Greener Pastures

The NFL’s worst-kept secret became official today as Trent Green passed his physical and became a Miami Dolphin. I won’t bore you with the nitty-gritty, you can get that across the Network–Dolphins slant, Chiefs slant. The latter comes courtesy of my old college co-conspirator Bankmeister, who in his debut for Arrowhead Addict today knocked it out of the park. You can also find Banky’s work (as well as that of yours truly) at the House of Georges.

Green is no longer relevant to the citizens of Bronco Country, as the Dolphins aren’t on the schedule this season. The void left by his departure, however, is of interest to Denver fans. We now witness a true open competition at quarterback between career backup Damon Brock Damon Huard and second-year hopeful Brodie Croyle. This is not what I would call a desirable situation.

Huard can be very effective, as seen by his extended relief stint last season. He’s the kind of QB who can win games by not losing them, and he seems to have the confidence of the veterans on that team. Choose your left-handed compliment: He’s a manager, he limits mistakes, you name it. He’s the safe, uninspiring choice to lead the team and my money’s on him. He’s an 8-8 QB for an 8-8 team.

Croyle is the enigma. He had one standout season at Bama in which he vaulted the Tide back into the national spotlight. Much like our own Jay Cutler, he occasionally had his way with the tough, NFL-caliber defenses of the SEC. His overall career was somewhat lackluster, however, tainted by injury and long spells of up-and-down play. He was a third-round pick, and there’s no more 50-50 proposition than NFL QBs taken in the third round. For every gem like Joe Montana, there’s plenty of busts. Any Chiefs fan who hangs his hat on Croyle is setting himself for potential disappointment.

Teams can win with iffy QBs, but only when those teams are excellent (or at least effective) in other areas. Hell, the Broncos won plenty of games when Jake Plummer didn’t have his “A” fastball, but those were generally on days when the defense was stout, the running game was clicking and/or the special teams were exceptional. Let’s see which direction KC takes.

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