The Florida Tuskers and New York Sentinels squared off with each other in their first scrimmage of the season Thursday night at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.
However, the teams were not at full strength thanks to injuries to some key players. Tuskers safety Dexter Jackson, a former Super Bowl MVP with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, sat out with a shoulder stinger. Former NFL standouts Simeon Rice and Koren Robinson of the Sentinels also did not participate for undisclosed reasons.
During the scrimmage, Tuskers offensive lineman Julius Wilson injured his foot/ankle, though the severity of the injury is unclear as the team awaits test results.
So, let's imagine for a second that you're the front office of the Kansas City Chiefs. You just fluffed your fans earlier in the week with the notion of bringing recently retired Daunte Culpepper in at a position that desperately needs some excitement. That plan falls apart and your fans are disgruntled and obviously upset, so what is the next best thing to Culpepper? Quinn Freakin' Gray!!!!
(Kansas City Seismologists accidentally mistake the cheers and clapping for an earthquake, quickly call the National Weather Service.)
Yep, you read that correctly, according to NFL.com's Adam Schefter, the Chiefs are expected to sign a contract with Quinn Gray, the former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback who spent some time last summer with the Colts.
Gray, who made the roster over former Buccaneers quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, played in eight games for the Jags last season, tossing 10 touchdowns to his five interceptions with a 55 percent completion rating.
Tyler Thigpen is expected to start this Sunday when the Chiefs face off against the Jets.
At least the Ravens didn't wait until the last minute. Kyle Boller's bum shoulder could put his season in jeopardy, and Troy Smith's Level 5 tummyache forced him to miss the final two preseason games. Which meant that rookie first-round pick Joe Flaccowas the depth chart.
Ideally, Smith would be ready to go this week and Flacco would get comfortable holding a clipboard for the '08 season as the No. 3 option. One problem: with Boller's future in doubt, the team doesn't have a veteran backup. Luckily, plenty of semi-qualified names hit the open market yesterday, which is potentially good news for the Ravens.
When the news broke in mid-July that Peyton Manning would be out 4-6 weeks after having knee surgery, the focus immediately turned to his backup, Jim Sorgi. The fifth-year pro out of Wisconsin seems perfectly capable of stalking the sidelines and feigning interest during the regular season, but anything more than mop-up duty is cause for alarm among the Colts faithful.
And then Sorgi goes down with a bum leg during the preseason -- nothing serious, but enough to keep him out of action just in case you-know-who isn't ready for the regular season -- meaning that there's a very real chance Jared Lorenzen or Quinn Gray make the final 53.
Didn't happen. Manning declared he'll play in Week 1, Sorgi will resume his rightful place next to Tom Moore, and J-Load and ThrowPix6 are out of work. To be fair, neither player showed much in the last month; Lorenzen played like he was hungover on cake, and Gray threw enough interceptions to make you think he was really left-handed.
The new Lucas Oil Field looks awesome (anyone who has seen this thing as you head to downtown Indianapolis knows this). What happened during the building's opening tonight wasn't.
Peyton Manning hasn't played all preseason after "minor" knee surgery and Jim Sorgi was benched due to a gimpy knee. What we had on Sunday night was a battle royale for the Colts third string QB spot ... and it was sad.
Jared Lorenzen did nothing great ... going 7-for-11 with 52 yards. He led the Colts on four drives with three ending in four plays or less. Lorenzen did move the Colts offense one time, but he and Joseph Addai missed an exchange and turned the ball over. He didn't do anything to snatch the job up ... but he didn't do anything to kill it either.
Gray threw four interceptions ... including an extremely poor pass deep inside Bills territory. Courtney Roby's spectacular return started the Colts inside Bills territory. Two plays later, Gray overthrew a receiver who jumped and tipped the pass which was intercepted. Gray was on the run, threw off-balanced and made a horrible decision.
Over the last few years, Jared Lorenzen has backed up Eli Manning in New York. Now he has signed on to try to win a job backing up Eli's older brother in Indianapolis.
The Colts have signed Lorenzen (who in that picture looks like Jaws from the James Bond movies) to fight for a third-string quarterback job.
Peyton Manning will miss the preseason after knee surgery, so the depth chart will actually matter for the first time in a decade. Jim Sorgi has been Manning's backup for a while now and should be entrenched in that #2 spot. However, there will be a battle for that third string.
