Tyler Thigpen’s Profile at Pro-Football-Reference

These link to the industry's best IRs. These are the sites that Stegman goes to, in order, if/when he's obsessing about data on the status of an injury.

• Rotoworld IR (most up to date – the Cadillac of NFL injury reports)
• CBS Sports IR  (a close 2^nd)
• ESPN IR 
• Yahoo IR
• Fanball IR
• Foxsports IR
• The Huddle.com IR
• NFL.com IR  
• NFLInjury.com IR  (decent independent blog for injury data)

The Start of a Program

Many people don't know (or care) that Thigpen attended Coastal Carolina University.  In fact, I bet you didn't even know Coastal Carolina existed, or that it was even a school.  But here's an impressive fact:  Thigpen was part of the original recruiting class at Coastal Carolina and became the 1^st ever quarterback in CC's history.  Not just that, but in only its 2^nd year of existence, Thigpen led the CC Chanticleers squad to an impressive 10-1 record.  They had better debuts than Conan O'Brien!  Needless to say, Thigpen holds every major statistical passing record at CC.  Uh huh... jaw-dropping.  Brace yourself though, 'cause we're about to take you for a ride with this next section.

The NFL Experience

No, Thigpen was not the 1^st quarterback for the Chiefs, although last season it sure seemed that way.  He took over the starting job early in the season and started the final 11 games after both of the other QBs were put on injured reserve.  With Thigpen at the helm, the team finished with a woeful 2-14 record, but with many thanks to the Detroit Lions, they weren't the worst team in football.  Despite what the team spewed out as a whole, Thigpen ended up throwing out some pretty impressive numbers in his 1^st real chance to play in the league.  Part of the reason was that the team switched to a type of spread offense not really seen in the NFL, but similar to the one Thigpen used at CC.  This offense allows for the quarterback to put up huge numbers every game, and Thigpen did just that.  He threw for 2,600 yards and rushed for almost 400, tossed 18 touchdowns (plus three rushing TDs) and 12 interceptions... all in just 11 games.  Those are some pretty staggering numbers for a guy with only two previous games of NFL experience.  So KC appeared to have their guy at the helm until...

Fantasy Outlook 2009

...the team signed free-agent quarterback Matt Cassel as part of a roster overhaul that included both a new GM and head coach.  Todd Haley of Cardinals fame is now the HWIC (doesn't have the same ring to it) in KC and hasn't declared who the starting quarterback will be in 2009.  It's understood by the entire team, including Thigpen, that it's Cassel's  job to lose, so barring some unforeseen setback to Cassel, things don't look so good for Thigpen this year.  He has the potential to be a good QB in the NFL, but it appears as if he'll spend this year as a backup.  Tyler is the only backup NFL QB that we would suggest handcuffing to someone we consider a backup fantasy QB (Matt Cassel).  Haley's offense simply loves to chuck it. This advice should be taken only if you have extra roster spots in your draft.