Could Chase Daniel Eventually Follow Graham Harrell's Career Path?

Graham Harrell was a Sammy Baugh Trophy winner, Johnny Unitas Golden Award winner, AT&T All-American Player of the Year, 3-time All-Academic Big 12, and a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Despite, all of this collegiate accolades, Harrell went undrafted out of Texas Tech and received tryout invitations with the Cleveland Browns and then tried out for the UFL.

He went unsigned both times.

Following his UFL tryout, rumors started that Harrell could sign with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL.

Those rumors eventually transpired as he signed with the team on July 20 and was immediately placed on the inactive list as he adjusted to the Canadian game.

Harrell has yet to make his debut and the earliest he could is October 2 in a game against the BC Lions in Vancouver.

Chase Daniel on the other hand was a one-time Heisman Trophy candidate (2007), Second-team All-Big 12, Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year, First-team All-Big 12, Second-team All-American, Maxwell Award semifinalist and also a finalist for the Manning Award, Walter Camp Award, Draddy Trophy, and Davey O'Brien Award winner.

Needless to say that's a bit more than Harrell's accolades yet Daniel has faced the same treatment as Harrell has, NFL wise.

Daniel spent the entire training camp with the Washington Redskins before being cut.

After being cut, while the Redskins were assembling their practice squad he was told he'd be added to it.

However, the Redskins opted to go with ex-Kentucky Wildcats quarterback and New York Giant cut (ironically, the Redskins first opponent in 2009) Andre Woodson.

After being shown the door by the Redskins, Daniel has opted to take his show to New Orleans under the mentoring of gun-slinger Drew Brees.

Luckily, for Daniel the New Orleans quarterback situation is less log-jammed down the road as the only backup is almost 40 year-old Mark Brunell.

Now, odds are Daniel will see limited time on the active roster and even less time on the field but a situation that has gone unmentioned in the media is the fact he could decide to go the CFL once his deal with the Saints expires.

As you may or may not know most of the league has little to no backup depth.

It also doesn't hurt that Daniel is a prototypical CFL quarterback (6'1", 219) and has solid arm strength along with time in one of the toughest conferences in the NCAA.

In my opinion, Daniel staying in the NFL in the short term would be a mistake for him down the road, and taking the path blazed by the likes of Warren Moon, Doug Flutie and Graham Harrell makes sense for him and his potential team.

Backup Quarterbacks Needed Everywhere

Let's see here, all across the CFL there are 23 quarterbacks on active rosters, two on practice rosters, three injured and one on reserve.

Zac Champion of the BC Lions is the one on reserve and is irrelevant to this discussion while Ricky Santos (Montreal), Graham Harrell (Saskatchewan) and Jason Boltus (Hamilton) are "injured" and also irrelevant here.

And also for the purpose of this discussion (which you're not sure about yet) let's exclude every free agent quarterback and every quarterback who'll be cut by the NFL.

Now, where am I headed with this? You'll see in a minute.

In Calgary there's a bit of a quarterback controversy and I'd say they'd like to keep Burris, Nealy and Tate with them for now while they sort it out.

Hamilton likes Porter, Glenn and Tafralis, Montreal is good with Calvillo, McPherson and Leak while in Winnipeg Bishop, LeFors and Randall are good enough for them.

Now that leaves BC, Saskatchewan, Edmonton and Toronto.

If you saw the game between BC and Toronto last night, you saw Buck Pierce and Travis Lulay go down with head injuries for BC while Jarious Jackson was inconsistent.

In Toronto, Joseph and Pickett are doing battle but Pickett looked good enough and they don't seem to need a third guy and the only other QB on the roster is Stephen Reaves (practice roster) who probably won't garner much interest.

Edmonton and Saskatchewan however have some moveable pieces.

With Graham Harrell's expected arrival any week now from the injured list, Saskatchewan could part with either Steven Jyles or Dalton Bell in a trade but that would require a team give up something like a draft pick.

On the Riders practice roster is high flying quarterback Cole Bergquist and all a team would have to do is sign him and give up nothing but money to the guy.

Edmonton on the other hand has starter Ricky Ray, veteran Jason Maas and rookie Jared Zabransky.

Zabransky has shown the Eskimos enough promise to keep him on while Maas has a proven track record.

Now to the point of this article, if Pierce and/or Lulay are going to miss any significant amount of time or if Calgary decides they need more QB help or Toronto decides they need a third guy but don't want it to be Reaves then watch out for some moves.

If anyone goes I'd expect Bergquist to get signed, Bell might get dealt and Maas could go if Zabransky continues to improve.

Ex-Red Raider Graham Harrell Signs With Riders

REGINA, SSK-The Regina Leader-Post is reporting that ex-Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell has agreed in principle with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

During his collegiate career, Harrell was the 2006 Insight Bowl MVP, First Team All-Academic in the Big 12 three times, winner of the Sammy Baugh Trophy, 2008 Gator Bowl MVP, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm award winner and a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Last season he had 5,111 in the Red Raiders pass happy offense.

After going undrafted in this year's NFL Draft he tried out for the Cleveland Browns but didn't make the final roster.

Saskatchewan now has five quarterbacks, three active. Darian Durant, Steven Jyles and Dalton Bell are the active ones with ex-Montana quarterback Cole Bergquist on the practice roster.