Our weekly pre-game coverage of Buffalo Bills regular season football begins today, friends, and it starts with a doozy: multiple reports indicate that Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback Matt Cassel may not be available to play thanks to a rib injury.
This would come as a big blow to the defending AFC West champions, who would have to start Tyler Palko in his place. Palko is the backup quarterback almost by default, as the team decided to let Brodie Croyle depart, and as rookie Ricky Stanzi isn't yet ready to assume those duties.
The Bills have faced the Cassel-led Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in each of the past two seasons, and to put it kindly, Cassel has not performed well at all. In those two games, he completed 58 percent of his passes (40 of 69) for 376 yards (a 5.4 yards-per-attempt average), throwing one touchdown pass to four interceptions. The Bills sacked him six times while Chiefs scored just 23 combined points in those eight quarters (plus a lengthy overtime). The teams split the two games.
Many quarterbacks have successfully played with rib injuries in the past, so don't count Cassel out just yet - particularly as Palko has just six pass attempts on his NFL CV.