FanHouse EricGreen

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

After astonishing everyone and heading to the Super Bowl last season, the Arizona Cardinals now face truly raised expectations for the first time in memory. We all remember the magical postseason run, when Larry Fitzgerald established himself as the NFL's premier wideout (even if Andre Johnson wants to argue), Kurt Warner polished his legacy, and the defense showed its capability -- one we had not seen much in the regular season.

Hearing the news that Saints' corner Mike McKenzie -- the fourth-ranked defensive back in success rate and seventh-ranked in yards per pass according to Football Outsiders -- tore his ACL last Sunday wasn't quite the Christmas gift I was hoping for.

It's bad enough that there was such a drop in talent from McKenzie's side of the field to Jason David's (the worst success rate and yards per pass in the league), what's more discouraging downright petrifying is that the timing of the injury means that, as of now, David is the best healthy corner on the Saints' 2008 roster. It was clear enough that the team already needed to improve at corner, and there will be a few quite good ones on the market. But instead of signing one, they'll probably now have to sign two and draft one on the first day.

As players are franchised and resigned, things will obviously change. But as of now the big three are Asante Samuel, Marcus Trufant, and Nnamdi Asomugha. There are a number of mid-price upgrades to be found, too, in Drayton Florence, Dominique Foxworth, Randall Gay, and Eric Green.

With $31.69 million available under the salary cap, the Saints have plenty of money to address the position, even after giving extensions to Marques Colston and Will Smith. There are other positions on defense that need fixing too -- defensive tackle and middle linebacker chief among them -- but those are positions you address in the draft. The Saints need to win before the nucleus of this offense dissipates; they do not have the time to wait for young cornerbacks to develop. And I don't have the time (or patience, or inner strength to not call Dr. Kevorkian) to watch another secondary like the one I had to endure this year.

FanHouser Dan Benton touched on it in his Browns-Cards preview, but Arizona will host a hot Browns team without the NFC's best safety, Adrian Wilson, in addition to starting cornerback Eric Green.

Both players have been placed on injured reserve, meaning they're restricted to sideline duty for the rest of the year. Not good news for a defense that was just average to begin with.

It's hard to quantify exactly what losing two starters in the secondary means, but according to Football Outsiders' stats, it looks like Wilson not only dominated against the run, but was no slouch in coverage either. The Cards ranked third in the NFL against opposing tight ends, which is sure to drop with Wilson out of action.

Green, who played opposite Antrel Rolle, seemingly had less success. Arizona ranks 28th against No. 1 receivers, and 20th against No. 2 receivers. This has to make Derek Anderson, Braylon Edwards and Joe Jurevicius very happy. And hell, Kellen Winslow has to be excited about the opportunity to go up against not-Adrian Wilson.

Obviously, this is a big game for the Browns, who are just one game back of the division-leading Steelers. But the Cards, at 5-6, are just two games behind the Seahawks in the NFC West.

The Arizona Cardinals offense passing attack has come a long way since the first game of the preseason, but unfortunately their defense hasn't kept up. Because of the defensive struggles, Arizona fell to the San Diego Chargers last night despite very impressive and encouraging performances by Matt Leinart and Anquan Boldin.

One of the major defensive issues continues to be the secondary. Antrel Rolle got burned again yesterday and you have to wonder why this guy even bothers to suit up. However, to his credit, the entire secondary was awful and helped make Philip Rivers look like Dan Marino. And their performance certainly wasn't helped by the front seven and their inability to stop the Chargers LaDainian Tomlinson-less rushing attack.

Even when the Cardinals seemed poised to halt the Chargers 18-wheeler like offense, they crumbled on third down and allowed San Diego to keep moving. When teams have the talent that the Chargers do, you can not give them second and third chances and expect to win.

Add that to other mindless mistakes, like fumbling a ball by running into your own man (Steve Breaston running into Monty Beisel on a kickoff return) and you have a recipe for disaster.

The Arizona Cardinals have officially ended the Antrel Rolle experiment. After another disappointing performance against the Texans on Saturday, Coach Ken Whisenhunt did what many expected and demoted Rolle to the number three cornerback position.

Although he's disappointed in his demotion, Rolle vows to improve and insists that he'll reclaim his job as the teams' starter.

"That's the coach's decision," Rolle said of the move. "I just gotta go and play my game and be the player I know I can be."

"I have a lot of things to work on," he added. "There's definitely room for improvement ... I've got to keep working on my technique."

Based on his performances so far, I have little confidence that Rolle can improve enough to re-assume his starting position. And while it's still too early to call him a bust, it's not too early to suggest that the Cardinals got a bad return on their 2005 first-round draft pick.

Free agent addition Roderick Hood and third-year player Eric Green will assume the starting roles.

The New York Jets play their second preseason game tonight when they host the Houston Texans. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. eastern time.

Spotlight:

- The Cardinals struggled to get their first team offense rolling last week against the Oakland Raiders and you can bet Coach Ken Whisenhunt will aim to fix that this afternoon.

One of Arizona's problems was the play of their starting quarterback Matt Leinart. Leinart missed on several early throws and never really got into a rhythm. In an attempt to correct that, Whisenhunt will probably call some early dump-offs in order to get his confidence up before getting more aggressive.

Once Leinart is "feeling it," expect to see some shots downfield to Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald.

Taking into account that it's the preseason, many of the players sitting on the sidelines tonight would normally be on the field if it was a meaningful game. With that said, I'm sure most fans would like to know who they should expect to see this evening. For that reason, I've done by best to create an accurate injury report -- official reports are not posted until week one of the regular season.

Arizona Cardinals:

Out: Tackle Oliver Ross (tricep), defensive end Chike Okeafor (bicep), center/guard Nick Leckey (knee), fullback A.J. Schable (foot) and defensive tackle Jonathan Lewis (knee).

Questionable: Linebacker Monty Beisel (back).

Probable: Cornerback Eric Green (leg).

When the Cardinals drafted cornerback Antrel Rolle in the 2005 NFL draft, they were certain they had a star of the future. Rolle's potential was sky high and there seemed little room for failure. Unfortunately, two years later, Rolle has yet to show consistent quality play and the team is beginning to lose their patience.

Because of Rolle's inconsistencies, which were matched by their number two cornerback Eric Green, the Cardinals went out and added free agent Roderick Hood (Eagles) for competition. However, even with the addition of Hood, it was thought that Rolle would certainly be one of the two starting cornerbacks. Yet here we are, two weeks into training camp, and that doesn't appear to the case at all.

According to Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic, it's a three-way battle for two spots down in Flagstaff and no one is a sure thing. Hood, Green and Rolle all have an equal opportunitie to win a starting job, but to date, Hood and Green appear to be leading the way.

If Rolle wants to save his job and avoid the "bust" label, he needs to step up and step up now.

Taking into account that it's the preseason, many of the players sitting on the sidelines tonight would normally be on the field if it was a meaningful game. With that said, I'm sure most fans would like to know who they should expect to see this evening. For that reason, I've done by best to create an accurate injury report -- official reports are not posted until week one of the regular season.

Oakland Raiders:

Out: Running back LaMont Jordan (back), defensive end Derrick Burgess (hernia) and running back Michael Bush (leg).

Questionable: Defensive end Tyler Brayton (elbow).

Probable: Quarterback Daunte Culpepper (knee) and wide receiver Mike Williams (hamstring).