Matt Leinart starting for the Buffalo Bills during their preseason finale

All you need to know about how abysmal the Buffalo Bills quarterbacking carousel of horrors has been can be summed up in how quickly Matt Leinart has went from out of the NFL to high up on the Bills depth chart.

Five days ago, Matt Leinart wasn’t even an active NFL player. Tonight he’s a starter in one of the weirder situations in a preseason that has been filled with quirky cameo appearances (Graham Harrell and Vince Young in Green Bay anyone?).

In an announcement that demonstrates both how ugly Buffalo’s quarterback situation is and how meaningless the fourth week of the preseason is, the Bills announced that Leinart will start at quarterback for them tonight in the preseason finale against the Lions just hours before kickoff, something that made this Bills-Lions game much more interesting.

The Bills are desperate at quarterback because both of the players who were competing to start, EJ Manuel and Kevin Kolb, are recovering from injuries which has flipped the Bills plans under center upside down. Jeff Tuel, an undrafted rookie, is expected to open the regular season as the Bills’ starter. Tuel will likely see little to no playing time as the Bills can’t afford to risk another quarterback at this point.

The Bills also have quarterback Thaddeus Lewis on the roster, and he is expected to come on in place of Leinart at some point during the game. Still I don’t think Leinart will be complaining as he has a chance to audition to get back into the NFL and will have plenty of playing time to do so.