Quarterback Quinn Gray, mired for all of his career as the No. 3 quarterback on the depth chart of an AFC South team that continuously looks up at the Colts, is poised to become . . . the No. 3 quarterback on the depth chart of an AFC South team that continuously looks up at the Colts.

Gray tells the Houston Chronicle that he plans to sign with the Texans, even though his visit with the team hasn’t officially begin.  Gray says it will be a one-year deal worth $635,000, with $40,000 to sign.

For a fifth-year NFL player, that’s the minimum salary.

Gray also visited Oakland and Green Bay, and has a visit scheduled for Oakland that he doesn’t plan to take.  With the Packers, he would have had a better shot of being the No. 2 quarterback, and definitely a better shot at making the roster.  In Houston, there’s no way that he’ll leapfrog Sage Rosenfels as the primary backup to Matt Schaub.  And with more teams keeping only two quarterbacks on the active roster to start the season, there’s a chance that Gray won’t even have a job when the real games start.

So maybe, just maybe, the Texans have told Gray that they’re still thinking about trading Rosenfels.  A deal was nearly done not long ago, but they wanted a second-round pick, but the Minnesota Vikings were willing to part with only a third-rounder. 

In our view, Gray wouldn’t be prepared to take the minimum one-year salary if he thought that he’d merely be an extra arm for training camp and the preseason.  Thus, we tend to think that Gray knows something is up, and that he very well might be No. 2 on the depth chart once the season begins.