While a handful of starting positions remain up in the air heading into the upcoming season, the battle to back up quarterback Matt Cassel in 2012 continues to provide a head-scratching scenario for Kansas City Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel.
Stuck in what is shaping up to be an uphill climb against newly-signed signal caller Brady Quinn and incumbent Tyler Palko, undrafted 24-year-old Ricky Stanzi entered the preseason with a great deal of both coach and fan support for the job, but appears to be playing his way completely out of favor with a woeful preseason.
After Stanzi's latest two-turnover effort against the Rams on Saturday, Crennel was hardly impressed with his young quarterback's performance and ability to make decisions on the fly. "It was as good as it could have been," Crennel said. "He tried to run the offense, and maybe he wasn’t as solid as he normally is."
"But there were times that he wasn’t able to deliver the ball because somebody was in his face," he said, "and now you’ve pulled it down and things happen."
When asked whether he made a decision on his backup quarterback heading into Friday's third game with Seattle, Crennel was vague about his options. "I think that we have a week here to practice and get ready for this next game, so we’re going to go through practice and see how they do and then make a decision about who is going to be the second guy in," Crennel said.
Stanzi has still yet to throw an NFL pass in a regular season game, so it's not like he has a lot of room for error here. And especially not in a competition with a strong-armed veteran like Quinn, a guy who has been itching for a chance to get on the field for a while now. But even though the deck appears to be quite stacked against the 6-foot-4 second-year pro right now, a lot can happen in the span of two weeks.
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