Texans to start Ryan Mallett:

You know what they say. If you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have any quarterbacks. The Houston Texans seem to once again already be in that situation. The Texans have been one of those teams that seem like they’re always in perpetual quarterback purgatory.

After making comments during the preseason that he wouldn’t have opening day starter Brian Hoyer on a short leash, Houston head coach Bill O’Brien will reportedly make the move to Ryan Mallett Sunday after Hoyer went just 18 for 34, with 236 yards, with a touchdown and a pick.

Sources: #Texans are poised to make a quarterback change. They are preparing to play with QB Ryan Mallett as their starter vs. the #Panthers

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 16, 2015

Mallett looked much smoother than Hoyer on Sunday, going 8 for 13, for 98 yards, with a touchdown, but it can’t be overlooked that Mallett’s came when the Kansas City Chiefs had the victory in hand.

There was a Presidential debate on Wednesday night, and if there’s anything we know from politics, it’s that the American people aren’t huge fans of flip-floppers, and O’Brien making a move at the quarterback position before Hoyer had finished his first game as Houston’s starter can’t be inspiring a lot of confidence in Texans fans.

Mallett will get the start against a Carolina Panthers team with its own offensive issues, and a banged up Luke Kuechly. If Mallett can help lead Houston to a victory, maybe he’ll get a leash a little longer than Hoyer did.

In the end, it looks like O’Brien won’t be patient enough for either guy to be comfortable that a mistake won’t cost them their job, and that’s not a positive environment for any quarterback.

NFL reinstates Patriots staffers:

The NFL and the New England Patriots will likely never see eye to eye on the way things have transpired over the last several months since the league began an investigation into ball pressure at the AFC Championship Game.

On top of fining the Patriots, taking New England’s first-round draft pick in 2016, and suspending starting quarterback Tom Brady, the league suspended the two staffers they believed were responsible for the tampering of footballs, John Jastremski, and Jim McNally.

Despite the fact the league is still appealing Judge Richard Berman’s decision to overturn Brady’s four-game suspension, The Patriots asked the NFL to reinstate Jastremski and McNally. In what may be the closest thing to an olive branch as we’ve seen during this entire situation, the team announced that the league had indeed granted New England’s request.

“Last week, the New England Patriots requested the reinstatement of both John Jastremski and Jim McNally. The Patriots have satisfied the league’s requirements for reinstatement and the league has granted permission for the employees to return,” the team said in a statement about the league’s decision to allow Jastremski and McNally to return.

It’s great to see these two get their jobs back. Whatever they did or didn’t do with footballs leading into this investigation, there’s little chance they did anything without some direction from someone within the organization. In a sport where just about everyone else in the building is being paid very well, it would be wrong to see a couple of jobbers lose their gigs over something they obviously didn’t do on their own.

The Patriots didn’t stop by bringing McNally and Jastremski back to the staff on Wednesday, they also added some depth to the receiving corps by trading for Houston Texans wide receiver Keshawn Martin.

Martin has flashed in Houston since being selected in the fourth-round in 2012, but he’s never been able to get too many opportunities to make an impact while with the Texans. That will change in New England, where Brady throws the football all over the field, and to multiple targets.

This is Martin’s best chance to become an impact player in this league. We’ll see if he can take advantage of being in one of the NFL’s most prolific offenses with one of the best quarterbacks ever.

Adam Jones fined $35,000 for slamming Amari Cooper’s head into his own helmet:

In a league where the rules have been drastically altered to attempt to minimize the opportunity for head injuries, it seems absolutely absurd that Adam “Pac Man” Jones was only fined for intentionally ripping off the helmet of another player, only to slam that players head down onto his helmet as he did to Oakland Raiders’ rookie receiver Amari Cooper on Sunday.

Surprisingly, Cooper didn’t seem angry about the incident most would consider assault when speaking after the game.

“I mean, it’s football,” Cooper said. “It’s a physical game so you kind of expect it.”

The situation didn’t seem to be a big deal to Jones either who said he didn’t expect to be fined or suspended when asked after the game, and instead pushed back about how he doesn’t back down from anyone.

“Whatever you saw happen, that’s what happened,” Jones said. “I’m just here to play football. I don’t back down from anybody and I’m not out here trying to start anything. I’m just out here playing football.”

Even after receiving the lofty fine from the NFL, Jones was unapologetic and even insisted that it could happen again.

“I can’t promise it won’t happen again,” Jones said, Via Fox 19 News. “I’m an emotional player.”

Jones can call himself an emotional player or whatever else he wants, but if you watch that video, he sure looks a lot more like the guy whose friends once shot a pair of men he threated, leaving one man paralyzed.

Whether or not the NFL has enough on Jones to ban him from the league shouldn’t matter.  NFL teams should want nothing to do with him.  His presence is a stain on any uniform he wears, and his actions against Cooper on Sunday, followed by his ridiculous comments showing that he’ll never get it only go to further prove that point.

Enjoy rooting for that, Bengals fans.