Torn ACL for Brady; Moss-Culpepper Reunion in the Offing?

Tom Brady left today’s New England-Kansas City game with a knee injury and did not return.  This did not prevent the Pats from defeating the woeful Chiefs, largely thanks to Randy Moss.  Since then, it has been revealed, by Yahoo! Sports’ Michael Silver, that Brady suffered a torn ACL and probably other ligament and cartilage damage.  There has been no official announcement from the Pats (since they don’t believe in them), but it appears Brady will miss the rest of the 2008 season.  Matt Cassel is New England’s #2 QB – he finished today’s win, posting passable numbers, but what about the rest of the campaign?  Is Bill Belichick really prepared to try a playoff run with Cassel and Kevin O’Connell as his quarterbacks?  I think not.  Which begs the question:  Which available quarterback would best suit the Pats?  Chris Simms?  Joey Harrington?  Or maybe a certain former Viking who recently got pissed at every team in the league for not treating him like a Hall-of-Famer and retired to join Denny Green on the high road straight to obscurity?

There are a few problems with Daunte of course.  1: He’s not the fastest guy at picking up an offense, and the Patriots would need him, like, now.  2: It’s impossible to know exactly where Daunte’s head is at from one moment to the next, making him a rather shaky individual upon whom to pin one’s hopes.  3: Before you can even have the guy on your team, you have to get through the whole negotiation process, which in Daunte’s case is like picking your way through a minefield.  All-in-all, I would put the chances of Daunte coming out of retirement to join the Pats at about 2%.  I see Belichick taking his chances with Cassel as the starter and maybe picking up a guy like Simms to sit on the bench as insurance.  I doubt he would be able to coax Drew Bledsoe out of retirement after the way things ended there for Drew.