Brady Quinn

Signed in September by the Jets after being cut by the Seahawks. Quinn adds depth while Sanchez gets healthy and Smith matures.

Quinn will compete with Ricky Stanzi for the opportunity to backup Matt Cassel. With considerably more experience than the second-year man, he shouldn't have too much difficulty winning the job, but unless Cassel struggles considerably or gets injured, he won't see the field in 2012.

After plenty of preseason talk about a Kyle Orton trade, which would have presumably left Tim Tebow as the starter and Brady Quinn as the backup, no trade for Orton developed and he remains in Denver as the starter. Many assumed that Tebow would be the backup and Quinn the third-string quarterback, but Quinn has done a great job of competing against Tebow to see who can win the No. 2 job. With Orton working with one year left on his deal, Quinn could make a play to be the future starter in Denver.

The Browns finally soured on Quinn, dealing him to Denver for very little in return. Quinn struggled throughout his Cleveland career in their miserable offense, but could be given new life in Denver. However, with Kyle Orton the incumbent starter and the drafting of Tim Tebow, playing time for Quinn will be very limited.

At press time, coach Eric Mangini indicated Quinn has an early lead for the starting QB job over Derek Anderson, based on his offseason program work. But things could change in training camp as Anderson has a top-five NFL arm, far superior to that of the relatively weak-winged Quinn. Mangini tried to make a go of it with a QB with minus arm strength for years and found his ability to game plan with Chad Pennington too limiting. Quinn has the draft-pick and big-school (Notre Dame) pedigree, but the current regime is not responsible for rostering him. Quinn dinked and dunked with efficiency during his brief 2008 audition (cut short by injury), but is too green to project with much confidence. His 5.8 YPA was terrible, but you don’t want to read too much into three games and 89 passing attempts. Braylon Edwards, of course, dropped a league-leading 16 passes, and Kellen Winslow missed half the year. That helped sink Anderson’s YPA to a putrid 5.7. The Browns are likely to be bad and to struggle defensively, so that’s a tailwind for Quinn/Anderson speculators. But both quarterbacks will have a very short leash, especially with strong-armed Brett Ratliff, the key to the draft-day trade with the Jets (which New York used to select Mark Sanchez), also looming.

Quinn has yet to make a splash in Cleveland, and for now he will have to continue to wait. Derek Anderson will continue to start for the Browns after a breakout season in 2007, but Quinn is waiting closely in the wings. Quinn's debut is highly anticipated, but he and Browns fans alike will have to wait until Anderson gets hurt or traded.

If he misses time at training camp as expected, the odds of him being named the starting QB at the start of the season are nill. Having said that, come the end of the season, Quinn could very well find himself in the No. 1 spot.