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Todd Haley goes from leading one of the most prolific and exciting offenses in the league in Arizona to one of the NFL’s most inept attacks in KC. And while Haley doesn’t have a Kurt Warner to lead his team, he does have Matt Cassel, who parlayed a superb season filling in for the injured Tom Brady in New England into a massive contract with the Chiefs. But Cassel hasn’t been a starter at the outset of a season since, well, high school.
—Speaking of Brady, he’s back and, considering that the Patriots have no backups with experience, apparently ready to go full throttle. Dismissing his short stint in the 2008 opener before tearing up his knee, Brady still has the glow of that record-setting 2007 campaign and a perfect regular season. And the Patriots are the second choice behind Pittsburgh to win the championship, according to BetUS.com.
“This spring, he was out there. He’s probably a little rusty, but at the same time he was Tom Brady,” star receiver Wes Welker said. “He’s making all the right reads, all the right throws. He’s excited and he’s ready to be back, and he’s hungry.”
Will Brady even see the field in any of New England’s exhibition games? Bill Belichick is too secretive a coach to give any of that away now, but it’s difficult to fathom Brady basically going blind into the opener against Buffalo.
—Buffalo. Isn’t that the new stomping grounds of that reality show star, Terrell Owens?
The reality with Owens is that things go well in his first year in a new setting, and he has just a one-year contract with the Bills. So maybe T.O. will make nice with developing quarterback Trent Edwards and his new teammates.
“I miss Dallas, but I have a new team,” Owens said. “It’s already behind me.”
Ahead for 30 teams are four preseason games (Buffalo and Tennessee get five because they meet in the Hall of Fame match on Aug. 9) in which few starters play and the results matter little. Answering as many questions as possible matters most.
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