MMQB (cont.)

Quote of the Week I

Kyle Orton gave way to Tim Tebow in Denver last season and was later claimed off waivers by the injury-ravaged Kansas City Chiefs. He'll open the 2012 season as Tony Romo's backup in Dallas.

Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

"I think he has his stuff together better than 90 percent of this room.''

-- Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler on new Bears wideout Brandon Marshall, to the news media, at the news conference introducing Marshall to Chicago.

The lengths athletes will go just to stick up for each other.

Quote of the Week II

"We passed on him.''

-- Jets owner Woody Johnson, on Peyton Manning, to the Fox Business Network.

Surrrrrrrrre you did.

Quote of the Week III

"Short-term memory is not good. I won't remember a hell of a lot about this interview in 10 minutes.''

-- Former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon, one of scores of players suing the NFL for brain trauma they say was suffered on NFL fields, in an interview with ESPN's Outside the Lines program on Sunday.

Stat of the Week

The beneficiary of the first real free agency period in two seasons: the backup quarterback. Three (Kyle Orton, Chad Henne, Charlie Whitehurst) signed deals for at least $4 million a year in the first four days of free agency.

I'm amazed that the Dallas Cowboys paid Orton -- who I consider the best of the available backups, and not by a small amount -- a $5 million signing bonus for a five-year deal that will likely void to three years. I understand sleeping better at night, which the Cowboys will do now that they have maybe the best backup quarterback in football as insurance for Tony Romo instead of the iffy Stephen McGee. But I've never heard of paying a guy you hope will never play a $5 million signing bonus.

The cast of newly minted backups, and the paydays they've agreed to since last Wednesday:

QB	Old team	New team	2012 compensation
Kyle Orton	Chiefs	Cowboys	$5.9 million
Chad Henne	Dolphins	Jaguars	$4.1 million
Charlie Whitehurst	Seahawks	Chargers	$4.0 million
Jason Campbell	Raiders	Bears	$3.5 million
Brady Quinn	Broncos	Chiefs	$1.5 million
Sage Rosenfels	Vikings	Vikings	$1.5 million
Drew Stanton	Lions	Jets	$1.25 million
Dan Orlovsky	Colts	Bucs	$1.0 million

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

How much did Brady Quinn want out of the Denver quarterback-go-round? So much, I hear, that he turned down an offer of $2 million from the Broncos and accepted a one-year, $1.5 million deal in Kansas City.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week

I didn't travel anywhere in the past seven days, but I did have a bit of an odd New York experience. Saturday was the first St. Patrick's Day I have experienced as a Manhattan resident. I just figured, OK, big St. Patty's parade up Fifth Avenue, lots of people, everybody in green, whatever.

No. It looked bigger than New Year's Eve, at least from what I saw. Walking down Second Avenue on the east side of town around 3 in the afternoon with Bailey the dog, I found the sidewalks so clogged with revelers (22ish, from the looks of it) that we had to walk in the street for a couple of blocks ... then cut back over to First Avenue so the drunk kids would stop tripping over Bailey. I thought, This must be something like Mardi Gras.

On Sunday morning, when Bailey and I went out for her morning spin through the neighborhood (and you know how dogs are -- they like to eat whatever their tongues can scrape off the sidewalk), I had to, in the span of six blocks, tug her past three areas of, shall we say, human sickness. Aaah, the benefits of living in the center of the universe.

Tweet of the Week I

"I am on flight right now (red eye) from San Francisco to Miami -- QB Alex Smith is sitting in first class -- you connect the dots.''

-- @DavisHsuSeattle, realtor and Seahawks blogger Davis Hsu, who broke the Smith-to-Miami-for-a-visit story in the middle of the night on a Virgin America redeye from San Francisco to Florida. From row 14, apparently -- with Smith sleeping in row one.