Re: AFC East QB's <span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%">Questionable QC on QBs</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%">By Michael Felger/ NFL NotesBoston Herald Patriots Beat ColumnistSunday, May 21, 2006</span>The Patriots may have a hole at quarterback following the retirement of Doug Flutie earlier this week, but it?s nothing compared to what?s going on with the rest of the AFC East. The Pats have a question mark at the backup position. Everyone else is wondering about their starter. It?s hard to imagine a time where the position was so unsettled across the division. Yes, the Jets want Chad Pennington to reestablish himself, the Bills are looking for J.P. Losman to live up his first-round billing and the Dolphins will jump at the chance to install Daunte Culpepper as soon as he?s healthy -- but all three scenarios are as likely to fall apart as they are to come to fruition. The truth is that only the Patriots have any degree of certainty over who their opening day starter is going to be. A look: Jets Pennington, who is eight months removed from his second shoulder surgery since February of 2005, has guaranteed he will be ready to play ?full-go? at the start of training camp in July. The optimism stems from the fact Pennington was able to play a regular-season game 30 weeks after his first, more invasive, surgery, and by the time camp starts he?ll will have had some 45 weeks of down time. But even if Pennington does come back to full health, he still has to prove to new coach Eric Mangini that he has the arm strength and durability to be trusted over a 16-game schedule. The Jets clearly have their doubts, which is why they sent a sixth-round pick to Washington to acquire veteran Patrick Ramsey in March. Ramsey may not have been the favorite of Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, but he is a bigger, sturdier player than Pennington, considering he withstood a vicious pounding playing in former Washington coach Steve Spurrier?s fun-n-gun offense (48 sacks in 21 games) and lived to tell about it. Ramsey was demoted by Gibbs after a sprained neck took him out of the season opener in Chicago last September. It may have been the quickest benching in NFL history, and Ramsey is chomping at the bit to get back on the field. Compounding Pennington?s rough offseason was the $6 million pay cut he was forced to take, plus the drafting of Oregon?s Kellen Clemens in the second round as the quarterback of the future. Mangini has declared it an ?open competition? for training camp and has promised to play the guy who gives the Jets the best chance to win. Many are predicting that player won?t be Pennington.?The beauty of it is, we?ll see,? said Pennington earlier this offseason. ?We?ll see who?s going to be right and who?s going to be wrong. If I was a betting man in Vegas, I?d put money on No. 10 (Pennington?s number) before I put money on (the media) or anyone else.? Dolphins Culpepper is said to be ahead of schedule from November ACL surgery, and the Dolphins are holding out hope he will be ready for opening day, Sept. 7. However, Culpepper is expected to be treated gingerly through training camp and the preseason, which will give the newly acquired Joey Harrington a chance to impress the coaches and force them into a tough decision at the end of August. The Dolphins are paying Harrington $3.75 million guaranteed, which makes him an extremely expensive insurance policy. The Fish clearly have higher hopes for him than clipboard duty. But if Harrington doesn?t live up the faith the Dolphins are putting in him, and he shows the same inconsistency through the exhibitions that he showed through four years in Detroit, coach Nick Saban will merely install Culpepper as soon as the former Viking is ready. Saban also pulled a surprise this week by signing troubled Virginia Tech rookie Marcus Vick, whom the Dolphins see in a ?slash? role similar to what the Steelers did so well last year with Antwaan Randle El. Bills Here?s all you need to know about Craig Nall, the player who some think will come from the back of the pack and leap over Losman and veteran Kelly Holcomb for the Buffalo starting job: He couldn?t beat out Rohan Davey. To be fair, Nall lost that competition as a sophomore at LSU seven years ago -- but you get the point. Nall was drafted by the Packers in the fifth round in 2002 and saw duty in just one of his four NFL seasons. That came in 2004 when he put up impressive stats (23-of-33, 4 touchdowns, no interceptions) in four relief appearances. One of those stints came at the Bears, and it turned out to be his best: 7-of-13, 131 yards, touchdown, interception. Marv Levy, Buffalo?s 80-year-old general manager, was an analyst on Bears radio that season and witnessed the game in person. That?s the only explanation for Levy?s bizarre decision to give the inexperienced bench-warmer a three-year deal with a $1.3 million signing bonus this offseason. Nevertheless, Nall has size (6-3, 230) and arm strength, and Losman stinks -- so anything could happen. Losman has all the confidence of a former first-round pick, but his performance has been strictly amateur hour (49.8 career completion percentage, 8 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, 63.5 passer rating). By comparison, Holcomb (64.6 completion percentage, 37 touchdowns, 37 interceptions, 79.9 rating) looks like a good option.Patriots We base the following statement on nothing other than what our gut tells us: Bill Belichick isn?t a huge fan of Jay Fiedler. If true, that would be too bad. Fiedler is a proven winner (his .617 winning percentage as a starter ranks fifth among active quarterbacks) and he knows the division as well as anyone after five years in Miami and one with the Jets. Yet even though he?s been available each of the last two offseasons, the Pats haven?t called. Perhaps they?re worried about his health, as Fiedler underwent shoulder surgery soon after Pennington went under the knife last fall. Or maybe they don?t trust that he would accept a position as the third quarterback should youngster Matt Cassel ascend to the backup roll behind Brady, as most expect he will. Either way, the Pats need a vet to compete with Cassel this camp. Former Pittsburgh starter Tommy Maddox is another intriguing name. Of all the branches to spring loose from the Belichick coaching tree over the past few years, none has fallen closer to the trunk than Mangini in New York. Media and fans in the big apple, for example, have been curious about what the philosophy of the Jets? offense will be and how coordinator Brian Schottenheimer will handle play-calling duties despite having not called a single offense play on any level over his short coaching career. That curiosity has yet to be satiated because Mangini has not yet allowed Schottenheimer to address the media. Meanwhile, Saban has been forced to issue so many statements regarding troubled players of late that you wonder if he tore out the page of the Belichick manual that dealt with attaining players of high character. In fact, after signing Vick, Saban felt the need to address trouble Vick hasn?t even gotten into yet. ?I want to make it very clear that we will not condone any behavior in the future relative to Marcus Vick,? wrote Saban. Two days later, Saban penned another statement after Dolphins nose tackle, and former Patriot, Keith Traylor was arrested in Oklahoma on charges of drunk driving, possessing the anti-depressant Xanax without a prescription and tearing a smoke detector off the wall of his jail cell.
Re: AFC East QB's I don't think you could say the Dolphins have QB trouble, at worst ONE of them will pan out.
Re: AFC East QB's <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jeefunk @ May 21 2006, 07:16 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't think you could say the Dolphins have QB trouble, at worst ONE of them will pan out.</div>They have a complete bust and one who cant play without Moss and coming off his worst career season. If that isnt trouble then I dont know what is.
