SP O R T S
Above Counter-Clockwise:
Matt Kemp making a home
run for the Dodgers. Mark
Sanchez throwing a pass. Ian
Kinsler bats for the Rangers.
It is notoriously diffi cult to determine which college won’t face the pressure to turn around a 0-16 franchise, he
quarterbacks will be eff ective pros, and the Lions have bet will be thrown into the cooker that is the NY market.
the farm that Staff ord in their man. After seeing rookies The other big quarterback story in the NFL didn’t
such as Joe Flacco in Baltimore and Atlanta’s Matt Ryan come from the draft this year, but via a trade. The Denver
lead their teams to the playoff s last season, Lions fans must Broncos traded Jay Cutler to the Bears after a falling out
be hoping that Staff ord can work similar magic. with head coach Josh McDaniels and owner Pat Bowlen.
The reality is that Flacco and Ryan stepped into Cutler demanded a trade when he found out that
much better teams. In fact, at this stage Staff ord isn’t even McDaniels was interested in acquiring Matt Cassel from
expected to be the starting quarterback in Detroit this the Patriots. After a war of words, Bowlen accommodated
year. New head coach Jim Schwartz has veteran Daunte Cutler and sent him to a team desperate for a top QB. The
Culpepper pencilled in as the No.1 guy, with the rookie Broncos decided they could make due with Kyle Orton
getting a chance to watch and learn. “Now, it’s up to us in their system rather than the strong-armed but equally
to develop him and get good players around him,” Detroit strong-willed Cutler.
manager Martin Mayhew said. Cutler, meanwhile, goes from a team loaded with
Turning around such a colossal failure and perennial off ensive weapons to one that has been off ensively
loser as the Lions have been recently is a lot to ask of challenged, and it will be very interesting to see how both
anyone, but Detroit is hoping Staff ord is up to the job. teams come out of this one.
The New York Jets are another team leveraging their And of course, two other top quarterbacks are in
future on drafting a young quarterback. After the Brett the spotlight. Tom Brady returns for New England after
GES
Favre experience ended in the team missing the playoff s missing all of last year with a knee injury. Rumors had it
T
Y IMA
last year, the Jets sent the No.17 and No.52 overall choices, that there were setbacks in his rehabilitation, which were
W@GET
plus defensive end Kenyon Coleman, safety Abram Elam strongly denied by the Patriots. But it will be interesting to
Y HO and quarterback Brett Ratliff , to Cleveland so that they see how well the surgically repaired joint holds up over the
could take USC QB Mark Sanchez with the fi fth pick. course of the season, especially since the Pats traded their
Sanchez put up some gaudy numbers for the Trojans, Plan B, Matt Cassel, to the Chiefs after Cassel turned in a
C
OBSOHN/HARR
but was a starter for just one year, leading some to question strong performance in Brady’s absence last year.
whether he had gotten enough experience in the college And the annual Brett Favre watch continues as word
ranks to handle the starting job in NFL’s largest market. leaks out that the future Hall-of-Famer is considering yet
But he is expected to compete for the starting job with another comeback, this time with the Minnesota Vikings.
Kellen Clemens under new head coach Rex Ryan, and some For this story, as with all of the other quarterback stories,
V
ORK DJANSEZIAN/JED JA
KE
insiders rank him even higher than Staff ord. While Sanchez the word is: stay tuned.

EX P A T R I A T E 45
ESPN.indd 45 09/06/2009 16:50:39
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