FanHouse BrodieCroyle

Sorting the Sunday Pile looks back at the NFL weekend that was. It's also an unofficial Brady Quinn blog.

A year ago, Matt Cassel got his chance to be an NFL starting quarterback when then-Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard blew up Tom Brady's knee. Cassel led the Patriots to 11 wins, and played well enough for the Chiefs to trade for him in the offseason.

Smash cut to Cassel tweaking his knee during Kansas City's third preseason game (God's sense of humor is underrated), which forced him to miss the first Sunday of the 2009 season. Any chances the Chiefs -- an outfit that won six times in their last 32 games -- had against the Ravens were out the window with Cassel on the bench.

Sorting the Sunday Pile looks back at the NFL weekend that was. It's also an unofficial Brady Quinn blog.

A year ago, Matt Cassel got his chance to be an NFL starting quarterback when then-Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard blew up Tom Brady's knee. Cassel led the Patriots to 11 wins, and played well enough for the Chiefs to trade for him in the offseason.

Smash cut to Cassel tweaking his knee during Kansas City's third preseason game (God's sense of humor is underrated), which forced him to miss the first Sunday of the 2009 season. Any chances the Chiefs -- an outfit that won six times in their last 32 games -- had against the Ravens were out the window with Cassel on the bench.

Jason Whitlock has reason to be concerned about Matt Cassel. He's the Chiefs new quarterback, doesn't have much in the way of experience, and will make nearly $15 million in 2009. Oh, and it's easy to be skittish when Cassel succeeds the likes of Damon Huard, Brodie Croyle and Tyler Thigpen.

Of the three, Thigpen probably has the most potential, but the new regime made it clear that he wasn't in their long-term plans when they traded for Cassel. But that doesn't mean Whitlock is convinced.

Specifically, he's worried that the Chiefs "have little interest in signing Matt Cassel to a long-term contract before the start of the season." There were rumors during draft weekend that the Chiefs gave Cassel a six-year deal ($36 million guaranteed). Untrue, it turned out.

While other people were hung up on the logistics of the trade this past week -- which sent Matt Cassel to the Chiefs, among other pieces -- I was busy running through the fantasy fallout of the deal. You see, just because our season doesn't start for another six months doesn't mean you should entirely forget about fantasy football during the offseason.

This particular move helps the fantasy value of several people, while also hurting the value of a few others.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

After winning just twice in 2008 and six times in two seasons, the Chiefs have decided to blow up the whole operation and start over. Scott Pioli and Todd Haley have replaced Carl Peterson and Herm Edwards, and the rebuilding process is currently underway.

Conventional wisdom suggests that such turnarounds might take a couple seasons, but after what the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins were able to accomplish, expectations are almost certainly higher -- which means that Kansas City could be just a few personnel moves from returning to the playoffs. The issue, of course. is which personnel moves will give Kansas City the best chance to make a postseason run in '09.

Commence housecleaning in Kansas City. The Chiefs won two games last season, hired Scott Pioli in January to fix the mess, and not long after, Herm Edwards was out of a job (although not for long).

And then, earlier this month, Kansas City hired former Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley to replace Edwards, and today, the organization's new faces got down to the business of running off the old faces.

Scott Pioli is tasked with turning around the Chiefs, a franchise that backed into the playoffs in 2006 but has since won just six times in 32 tries.

There are reasons for optimism, however; Kansas City's 2008 draft class was one of the best in recent memory; Dwayne Bowe is quickly becoming one of the AFC's best wideouts; and Tyler Thigpen, a draft-day afterthought with the Vikings in '07, played like a legit NFL quarterback for most of the season. And, of course, Pioli is now running the show.

Through 10 games of the NFL season, half of the teams in the league have started their backup quarterback for at least one game. A couple of observations:

Most of the Week 1 starters who lost their jobs were sidelined because of injuries. The only Week 1 starters to be benched for ineffectiveness are Tarvaris Jackson of the Vikings, J.T. O'Sullivan of the 49ers, Marc Bulger of the Rams, Derek Anderson of the Browns and Vince Young of the Titans. Bulger has since gotten his starting job back, so there are only four Week 1 starters who are currently holding a clipboard because they weren't playing well.

The Chiefs and Lions are the only teams that have started three different quarterbacks. Amazingly, in both cases, the third-stringer might be the best of the bunch. Tyler Thigpen has injected more life into the Chiefs' offense than either Week 1 starter Brodie Croyle or Weeks 2, 4 and 5 starter Damon Huard did. And in Detroit, although Daunte Culpepper didn't exactly set the world on fire in his debut, once he's up to speed on the offense he may be better than both of his predecessors, Jon Kitna and Dan Orlovsky.

Below is the list of Week 1 backups who have started at least one game, ranked in order of my own opinion of how good they are.

Calling a second-year quarterback a bust after just eight starts would be more than a little short-sighted. But, as sports fans, we demand instant results, and when a No. 1 overall pick is pulling in millions of bills before he's really "earned" it, well, 2-6 records just aren't going to cut it. That's when the four letter B-word tends to get thrown around. Unfair as that may be, that's current sports world we live in.

This of course brings us to Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, and an article in today's Sacramento Bee by Paul Gutierrez, asking fans to please show a little patience in their 23-year old quarterback.

Since the draft began in 1936, 27 quarterbacks have been taken No. 1 overall and just three are in the Hall of Fame: Terry Bradshaw (1970), John Elway (1983) and Troy Aikman (1989). Russell, who has completed 53.5 percent of his 228 attempts for 1,482 yards with seven touchdowns and four interceptions in his first eight career starts, has better numbers than them through the same time frame. Bradshaw's passer rating was a miserable 28.8 through his first eight starts. Elway's initial eight-start rating of 48.8 belied his future success, and Aikman was winless in his first eight starts. That holy trinity went on to win a combined nine Super Bowls.

This was supposed to be Brodie Croyle's team. The Chiefs selected him in the third round of the 2006 draft, and between clipboard duty and recovering from various ailments, the former Alabama star never could stay healthy long enough to make a case for why he was the long-term answer at quarterback.

Instead, it's become ... wait, what? Tyler Thigpen's gig?

Yep, that's right, former Chanticleer and Vikings undrafted free agent seventh-round pick is the future in Kansas City. Well, for now, anyway. Which is why head coach Herm Edwards isn't quite ready to crown his ass:

"Let's don't anoint him ... Don't put so much pressure on this poor guy. He went from Atlanta, where everybody was going, 'Whoa, whoa,' and all of a sudden he plays this game, his second start, he plays good. ... He's still learning. He has to keep playing, keep growing."

Two thoughts: it's a good thing Jim Colletto isn't mentoring this guy, and maybe the Vikings shoulda kept him on the roster. I'm not saying he's the next Tony Romo, Pseudo-Savior!, but given how things are playing out in Minnesota, you can never have enough arms around when the current starter is 37 years old, and the franchise quarterback is currently running the scout team.

If Thigpen does work out, it'll allow the Chiefs to focus on shoring up their many other deficiencies, which would be nice. Of course, if he bombs over the final nine weeks then, well, we'll probably be talking about which quarterback the team will take with their top-5 first-round pick next April.