Luckily, the Seattle Seahawks released Braylon Edwards Monday from the injury-reserve list.

Edwards played for the Jets in 2009 and 2010 and emerged as one of Mark Sanchez’s favorite targets. He caught 88 passes for 1,445 yards and 11 touchdowns in those two seasons with the Jets.

Seeing that the Seahawks released Edwards, the Jets desperately signed him in hopes that he could be a spark plug in a playoff run for the Jets. This comes weeks after Edwards called the Jets front office a bunch of “idiots”. Desperation is an understatement.

With the Jets remaining schedule being very weak, let’s see if Edwards can help this team or just add to the circus it has become.

Nov 8, 2009; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (left) and San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers talk prior to game at Giants Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

Take a look at this brief off-season quarterback carousel just so that you can understand where I’m coming from:

• The Indianapolis Colts cut Peyton Manning so they can draft Andrew Luck.
• Peyton Manning signs with the Denver Broncos after putting the NFL on a three year waiting list. Wait, what? It wasn’t three years? Sure seemed like it.
• The St. Louis Rams got a fortune in return from the Washington Redskins so they can take RG3 right after the Colts select Luck.
• Matt Flynn signs with the Seattle Seahawks after being Aaron Rodgers’ backup.
• Jason Campbell leaves Oakland after having his starting job taken away and signs with the Chicago Bears to become Jay Cutler’s backup.
• Kyle Orton does the same thing and goes to backup Tony Romo in Dallas after starting for two teams last year: the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos.
• Denver Broncos’ third string QB Brady Quinn moves to Kansas City to become that team’s newest backup QB.
• Chad Henne left the Dolphins to challenge for the starting QB job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• The New York Jets brought in Drew Stanton to be Mark Sanchez’s new body double.
• David Garrard comes back to the league after a one year absence to join the Miami Dolphins.

We have backups becoming starters, starters becoming backups, rookies being drafted presumably to start from day, guys out of the league for a year and one of the greatest QBs to ever play in the NFL cut for a player to have never played a down of professional football before. Confused yet? That’s because it is confusing to keep track of which quarterback is on which team now in the new quarterback driven NFL.

With the signing of Manning to the Broncos there is now another starting quarterback that could be had for the right price: Tim Tebow for a 5th round pick, presumably. The two teams with a most glaring need at a QB, if the 49ers don’t bring back Alex Smith, that is, are the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins. You have to include Miami because a Matt Moore/David Garrard combo doesn’t scare anyone.

The Browns were never in the hunt for Manning but aren’t enamored with incumbent QB Colt McCoy and lost out on the RG3 sweepstakes. The Dolphins went all in on Manning but came back empty handed; then their second choice Flynn spurned them for the Seahawks. That leaves the potential of either one of those two teams signing Alex Smith, he of the 49ers, who has no idea of his job status thanks to the Peyton Derby, and the aforementioned Tebow.

Plus there are other potential first round quarterbacks besides Luck and RG3 that could be taken by the Browns or Dolphins like Ryan Tannehill or Brandon Weeden, both of whom, if you ask me aren’t worthy of being selected in the top ten of the draft but might be taken that early because the Dolphins (picking 8^th overall) and the Browns (picking 4^th overall) won’t have any choice other than dangling a future first round draft pick in order to trade back into the latter part of the upcoming 2012 NFL Draft.

By my calculations we might have a total of 11 teams with a new starting QB/quarterback question marks entering next season:

-Redskins – RG3, Vikings – Ponder/Webb?, Jaguars – Gabbert/Henne? Or maybe even Tebow?, San Fran – Smith/Kaepernick/Josh Johnson?, Arizona – Kolb/Skelton? Cleveland – McCoy?, Seattle – Flynn/T-Jax? Titans – Locker/Hasselbeck?, Indy – Luck, Miami – Moore/Garrard? and Denver – Peyton Manning.

11! That is a ridiculous amount of turnover at the most important position in football.

Now you can see why I’m pretty happy that the Giants have Eli Manning and we didn’t have to put up with the Peyton circus and the revolving game of quarterback musical chairs that teams like the Redskins and Dolphins plus players like Tebow and Smith have had to put up with this offseason. Heck, the Giants are even keeping their back-up QB David Carr.

