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by Jeff Legwold, Special to FOXSports.com
Updated: June 5, 2009, 4:21 PM EDT
It's been an offseason all right, as in off-kilter, offbeat and off-key. Just pick a drama, any drama.
There are more than enough no-shows, contract complaints, playing time beefs, general turmoil and uncertainty about a long list of high-profile injuries to go around.
And with all of that, there are those who must live with the fact that "comfortable'' is somebody else's deal, because the heat index is already plenty high for them — and it ain't even summer yet.
They can deny, deny, deny, but here are those already feeling the warmth.
Players
1. Albert Haynesworth, Commanders defensive tackle: No player in the league, especially no non-quarterback, may have more pressure on him than Haynesworth this season.
He is the $100 million man. And that is a potentially spirit-crushing burden, especially considering consistency has not always been his hallmark as a player. When on, he dominates the point of attack with rare quickness for a man his size. But he's been hurt plenty, has had some off-the-field troubles and has not always practiced the way he should, especially early in his career.
2. Kyle Orton, Broncos quarterback/Jay Cutler, Bears quarterback: They go together now, like a set of traded cuff links.
Cutler is now expected to be the face of a team desperate for one while Orton now takes his turn on the he's-not-Elway merry-go-round that has crushed the spirit of Brian Griese, Plummer and Cutler at times before him.
And Cutler may not have a top receiver outside tight end Greg Olsen at this point, while Orton's top wideout — Brandon Marshall — is currently working on a contract dispute (he has asked for a new deal and the team is more inclined to a wait-and-see approach given his off-the-field issues), as well as coming off hip surgery.
3. Tony Romo, Cowboys quarterback: With Owens' release, it is most certainly — good or bad, happy or sad — Romo's team now.
Fans snipe at his high-profile girlfriends, his vacation plans and how much time he spends on the golf course. That's because he doesn't have a playoff win to go with his $65 million contract.
And until he does, folks will continue to snipe.
4. JaMarcus Russell, Raiders quarterback: He was the No. 1 pick in the '07 draft and has all of 16 starts to his resume.
Big arm, big body, still big potential, but he has a competition-scarred veteran behind him in Jeff Garcia, who has already stated publicly that he is not too content being a backup.
5. LaDainian Tomlinson, Chargers running back: Franchise pillar or no franchise pillar, the Chargers still asked him to re-work his contract to come back in '09 and beyond — he forfeited roughly $6 million in salary over the next three seasons with a chance to earn $2 million back with some incentives in 2010.
He turns 30 this month — which is often the witching hour in a running back's career — and has finished the last two seasons with injuries.
Head coaches
1. Wade Phillips, Cowboys: When your team owner slaps a gag order on everybody except himself, which is exactly what Jerry Jones did earlier this offseason, it isn't a good sign that he's all that interested in what anybody else has to say.
Toss in a new palatial new stadium with a mountain of debt service along for the ride, and you have a recipe for an owner desperate for wins to sell all that he needs to sell, with patience being pretty far down the things-to-do list.
2. Jim Zorn, Commanders: Two words: Mike. Shanahan. With two years left on his Broncos deal at $7 million per, Shanahan is living the good life these days, but he's a coach from top to bottom and he will certainly coach again.
Snyder has a big enough wallet, ego and desire to make the biggest splashes in the corporate pond, and if you want a leader in the where's-Shanny-going-to-coach sweepstakes, Washington is without question the "it" team.
Zorn arrived in D.C. as an offensive coach last season, but only St. Louis (2-14) scored fewer points in the NFC last season.
3. Jim Caldwell, Colts: Wow, and he thought coaching at Wake Forest was hard.
Caldwell was Tony Dungy's hand-picked replacement, but the team has had plenty of turnover on the coaching staff and its franchise quarterback — Peyton Manning — recently said publicly he didn't think everyone in the organization is on the same page.
An ancient football proverb says if the big-time quarterback sneezes too often, first-year head coach gets career pneumonia.
