DALLAS (AP) – In a shocking and unexpected development, Quincy Carter is no longer with the Dallas Cowboys after quarterbacking them to the playoffs last season.

Tim Brown, one of the top receivers in the NFL, is out after 16 seasons in Oakland.

It was indeed a day of departures in the NFL.

Carter’s release was a shock after he started every game in a 10-6 2003 season. That left 40-year-old Vinny Testaverde as the starter, with the untested Drew Henson and Tony Romo behind him. Henson, considered a top prospect, has never played an NFL game and has been playing baseball in the New York Yankees’ farm system for the last three years.

“We’ve made a decision to move in a different direction,” owner Jerry Jones said amid reports that Carter had failed a drug test. “We’re not going to get in a lot of detail on the process.”

Pressed on the matter, Jones added: “I think that we should leave it at it just was not a difficult decision, and not get into a definition of what it was about. You’re trying to get some information I just can’t give.”

The NFL had no comment, its standard response to drug-related inquiries.

The release of the 38-year-old Brown by the Raiders was hardly a shock.

Salary cap constraints and the reality of reduced playing time persuaded owner Al Davis to part ways with the last former member of the Los Angeles Raiders. Brown, who will be released Thursday, holds most of the club’s receiving records, and his 240 games in Silver and Black are the most in franchise history.

“It’s emotionally difficult. It’s a part of your life,” Davis said. “Other than your family, this is your family. We’ve had many great players, but there are certain players you fall for. It’s tough to lose him.”

Brown was equally emotional.

“I have fought the battle as much as I possibly could and tried to restore the image as much as possible to the Raiders,” Brown said Wednesday.

Steelers

Ben Roethlisberger was just like any other player on his first official day in a new uniform.

Nervous. Really, really nervous.

“Without question,” the Steelers first-round draft pick said Wednesday after his first training camp practice with the Pittsburgh Steelers. “It felt like the first day of minicamp all over again. Tommy (Maddox) and I were laughing about it. You need to get out there and get the first play out of the way.”

That first play was nothing remarkable for the most-watched Steelers rookie quarterback since Terry Bradshaw in 1970. Lining up under center from the 20-yard line in a 7-on-7 passing drill, Roethlisberger overthrew wide receiver Plaxico Burress near the goal line.

On the next play, Roethlisberger threaded a pass through heavy coverage to Burress at the 1. So much for nervousness or hesitancy.

Offensive tackle Mike Williams, who was fined by the team this week for missing a training-camp session, returned to practice, taking the field with the Bills’ second team.

Coach Mike Mularkey fined Williams for missing practice Tuesday, a day after being excused from the second of two practices on Monday for personal reasons.

Neither Mularkey nor team president Tom Donahoe would comment on the reason for Williams’ absence, saying only that he would be fined each day he was not at practice. They did not disclose the amount of Tuesday’s fine.

Williams had missed several voluntary minicamp sessions in June because of a death in his family. Mularkey then demoted Williams to the Bills’ second team, saying he wanted to give the tackle more time to learn the offensive system. The coach added that he expected Williams to win back his starting job.

Browns

Cornerback Daylon McCutcheon signed a five-year contract extension Wednesday with the Cleveland Browns.

McCutcheon is one of just three players, along with kicker Phil Dawson and safety Earl Little, left from that 99 Browns team that went 2-14. He is the only pick left from their original draft.

The 27-year-old McCutcheon has played in 75 games – starting 70 – for the Browns, who selected him in third round of the 1999 draft out of Southern California.

The team’s best open-field tackler, McCutcheon has eight career interceptions. Last season, he returned his only pick 75 yards for a touchdown in an Oct. 5 win at Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, starting linebacker Chaun Thompson will undergo surgery after breaking a bone in his left wrist during practice.

Browns coach Butch Davis said Thompson injured his wrist a few days ago but continued to play with it in a soft cast.

On Thursday, he’ll have a pin inserted into the wrist. The second-year linebacker is expected to miss at least the club’s first two preseason games.

Cardinals

Linebacker Karlos Dansby, the first player drafted in this year’s second round, agreed to a four-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday.

The agreement left only defensive tackle Darnell Dockett, Arizona’s third-round pick, absent from training camp, which began Sunday.

Dansby had 84 tackles and 51/2 sacks for Auburn last season, earning all-Southeastern Conference honors for the second straight year. In his 36-game career, he had 218 tackles and 10 sacks.

Jets

Wide receiver Wayne Chrebet strained his groin during the morning practice Wednesday and missed the afternoon session.

Coach Herman Edwards said Chrebet is day to day. This is an important training camp for Chrebet, going into his 10th season. Last year, he missed the final eight games of the season with postconcussion syndrome. Chrebet is fully recovered from those problems, and is working out as the No. 3 receiver.

He is the latest player to miss time with injuries. First-round pick Jonathan Vilma missed his second day of practice with a sore left calf, but Edwards said the injury isn’t serious.

Defensive tackle Josh Evans (left knee), linebacker Eric Barton (left hamstring) and safety Reggie Tongue (left calf) are among key players who also sat out Wednesday. Edwards said all four are day to day.

Chiefs

With three of Kansas City’s top four wide receivers out with injury, some promising younger players will get a chance to show what they can do during weekend scrimmages with the Minnesota Vikings.

But the injuries also mean top players in an area where the Chiefs need to improve are missing valuable practice time.

“I’d rather have them out here,” coach Dick Vermeil said Wednesday. “The stamina development, the coordination with the quarterback and the scheme, all the little things, the nuances that take place on the practice field.”

Redskins

Washington Redskins defensive tackle Brandon Noble was held out of practice Wednesday, one day after breaking his right hand in a workout.

Signed as a free agent before the start of last season to anchor Washington’s defensive line, Noble has yet to appear in a regular-season game for the Redskins. The five-year veteran tore his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments and dislocated his left kneecap in a preseason game against New England.

He had recovered well enough to participate in a March minicamp.

Noble was held out after practice Wednesday because of a break in the third metacarpal, saying that he fell on the hand during Tuesday night’s practice at a local high school.

“We’ll take a few days to let it calm down. He’s in great shape. We’ve got five weeks of camp, so he’ll be fine,” Washington assistant head coach Gregg Williams said. “That’s part of a D-lineman’s life.”

Williams said there was no definite timetable for Noble’s return, and he would not push Noble to play in the team’s preseason opener against Denver because the Redskins still have four more preseason games.