No one is sure where he may land; however, below I have listed the five NFL teams that his name has been associated with the most. Of course, these are all rumors but it is a starting point for us. The teams are not listed in any certain order My assumption is that Manning will be signing with a new team BEFORE the NFL draft:

• Miami Dolphins
• Washington Redskins
• San Francisco 49ers
• Seattle Seahawks
• Denver Broncos

Here is a quick look at the games that mean the most to the GIANTS this weekend (these games will be updated at halftime and conclusion):

Atlanta Falcons (8-5) at Carolina Panthers (4-9); The Atlanta Falcons won. The Atlanta Falcons currently are projected as the 6th and final seed in the NFC Play-Offs. They are a tie breaker behind the Bears and a tie breaker ahead of the Lions. They are one game ahead of the GIANTS.We want the Panthers to win this game.

Minnesota Vikings (2-11) at Detroit Lions (8-5); The Lions Won (huge missed face mask call at the end of the game). The Lions are currently a tie breaker behind the Bears and Lions. They are one game ahead of the GIANTS. We want the Vikings to win this game.

Chicago Bears (7-6) at Denver Broncos (8-5); Tim Tebow did it again. He did it again. Broncos won 13-10. The Chicago Bears currently are projected as the 5th seed in the NFC Play-offs. They are a tie breaker ahead of the Falcons and Lions and one game ahead of the GIANTS. We want the Broncos to win this game.

San Francisco 49ers (10-3) at Arizona Cardinals (6-7); The Cardinals won 27-19. The Cardinals are currently two games out of the final Play-Off spot and one game behind the GIANTS. We want the 49ers to win this game.  A loss by the Cardinals all but eliminates them from the Play-Offs.

St. Louis (2-10) at Seattle Seahwaks (5-7); 8:33 Monday Night. The Seahawks are currently two games out of the final Play-Off spot and one game behind the GIANTS. We want the Rams to win this game.  A loss by the Seahawks all but eliminates them from the Play-Offs.

Hopefully the players mentioned below will be available in your league to help you out for this week, and possibly beyond…

(more…)

Bears at Raiders: Oakland won 25-20. The Bears are currently tied with the Falcons for the final playoff spot and .5 games ahead of the GIANTS.

Eagles at Patriots: Patriots won 38-20. The Eagles are 4-7 and 3 games behind the Falcons and 2.5 games behind the GIANTS.

Redskins at Seahawks: Redskins won 23-17. Seahawks are now 3 games behind the Falcons and 2.5 behind the GIANTS.

Vikings at Falcons: Falcons won 24-14. They are now 7-4. The Falcons are tied with the Lions for the final  playoff spot. The GIANTS are .5 games behind the Lions.

The Giants did all of this, and more. Think back to the victory in Dallas, when we were nauseous watching the first quarter, elated during the second and third, and petrified during the fourth. Statistically, the score should never have been as close as it was, yet the Giants made a ridiculous number of mistakes early on, then backed off enough to give the Cowboys a chance to come back. If it had been any other team, that game would have ended in a loss. The Giants desperately needed to show that it could start strong and finish off a team during the game, and stop them from having any illusions that they could rally for a win.

In short, any elite team should be able to completely dominate a team like Seattle, especially when they are missing their quarterback. The Giants have proven that they are among the elite with the right kind of victory Sunday, complete with few mistakes and superior play-calling. They also threw off a few statistical stigmas along the way, and have themselves poised for serious playoff discussions.

Let’s take a look at a few key statistics heading into Seattle that had many critics questioning the outcome of this game:

The Giants were 6-15 in games after the bye week: Although Tom Coughlin has turned this stigma around during his tenure, there were many question marks heading into this game, especially when you consider the next fact.

The Giants had lost the last 4 games at Seattle: Even without their starting quarterback, Seattle’s 12^th man seems to affect this team. I don’t even want to think about the number of false starts I have witnessed at that field!

And my personal favorite point: With this victory in Seattle, the Giants have scored an average of 36 points in its last three road games. Does this remind you of a certain season, where the Giants were known as the “Road Warriors” all the way through the Super Bowl in Arizona? The loss at the Colts prevents the full resurrection of this title, but this team is so much like that of 2007 with its weekly improvements in trouble areas and consistent domination of teams that should lose badly.

This was certainly the kind of win the team needed to keep confidences high, especially as they head into a difficult stretch of games. 5 of their next 8 games are division match-ups, and even the Cowboys cannot be taken lightly. As we watch this team mature each week, however, I believe we can expect to see more of the right kind of victories in the coming weeks.

(Seattle and Minnesota have yet to win their games today, but have large leads)

Dallas and Green Bay will both receive byes in the first round which right now would leave the Giants playing Tama Bay in the first week of the playoffs, a match-up they would like to see rather than playing at Seattle.

The problem with the Giants would be in the second round where they would face either Dallas or Green Bay. The G-Men are 0-3 against those two teams this season, losing in Weeks 1, 2, and 11.