These sudden, mysterious and largely unreported injuries have got to stop. Last week, Carson Palmer was a late scratch. This week, the victim was Matt Schaub, who was hit by a virus the night before the game.

I normally set lineups Saturday night and then let them run, but this sudden injury plague makes me want to start checking again five minutes before game time on Sunday…and then at four minutes, two minutes and one minute until kickoff.

Thanks to the virus, Matt Schaub turned over the reigns to Sage Rosenfels.

Asante Samuel may find his $100 million, 10-year contract in New Orleans. Fox Sports says that the Saints are willing to pay the ticket up to $10-11 million dollars a year for Samuel’s talents. Samuel is direly needed in New Orleans because their secondary was the wrong kind of holy last year. If they fork over the money, they could see significant improvement on defense next year–maybe avoid those shootouts with Kurt Warner.

Several players are worth grabbing after performances this week–or finally be cleared by Johnny Law

Chris Henry, WR Cincinnati Bengals

Chris Henry got 8 touchdowns last year as the third receiver for the Bengals. You might remember him. He comes back Week 10 after serving his suspension from the NFL commissioner. Even though the Bengals have stunk it up as of late, they should start making use of Henry almost immediately.

Quarterbacks have a big load to carry. I know–that’s what she said, but it’s true. With the big paycheck comes the blame if the team gets off to a bad start or can’t execute in big games. Fans like to point fingers, and most of the time, they are pointing at the quarterback. This season, however, there has been a lot of starter swapping and finger pointing and a more than usual amount of bloodshed.