Is Daunte Culpepper Being Blackballed?

Mike Florio of the outstanding ProFootballTalk.com asked this very question yesterday. Florio, who's about as plugged into the league as it gets, isn't sure why it would be happening, but had one NFL executive tell him Culpepper is, indeed being blackballed. However, Florio wonders if because Daunte has no agent that other agents are badmouthing him to teams. Peter King, in his MMQB Mailbag, doesn't think he's being blackballed, but when you look at some of the QB situations around the league right now, it sure seems fishy that Daunte couldn't find a backup job somewhere.

In fact, SI's Don Banks ranks the backup QB's for every team in the league. Look at that list: isn't Daunte better than pretty much EVERYBODY listed there? Since he got hurt and completely fell apart in Minnesota in 2005, Daunte has has QB ratings of 72, 77, and 77. Not great, but not horrible either. His completion percentages the last three years has been 64.4, 60.4, and 58.4. Anything over 60% is considered good in the NFL, and Daunte's been right around there. His one failing has been INT's, as he's thrown 20 picks to just 13 TD's (he has run for 5 more) in his last 17 starts. Still, look up the numbers for some of the current starters and backups in the league right now, and Daunte is a MUCH better option. Hell, Trent Green in St Louis is listed as the 7th best backup, JP Losman- who has done NOTHING in the league so far- 9th, and 10th is the horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE Rex Grossman in Chicago. DAUNTE IS BETTER THAN ALL OF THOSE GUYS!!!!

Florio wonders if Daunte's whining in Minnesota and Miami is hurting his reputation, which would make the most sense of anything, but it still doesn't explain to me why he can't find at least a backup job somewhere right now. Will be interesting to see if he can find a job this year.