4. Dick Jauron, Bills: The publicly reserved Jauron suddenly finds himself the ringmaster in Cirque du Owens, the team hasn't made the playoffs in his three seasons and no team fears empty seats more than the one he works for in an economically challenged, smaller market with one of the league's biggest stadiums.
Just do the math.
5. Gary Kubiak, Texans: Texans owner Bob McNair has made no secret of his desire to be a playoff team, like yesterday.
Kubiak is one of the classiest people in the league and holds a dream job in his hometown. But he has yet to get a quarterback to play as well for him in Houston as he got Jake Plummer to play in Denver — in '05, the Broncos had a home game for the AFC Championship — and until he does, his seat will be warm.
Coordinators
1. Mike Nolan, Broncos defensive coordinator: When the '09 season opens, Nolan will be the fourth coordinator to call the defensive signals for the Broncos in the last four years.
And try this nugget on for size: The Broncos are one of only three teams to have surrendered at least 400 points in each of the past two seasons. Detroit (0-16 in 2008 and 7-9 in 2007) and St. Louis (2-14 and 3-13) are the others.
Certainly not the kind of company to keep. Some of the 49ers players have grumbled privately that Nolan tried to do too much as he mixed and matched 3-4 principles to go with some 4-3 in his time as the team's head coach, that the scheme had nothing to lean on as its bread and butter.
Early minicamp practices show he's going to attempt that hybrid look once again with the Broncos, as well.
2. Clyde Christensen, Colts assistant head coach/receivers: Christensen is basically the interim coordinator until the team figures out how to bring back Tom Moore as well as offensive line coach Howard Mudd as "consultants.''
The two retired to protect their pensions. So Christensen has to mind the store until then and try to keep the league's most proficient offense over the last decade on the tracks.
3. Nick Caserio, Patriots director of player personnel/Bill O'Brien, Patriots quarterbacks coach: Some folks wondered why the Patriots were so intent on bringing former long-time Titans general manager Floyd Reese on board earlier this year when Caserio was expected to have a big hand in the team's personnel department with Scott Pioli's departure.
It may be because Bill Belichick has had Caserio coaching on the field with the offense in offseason work with former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels' departure. O'Brien, the team's quarterbacks coach, was promoted to that job when McDaniels left, as well.
With Tom Brady back, the two find a hefty helping of expectations greeting them.
4. Chuck Cecil, Titans defensive coordinator: The Titans finished 13-3 last season and let home-field advantage get away — a re-do of the 2000 season — against Baltimore in the playoffs.
Cecil has never called defenses before, but was promoted by Jeff Fisher to do just that. Fisher is there to lean on as is linebackers coach Dave McGinnis, but Cecil could feel the squeeze from time to time if the team doesn't play with the edge it needs to in order to be in the AFC's playoff mix.
5. Ron Turner, Bears offensive coordinator: Well, Fate tossed a Pro Bowl quarterback in his lap in Cutler, but the offense may not be built for the strong-armed Indiana native.
The Bears have largely been a two-back, checkdown affair, and they still have plenty of questions at wide receiver. Oh, and if memory serves, Turner was Illinois' head coach when the school, Cutler has always maintained, pulled a scholarship offer to the then run-and-gun Heritage Hills High School quarterback.
So, Cutler went to Vanderbilt, Turner got fired and what went around has come back around.
General managers
1. Rick Smith, Texans: See: Kubiak, Gary. He's got an owner with a jones for the postseason who also shares a state with the Cowboys.
That whole drafting Mario Williams ahead of Reggie Bush deal is working out quite nicely for the Texans, but they have to find a way to make enough waves in a brutal division to leapfrog somebody, or Bob McNair will decide at some point to find someone who will.
2. Scott Pioli, Chiefs: Whether it's right or wrong, there is a perception around the league that those who work for Bill Belichick in New England simply carry out orders rather than give them, and listen to decisions rather than make them.
And that, as a result, some have struggled out on their own when they have left the walled city of Foxborough — Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini and Charlie Weis.
Thomas Dimitroff has succeeded thus far in Atlanta, and now Pioli now gets his chance.
