We finally saw the big game between Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler. In other words, the Denver Broncos took on the Chicago Bears for the first time since the big trade happened during the spring. Orton had a decent game, having to leave in the second quarter after throwing 96 yards. Cutler threw 144 yards on 15 for 21. The boos in the stadium were so loud that he couldn’t hear his signals and had to look over to the sidelines to get them. These quarterbacks are good and were able to play good games. There was a fair amount of hype for this game too, because of the whole trade and they played with more intensity than you might expect during the exhibition games. Anyway, Chicago won the game 27-17.

Last night, Michael Vick made his reentry into the world of the NFL. It’s been a rough offseason for him, and he only joined the team a few weeks ago. He played decently well, though nothing spectacular. But he was in and played the game well. After all, it’s his first game in quite a few years. When Vick starts playing even more, they are hoping that he will be able to help the Eagles make it back into the playoffs and push forwards to perhaps their first championship. They have the personnel to do it, but it will take a bit of pushing to get into it for sure. I think it will be a lot of fun to watch them, because they have so much talent.

The Detroit Lions are interested in getting back into the winning column this year. Last year was kind of a disaster for them, going 0-16 over the course of the season and hardly even came close to winning any of them. This year, it’s supposed to be different. The Lions are needing a win, but they haven’t yet decided on their starting quarterback for the season. Matt Stafford is supposed to be the big new rookie but Daunte Culpepper might be the one that’s going to take it away. He has a lot of experience and might be able to split some time with Stafford to get him into the swing of things. Now that the Lions are getting back into the world of winning teams, it’ll be exciting to see what they do at QB. They’ve made big improvements in all kinds of positions, including much of the coaching staff.

Just after I posted earlier this week, the news broke that Brett Favre was in fact going to join the Vikings this year, having signed a 2 year deal. I didn’t want to come back and post again, because I half expected to have him un-return by the end of the week. But for now it looks like he’s going to stay. The team has already eliminated Jackson from their QB roster and are hoping the Favre will carry them the whole way. It’s hard to know whether he’ll be at the top of his game or not, but everything looks good in Viking land right now. There are some reports that the team might have some problems with the way some of them have been tricked by the coach and management in this whole affair, since Favre had announced that he was going to stay out and the coach had said that they have no interest in bringing him back again. One guy says that he doesn’t think Favre will make it all the way to opening day anyhow, but a lot of commentators are predicting them to be the division champs. Maybe we don’t even have to play the season or playoffs…We’ll see.

Both of the quarterbacks involved in the biggest trade of the offseason have just played their first preseason games with their new teams. Both Kyle Orton of the Broncos and Jay Cutler of the Bears had a lower strength performance than people had expected. This was perhaps the most eagerly anticipated set of games. Would Orton prove himself right away with his new team and rub it in the Bears’ faces? Or would Cutler show that Denver was silly to let him go? Neither of those happened. Orton threw 3 interceptions in his debut and Cutler lost his game against the Buffalo Bills. But obviously, it’s still too early to know for sure and the two players are still getting used to their new team and the offensive schemes that they use. We’ll keep an eye on all of these for the next little while and let you know!

Donte Stallworth has been suspended for the entire 2009 season and will be reinstated following the Super Bowl this year. The Cleveland Browns’ Wide Receiver has been in a tough position for several months now, having killed a bystander while driving with a high blood alcohol level. It’s very sad for him but it does seem to be a justifyable conclusion. People have been wondering whether the NFL would take more extreme action than the Florida court did, which sent him to jail for 30 days and he paid a rather large settlement to the family in order to lower his amount of time in prison. But he will be out of the NFL for the entire season and the Browns will have a lot of trouble replacing him.

Last night was the Hall of Fame Game, the beginning of the exhibition season for the NFL. Terrell Owens was supposed to light it up for the Bills, but the Titans with Kerry Collins and Vince Young, their two quarterbacks, they were able to win it out without any difficulty at all. They put together 3 good touchdown drives for a 21-18 victory at the end of the night. Does this bode well for another amazing season in Tennessee? Or were they just able to be more consistent than Buffalo this time around? Most of the exhibition games don’t start for a couple weeks yet, but of course this one got a lot of attention as the first game of the year. The Bills were hoping that Owens’ debut would bring them forwards offensively, but last night didn’t show much since he was only onfield for one series.

There are a few stories this week. Michael Vick still doesn’t seem to have any teams who want to take him. There was a little possibility that he would go to Kansas City to backup for Matt Cassel. Talk about a team of backups. One guy who’s not a backup at all is Mr. Eli Manning, who might well be the most high-paid player in the league, having signed a contract extension that will have him playing in New York until 2015 for a total of about $97 million. Finally, Donte Stallworth was very sorry this week when he talked with Commish Goodell and apologized profusely for killing a guy while driving drunk. We’ll see what Goodell decides to do, but he is pretty clearly going to get some kind of fine and probably a suspension too. Seems fair.

Michael Vick is generally expected to return to the NFL sometime later this year and it’s going to be a fun and interesting time for us to find out about what the NFL does with players who have violated the law and broken his inherent role model contract. Goodell, the commissioner of the game, declared that Vick will be reviewed again, by parole officers, his coaches and the league after the first quarter of the season, apparently. Then we will see if he’s allowed to actually return or not. We also will get the chance to see if any team is prepared to take him on along with the baggage that he has. We’ll see if he’s able to bring in some good PR in the end and see what happens.