Matt Leinart a no-show in Cardinals camp

Training camp opened for the Arizona Cardinals on Monday without first round pick Matt Leinart. The team still hasn't been able to come to terms with the former Heisman Trophy winner out of USC.

Holdouts are never a good thing for rookies in the NFL but the problem is magnified for quarterbacks. Cardinals Head Coach Dennis Green wanted Leinart to battle John Navarre for the position of backup QB to Kurt Warner. So for every day of camp that Leinart misses, he loses more ground on that job.

"As a young quarterback, you never want to miss any time, especially as short as training camp is and the limited number of snaps that are there to be had," said Cardinals starter Kurt Warner. "I know he wants to be here, and we all want to have him here. I'm sure he's only a couple of hours away, just waiting for that call to come up. Hopefully it won't be too long."

The good news for both Leinart and the Cardinals is thatthe picks before Leinart (#9 Ernie Sims-Detroit) and after Leinart (#11 Jay Cutler-Denver) have signed, so the team and Leinart's agent Tom Condon have a structure to work off of.

Also Tom Condon, whose firm is Creative Sports Agency, has five other clients that were drafted in the first round this season. All are in camp.

"Like all of our other clients, we want to get Matt in as quickly as possible. We always work toward that end. We're football fans like everybody else. We're anxious to see him on the field."

Nobody is quite sure what the holdup is. But whether it's a few guaranteed dollars here and there or a clause allowing Paris Hilton to bring her dog with her into his luxury suite, it's important both sides get the deal done.

Leinart at a Cardinals mini-camp this spring

With the off season signing of Edgerrin James, and two young studs at wide reciever in Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals fans are excited about their team for the first time in a while. There's talk of the playoffs going on in Tempe this season, and in a pretty weak NFC West, it's not out of the question. One hindrance to the Cardinals making the postseason would be the health of Kurt Warner, who has an injury-prone past and is playing behind a suspect offensive line. Should Warner get hurt, it would be nice if Matt Leinart were ready to go in and take over the reins.

With each day of camp that Matt misses, that becomes less and less likely.

Source

• Cards open camp without Leinart (Sports Illustrated)