3. A.J. Smith, Chargers: Football people — Shanahan did it without fail in recent seasons — have consistently tossed the weighty label of "most talented'' on the Chargers. Yet they have not played in a Super Bowl in Smith's tenure.
Their cornerstone players aren't getting any younger, so the clock is running.
4. Bill Polian, Colts: He has plenty of success tucked away in his resumé, but he is facing the most change, the most roster uncertainty, in his time in Indianapolis. Dungy was also often the yin to Polian's volatile, emotional yang.
And Polian is getting increasingly tested in replacing players like Edgerrin James, Jeff Saturday and Marvin Harrison as he tries to keep his Manning-led roster in the hunt.
5. Rod Graves, Cardinals: Four of the five teams that lost the Super Bowl before his did this past February did not make the playoffs the following season.
That puts him squarely in the hot zone as the Cardinals now wrestle with trying to avoid being just a one-time confetti show.
Teams
1. Cowboys: If things were really going the way Jones had planned, the team's new digs would have something else besides "Cowboys Stadium'' on the marquee, as well as a big check to go with it.
The team is essentially living in the past, is swimming in expenses and hasn't won a playoff game since 1996.
That's America's team all right, stuck in a prolonged recession and staring at a hefty mortgage.
2. Broncos: Owner Pat Bowlen fired the team's winningest coach and green-lit a trade of a Pro Bowl quarterback rather than simply demanding Cutler and McDaniels get in a room one on one and hammer out their differences.
Bowlen has simply gambled that change will return him to glory.
3. Bills: The bottom line is that if you're comfortable, happy and unconcerned about your future, you don't sign Terrell Owens.
4. Bears: This team has won just two playoffs games — both to close out the 2007 season on the way to Super Bowl XLI — since the start of the 1995 season.
The patience meter is on E.
5. Buccaneers: Much like the Broncos, they sent a Super Bowl-winning coach packing with hopes a change could lead to something more.
Raheem Morris was on plenty of short lists for head coaching candidates, and has impressed those who have interviewed him. But he had not yet been a coordinator in a game, and is now running the show.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9642334/NFL-Heat-Index:-Who's-on-the-hot-seat?
Updated: June 5, 2009, 4:21 PM EDT
It's been an offseason all right, as in off-kilter, offbeat and off-key. Just pick a drama, any drama.
There are more than enough no-shows, contract complaints, playing time beefs, general turmoil and uncertainty about a long list of high-profile injuries to go around.
And with all of that, there are those who must live with the fact that "comfortable'' is somebody else's deal, because the heat index is already plenty high for them — and it ain't even summer yet.
They can deny, deny, deny, but here are those already feeling the warmth.
Players
1. Albert Haynesworth, Commanders defensive tackle: No player in the league, especially no non-quarterback, may have more pressure on him than Haynesworth this season.
He is the $100 million man. And that is a potentially spirit-crushing burden, especially considering consistency has not always been his hallmark as a player. When on, he dominates the point of attack with rare quickness for a man his size. But he's been hurt plenty, has had some off-the-field troubles and has not always practiced the way he should, especially early in his career.
2. Kyle Orton, Broncos quarterback/Jay Cutler, Bears quarterback: They go together now, like a set of traded cuff links.
Cutler is now expected to be the face of a team desperate for one while Orton now takes his turn on the he's-not-Elway merry-go-round that has crushed the spirit of Brian Griese, Plummer and Cutler at times before him.
And Cutler may not have a top receiver outside tight end Greg Olsen at this point, while Orton's top wideout — Brandon Marshall — is currently working on a contract dispute (he has asked for a new deal and the team is more inclined to a wait-and-see approach given his off-the-field issues), as well as coming off hip surgery.
3. Tony Romo, Cowboys quarterback: With Owens' release, it is most certainly — good or bad, happy or sad — Romo's team now.
Fans snipe at his high-profile girlfriends, his vacation plans and how much time he spends on the golf course. That's because he doesn't have a playoff win to go with his $65 million contract.
And until he does, folks will continue to snipe.
