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Two weeks into the season, the QB carousel's spinning out of control
Ten teams -- about one third of the league -- already have quarterback questions
Snap Judgments: San Francisco (0-2) should still be right in the NFC West race
The most pertinent statistic to explain Brett Favre's painfully slow start this season
Chan Gailey says he's making the change at quarterback because he's looking for a spark, but in truth, the Buffalo Bills have been desperately seeking one of those for about 11 years now.
Tom Cable's reasoning for benching Jason Campbell after just six quarters in Oakland? He was trying to give his struggling team "a lift,'' which indeed have been few and far between in Raiders-land since about 2003 or so.
And after proclaiming on Sunday afternoon that it was "way too early to say'' who would start in Week 3, Carolina's John Fox on Monday elevated rookie Jimmy Clausen to the No. 1 QB job, ahead of the demoted Matt Moore. "Early" being one of those relative terms.
By my count, we're just 13 days into the NFL's regular season and already 10 teams -- about one-third of the league -- have had to grapple with quarterback questions brought on by either injury or ineffectiveness. Which means that after months of offseason and preseason planning and practice time invested in one quarterback, those clubs have reversed directions and either chosen or been forced to cast their lot with a different player at the game's most pivotal position.
What in the name of Earl Morrall is going on here? Has the NFL's quarterback carousel ever been this active this early? I once covered a team -- Sam Wyche's 1993 Bucs -- that benched its starting quarterback at halftime of the season opener (Steve DeBerg out, Craig Erickson in), but this year it's almost difficult to keep up with all the moves being made under center. To wit:
• In Buffalo, Trent Edwards is taking a seat (again), and Ryan Fitzpatrick will get the chance to snap a 13-game Bills losing streak against the Patriots in Foxboro on Sunday. It's the fifth in-season QB change for the Bills since the close of their brief Drew Bledsoe era in 2003.
• In Oakland, Cable isn't saying if Campbell or Bruce Gradkowski will start at Arizona on Sunday, but the Raiders' game of musical chairs at quarterback has grown to almost comical levels in recent seasons. So much for the notion that Campbell's offseason acquisition put an end to that instability.
• In Carolina, what choice did Fox really have but to go with the untested Clausen over the struggling Moore, whose starting reign in Charlotte lasted all of seven games? The 0-2 Panthers have scored just two touchdowns, Fox is in the final year of his contract, and a home-opening loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday has everyone in Carolina on edge.
• In Jacksonville, Jack Del Rio yanked the erratic David Garrard from the game in San Diego after his starter threw four interceptions, but backup Luke McCown fared even worse in a way, tearing a knee ligament and being lost for the season. So it's back to Garrard for the Jaguars, who have the Eagles and Colts coming to town in the next two weeks.
• In Tennessee, Vince Young remains the starter after being replaced by veteran Kerry Collins in the fourth quarter of that troubling 19-11 loss to the visiting Steelers on Sunday, but you have to admit we're getting the feeling we've seen this movie before. Since the start of the 2008 season, the Titans have flip-flopped between Young and Collins on a fairly regular basis.
• In Arizona, it seems just a matter of time before Derek Anderson is handed a clipboard and asked to support rookie Max Hall as the Cardinals starter. Hall got his feet wet Sunday in Atlanta, relieving the inefficient Anderson late in the Falcons' 41-7 blowout win. Where have you gone Kurt Warner? Cardinals Nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Woo, woo, woo.
• And then there are the varying QB situations in Philadelphia (Michael Vick and Kevin Kolb), Pittsburgh (Dennis Dixon and Charlie Batch), Cleveland (Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace) and Detroit (Matthew Stafford and Shaun Hill), where injuries and/or a suspension have impacted the early-season lineups. A dandy of a quarterback controversy is already brewing in Philly, of course, and one seems more than likely for the Browns in the very near future.
