The news that Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel underwent an appendectomy on Wednesday may mean he's not going to be available on Sunday against the San Diego Chargers. While the official injury report won't come out until Friday, I'm of the mindset that it will be backup QB Brodie Croyle getting the nod.
It's been well over a year before we realistically talked about Croyle as a starter for the Chiefs. We haven't seen him as a starting quarterback since Sept. 13, 2009 -- the first day of the 2009 regular season.
Cassel -- who had yet to ever play for the Chiefs in a regular season game at that point -- had suffered a knee injury a few weeks earlier putting Croyle into the game.
If you recall, Croyle had a decent game -- a good game even. They were very Cassel-esque numbers: Completed 16-of-24 passes for 177 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions (he also took three sacks which is not Cassel-esque). The performance came in a 38-24 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, who ended the season with the league's third ranked defense.
That game was also Croyle's ninth attempt at winning an NFL game. Indeed, Croyle is win less in the NFL so this will be his shot at his first victory in the NFL. Assuming Cassel can't go this weekend, we're expecting to see Croyle's 10th attempt at victory.
So what should we expect? I have no freakin' idea.
We haven't seen Croyle in a situation like this before. He never had the kind of stability or confidence that this team has. He didn't have an offensive line that has proven they can run and pass block with the league's best. He hasn't had a receiver like Dwayne Bowe who in the last two months has been the best receiver in the NFL. He hasn't had the NFL's best running game and he hasn't been around a stable offensive system.
We know what we had with Croyle back in 2007 and 2008 (and one game in 2009). But we don't know what we have with him now, with this group.
More than likely, we'll find that out this weekend.