4. JaMarcus Russell, Raiders quarterback: He was the No. 1 pick in the '07 draft and has all of 16 starts to his resume.
Big arm, big body, still big potential, but he has a competition-scarred veteran behind him in Jeff Garcia, who has already stated publicly that he is not too content being a backup.
5. LaDainian Tomlinson, Chargers running back: Franchise pillar or no franchise pillar, the Chargers still asked him to re-work his contract to come back in '09 and beyond — he forfeited roughly $6 million in salary over the next three seasons with a chance to earn $2 million back with some incentives in 2010.
He turns 30 this month — which is often the witching hour in a running back's career — and has finished the last two seasons with injuries.
Head coaches
1. Wade Phillips, Cowboys: When your team owner slaps a gag order on everybody except himself, which is exactly what Jerry Jones did earlier this offseason, it isn't a good sign that he's all that interested in what anybody else has to say.
Toss in a new palatial new stadium with a mountain of debt service along for the ride, and you have a recipe for an owner desperate for wins to sell all that he needs to sell, with patience being pretty far down the things-to-do list.
2. Jim Zorn, Commanders: Two words: Mike. Shanahan. With two years left on his Broncos deal at $7 million per, Shanahan is living the good life these days, but he's a coach from top to bottom and he will certainly coach again.
Snyder has a big enough wallet, ego and desire to make the biggest splashes in the corporate pond, and if you want a leader in the where's-Shanny-going-to-coach sweepstakes, Washington is without question the "it" team.
Zorn arrived in D.C. as an offensive coach last season, but only St. Louis (2-14) scored fewer points in the NFC last season.
3. Jim Caldwell, Colts: Wow, and he thought coaching at Wake Forest was hard.
Caldwell was Tony Dungy's hand-picked replacement, but the team has had plenty of turnover on the coaching staff and its franchise quarterback — Peyton Manning — recently said publicly he didn't think everyone in the organization is on the same page.
An ancient football proverb says if the big-time quarterback sneezes too often, first-year head coach gets career pneumonia.
4. Dick Jauron, Bills: The publicly reserved Jauron suddenly finds himself the ringmaster in Cirque du Owens, the team hasn't made the playoffs in his three seasons and no team fears empty seats more than the one he works for in an economically challenged, smaller market with one of the league's biggest stadiums.
Just do the math.
5. Gary Kubiak, Texans: Texans owner Bob McNair has made no secret of his desire to be a playoff team, like yesterday.
Kubiak is one of the classiest people in the league and holds a dream job in his hometown. But he has yet to get a quarterback to play as well for him in Houston as he got Jake Plummer to play in Denver — in '05, the Broncos had a home game for the AFC Championship — and until he does, his seat will be warm.
Coordinators
1. Mike Nolan, Broncos defensive coordinator: When the '09 season opens, Nolan will be the fourth coordinator to call the defensive signals for the Broncos in the last four years.
And try this nugget on for size: The Broncos are one of only three teams to have surrendered at least 400 points in each of the past two seasons. Detroit (0-16 in 2008 and 7-9 in 2007) and St. Louis (2-14 and 3-13) are the others.
Certainly not the kind of company to keep. Some of the 49ers players have grumbled privately that Nolan tried to do too much as he mixed and matched 3-4 principles to go with some 4-3 in his time as the team's head coach, that the scheme had nothing to lean on as its bread and butter.
Early minicamp practices show he's going to attempt that hybrid look once again with the Broncos, as well.
2. Clyde Christensen, Colts assistant head coach/receivers: Christensen is basically the interim coordinator until the team figures out how to bring back Tom Moore as well as offensive line coach Howard Mudd as "consultants.''
The two retired to protect their pensions. So Christensen has to mind the store until then and try to keep the league's most proficient offense over the last decade on the tracks.
3. Nick Caserio, Patriots director of player personnel/Bill O'Brien, Patriots quarterbacks coach: Some folks wondered why the Patriots were so intent on bringing former long-time Titans general manager Floyd Reese on board earlier this year when Caserio was expected to have a big hand in the team's personnel department with Scott Pioli's departure.
It may be because Bill Belichick has had Caserio coaching on the field with the offense in offseason work with former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels' departure. O'Brien, the team's quarterbacks coach, was promoted to that job when McDaniels left, as well.