There's a familiar sameness to the reasoning behind most of the impatience being shown at quarterback around the league. The Bills, Raiders, Panthers and Jaguars were all losing teams last year, and in each case the head coach is fighting for his job in 2010. Ditto for Eric Mangini in Cleveland, where the Browns have been a quarterback clearing house in recent seasons. Defeat always begets change in the NFL, and that usually means right now, even before we've hit Week 3 of the new season.
Gailey, the first-year Buffalo head coach, is turning to Fitzpatrick, who started seven games for the Bills last season without emerging as the answer to the team's troubled QB spot. He has started games for three NFL teams (Rams, Bengals and Bills), and while serviceable, the ex-Harvard standout has been on the losing end of quite a few games in his five-year pro career.
No matter. He's not Edwards, and that's enough to warrant the promotion in Buffalo, where Gailey was quick to remind everyone that "the implication might be that it's all Trent's fault and that's not the case at all.'' Maybe not, but when Gailey was immediately asked if any other lineup changes were in store, he replied, "Not right now, no.'' Meaning Edwards is the only one paying for his part with his starting job. For now.
But stay tuned, because every week seems to bring a new look to the starting quarterback landscape in the NFL. As we all know by now, looking for a spark and actually finding one are two very different things.
Snap Judgments
• As excruciating as the 49ers' last-second 25-22 loss at home to the Saints was on Monday night, here's one very sound reason San Francisco fans should not give up on their 0-2 team: Somebody's got to win the NFC West this year, and it might be an 8-8 or even 7-9 champion.
No scoffing. Three times in the past six seasons -- in 2004, 2006 and 2008 -- the NFC West winner finished 9-7. But with two-time defending champion Arizona (1-1) looking a lot less intimidating without Warner, and the 49ers, Seahawks (1-1) and Rams (0-2) all having played at least one uninspired game so far, it's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that a .500 (or even sub-.500) record might get the job done in the NFL's weakest division. Especially since NFC West teams face the tough NFC South this year in intra-conference play.
Posted: Tuesday September 21, 2010 12:30PM ; Updated: Tuesday September 21, 2010 2:36PM
Ten teams -- about one third of the league -- already have quarterback questions
Snap Judgments: San Francisco (0-2) should still be right in the NFC West race
The most pertinent statistic to explain Brett Favre's painfully slow start this season
Chan Gailey says he's making the change at quarterback because he's looking for a spark, but in truth, the Buffalo Bills have been desperately seeking one of those for about 11 years now.
Tom Cable's reasoning for benching Jason Campbell after just six quarters in Oakland? He was trying to give his struggling team "a lift,'' which indeed have been few and far between in Raiders-land since about 2003 or so.
And after proclaiming on Sunday afternoon that it was "way too early to say'' who would start in Week 3, Carolina's John Fox on Monday elevated rookie Jimmy Clausen to the No. 1 QB job, ahead of the demoted Matt Moore. "Early" being one of those relative terms.
By my count, we're just 13 days into the NFL's regular season and already 10 teams -- about one-third of the league -- have had to grapple with quarterback questions brought on by either injury or ineffectiveness. Which means that after months of offseason and preseason planning and practice time invested in one quarterback, those clubs have reversed directions and either chosen or been forced to cast their lot with a different player at the game's most pivotal position.
What in the name of Earl Morrall is going on here? Has the NFL's quarterback carousel ever been this active this early? I once covered a team -- Sam Wyche's 1993 Bucs -- that benched its starting quarterback at halftime of the season opener (Steve DeBerg out, Craig Erickson in), but this year it's almost difficult to keep up with all the moves being made under center. To wit:
• In Buffalo, Trent Edwards is taking a seat (again), and Ryan Fitzpatrick will get the chance to snap a 13-game Bills losing streak against the Patriots in Foxboro on Sunday. It's the fifth in-season QB change for the Bills since the close of their brief Drew Bledsoe era in 2003.
• In Oakland, Cable isn't saying if Campbell or Bruce Gradkowski will start at Arizona on Sunday, but the Raiders' game of musical chairs at quarterback has grown to almost comical levels in recent seasons. So much for the notion that Campbell's offseason acquisition put an end to that instability.
