FanHouse Casey Bramlet

You can go ahead and check 2008 as a year Troy Smith will be happy to forget.

The former Heisman Trophy winner from Ohio State was in line to be the next starting quarterback for the Ravens, taking over a position that Kyle Boller had struggled with and hopefully improve the team's weakest link. That plan hid the skids when Smith was diagnosed with a severe case of tonsillitis and had a blood clot in his neck to boot.

"This is extraordinarily unlucky," said Dr. Andrew Tucker, the Ravens' head physician. "It a rare complication of a very severe tonsil infection."

Now 20 pounds lighter, Smith has been cleared to practice with the team for the first time since August 22. The good news is it doesn't appear he will miss the entire season, which would make him the second quarterback to be placed in injured reserve for the Ravens after Boller.

Coach John Harbaugh indicated the Ravens don't plan to place Smith on injured reserve, which would end his season.

"We're pretty certain that he's going to be back playing for the bulk of the season," Harbaugh said.

Rookie Joe Flacco, who impressed in his first NFL start against the Bengals, will again be the main man against the Browns on Sunday. Todd Bouman and Casey Bramlet are both behind Flacco on the depth chart as of now for the Ravens.

Before the preseason started, people were talking about Joe Flacco but nobody in their right mind would have thought he'd be starting in week one against the Bengals.

After last night's impressive outing, his second of the preseason, the rookie from Delaware might have just outlasted the rest of the quarterback crew that has had anything but a smooth summer.

"I think Joe has made the case that he can go back there and compete for us as the opening-day starter," head coach John Harbaugh said. "Whether that's the best thing or where we're at, we'll have to see in the next three, four or five days. He's acquitted himself very well."

Flacco completed eight of 13 passes for 72 yards in what turned out to be just over a quarter of work with the offense. Battling against rookie Matt Ryan, who was recently named the starter for the Falcons, Flacco appeared to be more in control of his offense and said after he is feeling more comfortable game by game.

"It was good to get in there and work with all of those guys," Flacco said. "We moved the ball a little bit and were able to get the confidence of the offense up."

No matter how Flacco is looking, the bottom line is Kyle Boller and Troy Smith basically handed the rookie the starting job. Boller's shoulder is still a huge question mark heading to next week and Smith couldn't have picked a worse time for this tonsil infection that sidelined him again last night.

The news continues to get grimmer and grimmer with the Ravens quarterback situation and the one thing the team doesn't have is a lot of time.

Heading into the final preseason game tonight against the Falcons, only rookie Joe Flacco is 100 percent while veteran Kyle Boller and second year Troy Smith are battling all sorts of ailments. Talks earlier this week had Boller possibly missing the entire season while Smith is a "50-50 chance" of playing tonight as he continues to battle tonsil troubles.

The decision to start Smith "could go up to the game," head coach John Harbaugh said. "It just depends on how fast he gets his strength back. You'd love to be able to predict it and say, 'Hey, we know what's going to happen,' but there's just no way to know. You'll see as we go. We want him to play, and he wants to play."

The more serious issue the Ravens are facing is what to do if Boller's shoulder injury is as bad as was reported. With just two inexperienced quarterbacks on the roster, Baltimore is going to have to pick up someone to toss in the rotation. Right now, they're just getting a body to fill the depth chart.

The Atlanta Falcons ended their preseason on a high note yesterday, defeating the Baltimore Ravens 13-10. Most of the starters sat out in attempt to avoid unnecessary injury, but that did not take away from the intensity of the game. The reserves hit the field knowing this was their final shot to make an impression; their final shot at winning a job in the NFL.

Although his position was already secure, back-up quarterback Chris Redman went out and played a very good first half. And while he did tail off toward the end of his stint, he ended the night going 13 of 23 for 119 yards and a touchdown. Redman was then replaced by Casey Bramlet who went four of seven for 68 yards -- his statistics look better in the box score than he did on the field. Bramlet holds onto the ball entirely too long and doesn't appear to have very good arm strength.

Wide receiver Vincent Marshall made quite an impression last night with a very beautiful bobbling catch. Unfortunately, he probably won't make the final roster, but could be a very solid practice squad/emergency player.

It also appeared that the kicking battle went down to the wire. Will it be Billy Cundiff or Matt Prater? My money is still on Cundiff, but Prater looked good on both kickoffs and field goals last night (outside of the 44-yard miss).

The Redskins cut 12 players from the roster as they head into the final preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens this Thursday. Two of those cuts are defensive linemen, a unit which has taken a beating in injuries already.

The 12 players cut include:

• OL Jon Alston
• QB Casey Bramlet
• DB Antuan Edwards
• TE Robert Johnson
• OL Jim Jones
• K Tyler Jones
• P David Lonie
• DL Chris Mineo
• TE Calen Powell
• DL Karon Riley
• LB Kevin Simon
• DB Aric Williams

None of them come as too much of a surprise. TE Robert Johnson's injury prevented him from getting enough playing time to show what he had since he was kind of expected to make the team. The solid play of TE Buck Ortega, though, probably accelerated his dismissal. The Redskins now have 76 players on the roster who will get one final look this Thursday. The team has to cut around 20 more players before the season opener against former Redskins QB Brad Johnson and the Minnesota Vikings.