Let the Quarterback Carousel Begin

Imagine a time deep into the future…like, say, week eight of the NFL season. Now, picture an NFL quarterback landscape that’s vastly changed. Can you see it?

It’s probably because I reside in New York and both starting quarterbacks will likely take a back seat this weekend, but it seems the collective crop of NFL quarterbacks are a bit more unsettled than usual around the League. Injuries will always happen, and already have, but if we were to assume that no others befell starters the rest of the year (work with me, we’re in fantasyland here), how might the signal callers look different around the halfway mark of the NFL season? You ask, we examine…and imagine.

By the way, is it just me or has the NFL somehow managed to get even more violent? Obviously, the players are getting bigger and faster, but watching that Bengals-Ravens game last night was like watching full-speed train wrecks happen every five minutes. Boy, that escalated quickly…it jumped up a notch. I’ve also come to believe that there is no single play more frightening than an NFL kickoff. Vicious.

Due to injuries alone, the following are odds-on favorites for having a new QB take snaps long before week eight.

New York Giants: Can’t wait to see this. And, yes, I did need to shrink Mr. Lorenzen’s head in order to fit him on the carousel with the other children (my photoshop skills? one word. awesome).

New York Jets: Should Pennington be unable to play for a few weeks and Clemens sparkles, what does Mangini do?

Cleveland Browns: Have said it before, but the Brady Quinn experiment should begin sooner rather than later in Cleveland. This is a team looking at 1-4 out of the gate regardless of who’s behind center. Might as well start getting the kid’s feet wet.

Baltimore Ravens: Wouldn’t be surprised to see Boller at the helm next week, and he’ll have a chance to stick around with success.

Chicago Bears: Yup. I’m saying it. Grossman is not starting by week eight. It’s just a gut feeling. I think Lovie’s losing his patience on this one, despite his seemingly unflappable support.

Kansas City Chiefs: Damon Huard is your starting QB. This is not a good thing. And, if you were one of those psychos who watched every episode of Hard Knocks (e.g. me), you know Herm likes Brodie. He’s also an idiot (that would be Herm, not Brodie). So, this one seems pretty feasible.

Oakland Raiders: Too much invested in JaMarcus not to have him in there by week eight if the silver-and-black are struggling.

Coin-Flip

Tell me to put money on these teams one way or another in terms of whether their week one starter is the same guy in week eight, and I’m in a pickle. Seriously. Would not be surprised in the least to see new faces for every one of these teams come halfway point.

The Untouchables

Again, barring injury, I would tend to think these teams are OK at the QB position.

Thoughts? By the way, we’ll look to take a step back from football tomorrow and see if anything else is going on in the world of sports.