Crappy weekend for QBs

Turned my attention back to the Monday Night Football game just in time to watch Byron Leftwich take the helm for Pittsburgh to start the second half.

Apparently Ben Roethlisberger was still in the locker room getting treatment on a shoulder injury. Save for his long windup, Leftwich looked pretty good on that first drive, nailing Nate Washington with a 50 yard pass that led to a touchdown run by Willie Parker.

Roethlisberger has been getting the crap beaten out of him weekly. But he was hardly the only one this week.

Kyle Orton is supposed to be out a month with a high-ankle sprain for the Bears while Matt Schaub will give way to Sage Rosenfels for at least a couple weeks while he recuperates from a knee injury.

Dan Orlovsky made room on the Detroit Lions roster as well by hurting his thumb – and gave offensive coordinator Jim Colletto an opportunity to put his foot in his mouth by saying he didn’t want to “embarrass” Drew Stanton by playing him now.

That doesn’t bode well for Chicago or Houston, or for Detroit, though their season is already pretty much shot. Dallas went from one bad backup to another on Sunday and both performed so badly that Wade Phillips described Brooks Bollinger as “just another quarterback.”

Then on Monday the Cleveland Browns announced that Brady Quinn will replace Derek Anderson as starter. I don’t think Anderson has gotten a ton of help and Cleveland has played a killer schedule. The quarterback play league-wide has been underwhelming this year. Save for a half-dozen competent to great QBs you can toss most of the ham-and-eggers into a bucket and not really know the distance.

Having two quarterbacks used to be a luxury. These days, it seems, having even one might make that statement true.