Mark Brunell

It never hurts to have an experienced backup and Brunell could be a nice unofficial mentor of sorts for starter Mark Sanchez. But if Brunell is actually forced to play for the Jets, as a 40-year-old, it's going to be panic in New Jersey.

Brunell will backup All-Pro Drew Brees at quarterback this year, providing New Orleans with experience should an injury befall Brees. Unless that occurs, the only snaps Brunell will see will be in practice.

The Saints signed Brunell this offseason to serve as the backup to Drew Brees. Though Brunell was benched in Washington and did not play in 2007, he remains a serviceable quarterback, having completing 62.3 percent of his passes for eight touchdowns and four interceptions in 10 games in 2006. Nevertheless, the 15-year veteran will only have fantasy value if Brees, who has missed just one regular season game in the past four seasons, gets injured. If Brees does go down at some point this year, however, Brunell should be a popular waiver wire pickup as he would have the opportunity to put up solid numbers in the Saints pass-heavy offense.

Looking back at 2006 Brunell's stats do not tell the full story. While he completed 62.5 percent of his passes and had a higher YPA than his career year in 2005, he was unable to consistently move the offense. Most of his stats came in two big games against Houston and Jacksonville. He led the Skins to a 3-6 record before being benched for Jason Campbell, primarily because playoff hopes were lost. He reworked his contract in the offseason in order to stay with the Skins and will begin the year as Campbell's backup.

A transition to last year’s first-round pick Jason Campbell is inevitable. Gibbs says he smiles whenever he thinks of trading an ’06 No. 1 to grab Campbell in ’05, but what’s he going to say? In the meantime, Brunell starts as long as he’s healthy and the Skins are winning. Last year, Brunell had one capable wide receiver. In the offseason, the Redskins seriously upgraded their receiving corps with Antwaan Randle El and Brandon Lloyd (and don’t forget receiving TE Chris Cooley). Don’t count on major play-calling changes with Al Saunders coming in from KC, but the departure of quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave and another year of wear and tear on Brunell's arm could ultimately make a repeat of last year's numbers too optimistic.

Brunell signed a seven year $43 million contract in 2004 and then struggled until he was benched in week 10. He will serve as backup in 2005 to Patrick Ramsey and first round draft pick Jason Campbell. Head Coach Joe Gibbs adamantly says Brunell has a future with the Skins but we can’t see him being anything more than a backup with the drafting of Campbell.

Brunell has been an efficient, winning QB in real life but never a reliable fantasy starter. Seasons to date with more than 20 TD passes? Zero. And his days as a running threat are long gone, thanks to bum knees and almost a decade of pounding. But coach Joe Gibbs has always had offenses that are very fantasy friendly to QBs. His Redskins finished in the top 10 in TD passes nine times during his 12 seasons as head coach. And we're not talking Hall of Famers here. Jay Schroeder, Mark Rypien, Doug Williams... Even Joe Theisman never approached his Pro Bowl form pre-Gibbs. Brunell is at least on par with those QBs. The question, though, is whether the NFL has passed Gibbs by. That's doubtful. The first priority of a Gibbs offense is doing whatever is necessary to protect the QB. The second priority is throwing deep, downfield passes. This works wonders for QBs in any era.

While Brunell isn't going to have to worry about rookie Byron Leftwich this year, it's clear his time in Jacksonville is just about up. Figure on the aging lefty being somewhere else for 2004. Brunell hasn't been a major fantasy player for most of his career, anyway. He's never thrown for more than 20 touchdowns in a season, and although he came into the league as a reckless scrambler, he's a more hesitant runner now – and he didn't have any touchdown runs in 2002. Brunell is safe for 15 to 17 touchdowns and around 3,000 passing yards, but he doesn't really have an upside past those numbers.