Kc-Grbac Deal Wraps Qb Shuffle

The NFL’s off-season quarterback merry-go-round finally stopped spinning this week.

When Elvis Grbac signed a five-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs, he grabbed the last open starting quarterback job for this fall.

Although there are a few quarterbacks, including Heath Shuler, scrambling for backup jobs, the starting positions are set.

Starting quarterbacks are changing as quickly as coaches. There will be 11 new coaches this fall, and 12 teams will start quarterbacks who didn’t get the shot on opening day last year.

Six of the newcomers moved up during last season - Kent Graham in Arizona, Brad Johnson in Minnesota, Ty Detmer in Philadelphia, John Friesz in Seattle, Steve McNair in Houston and Tony Banks in St. Louis.

Five others changed teams - Grbac, Jeff George in Oakland, Rick Mirer in Chicago, Chris Chandler in Atlanta and Billy Joe Hobert in Buffalo (assuming he beats out Todd Collins to replace the retired Jim Kelly). Another, Kordell Stewart, was promoted in Pittsburgh.

That leaves 18 quarterbacks returning as incumbents, including six who’ve proved they can take a team to the Super Bowl - Troy Aikman in Dallas, Brett Favre in Green Bay, John Elway in Denver (Elway underwent shoulder surgery last week, but is supposed to be ready for the season), Steve Young in San Francisco, Drew Bledsoe in New England and Dan Marino in Miami.

The only other two starters who’ve gone to the Super Bowl are Stan Humphries of San Diego and former Steeler Neil O’Donnell of the New York Jets, although they’re not rated with the top six.

Ravens get accounting lessons

In the latest chapter in the Ravens’ salary-cap woes, they were nailed by the league last week.

When they sent in quarterback Vinny Testaverde’s contract extension to the league office, they counted a $625,000 increase against the cap this year, the pro-rated share of his $2.5 million signing bonus over four years.

But league officials noted that the contract included $1.5 million in guaranteed money in future years. In renegotiated contracts, guaranteed money is counted as part of the signing bonus. So the league figured his contract as $4 million up front and boosted Testaverde’s cap figure by $1 million this year.

Adding in $633,000 in cap money this year as part of Jeff Blackshear’s three-year, $3.6 million deal with a $1 million signing bonus and a $550,000 cap number for Leo Goeas in his three-year, $2.85 million deal with a $600,000 signing bonus, the Ravens were left $4.2 million under the cap.

That’s not much when they have only 34 players under contract. Only three other teams have fewer than 50 players signed - Dallas has 42, the New York Jets 47 and the Houston Oilers 49.

With so few players signed, the Ravens don’t have a lot of money left to improve their defense.

They’ve yet to sign a defensive player now that Brock Marion has flunked his physical, and they failed to land three defensive players they were interested in - Broderick Thomas, Raylee Johnson and Ray Seals.

By going after Marion and his bad shoulder, they also let George Teague be lured to Miami by coach Jimmy Johnson.

This isn’t exactly shaping up as a vintage off-season for the Ravens.

Ravens owner Art Modell still has fond memories of Cleveland, even though he is reviled there for moving the Browns.

In an interview with the Akron Beacon-Journal that was published last Sunday, he said, “The greatest people in the world are Clevelanders. They gave me 35 years of friendship and love. I think I returned part of it to them by producing a pretty good product for many years.”

He also called the Cleveland fans “the greatest fans in the world” and he asked the reporter, “Make me look good, OK?”