• In Carolina, what choice did Fox really have but to go with the untested Clausen over the struggling Moore, whose starting reign in Charlotte lasted all of seven games? The 0-2 Panthers have scored just two touchdowns, Fox is in the final year of his contract, and a home-opening loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday has everyone in Carolina on edge.
• In Jacksonville, Jack Del Rio yanked the erratic David Garrard from the game in San Diego after his starter threw four interceptions, but backup Luke McCown fared even worse in a way, tearing a knee ligament and being lost for the season. So it's back to Garrard for the Jaguars, who have the Eagles and Colts coming to town in the next two weeks.
• In Tennessee, Vince Young remains the starter after being replaced by veteran Kerry Collins in the fourth quarter of that troubling 19-11 loss to the visiting Steelers on Sunday, but you have to admit we're getting the feeling we've seen this movie before. Since the start of the 2008 season, the Titans have flip-flopped between Young and Collins on a fairly regular basis.
• In Arizona, it seems just a matter of time before Derek Anderson is handed a clipboard and asked to support rookie Max Hall as the Cardinals starter. Hall got his feet wet Sunday in Atlanta, relieving the inefficient Anderson late in the Falcons' 41-7 blowout win. Where have you gone Kurt Warner? Cardinals Nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Woo, woo, woo.
• And then there are the varying QB situations in Philadelphia (Michael Vick and Kevin Kolb), Pittsburgh (Dennis Dixon and Charlie Batch), Cleveland (Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace) and Detroit (Matthew Stafford and Shaun Hill), where injuries and/or a suspension have impacted the early-season lineups. A dandy of a quarterback controversy is already brewing in Philly, of course, and one seems more than likely for the Browns in the very near future.
There's a familiar sameness to the reasoning behind most of the impatience being shown at quarterback around the league. The Bills, Raiders, Panthers and Jaguars were all losing teams last year, and in each case the head coach is fighting for his job in 2010. Ditto for Eric Mangini in Cleveland, where the Browns have been a quarterback clearing house in recent seasons. Defeat always begets change in the NFL, and that usually means right now, even before we've hit Week 3 of the new season.
Gailey, the first-year Buffalo head coach, is turning to Fitzpatrick, who started seven games for the Bills last season without emerging as the answer to the team's troubled QB spot. He has started games for three NFL teams (Rams, Bengals and Bills), and while serviceable, the ex-Harvard standout has been on the losing end of quite a few games in his five-year pro career.
No matter. He's not Edwards, and that's enough to warrant the promotion in Buffalo, where Gailey was quick to remind everyone that "the implication might be that it's all Trent's fault and that's not the case at all.'' Maybe not, but when Gailey was immediately asked if any other lineup changes were in store, he replied, "Not right now, no.'' Meaning Edwards is the only one paying for his part with his starting job. For now.
But stay tuned, because every week seems to bring a new look to the starting quarterback landscape in the NFL. As we all know by now, looking for a spark and actually finding one are two very different things.
Snap Judgments
• As excruciating as the 49ers' last-second 25-22 loss at home to the Saints was on Monday night, here's one very sound reason San Francisco fans should not give up on their 0-2 team: Somebody's got to win the NFC West this year, and it might be an 8-8 or even 7-9 champion.
No scoffing. Three times in the past six seasons -- in 2004, 2006 and 2008 -- the NFC West winner finished 9-7. But with two-time defending champion Arizona (1-1) looking a lot less intimidating without Warner, and the 49ers, Seahawks (1-1) and Rams (0-2) all having played at least one uninspired game so far, it's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that a .500 (or even sub-.500) record might get the job done in the NFL's weakest division. Especially since NFC West teams face the tough NFC South this year in intra-conference play.
Posted: Tuesday September 21, 2010 12:30PM ; Updated: Tuesday September 21, 2010 2:36PM