NFL Quarterback Preseason Injuries Provide Scares

Tom Brady, Kyle Orton, Matt Schaub all have sustained injuries during preseason games during the past several days.  It is a dose of reality for both the teams and sports bettors who understand that a quarterback going down could spell the end of a season despite how good an organization looked on paper heading into 2009.

None of the injuries in question appeared to be serious and each of these quarterbacks anticipated being able to start during Week 1 of the regular season.

Tom Brady, who injured his shoulder in New England's preseason game against Washington last week, said Monday that he expects to play "this week, if Coach lets me."

"I have bumps and bruises," Brady said in his weekly appearance on Boston radio station WEEI. "It's a physical game. Like I said, I fell a little bit awkwardly, but I'm expecting to be out there and I'm expecting to play this week, if Coach let's me. We'll just see how the week goes."

Brady went down the first week of the 2008 regular season and was out for its entirety.  Entering last year, the New England Patriots were the odds on favorite to win the 2009 Super Bowl as they are coming into this season. Without Brady, the Patriots failed to make the post season even though they did manage to play well above .500 in what turned out to be a very competitive AFC East division. 

Kyle Orton going down in Denver would certainly have made gamblers who had the UNDER 2009 regular season win total bet mighty happy at least.

Orton injured one of his fingers Sunday night.  Denver has a somewhat capable backup quarterback in Chris Simms, but he is currently out with an ankle injury.  Orton was expected to play in Thursday's preseason game.

Schaub, meanwhile, injured his ankle Monday night and limped off the field.  Nevertheless, he did return to the game later on.

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Dan Shapiro, Gambling911.com