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Matt Ryan, the Atlanta Falcons first-round pick, will start at quarterback during the team’s first game of the season against Detroit.

Ryan completed 32 of 52 passes for 277 yards and two touchdowns with one interception during three preseason games, beating out Chris Redman and Joey Harrington for the job.

While Ryan clearly has more upside than the other contenders and he has reportedly looked solid during the preseason, this decision will undoubtedly raise the question once again over whether or not rookies  should start at quarterback.

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The New York Giants have suffered a blow in their efforts to repeat as Super Bowl Champions. Defensive end Osi Umenyiora, a key pass rushing contributor during the big run last season, suffered serious ligament damage in his knee Saturday night.

Umenyiora, according to the Newark Star Ledger, will undergo surgery that is likely to knock him out for the season.

The Giants have some depth at defensive end. Justin Tuck had 10 sacks during the regular season and might have been the best defensive player on the field during stretches of last season for New York and converted linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka could move back there as well.

But the injury coupled with Michael Strahan’s retirement cost the Giants 109 regular season tackles and 22 sacks - not to mention half of what was an unbelievably successful rotation during the playoff run.

The Giants are certainly not out of the running in the NFC East and beyond in 2008 - but the road has gotten much, much tougher already.

When Charlie Batch got hurt it made sense that the Pittsburgh Steelers would bring on board one of the veteran quarterbacks left on the free agent market. But signing both Daunte Culpepper and Byron Leftwich had to be a bit of a surprise.

With Ben Roethlisberger firmly established as the starter in Pittsburgh it’s unlikely the Steelers will head into the season with both veterans. They also have rookies Mike Potts and Dennis Dixon on the roster. My money would be on Leftwich - he’s younger and he’s shown more competence than Culpepper during the last couple years - Daunte has never fully made it back from his knee injury a couple years back.

Batch is likely out for a month to six weeks. The one upside for both guys is the opportunity to get into camp gives them an opportunity to showcase themselves in preseason game action - giving them a much better chance to be in uniform somewhere on opening day than they had while they were sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring.

EDIT: According to the folks at Sports Illustrated only Leftwich was signed - Culpepper also worked out, but the Steelers didn’t offer him a deal. Oops.

According to Stu Scott on Sports Center tonight, Brett Favre has been traded to the Jets.  No details yet on what the Packers will receive as part of the deal.

In an interview with Mark Schlereth (who’s nickname, Stink, makes me laugh–and who surprise surprise dropped that he played with Elway, made comparisons to his Broncos teams, and mentioned that he played for the Redskins, all in a 5 minute interview), says that it legitimizes the Jets offense immediately.

Of course, I wonder how the lack of practice with the team will impact him–and how he will adapt to a non-West Coast offense, even with the help of Bill Callahan, who is familiar with the West Coast offense.

Of course, the move does immediately raise the fantasy value for WRs Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery, and probably further elevates RB Thomas Jones.

And, while I’m not sure the Jets are quite on the Patriots level quite yet–they could at least make things interesting in the AFC East–and between the Bills and Jets beating on the Patriots 4 times this season, it might make the AFC even more wide open.

In what might be more of a punishment than a reward Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith has tapped Kyle Orton as the team’s starting quarterback for the first preseason game Thursday against Kansas City.

Smith cautioned against reading too much into the announcement as the team intends to give Rex Grossman equal snaps with the first team … or whatever of the first team exists at the moment. Only two projected starters on the offensive line - center Olin Kreutz and right tackle John Tait - might be in action at their positions.

The two quarterbacks have rotated in camp and Grossman will start the second game, according to an Associated Press story posted at Yahoo! Sports.

“We want both guys to get an equal opportunity and that’s what we’re going to do,” Smith announced after the Tuesday practice.

It’s said that a team with two leaders truly has none. The Bears have enough struggles ahead on offense with a mediocre collection of receivers and an unproven - though full of potential - running game lead by Matt Forte and backed by the other Adrian Peterson and Kevin Jones. Those backs have the skills to be adequate - but they’ll only be so if one of the quarterbacks steps up and at least provides the threat of a passing game. Otherwise it’s Goodnight Irene for the Bears this season.

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