With Tom Brady back, the two find a hefty helping of expectations greeting them.
4. Chuck Cecil, Titans defensive coordinator: The Titans finished 13-3 last season and let home-field advantage get away — a re-do of the 2000 season — against Baltimore in the playoffs.
Cecil has never called defenses before, but was promoted by Jeff Fisher to do just that. Fisher is there to lean on as is linebackers coach Dave McGinnis, but Cecil could feel the squeeze from time to time if the team doesn't play with the edge it needs to in order to be in the AFC's playoff mix.
5. Ron Turner, Bears offensive coordinator: Well, Fate tossed a Pro Bowl quarterback in his lap in Cutler, but the offense may not be built for the strong-armed Indiana native.
The Bears have largely been a two-back, checkdown affair, and they still have plenty of questions at wide receiver. Oh, and if memory serves, Turner was Illinois' head coach when the school, Cutler has always maintained, pulled a scholarship offer to the then run-and-gun Heritage Hills High School quarterback.
So, Cutler went to Vanderbilt, Turner got fired and what went around has come back around.
General managers
1. Rick Smith, Texans: See: Kubiak, Gary. He's got an owner with a jones for the postseason who also shares a state with the Cowboys.
That whole drafting Mario Williams ahead of Reggie Bush deal is working out quite nicely for the Texans, but they have to find a way to make enough waves in a brutal division to leapfrog somebody, or Bob McNair will decide at some point to find someone who will.
2. Scott Pioli, Chiefs: Whether it's right or wrong, there is a perception around the league that those who work for Bill Belichick in New England simply carry out orders rather than give them, and listen to decisions rather than make them.
And that, as a result, some have struggled out on their own when they have left the walled city of Foxborough — Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini and Charlie Weis.
Thomas Dimitroff has succeeded thus far in Atlanta, and now Pioli now gets his chance.
3. A.J. Smith, Chargers: Football people — Shanahan did it without fail in recent seasons — have consistently tossed the weighty label of "most talented'' on the Chargers. Yet they have not played in a Super Bowl in Smith's tenure.
Their cornerstone players aren't getting any younger, so the clock is running.
4. Bill Polian, Colts: He has plenty of success tucked away in his resumé, but he is facing the most change, the most roster uncertainty, in his time in Indianapolis. Dungy was also often the yin to Polian's volatile, emotional yang.
And Polian is getting increasingly tested in replacing players like Edgerrin James, Jeff Saturday and Marvin Harrison as he tries to keep his Manning-led roster in the hunt.
5. Rod Graves, Cardinals: Four of the five teams that lost the Super Bowl before his did this past February did not make the playoffs the following season.
That puts him squarely in the hot zone as the Cardinals now wrestle with trying to avoid being just a one-time confetti show.
Teams
1. Cowboys: If things were really going the way Jones had planned, the team's new digs would have something else besides "Cowboys Stadium'' on the marquee, as well as a big check to go with it.
The team is essentially living in the past, is swimming in expenses and hasn't won a playoff game since 1996.
That's America's team all right, stuck in a prolonged recession and staring at a hefty mortgage.
2. Broncos: Owner Pat Bowlen fired the team's winningest coach and green-lit a trade of a Pro Bowl quarterback rather than simply demanding Cutler and McDaniels get in a room one on one and hammer out their differences.
Bowlen has simply gambled that change will return him to glory.
3. Bills: The bottom line is that if you're comfortable, happy and unconcerned about your future, you don't sign Terrell Owens.
4. Bears: This team has won just two playoffs games — both to close out the 2007 season on the way to Super Bowl XLI — since the start of the 1995 season.
The patience meter is on E.
5. Buccaneers: Much like the Broncos, they sent a Super Bowl-winning coach packing with hopes a change could lead to something more.
Raheem Morris was on plenty of short lists for head coaching candidates, and has impressed those who have interviewed him. But he had not yet been a coordinator in a game, and is now running the show.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9642334/NFL-Heat-Index:-Who's-on-the-hot-seat?