About this time in any blog post about Lorenzen, we get to real off his nicknames making fun of his weight. Enjoy.
Hefty Lefty ... The Pillsbury Throwboy ... Round Mound of Touchdown ... The Tank ... The Abominable Throwman ... He Ate Me ... and J Load.
UPDATE: Both Betts and Tafralis have been let go by the team since Lorenzen and Gray signed. That should mean that Gray and "the Abominable Throwman" will have a free-for-all for that third QB spot. Manning and Sorgi are locked in at 1-2.
He chose to come to the Texans, canceling other free agent trips, to be signed as a #3 behind #2 QB Sage Rosenfels? GM Rick Smith claims the Texans would like to carry three veteran quarterbacks to start the year, even though the Texans haven't done that while coach Gary Kubiak has been running things.
Of course, nobody with a brain thinks that this is the end of the story. Clearly, the Texans are giving themselves the flexibility to trade Sage Rosenfels for some draft considerations. Most sentient football observers would think this is a sensible thing to do, but Richard Justice at the Chronicle claims that:
The Texans cannot and must not trade Sage Rosenfels. It's not even a close call. ... Weakening the most important position on the field to strengthen another makes no sense. And there's no one available that's even close to being as good as Rosenfels.
The Vikings admitted on Thursday that the Kelly Holcomb experiment didn't work out. They cut loose the veteran quarterback, leaving the team with only Tarvaris Jackson and Brooks Bollinger on the Vikings roster.
Holcomb wasn't going to be part of the Vikings plans, so getting rid of him is no big problem. But the team does still have a desperate need for a quality quarterback. Coach Brad Childress has gone back and forth over whether Tarvaris Jackson should face competition for the starting job, but at the least the Vikings need a quality backup, something they've lacked the past two years (as an aside, if they had a quality backup last year they could have kept seventh-round pick Tyler Thigpen instead of Bollinger).
There's been rumors of a trade for Donovan McNabb, but that doesn't seem like it will happen. But if the Vikings aren't going to make a big splash, they should at least sign one of the mid-range free agents available in this year's market. Todd Collins may be old (36), but he looked good in his time as the Redskins starter last year, and Quinn Gray was very solid for the Jaguars last year. Neither of them should land a break the bank contract, and both could possibly be induced to sign just for the opportunity to compete for the starting job, because there aren't that many starting jobs available through free agency this offseason.
Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.
Jon Ryan, Packers Here's all you need to know about the Packers second-year punter: Green Bay attempted to punt six times, and Ryan got off three of them. And one of the successful boots went nine yards. Nine. In chronological order, here's how Ryan's Chicago Adventure unfolded:
* Fumbled snap * Blocked punt * 47-yard punt * 9-yard punt * Blocked punt (returned for TD) * 39-yard punt
It's worth pointing out that the wind chill was -1 in Chicago Sunday, and Packers quarterback Brett Favre didn't exactly help things; he tossed two interceptions, one a pick-six. The loss gives the Cowboys homefield advantage throughout the playoffs, which might be fine with Favre, who described the conditions in Chicago as the worst he's seen in 17 seasons.
Silver lining for Ryan: he manged to successfully hold for kicker Mason Crosby on the Packers' lone extra-point attempt. So there's that. Sorry, No Photos
"I put the [injury] report out, and John's not even on it," Del Rio said. "Other than missing practice earlier in the week - a team decision we already announced - there's nothing else to report."
That's good news because the Jaguars are already without their other starting defensive tackle, Marcus Stroud, who's serving a four-game suspension. But the news isn't as good about quarterback David Garrard, who will likely sit out again as Quinn Gray starts.
"I took all the reps this week, and coach [Jack Del Rio] told me that most likely, it'll be me [starting Sunday against the Tennessee Titans]," Gray said.
The Titans have the best defense in the league. They'll have a field day with Gray.
The Florida Tuskers and New York Sentinels squared off with each other in their first scrimmage of the season Thursday night at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.
So, let's imagine for a second that you're the front office of the Kansas City Chiefs. You just fluffed your fans earlier in the week with the notion of bringing recently retired 
When the news broke in mid-July that 
The new Lucas Oil Field looks awesome (anyone who has seen this thing as you head to downtown Indianapolis knows this). What happened during the building's opening tonight wasn't.
Over the last few years, 
Columnist John McClain of the Houston Chronicle is reporting that free agent QB 
The Vikings admitted on Thursday that the 
Although
