With NFL camps due to open in the next month, most teams have completed their offseason moves. The available free agents were evaluated and signed. The college draft prospects were interviewed and selected.
Although there will be competition for jobs, the salary cap restricts the moves teams can make. Many positions can be written in ink instead of pencil before the first training camp.
Given the huge money at stake in the NFL and the science of evaluating free agents and draft prospects, it is surprising how many teams will hang their entire season on just a few key moves. While some teams drive their fans crazy by ignoring what appear to be glaring weaknesses, other teams go get the missing piece and hope he doesn't suffer an ACL injury in training camp.
Surprises can happen, just look at Jake Delhomme and the Carolina Panthers last season, but often the "franchise player" is aptly named and as his fortunes go, so does the team.
The Philadelphia Eagles ventured into the free agent market this season and landed two of the top names available. With back-to-back-to-back NFC Championship Game losses, only a Super Bowl will do in Philly.
The Eagles obtained Terrell Owens (eventually) and now have a big-play receiver for Donovan McNabb. Jevon Kearse was lured away from the Tennessee Titans and hopefully will mean just as much to the team as Hugh Douglas did.
Does the season of the Eagles depend on these two guys? You bet. Look at the players the Eagles lost: LB Carlos Emmons, both corners Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent, and DE Brandon Whiting.
The Eagles won games with a smothering defense. Period. McNabb has his critics and rightly so. He will all of a sudden have trouble hitting the out pattern for a number of possessions before he settles down again. Often, the defense kept the Eagles in the game until McNabb found his stride. How understanding will Owens be?
If McNabb can't get Owens the ball enough to keep him happy and Kearse experiences some injury trouble like he has the past two seasons, the Eagles will not have to worry about losing a fourth Championship Game because they won't be there.
In the same division, the Washington Redskins have also placed a great deal of money and hope on one or two players.
While the Redskins will likely have the highest payroll in NFL history, somewhere between $110-120 million, the success of Joe Gibbs' return to coaching rests on the arm of QB Mark Brunell.
It will be up to Brunell to get the ball to WR Lavernues Coles and keep defenses from stacking the box in order to stop Clinton Portis, the other big name that landed in D.C. during the offseason.
Redskin owner Dan Snyder continues to believe that a Super Bowl Championship has a price tag stuck to the bottom of the Lombardi Trophy. By the time all the offseason deals were made, the Redskins had only one selection on the first day of the draft.
However, the hopes of success for the 15 or so free agent additions will fade away if Brunell gets injured or fails to live up to his billing and maybe the roar of NASCAR will once again appeal to Joe Gibbs.
In Washington, if Brunell doesn't work out, at least the Redskins have one of the best backs in the game. Some teams simply are not the same without their man under center and don't have a chance without him.
The Atlanta Falcons found out that they really are a one-man team when Mike Vick was lost for several games last season. The Falcons were horrible without Vick and the best they were able to do this season for a backup QB is Ty Detmer.
The running game in Atlanta has been unspectacular with the tandem of T.J. Duckett and Warrick Dunn, but both return this season. Apparently, the plan in Atlanta is hope that Vick doesn't get hurt.
In Atlanta, fans saw how bad their team is without their star. The Tennessee Titans had best hope that they never see what would happen without QB Steve McNair.
RB Eddie George has nothing left in the tank after a great career that simply had him carry the ball too much. While he was able to avoid being released, he isn't the same back and there is no replacement.
While WR Derrick Mason is a star, the Titans lost reliable TE Frank Wycheck to retirement and WR Justin McCareins to free agency.
McNair is a warrior and at times last year was playing on guts and painkillers. Without him, the Titans would struggle to get eight wins. For all of the 13 draft picks of the Titans this April, exactly none were for a QB and their backup Billy Volek almost left in free agency.
While some teams may depend on one player too much for success, there are other teams in the league that keep searching for the "difference maker" and for some reason can never seem to land him.
The Miami Dolphins should have been looking for Dan Marino's replacement high and low. The Dolphin defense has been one of the best in the league and Ricky Williams is the best running back that Marino never had.
All the Fish lack is a QB, but they won't get one. They have stubbornly kept with Jay Fiedler and every year collapse late in the season. This season the best the Dolphins could come up with for an option at QB is A.J. Feely whose only four NFL starts came in 2002.
The frustration in Miami must be mounting as a great defense and running game are wasted without the QB. After four Fiedler seasons, you would think that the Dolphin front office would get it by now.
If you owned an NFL team and had the best QB in the game, the best WR in the game, and a premier back, but no defense, what would you do? Hire a defensive coach? Good start. But what if you never got any better on defense?
The Indianapolis Colts are arguably the best team in the NFL as long as they have the ball. When their defense takes the field, another story.
Once again, the Colts have disappointed over the offseason in addressing their defense. There were no free agent signings that can help the defense. Sure, six out of their nine draft picks were for defense, but what about now?
Talk about wasting talent. If the Colts could put together even a mediocre defense, there may be talk about a dynasty further south than New England. But it doesn't happen. In fact, the Colts lost some key defensive players in DE Chad Bratzke, LB Marcus Washington, and CB Walt Harris and David Macklin.
Some teams never seem to get the QB. Some teams don't play good defense and some teams never get the running game.
The city of Cleveland was certainly happy to see NFL football come back to town. They are happy as long as they don't want to see a running attack.
Jamel White, William Green, James Jackson, Lee Suggs. All of these players have carried the ball for the Browns over the last few seasons with promises of 1,000-yard seasons and memories of Earnest Byner, minus the playoff fumbles.
But season after season sees the expectations of a running game evaporate.
Instead of bringing in an established back, Coach Butch Davis keeps bringing in young players with a great deal of promise and not much else. You would expect more from someone who coached the Miami Hurricanes and who appeared to have more backs than he needed: Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee.
The Browns have nine backs on their roster, including their seventh-round draft pick. Think one of these guys has 1,000 yards in him? Don't count on it.
Sometime this season, perhaps even in training camp, some team's star is going to suffer a serious injury. In that split second that it takes for the injury to occur, all the work and planning will go down the drain for the teams that don't have a Plan B. Pray it isn't your team.
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