FanHouse Gus Frerotte

A week ago, the Patriots had four quarterbacks on their roster -- Tom Brady found himself backed by Kevin O'Connell, Andrew Walter and rookie Brian Hoyer.

But then the Patriots cut ties with O'Connell and did the same with Walter on Friday -- leaving just Brady and Hoyer on the current depth chart. One need look no further than the 2008 Patriots season to know that a reliable backup quarterback is needed in the NFL. And no offense to Hoyer, who was 18 for 25 in the Patriots' final preseason game while taking every snap, but it's doubtful New England would feel too confident turning to him should the unthinkable happen to Brady again.

Brett Favre passed his physical and signed a contract with the Minnesota Vikings on Tuesday says FanHouse's own Calvin Watkins in an exclusive report.

Favre was at practice on Tuesday afternoon, although he did not participate in contact drills. The plan is to have Favre start Friday night's preseason game, just three days away.

It's difficult to imagine the 39-year-old veteran will surpass his 2008 statistics with the Jets where he threw for 3,472 yards with 22 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. But, considering the Vikings were willing to pay so much and disrupt team chemistry to bring Favre in this late in camp, proves that they feel optimistic. In 2008, Gus Frerotte and Tarvaris Jackson combined for 3,213 yards with 21 touchdowns and 17 interceptions for the Vikings.

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The Vikings will get their exhibition season started Friday night against the Colts. While there we be a lot more passes from Jim Sorgi than Peyton Manning testing the Vikings defense, there are still plenty of things to watch if you're a Vikings fan.

Here's a look at three things to keep an eye on in the preseason opener.

Brett Favre isn't going away. Just accept it, cope, and try to move on. Last week, Yahoo! Sports reported that the ole gunslinger was done. A day later, speculation suggested otherwise.

And now it's like every other offseason: Favre doesn't know what his NFL future holds, we'll spend months talking about it, and, ultimately, he'll return for one more season. Good times.

We're a month into the Broncos-Cutler standoff, and here's what we know: Jay Cutler is a sensitive sort, and new head coach Josh McDaniels might be in over his head, at least when it comes to dealing with moody Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Yet through it all, public opinion seems to be firmly behind the organization.

I have no idea how this turns out, and at this point, I don't care; I just want it to end so we can get back to the important stuff: Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and Brett Favre's impending return to the sport he loves so much. But before moving on, I just want to point out that Jeff George, perpetually on the comeback trail, has weighed in on the situation and, shockingly, supports Cutler:

Tarvaris Jackson can't even catch a break during the offseason when he's seven months away from the nearest interception. The Vikings sometimes-starting quarterback has struggled with consistency during his three-year career, which explains why he's had to share the gig with Gus Frerotte, and why the team recently traded for Sage Rosenfels.

But according to a reader email ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert posted on his blog, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who was seriously considering signing with the Vikings, decided against it after meeting T-Jack.

The Vikings are making noise that they would be happy to go into the 2009 season with Tarvaris Jackson and Gus Frerotte as the team's top two options at quarterback, which means Brad Childress likes to juggle hand grenades with the pins pulled.

Even after Jackson fell apart in a playoff loss to the Eagles, Childress is ready to give his long-term project another chance to lead the team for a third straight year. Considering that Donovan McNabb seems likely to stay in Philadelphia and Brett Farve seems to really mean it (this time) when he says he's retiring, maybe the Vikings don't like the other remaining options: Jeff Garcia hasn't stayed healthy for a full season in six years, Matt Cassell's trade price may be too expensive and Kerry Collins may not be more than a caretaker for a great running game.

But there is another alternative.

Depending on who you ask, Matt Cassel is either a franchise quarterback or just a guy who benefited greatly from playing with Randy Moss and Wes Welker. It's sort of an important question for teams in need of a quarterback, particularly given how much it's going to cost to acquire Cassel.

NFL Films Greg Cosell writes that Cassel is best when the offense is built around his strengths, while ESPN's Mel Kiper declares that he'd take Cassel over Aaron Rodgers or Jay Cutler.

After a surprisingly successful 2008 season -- one in which he amassed an 8-3 record -- Gus Frerotte, 37 years young, thinks he deserves a shot at the Vikings' starting quarterback gig.

Maybe he has, particularly if you assume Tarvaris Jackson won't improve and he's the only other viable option on the roster come training camp. I don't expect either to be the case. Not only that, but just because Minnesota won eight of 11 with Frerotte under center doesn't mean a whole lot out of context. Via Pacifist Viking:

In an announcement that is pretty much only confirming the obvious, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have decided to officially part ways with quarterback Jeff Garcia. The 39-year-old started 12 games for Tampa in 2008 and completed nearly 65 percent of his passes for a Buccaneers team that finished a disappointing 9-7.

After Luke McCown was re-signed to a two-year contract extension earlier in the offseason, it was a pretty good indication that Garcia's time in Tampa Bay was coming to an end.