With Tom Brady on the shelf for the rest of the 2008 season, are the New England Patriots considering giving recently retired quarterback Daunte Culpepper a call? Shortly after Tom’s devastating injury yesterday, the Pats contacted free agent QBs Chris Simms and Tim Rattay. According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen (reporting on Monday Night Countdown), when they showed up for their interviews/workouts today, both players were sent back to the airport because plans had changed. I just got off the phone with Patriots Executive Director of Media Relations Stacey James and all he knew of the matter was that Coach Belichick told him no quarterbacks worked out today.

Now, I don’t have any concrete information to share in regards to the Patriots’ potential interest in Daunte, but doesn’t it make sense? Who else are they going to consider? Rookie Kevin O’Connell is in line to take over if anything happens to Matt Cassel. Nobody else is left at that position on the active roster. The team cut Matt Gutierrez during the preseason. So who will the Patriots turn to? Who? Daunte Culpepper is the obvious choice. If Brett Favre can come out of retirement, why not Daunte Culpepper?

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Daunte Culpepper to Patriots?

The Baltimore Ravens have an identity crisis at the quarterback position. At the start of training camp, there was a three-way race between veteran Kyle Boller, second-year QB Troy Smith and rookie Joe Flacco. When the dust settled, Joe won the starting job by default — he’s the only one left that’s healthy enough to play. Troy is still feeling the ill effects of infected tonsils. And Kyle has a sore shoulder that might require surgery. That being said, some might argue that Joe earned the starting job on the field. He was 35-of-67 for 284 yards and no interceptions during the preseason. His quarterback rating was better than that of Kyle or Troy. And he threw Baltimore’s only touchdown pass. Still, he’s an unproven rookie.

Enter free agents Joey Harrington and Todd Bouman. It has been reported (in separate reports) that both quarterbacks signed with the Ravens, but both of those reports turned out to be false. Way to go ESPN. It is believed, however, that one of these QBs (or former Tampa Bay Buc Chris Simms) will, in fact, sign with Baltimore very soon. But with no familiarity with the Ravens offensive system, they would only be called upon to play as a last resort until they had some grasp of the playbook. Seems like the same old quarterback quandary for the Ravens. Ray Lewis and his defensive mates can’t be enthused.

Source: BaltimoreRavens.com

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Rookie Joe Flacco Will Start for Ravens

Yesterday was cutdown day in the National Football League. Every team had to trim their roster to 53 players for the upcoming regular season. Here are a few of the notable names who were cutdown victims and who are now looking for gainful employment with another NFL team as soon as possible:

Rudi Johnson, Bengals; Chris Simms, Bucs; Joey Harrington, Falcons; Ashley Lelie, 49ers; Jerome McDougle, Eagles; Willie Anderson, Bengals; John Lynch, Patriots; Fernando Bryant, Patriots; Adam Archuleta, Raiders.

I was probably most surprised by the Bengals parting ways with Rudi Johnson. Rumors have been swirling the past couple weeks that Rudi was on the trading block, but I didn’t think the Bengals would just cut him loose. When no interesting trade offers developed for the Bengals, that’s exactly what they did — the team simply released him. Their reasoning was largely because of a nagging hamstring injury that forced Rudi to miss much of training camp. Head coach Marvin Lewis said:

“We haven’t seen Rudi play (in preseason). I’ve seen Rudi practice very few times, and cut it loose very few times. I thought he had an outstanding offseason. I thought he had a great spring and was doing everything, but unfortunately, he seemed to suffer from the hamstring.”

It goes to show just how short-lived the career of an NFL running back can be. From 2004-2006, Rudi played in every game and exceeded 1,300 yards rushing and had 12 touchdowns in each of those seasons. When he was limited to 11 games and just under 500 yards in an injury plagued 2007 season, little did he know his days with the Bengals were over.

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Cincinnati Bengals Rudi Johnson Among High-Profile NFL Roster Cutdown Victims

Rumors are heating up over Brett Favre’s potential trade to the Tampa Bay Bucs. But keep in mind these are merely rumors and with the way this whole Brett Favre “unretirement” fiasco has gone, I’m not taking anything I hear — from any source — as the next great possibility to end this slow motion train wreck that has been the divorce of Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. Brett and his wife Deanna left Green Bay today and Brett’s agent, James “Bus” Cook, confirmed in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the Bucs and Jets were emerging as the most likely trade destinations for Brett.

In Tampa, Bucs head coach Jon Gruden didn’t have anything to say specifically about Brett, but stated:

“When you’re the coach and you’re a quarterback in this league, there is speculation about you, there’s speculation about me, there’s speculation about all of us. Our number one objective is to win and we’ll do anything we can to get the best football team we can. That’s all I can say. That’s something that will not change. We feel like we have a very good work ethic. We are a good football team and we’re trying to become a great one. We’ll do anything we can to get better, and if that involves looking at other players — by George, that’s our job. That’s our responsibility.”

You can bet if Brett is traded to the Bucs, the first players to get their walking papers will be QBs Jeff Garcia, Chris Simms and probably Brian Griese. But if it’s going to happen, it better be soon. Brett has a new playbook to learn.

Source: ESPN NFL Nation, ESPN.com

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Brett Favre to Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL

The Tampa Bay Bucs collect quarterbacks like football cards. It seems to be something of a hobby for head coach Jon Gruden. In taking a look at the Bucs’ current roster with the release of Bruce Gradkowski a couple days ago, there are now six QBs listed — Jeff Garcia, Brian Griese, Josh Johnson, Luke McCown, Jake Plummer and Chris Simms. The team will probably keep three. So who gets the ax next? Well, Jake Plummer is semi-retired and hasn’t played since 2006. He’s a good candidate. But Chris Simms recently told the Bucs he no longer feels he is part of their future and asked to be released or traded. The Bucs have been slow to accommodate because they aren’t sure, after months of inactivity, what his trade value is. Or whether he still has value to them.

Chris is definitely a keeper among this group, but he’s obviously unhappy with a second- or more likely third-string role. And I can’t say that I blame him. I think Chris has plenty of potential to flourish with another organization and I hope he gets that chance.

Sources: Buccaneers.com, Tampa Bay Online, Photo: Newscom

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Chris Simms Wants Out of Tampa Bay

If you’re a Raven fan, you’re left wondering how you lose perhaps your best player. Of all the stars on that team’s defense last season, I would claim Adalius Thomas and Ed Reed as my most valuable players. Adalius Thomas would have certainly been a priority in my off-season plans. Other important free agent signings included:

• The scrappy Jeff Garcia, signed by the Bucs, will try to pick up where he left off in Philadelphia. The Eagles took their chances that Donovan McNabb will be back at 100% and let Garcia go to Tampa where he will compete for the starting job alongside Chris Simms and maybe Jake Plummer if he doesn’t retire. The Bucs obtained the rights to Plummer from Denver.
• Fred Smoot is on his way back to Washington after two tumultuous seasons in Minnesota. Smoot had off-the-field issues, a variety of injuries on it, and eventually lost his starting spot alongside Antoine Winfield to rookie Cedric Griffin. The Vikes weren’t too upset about letting him go.

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Patriots Sign Adalius Thomas