Browns trade Frye after dismal opener

Charlie Frye went from starter to starting over, and Brady Quinn moved up a notch.

In two days, the Cleveland Browns’ complicated, confusing and crowded quarterback carousel took a dizzying spin.

Frye, benched before halftime in Sunday’s season opener, was traded to Seattle for a sixth-round draft pick Tuesday, a stunningly swift move that raises Quinn, the Browns’ high-profile rookie quarterback, to No. 2 on the depth chart.

The Browns will start Derek Anderson, who lost the quarterback competition to Frye during the exhibition season, at home Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Cleveland’s trade of Frye is unprecedented. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he’s the first quarterback since the NFL/AFL merger in 1970 to start his team’s season opener and be traded before Week 2. Frye completed four of 10 passes for 34 yards with an interception and was sacked five times before being benched.

The Browns, embarrassed 34-7 by the Pittsburgh Steelers in their home opener, will go into Week 2 with three quarterbacks; only one of them, third-stringer Ken Dorsey, has won an NFL game.

Commissioner Roger Goodell has determined that the New England Patriots violated league rules Sunday when they videotaped defensive signals by the New York Jets’ coaches, according to league sources.

NFL security officials confiscated a camera and videotape from Patriots video assistant Matt Estrella on the sidelines when it was suspected he was recording the Jets’ defensive signals.

Goodell is considering severe sanctions, including the possibility of docking the Patriots “multiple draft picks” because it is the competitive violation in the wake of a stern warning to all teams since he became commissioner, the sources said.

St. Louis Rams defensive tackle Claude Wroten was suspended without pay for four games for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

The second-year player out of Louisiana State, a third-round draft pick in 2006, also failed a drug test at the NFL combine.

The Philadelphia Eagles solved their punt return problems by re-signing Reno Mahe, a sure-handed veteran released after last season.

J.R. Reed was released to make room for Mahe. Reed and Greg Lewis each had costly fumbles in a 16-13 loss to Green Bay in the opener. Neither player had returned a punt in a regular-season game before Sunday.

Disappointed with kicker Justin Medlock, the Kansas City Chiefs signed Dave Rayner to a two-year contract.

Medlock, a former UCLA standout, was 0 for 4 on field-goal attempts in the exhibition season and missed a 30-yarder in the regular-season opener.

Rayner was drafted by Indianapolis in 2005 and beaten out in Green Bay this year by rookie Mason Crosby.

Medlock was expected to be kept on the practice squad.

Veteran John Carney, 43, signed a one-year contract with Jacksonville, giving the Jaguars a replacement for injured placekicker Josh Scobee (strained right quadriceps).