KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Who says the Kansas City Chiefs don't have a quarterback?
They have one with an injured shoulder and one with a sore neck, one with low expectations and one with high hopes.
The one with low expectations is probably headed back to reserve wide receiver status.
Or is he?
Nobody, including head coach Herm Edwards, seemed to know on Monday what might happen next on Kansas City's chaotic quarterback carousel.
One thing does seem certain -- Brodie Croyle, the projected season starter, will be out a second straight week with a shoulder injury he sustained in the opener at New England. Damon Huard, the reliable 35-year-old backup, came in and almost engineered an upset over the Patriots, and then started on Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.
But Huard came out in the first half of the 23-8 loss with what the team called "mild head trauma" and what he calls a stiff neck. Edwards said Monday he did not know whether Huard or No. 3 QB Tyler Thigpen would start at Atlanta on Sunday.
Neither is anyone saying if Marques Hagans, a backup wide receiver and former college quarterback, will ever get back under center after taking five surprise snaps against Oakland.
"I don't know yet," Edwards said when asked who would start against the Falcons. "We haven't decided. We're going to make a decision on that probably Wednesday."
Huard, the only one of the four who's ever won a game in the NFL, was lifted after throwing an interception. Tyler Thigpen, who had only six passes in the NFL on his brief resume, came in and wound up completing 14 of 33 throws for 151 yards, including a short touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez.
Hagans, a quarterback at Virginia who's never been anything but a backup wide receiver in the NFL, completed the only pass he threw, for 5 yards. His other plays resulted in one penalty and several short, ineffective runs.
"We haven't talked about it. We're going to sit down and talk about it today," Edwards said.
Even Huard's injury seemed mysterious. He did not appear hurt when he came out. Then in the fourth quarter the Chiefs announced he had mild head trauma. Thigpen, who's hoping to get valuable playing time the next couple of weeks while Croyle rests his shoulder, admitted even he didn't know that Huard was hurt.
"I went up to him at the end and I was like, Why haven't you gone back in? What's going on?"' he said. "He was like,I ended up hurting my neck,' or whatever it was."
Thigpen and Huard both said they had no idea who might play, or for how long, this week.
"I thought Tyler was getting a series in there. But on the sideline, my neck stiffened up on me pretty good," Huard said. "When you're in the heat of the battle you don't really think about it. But it really kind of caught up with me there on the sideline."
Huard, who has had a concussion during his career, said the symptoms seemed suspicious.
"Everybody responds to head trauma a little different. I think there may have been a little bit of that," he said. "There were a few symptoms. But to sit here and elaborate on that, it's not going to get us anywhere."
Hagans said he'll be ready if called upon for quarterback duty again.
"I think if we continue with it, it will be a good package for us," he said. "But if coach puts it down, then I've just got to be a third receiver and (on) special teams, and I'm all for that as well. Any time I get to play quarterback in the NFL, you've got to be excited about that."
"We just have different personnel groups," Edwards said. "I think for the most part, L. J. is very competitive, and rightly so. And our plans are always to get him the ball. He's going to touch the ball 20-25 times. But as the game played out when it got late in the third quarter, we went into a different mode of having to try to throw the ball."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
