gloves after he got benched in '06. Leinart got to play a lot sooner than anyone expected because after Warner started off '06 by winning player of the week, his fumbling problems quickly resurfaced and made him unfit to start over the next month or so. Leinart was a rookie but Green was on the hot seat and had no choice. I don't even think it was so much that he was giving up on Warner but by starting rookie Leinart(who they never thought would fall to them at #10 so didn't even plan on having him), he might have a shot at saving his job. By starting a rookie, it usually gives a coach a bit of an excuse. And Leinart actually looked pretty good at times. The MNF game against Chicago the Cardinals special teams let slip away was actually a pretty good game for him. It led Green to lose his mind post game, but I digress. Leinart later put up 400+ yards against Minnesota.
He eventually got hurt and the Cardinals didn't want to take any risk and their season was over and Green was still on the way out by that time so Warner got to mop up the end of game 15 and start game 16. He had adopted the gloves and he tore it up. But in '07, new head coach Whisenhunt wasn't chomping at the bit to let him start. In fact, he named Leinart the starter as soon as he got there. Warner wasn't really a consideration. If his contract had been up in '06, I doubt the Cardinals would have even brought him back in '07. But once preseason started, Warner continued to show that the gloves were making a difference and Leinart quickly fell out of favor with Whisenhunt. His work ethic and attitude did not mesh with the new coach AT ALL.
But it's a big assumption to say that Green would have dumped Warner had he held onto his coaching job. If Green had seen that the gloves were making that much of a difference I think it's just as easy to speculate that Warner would have won his job back.
I will forever wonder what would have happened if things would have played out differently with the Rams. If they had decided to just move on after '02 instead of playing out the farce that eventually unfolded and saw Warner ride the bench most of the year and Bulger struggle but still keep his job. They cut Warner after the injury-riddled '02 and Shanahan gets him in Denver. I'm pretty sure he's said that he would have gone after Warner in favor of Plummer. If so, would Warner have adopted the gloves(because of the cold weather) back in '03? For a pretty good Denver team? A playoff caliber team with a good running game and decent o-line? It's a bit of a leap to think Warner might have worn the gloves back then but man, what a hypothetical scenario that creates.
