With the NFL and NFLPA reportedly coming to an agreement on the new CBA, teams will start scrabbling to sign free agents in on of the biggest free agent frenzy.
There are a few teams that need a quarterback to lead their team (Arizona, possibly the Bengals, Minnesota
San Francisco, Seattle) and there are a few that need a veteran to help groom the rookie QBs (Carolina and Tennessee).
There are a couple of veterans on the free agent QB list that could be mentor to the rookies: Matt Hasselbeck and Marc Bulger. But another name has been added to that list.
Daunte Culpepper.
ProFootballTalk is reporting that Culpepper will take another shot at the NFL.
“Now that it seems that a deal has finally been reached between the owners and the players, I have decided to enter my name into the NFL free agent pool of quarterbacks,” Culpepper said via e-mail.
“I have spent the entire off-season preparing for July training camp and I am anxious to get started. Hopefully, the landscape has changed in the NFL for veteran quarterbacks like me who are ready, willing and able to play right away while the rookie quarterbacks get up to speed. I am thankful to the UFL for giving me a chance to play last year for Coach Dennis Green and the Sacramento Mountain Lions. It was refreshing and exhilarating to prepare and play every week. However, I have unfinished business in the NFL and look forward to an opportunity to play a role on an NFL team this year.”
I like Daunte. He was one of the top quarterbacks in the league seven years ago.
But that was seven years ago, and he isn’t that same player that broke all kinds of records in 2004 with the Minnesota Vikings.
He really hasn’t been the same after he blew out his knee in 2005 and he needs to accept that.
When your playing for one of the worst teams in the league (Daunte played for Detroit in 2009) and get benched in favor of third string QB then you know your career is dead.
Maybe some body will pick him up to be a backup. But that’s just it, a backup position, not a starting position.
So I’ll doubt you’ll be able to finish that “unfinished business” as a backup Daunte.