Warner Out, Rattay In - NFL.com

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Cardinals quarterback carousel continues

Associated Press

NFL.com

TEMPE, Ariz -- If it's Monday, the Arizona Cardinals must be looking for a quarterback.

Last week, they signed Tim Rattay as a backup to Kurt Warner, who took over for the injured Matt Leinart.

Now Warner is out indefinitely with a sprained left elbow, Rattay is the starter and the Cardinals are expected to sign Tim Hasselbeck as their backup as soon as they can decide how to clear a roster spot. Rattay and Warner are the only quarterbacks on the 53-man roster.

"It's obviously unusual," coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "It's hard enough when you lose one quarterback, but when you lose two it's doubly difficult. But it's not going to change. I'm sure there's not a lot of teams out there that are feeling sorry for us right now."

This is the fourth year since 2001 that the 36-year-old Warner, a two-time NFL MVP, has missed games due to injury. Warner had an MRI on Monday and was not available to reporters. But after Sunday's game he said he was having trouble gripping the ball with his left hand.

"I have no strength in there," Warner said. "I couldn't really move it, so there would have been no way to hold the football with my left hand. Yeah, I could have maybe thrown it a little bit, but there is a lot more to the game than running back there with one hand and throwing it.

"I'm optimistic going forward that it won't be too long," Warner said.

Even with its injury woes, Arizona (3-3) remains tied with Seattle for the lead in the feeble NFC West, where the four teams have a combined 8-15 record. The only NFC West team that didn't lose on Sunday was San Francisco, which had a bye.

The Cardinals felt they let an opportunity slip away in a sloppy 25-10 home loss to the Panthers, who won behind Vinny Testaverde, signed at midweek as an insurance policy.

A few of the miscues could be traced to Rattay, who had only three practices before he made his Cardinals debut. But they weren't all his fault.

Two of Rattay's three interceptions were bobbled by his receivers. Rattay fumbled twice, recovering both of them. The Cardinals lost two other fumbles, including one by Warner on the first-quarter sack that knocked him out of the game.

The Cardinals were penalized 11 times for 103 yards and had costly defensive breakdowns. In the span of five Carolina snaps in the fourth quarter, Arizona gave up a 65-yard touchdown pass and a 75-yard run that set up the Panthers' clinching score.

And that killed the Cardinals' bid for their first three-game win streak since 2002.

"We won two games in a row, we were feeling good about ourselves, we had a little bit of success," Whisenhunt said. "I think as much as anything, we let a few of the small details slide, and good teams can't do that."

Two-time Pro Bowler Anquan Boldin, who has missed three games with a sore hip, said the Cardinals won't use injuries as an alibi.

"I still feel like we're capable of winning games until everybody gets healthy," said Boldin, who plans to test his hip Wednesday and could play at Washington.

Until Warner gets healthy, the Cardinals will ride with Rattay. Whisenhunt and his staff plan to spend this week tailoring their offense to Rattay, who spent time in the West Coast offense in San Francisco.

"There's some stuff I can draw from, but then there's some stuff I've got to learn new, too," Rattay said.

Rattay, an eight-year veteran, played in four games last year for Tampa Bay and completed 61 of 101 passes. He played for the San Francisco 49ers for six years before being traded to the Buccaneers.

Rattay lives in the Phoenix area and had been helping his father, Jim, coach at a local high school. Now he's being asked to help the Cardinals reach the playoffs for the second time since they moved to Arizona in 1988.

"There's a ton of talent on this offense," Rattay said. "I'd say my job is to just keep trying to learn this thing as fast as I can."

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press