Every so often when I am reading through the sports news of the day I find myself thinking that a story is important, only to realize that it really isn’t after thinking about it for a while. There are a two that fit into that category today:

Dan Orlovsky is headed to the IR – Detroit’s starting QB is probably going to wind up on the injured reserve after breaking his thumb in two places and damaging a ligament. That means that the Lions are going to be without there starting QB. Normally that matters, but here it doesn’t really. First, Orlovsky isn’t a great player. He’s better than the public gives him credit for, but he’s not a huge improvement over either of the team’s other two options. Second, he probably wasn’t going to play this weekend anyway, or if he was he was going to be on a short leash. The team is desperate enough to try anything that might get them a win – especially at home – and that means that they will put Daunte Culpepper in even if he isn’t ready. At the very least that will appease the home fans for a while. In short, Orlovsky’s injury will have very little impact on the line, and only slightly more on the outcome of the game. Quarterbacking is a problem for the Lions, but so is every other position group. The team could have a quarterback who is a whole lot better than Orlovsky or Culpepper and they would still be in trouble.

DeAngelo Hall signs with the Redskins – One of the strangest weeks any player has ever lived through comes to an end with the signing of a one year contract with the Redskins. He goes from making millions in Oakland to pulling in less than half a million with the Redskins. I put this signing in the same impact category as the Jason Taylor one – not much impact at all. He was only barely effective in Oakland, and he goes somewhere where he doesn’t know the team, the players, or the system. He’s good enough that he should be able to figure it out sooner rather than later, but his impact isn’t going to be the same as if he were at the prime right away, and probably not at any point this season. As messed up as the Raiders are, they wouldn’t have cut Hall if he was playing like a star. Hall is also a diva-type player, and I’m not convinced that Jim Zorn is going to like that much.