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Sure, we all know a certain No. 4 traded shades of green this week. That news has been covered to death. But lost in the shuffle was poor ol' No. 10. Chad Pennington, who had been with the Jets since 2000, was unceremoniously released Thursday to make salary-cap room for the arrival of Brett Favre.

Certainly nobody is going to mistake Pennington's career stat line for that of the future Hall of Famer's. In fact, Pennington falls short of Favre by a whopping 360 touchdowns and 47,917 passing yards. But that doesn't mean Pennington's dismissal isn't of huge interest to the fantasy owner, especially now that he has signed with the Miami Dolphins.

Before the deal with Green Bay, we were projecting Pennington to throw for close to 2,000 yards and 11 TDs, and that was under the assumption that he and Kellen Clemens would be splitting time in New York. And still that projection showed more faith in Pennington than Tarvaris Jackson in Minnesota, Brodie Croyle in Kansas City, the duo of Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton in Chicago or whoever emerges as the primary signal-caller in Atlanta or Baltimore. It was also far more than we projected for Josh McCown, John Beck or Chad Henne in Miami, which is why we aren't surprised the Dolphins sought Pennington's services.

Pennington doesn't come with a lot of arm strength, but did you know he is the most accurate passer in NFL history (65.6 completion percentage) among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 attempts? That certainly has to make receiver Ted Ginn Jr. a nice late-round selection, and Ernest Wilford and Derek Hagan at least enter the conversation as possible fantasy bench players. No, Chad is not going to cure all the Dolphins' ills in one fell swoop, but with a little pass protection from No. 1 overall pick Jake Long, there's no reason to think he can't put up numbers comparable with say, Philip Rivers or David Garrard.

Meanwhile, we have to wonder why a few of those other teams we mentioned above as possible suitors didn't make Chad an even better offer than Miami did. Just look at what some of those teams' first preseason games were like. Orton, who got the nod as the Bears' starter by virtue of winning a coin toss, did go 7-for-10 for 56 yards against Kansas City, but he also fumbled the ball and had to take a 9-yard loss, ending a drive. Grossman wasn't any more impressive, going only 4-for-8 for 44 yards, although he did have one nice completion -- a 25-yard touchdown hookup with Garrett Wolfe. Croyle didn't hurt his team with turnovers but also didn't do much better than his backup, Damon Huard. Baltimore beat New England, but no signal-caller impressed. Kyle Boller threw an interception, Troy Smith went 5-for-12 and Joe Flacco lost a fumble.

Pennington is no longer an option for those teams, but he certainly could be a nice sleeper pick for you. And with a Week 1 contest against his former team, he definitely is motivated to get himself ready to be under center and show No. 4 exactly which one of these two AFC East quarterbacks is going to be No. 1 this season.

Other items of interest:

• In most cases, you can dismiss a freakishly big performance in a preseason game. For example, David Clowney might have had a monster game for the Jets, catching four balls for 163 yards and two scores. That doesn't mean much from a fantasy standpoint, since he's not passing either Jerricho Cotchery or Laveranues Coles on the depth chart anytime soon. That's not to say he can't continue to impress and maybe work himself into a No. 3 wide receiver role before all is said and done, but that's still a long way off. We're certainly not going to be recommending him for a 10-team league based solely on that performance.

However, some standout games, even this early in the preseason schedule, are definitely worth a closer look. Take Robert Meachem of the Saints. Meachem was the 27th overall pick in the 2007 draft, but he was inactive for all 16 games in 2007 after undergoing knee surgery. On Thursday night, Meachem caught four passes for 129 yards and a touchdown in a 24-10 win over the Cardinals. "A lot of people don't think preseason games mean a lot," Meachem said after the game. "But to people like me who didn't play the whole year, that game meant a lot."

The Saints' offense focuses heavily on the passing game, so the opportunity is there for Meachem to become a key cog in their attack. After Marques Colston, the wide receiver corps has been basically interchangeable parts, and Meachem already has served notice to Devery Henderson and Lance Moore that he's ready to grab that No. 3 job. The question now is whether or not he continues to play well enough to supplant David Patten as the No. 2 option. Stay tuned.

• Ryan Torain was a hot sleeper pick in many early drafts; the rookie running back out of Arizona State was expected to challenge Selvin Young for some of the Broncos' workload. Unfortunately, Torain broke a bone in his left elbow in practice this week, and the elbow will require surgery. Torain is expected to miss about three months. That leaves the Broncos with Young, Andre Hall and Anthony Alridge as healthy backs. (Michael Pittman is out with a hamstring injury.) It will be especially interesting to see if Alridge can rise to the occasion during preseason play. If he shows promise, take note because if there's any coach out there who likes to go with the hot hand at running back, it's Mike Shanahan.

• With Steven Jackson continuing to hold out -- with little sign of progress on the horizon -- there's an opportunity for either Brian Leonard or Antonio Pittman to step up. Pittman is suffering from a bruised thigh and missed practice time this week, but given the chance to make a play for Jackson's currently vacant starting job, we expect him to be able to play through any lingering effects. Certainly, Jackson owners or those considering becoming Jackson owners would love to see one or both of these backs (or perhaps another unexpected back like Lance Ball) step up and do well, providing Jackson a little more incentive to end his holdout, or struggle, forcing the Rams to step up their efforts to make Jackson happy.

A.J. Mass is a fantasy football, baseball and college basketball analyst for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him here.