What to Watch for in Saturday's Games That Don't Count

Saturday's preseason games may not have the excitement of Brett Favre throwing for four yards, or the unintentional hilarity that is punters peppering the bottom of a scoreboard worth more money than the entire payroll of some Major League Baseball teams, but that doesn't mean there's not some intriguing things to watch for as Week 2 of the NFL preseason rolls on.

Jay Cutler makes his debut in Chicago, Kyle Orton gets another shot under center for the Broncos without the services of Brandon Marshall, and the Lions and Browns continue their quarterback competitions.

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Quarterback competitions in Cleveland

Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft, makes his first start for the Lions on Saturday night as he continues to battle it out with veteran Daunte Culpepper for the starting job. Stafford made his debut with the Lions in last week's 27-26 win over the Falcons and finished 7-of-14 passing, a mark that would have been better had wide receiver Keary Colbert not suffered a case of the drops. The Browns, meanwhile, have a quarterback competition of their own involving Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson. Anderson was simply dreadful in his limited action in Cleveland's 17-0 loss to Green Bay, while all three Browns quarterbacks (Anderson, Quinn and Brett Ratliff) combined for zero touchdowns and four interceptions in their preseason opener.

Can Kyle Orton avoid turning the ball over every series?

Kyle Orton had a disastrous Broncos debut last week, tossing three interceptions in Denver's 17-16 loss in San Francisco. First-year head coach Josh McDaniels didn't appear to be all that concerned with the results, saying, "That'll be something that we can fix and move forward from. You evaluate those plays and those mistakes, why they happened, what caused them, whether it's a [quarterback] decision or a miscommunication. "There are a lot of things that go into playing quarterback. Certainly [Orton] made a lot of mistakes tonight. But I haven't lost faith in him and neither have our players."

Orton and the Broncos travel to Seattle on Saturday night, and will be doing so, once again, without the services of disgruntled wide receiver Brandon Marshall who didn't even make the trip with the team.

Jay Cutler makes his debut in Chicago

Bears fans will get their first chance to see their new franchise quarterback, Jay Cutler, in person on Saturday night as Chicago hosts Eli Manning and the New York Giants. Cutler struggled in his first start with the Bears -- though, not as much as his predecessor, Kyle Orton, struggled in his debut with his new team -- completing just 50 percent of his passes (5-for-10) and tossing an interception. The Bears' starters figure to play more this week than they did in Buffalo, while starting running back Matt Forte will make his preseason debut after sitting out the 27-20 loss against the Bills last Saturday.

Can Byron Leftwich secure the starting job in Tampa Bay?

Saturday is a big night for Byron Leftwich as reports out of Tampa Bay seem to suggest that he can lock up the No. 1 quarterback job with a strong showing against the Jacksonville Jaguars. According to Stephen F. Holder of the St. Petersburg Times, the Bucs are expected to name their starter sometime next week, while Leftwich and Luke McCown appear to be the front-runners for the job. Neither quarterback lit up the scoreboard during Tampa Bay's preseason opener in Tennessee, but Leftwich was the better of the two, even though he completed just six of his 14 passes for 61 yards and a touchdown - a 24-yard pass to Brian Clark early in the second quarter.

The Oakland circus travels across the bay

The Oakland Raiders have been in the news quite a bit this week, and unfortunately it's been for all of the wrong reasons. Of course, it's time to play football again, and the Raiders make the short trip to San Francisco on Saturday night for a throwdown with 49ers. It could have been an interesting game to see how No. 7 overall pick Darrius Heyward-Bey would perform in comparison to No. 10 overall pick Michael Crabtree, but the 49ers' top pick remains unsigned while Heyward-Bey is coming off an underwhelming preseason debut that saw him catch one pass for eight yards. The Raiders are going to need him to develop quickly, especially since Chaz Schilens is going to miss some time with a foot injury.

As for the rest of Saturday's action...

Pittsburgh at Washington, 7:30 PM ET

Even though it seems unlikely that he'll play, there's still no word on whether or not Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will see the field after suffering an Achilles injury in practice on Thursday. Second-year quarterback Denis Dixon, however, is expected to see quite a bit of playing time as he still has a shot -- a slim one, it would seem -- to take the No. 2 job from veteran Charlie Batch.

The Redskins were shutout in their preseason opener against Baltimore, 23-0, but starting quarterback Jason Campbell was still encouraged with what he saw from his offensive line, telling Jason Reid of the Washington Post, "They ran a lot of stuff at us and we handled it. The communication was there. We saw what we need to do and all the guys did a great job of talking. A lot of times, if you have that communication working, you can get stuff blocked and get a chance to make a play. So when I saw that the changes we made worked, you have to feel good about that." He'll need the same type of protection against a Pittsburgh defense that sacked him seven times a season ago.

Carolina at Miami, 7:30 PM ET

We know that Chad Pennington is Miami's starter for 2009, but he's a free agent following the season and the development of youngsters Chad Henne and/or Pat White could be a deciding factor in whether or not the Dolphins decide to keep Pennington. Henne was impressive in last week's 12-9 win over Jacksonville, hooking up with Ernest Wilford on a 33-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Pat White, on the other hand, struggled, going just 2-for-7 for 14 yards and a pick.

The Panthers, meanwhile, are continuing to search for answers on the interior of their defensive line after allowing the Giants to rush for 139 yards on 32 carries Monday night. Miami should be another strong test for Carolina as it brings in its two-headed monster of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams.

New Orleans at Houston, 8:00 PM ET

Our resident Texans expert, Stephanie Stradley, points me in the direction of backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who is expected to see quite a bit of playing time on Saturday. Texans fans might be interested to see how he can handle the offense in the event starting quarterback Matt Schaub misses time like he did last season. Orlovsky struggled against Kansas City last week, completing just nine of his 20 attempts for 121 yards. You can insert your own joke about how at least he didn't run out of the end zone.

Buffalo at Green Bay, 8:00 PM ET

Bruce Ciskie is in Green Bay for tonight's game and has everything of interest already covered.

San Diego at Arizona, 10:00 PM ET

The big story in Arizona this preseason has been the possibility of Matt Leinart losing the backup quarterback job to career-journeyman Brian St. Pierre. Neither one of them did much to distance themselves in the competition in the preseason opener, and, frankly, they were probably outplayed by Tyler Palko who engineered the Cardinals' only touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter.

The San Diego starters are expected to play the entire first half, while its secondary is worth watching to see how it performs against the high-powered Arizona passing attack.