[Kansas City.com] As the Chiefs finished another practice without Trent Green on Thursday, coach Dick Vermeil floated the possibility that his veteran quarterback might not start Sunday against the Raiders.
“I just want to see how he feels,” Vermeil said, “and I think go from there.”
Green has started 71 straight games, a franchise record for quarterbacks, and played his best 30 minutes of the season last Sunday in San Diego just days after his father’s death. He buried his dad Wednesday in St. Louis and then called Thursday morning to say he couldn’t make the afternoon workout.
Longtime backup Todd Collins filled in for Green again and had what Vermeil called an “excellent” practice. Asked whether Collins would start Sunday, Vermeil said, “I’m not going to say.”
The issue, apparently, isn’t just about missed repetitions. Green has worked in Vermeil’s offense since their days in St. Louis, and the playbook hasn’t expanded in his two-day absence.
Vermeil just wants to make sure his quarterback is OK and said he’d know more after Green arrived in town Thursday night and practiced today.
Collins hasn’t started a game since 1997, when he was under center in Buffalo. He’s backed up Green for five seasons and had a chance to shed his clipboard duty in training camp when Green was nursing a sore shoulder. But he broke his hand in the preseason opener at Minnesota, and has yet to get in a game in 2005.
