blacksaint

Friday, August 17, 2007
Peter Finney

A week after Sean Payton handed the football to Tyler Palko and told the rookie quarterback, "let's see what you can do," he's scheduled to hand it to newly arrived Matt Baker on Saturday night for a preseason audition against the Cincinnati Bengals.

It's all a work in progress for a Saints coach on the way to firming up the depth chart behind Drew Brees.

Ah, Drew Brees.

So long as the man, who last season threw for 26 touchdowns, completed 64 percent of his passes and was in charge of an offense that generated 6,264 yards, remains in good health, Payton has at least one reason to sleep peacefully.

When it comes to dealing with the most critical position on a football team, a look around the NFC South -- at Carolina, Atlanta and Tampa Bay -- tells you how fortunate Payton is.

In Panther-land, 32-year-old Jake Delhomme, the ex-Saint, remains the most successful quarterback in team history. But in the wake of an 8-8 finish, Coach John Fox saw fit to bring in a "name" of sorts in 27-year-old David Carr, the former No. 1 pick of the Houston Texans. Carr has started more NFL games than Delhomme but has fewer victories.

His problem: Too jumpy in the pocket.

Moving on to the Atlanta Falcons, it's obvious any problems the Panthers might have are minor.

The more you read about Michael Vick's dogfighting miseries, the more it seems he could be a no-show in 2007. Apparently, first-year coach Bobby Petrino has come to the conclusion that Vick, even if he by some miracle overcomes his legal troubles, would be more of a distraction than savior.

Arthur Blank, who became a billionaire thanks to Home Depot, paid $545 million for the Falcons in 2002. In time he would hand Vick, in guaranteed millions, one of the finest contracts in the league.

It now turns out the Falcons could have compounded their headache by trading away backup Matt Schaub to Houston, leaving Vick's position in the hands of Joey Harrington, acquired from the Miami Dolphins.

Think about it. Schaub, a third-round choice of the Falcons in 2004, was traded to the Texans in March (for multiple picks) because the Falcons felt they might lose him in free agency. It was a trade made shortly before the Falcons learned of the link between Vick and pit-bull warriors.

The world turns, and Schaub, who started two games in three seasons with the Falcons, will open 2007 as the starting quarterback of the Texans.

Moving on to Tampa Bay, under the umbrella of Coach Jon Gruden, the quarterback position has been, let's say, an on-going work in progress.

In his five seasons as coach of the Buccaneers, Gruden has started seven quarterbacks, the first being a "no-name" in Brad Johnson, who helped Gruden win a Super Bowl in his first season at Tampa Bay.

Here's the interesting part. Gruden went to Tampa Bay from Oakland, where he tutored Rich Gannon to stardom. In the Super Bowl won by Gruden, the Bucs defeated Gannon and the Raiders.

According to Gruden watchers, the Tampa Bay coach has been looking for a Rich Gannon ever since.

At the moment, Gruden has had three losing seasons in the past four years, including a 4-12 season in '06. At the moment his starting quarterback is 37-year-old Jeff Garcia, who's playing for his fourth team in four years, after being brought in from the Eagles.

When the Bucs opened training camp last month, Gruden had seven quarterbacks. One was Jake Plummer, who had been signed in March from Denver. The trade for Plummer came at the time Gruden was introducing Jeff Garcia as his likely starter. As camp opened, Plummer announced his retirement.

Currently, Gruden's depth chart reads like this: Jeff Garcia, Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski, Luke McCown.

In 2005, Simms sparked a late-season rush to put the Bucs in the playoffs. In '06, he suffered a ruptured spleen in the third week of the season, handing the job to Gradkowski, a sixth-round pick, who finished 3-8 as the starter. McCown missed last season because of torn tendons in his knee.

Gruden also brought in Daunte Culpepper for a visit last month, if only to inquire about his availability should an "opportunity" arise. Culpepper signed with the Oakland Raiders on July 31.

"I'm not going to apologize for looking," Gruden said at the time.

Who can forget Culpepper?

He's the guy Nick Saban wound up with in Miami to run the Dolphins in '06, after the franchise bowed out of the Drew Brees derby. I'm convinced had the Dolphins signed Brees, Saban would still be in the NFL and not somewhere else coaching a college team.

But that's another story.

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