Losers from Pre-Season week 3

Earlier we gave you the Winners, and now it's time to address the players and teams that have work to do as we approach the final week of pre-season.


The Cincinnati Bengals

After a tumultuous off-season, that almost saw the team lose their three best receivers for various reasons, perhaps it should be no great surprise that the Bengals are struggling to get started this year. On the other hand, being statistically the worst Defence and the 4th worst Offence is not the kind of thing that convinced Chad Johnson to stick it out with the team.

Carson Palmer left last night's shutout against the Saints bleeding, after being sacked three times in the first half. Stacy Andrews said that 'it hurts' to see Palmer coming off the field with blood dripping from his nose and mouth. You can bet that it hurts Palmer a hell of a lot more. The Offensive line is a position of relative strength for the Bengals, so to see the unit implode as it did last night does not bode well for the team's overall chances.

The Defence has made nothing like the step forward that they needed to, and it's likely that this year could be a massive struggle in a division that is crying out for a team to assert itself.

JaMarcus Russell

When the Raiders invested last year's no.1 overall pick in Russell, they did not expect that he would contribute immediately. Instead, they used last season to try and acclimatise Russell to life in the NFL, and get his weight down to somewhere more approaching that of an NFL QB, rather than an NFL Offensive Lineman.

Unfortunately, his pre-season performances have thrown up as many questions as answers for the team. He looks affected by the stage he is on, and while he is not helped by the quality of his receivers, he does not really give them an opportunity to make big plays. Blessed with a rocket arm, Russell looks afraid to cut loose, and his manoeuvrability is questionable. He was sacked four times last night against the Cardinals, and was even booed after failing to generate any points in his three Quarters of action.

The future of the Raiders will be judged on how well Russell and new RB Darren McFadden turn out. At this rate, it could be some time before the team sees a return on it's investment.

The New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts

The Patriots and Colts rarely put Tom Brady or Peyton Manning on the line during pre-season, but with injuries preventing either from practicing - at least while things aren't competitive - the stakes were higher for the backup Quarterbacks on their rosters. Both teams entered Camp with four Quarterbacks, and neither team has seen one player genuinely stake a claim for the right to back up their Hall of Fame incumbent.

The main problem is that both teams have been spoiled by the durability of their Starting QB. Neither has missed a start in a combined 272 games, and to a certain extent, competency at the backup position was more or less an afterthought. Matt Cassel was never more than a backup at USC, and so his position on the roster with the Patriots has always seemed a slight mystery. There are certainly better veterans available. The same goes for Jim Sorgi in Indy.

Where the two situations differ is in urgency. Whereas the Pats have opted to give youngsters Matt Guttierez and Kevin O'Connell a chance to put pressure on Cassel, knowing full well that Brady will be available for the Week one opener against the Chiefs.

In contrast, as we mentioned yesterday, Manning's status is anything but clear. To try and galvanise some productivity out of Sorgi, the team signed veterans Quinn Gray and Jared Lorenzen. That statement is enough to tell anyone that the team is anxious about whether he will make the start against Chicago on September the 7th.

Unfortunately, all that this pre-season has shown is that Cassel and Sorgi are not the insurance policies that their teams believed they were before this off-season.

The Giants Pass Defence

When the Superbowl champion Giants let Safety Gibril Wilson depart for a bumper payday in Oakland, this commentator described the move as 'addition by subtraction'. Wilson was never good in New York, and in fact, none of the highly paid veterans that the team has had in it's secondary over the last 2-3 years have been remotely good enough to win a Superbowl.

Of course, sometimes fate does not pay any attention to mere statistics, or how many times a player is beat deep. It is telling however, that the Giants invested their first and second round picks on Defensive Backs in this year's draft. They also brought in Safety Sammy Knight in free agency, though it could be argued Knight is well past his prime.

And the result? The team are 30th in the league against the pass - and their average loss per passing play is far and away the worst in the NFL over pre-season. Rookies Kenny Phillips and Terrell Thomas will need time to adapt to the speed of the game, and their best player would appear to be Second Year Aaron Ross, the CB who was the team's first round pick last year.

With Osi Umenyiora injured in last night's defeat to the Jets, and Michael Strahan's retirement, it remains to be seen whether the Defence can generate a pass rush to match last season's standard. If it can't, expect the Giants to give up the big play far more often.

Alex Smith and Rex Grossman

Both Smith and Grossman were first round picks, and both saw their first meaningful action in 2005. Both showed some promise in 2006, before 2007 effectively ended their careers at the club that drafted them.

For Grossman, it is unlikely that he will start again in the NFL. Sure he has the talent, but Thursday's embarrassing, lackadaisical approach during the game (ironically, against the 49ers) showed exactly why Grossman can be as infuriating as he is talented. It is impossible now that he can shake off his tag as a guy who cannot take care of the football. Grossman will likely stay in Chicago for this next year, and hope that Kyle Orton goes down or does not perform. His only shot now is to show enough in such a scenario, that another team decides to give him an opportunity in an emergency.

For Smith, things are just as complex, but perhaps his comparative youth means that he will intrigue coaches more. In reality, he is a victim of Coach Mike Nolan's desire to not lose, rather than giving Smith another year to prove himself, which could result in Nolan losing his job if the team struggles. Again, like Grossman, Smith may hang around in San Francisco to see if he can regain the starting gig, but in reality, he is likely to either be traded this season or next. There should be a market for a player who showed considerable progress during his sophomore season under Norv Turner, the then-Offensive Coordinator of the 49ers, and it would be a surprise if Smith is done in the league just three years after being the No.1 pick in the 2005 NFL draft.