I don't want to be jumping the gun here, but with Matt Leinert likely starting for the near future and the AFC South so bad that the Texans are likely headed to the playoffs for the first time in team history, I got to wondering.
↵Have there been any QBs in the past who were drafted in the top 10 picks, flamed out with one team and then went on to win a playoff game with another?
↵The simple answer is yes, there are many. But, it gets more complicated than that. While there are plenty of Heath Schuler's and Byron Leftwich's in the list, guys like Trent Dilfer, Vinny Testaverde, Kerry Collins and even Jim Plunkett had successful playoff runs with new teams.
↵Of course, they were all fairly successful with their first teams and just ran into problems. Testaverde was a star before getting the Jets to the postseason. Collins talked himself off the Panthers, not his play on the field. Plunkett had plenty of success with the Patriots before making all those playoff runs with the Raiders.
↵Dilfer's actually a pretty close match, seeing as he never had huge numbers with Tampa Bay before getting beat out for the job and leaving via free agency. He signs with Baltimore, takes them to the Super Bowl and then promptly moves onto a new team.
↵Maybe the best comparison is quite old. Earl Morrall was drafted high in the first round by San Francisco, bounced around to a bunch of teams before finding playoff success with both Baltimore and, more appropriately, the 1972 Dolphins, when Morrall took over for an injured Bob Griese and finished off the perfect season with a Super Bowl victory.
↵Morrall, however, was 38 at the time and had played for a number of teams. He also didn't exactly flame out in his first stop...he just got cut after starting four games for the 1956 San Francisco 49ers. That's not Leinert, as his contract kept him in Arizona and kept giving him chances to be the starter there.
↵Can Leinert be like Morrall or Dilfer? Possibly. History certainly doesn't rule out his potential success. Recent history though...
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