This year's "headset to helmet" award goes to....

[HUbison]

It happens every year. Some no name QB watches as the starter gets a late hit from Rodney Harrison that breaks his leg, and the no-name grocery store clerk is propelled into a league MVP and Super Bowl Champion!

Okay, maybe THAT doesn't happen every year, but each season will have at least one story of a back-up QB receiving his moment in the spotlight. No, we can't predict injuries, but that notwithstanding, who do you see as the 2nd stringer with the best chance of breaking through the golden veil of NFL starting QB?

Here's the choices (projected starter in para.) :

AFC East

Miami Dolphins (Trent Green) - Cleo Lemon, John Beck, Dante Culpepper
NY Jets (Chad Pennington) - Kellen Clemens, Marques Tuiasosopo
NE Patriots (Tom Brady) - Matt Cassell, Vinny Testaverde
Buffalo Bills (JP Losman) - Craig Nall, Trent Edwards

AFC North

Baltimore Ravens (Steve McNair) - Kyle Boller, Troy Smith
Pittsburgh Steelers (Ben Rothleisberger) - Charlie Batch, Brian St. Pierre
Cleveland Browns (no clear starter) - Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn
Cincinatti Bengals (Carson Palmer) - Doug Johnson, Jeff Rowe

AFC South

Indy Colts (Peyton Manning) - Jim Sorgi, John Navarre
Tenn. Titans (Vince Young) - Kerry Collins, Tim Rattay
Houston Texans (Matt Shaub)- Sage Rosenfels, Bradlee Van Pelt, Quinton Porter
Jax Jaguars (Byron Leftwich) - David Garrard, Quinn Gray

AFC West

KC Chiefs (no clear starter) - Brodie Croyle, Damon Huard, Casey Printers
Oakland Raiders (no clear starter) - Josh McCown, JaMarcus Russell, Andrew Walter, Josh Booty
Denver Broncos (Jay Cutler) - Patrick Ramsey, Preston Parsons
SD Chargers (Phillip Rivers) - Billy Volek, Charlie Whitehurst

NFC East

Philly Eagles (Donovan McNabb) - A.J. Feeley, Kevin Kolb, Kelly Holcomb
Wash Redskins (Jason Campbell) - Mark Brunnell, Jordan Palmer
Dallas Cowboys (Tony Romo) - Brad Johnson, Isaiah Stanback
NY Giants (Eli Manning) - Anthony Wright, Tim Hasselbeck, Jared Lorenzen

NFC North

Detroit Lions (John Kitna) - Dan Orlovsky, Drew Stanton
GB Packers (Brett Favre) - Aaron Rodgers, Ingle Martin, Todd Bouman
Minny Vikings (Tavaris Jackson) - Brooks Bollinger, Tyler Thigpen
Chicago Bears (Rex Grossman) - Brian Griese, Kyle Orton, Chris Leak

NFC South

TB Bucs (no clear starter) - Jeff Garcia, Jake Plummer, Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski
NO Saints (Drew Brees) - Jamie Martin, Jason Fife
Carolina Panthers (Jake Delhomme) - David Carr, Brett Basanez
Atlanta Falcons (Michael Vick) - Joey Harrington, DJ Shockley

NFC West

St. Louis Rams (Mark Bulger) - Gus Frerotte, Ryan Fitzpatrick
Seattle Seahawks (Matt Hasselbeck) - Seneca Wallace, David Greene
SF Niners (Alex Smith) - Trent Dilfer, Shaun Hill
Arizona Cards (Matt Leinert) - Kurt Warner, Shane Boyd

[RamFan_Til_I_Die]

I just took a quick glance, but here's how I think things may go down:


Cleveland Browns - Quinn will be the QB on opening day, and it's gonna be a long tough season of losing for him.

Houston Texans - Shaub better live up to the hype cause the Texans have very little else to work with. I have a feeling they will regret cutting Carr very soon.

Oakland Raiders - Josh McCown starts the first few games while Russell learns as much of the system as he can before being thrown to the wolves by game 4.

Philly Eagles - McNabb hasn't proven he can play a full season in a long time. I think this season changes that leaving Feeley riding the pine all season.

NY Giants - Eli Manning is gonna be in a world of hurt without Tiki in the backfield to mix things up. This season will either turn him into another Manning family star or show him to be the chump many people think he is.

GB Packers - Favre will unfortunately get more injuries than even he can handle and Rodgers will finish out the season and Favre finally retires.

Chicago Bears - Rex Grossman will have another up and down season with Griese becoming the eventual starter down the road....could be sooner than later as I can only imagine the Bear's patience is wearing thin with him.

TB Bucs - I think Garcia starts with Plummer at #2, Simms at #3 and Bruce gets cut.

Carolina Panthers - if Delhomme doesn't get it going earlier look for Carr to start by midseason.

NFC West - everyone seems to be set...although I'd love to see Leinhart stink it up bigtime and Warner play 3/4 of the season.

[Bar-bq]

I really wouldn't want to see Leinart suck, even if he does play for the Cards. USC's golden boy, dudded in the national championship and then in the NFL draft, deserves a chance to prove himself the best College QB of the 2005/2006 season.

[jkramsfan]

nice post,first I would like to see Vinny T. in the game because that would mean that pretty boy Brady got knocked on his a**,also would like to omit Sage Rosenfels from the list, a football player named Sage, theres just something very wrong with that,I see Brad Johnson playing for the Cowboys this season,Romo's very overrated,Griese will take over for grossman 15 minutes into training camp and when Matt leinart gets a severe Arizona sunburn and can't play Kurt comes in, lights it up and becomes the starter for the entire season.

[itsguud]

Isn't Kelly Holcomb the #2 in Phile?

I would say whoever replaces Eli, as he blows and won't be able to hide that anymore now that Tiki is gone.

[HUbison]

Isn't Kelly Holcomb the #2 in Phile?

I would say whoever replaces Eli, as he blows and won't be able to hide that anymore now that Tiki is gone.

Both the Eagles official site and nfl.com have him 4th on the depth chart behind Feeley and Kolb. However, I shouldn't have left him out completely.

Good catch, though. I'll correct it on the original post.

[RamsFanSam]

Harrington...Vick's going to be busy fighting like a dog in court. Second will be Brad "I wanna be a cowboy" Johnson.

[Keenum]

Man you NEVER know about Kurt Warner. Nothing expected of him in AZ except tutor Matt and be ready just in case. If he had a decent O-line there (which I think will be better because they got rid of Davis at LT and Steponovich (sp?) and other guys got experience) he would of been a top QB last year.

I'll go with Brad Johnson. Yeah, Romo looked good last year, but once teams got some film on him they really started to figure him out.

[AvengerRam]

I'm going to go with Drew Stanton. In Martz's system, with no established RB to take the pressure off the QBs, it will be hard for Kitna to last the year. I know Martz likes Stanton, and if he could get on the field with the Lions receivers, he'd probably put up big numbers (even if the team doesn't do too well).