Injuries have left Chiefs short on signal callers

RIVER FALLS, Wis. — Jonathan Quinn might start demanding the Kansas City Chiefs bring him in for all of training camp.

The journeyman quarterback’s name was among those tossed around by coach Herman Edwards on Wednesday, as injuries force the Chiefs to go searching for a last-minute signal-caller for the second straight year.

Backup Damon Huard did not practice during Wednesday’s morning session after spraining an ankle, and third-round draft pick Brodie Croyle has been practicing only in running drills while he works his way back from a shoulder injury.

That leaves Trent Green and Casey Printers healthy enough to take snaps in Saturday’s exhibition game against the Houston Texans. Printers, though, missed Tuesday afternoon’s practice after taking a hit in the morning.

“Right now we’ve got two quarterbacks that are alive. So that’s kind of interesting,” Edwards said. “If (Huard) can get better, that’s fine. But if not, you might see a new quarterback playing for us Saturday without any practice. That would be a first, wouldn’t it?”

Not exactly.

Just last year, the Chiefs were so riddled by nagging injuries in August and early September that they called in Quinn, who had been out of football and living in the Kansas City area. He ended up taking most of the snaps in the Chiefs’ first two exhibition games before being released on cut-down day.

“We’ve got some candidates. He’s obviously a guy,” Edwards said. “We’ll make some calls and see if any of these guys want an opportunity. But we haven’t decided who or if we’re going to do it.”

Whatever the solution, it won’t include using Printers, the Canadian Football League’s most-outstanding player, for more than a few series. And it certainly won’t mean putting Green back into the lineup once his early duty is done.

“Oh no, we won’t do that,” Edwards said. “We’ll play rugby or something. We won’t put the starter back in. We’ll just run the ball every play.”