FanHouse Ken Dorsey

The Kellen Winslow era in Cleveland lasted five injury-plagued seasons. When healthy, he was one of the league's best tight ends, but between the motorcycle, the staph infections and the actual football-related nicks and bruises, those moments were fleeting.

Winslow played in just 44 of a possible 80 games from 2004-2008 and that, along with his prickly relationship with management, landed him in Tampa Bay. As the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Terry Pluto writes, "[Eric] Mangini and [George] Kokinis correctly believe the Browns have had too many sideshows in the past few seasons, Winslow being at the center of some of the major distractions..."

The Browns are just a few weeks into the Eric Mangini administration and there are already rumblins'. Apparently, the Browns' new head coach has already removed a mural of former Browns greats that once hung near the player's entrance, and not only that, he snubbed Shaun Rogers at a recent public function. A function, it's worth mentioning, that Rogers had hoped to meet Mangini. Oh, the humanity.

Turns out, it was just a misunderstanding. You see, Mangini had no idea that Rogers was in attendance. I can only assume this public function was a Who's Who among Cleveland-area 400-pound African Americans. Otherwise, I have no idea how Shaun Rogers isn't the most recognizable person in every room.

With attention spans dwindling, we forego full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. Click here to go back in time.

The 1s

St. Louis (2-13) at Atlanta (10-5): If Atlanta takes care of business here, they could be facing the Arizona Cardinals at home in their first playoff game. Could a scenario get any better for a rookie quarterback? Hey Matt Ryan, I know it is the playoffs and all, but this is one of the worst sports franchises in the history of football. Also, they've won just one game since Veterans Day.

If this shakes out, Ryan might be the most blessed kid since the one Mary conceived.

Pick: Atlanta

Romeo Crennel continues his march to unemployment, in all likelihood, three days from now. But in the meantime, he's going through the motions, preparing the Browns for their final game of 2008.

Unfortunately (historically, anyway) Cleveland faces Pittsburgh, a team Crennel has yet to beat in seven previous tries. Given that the wheels have fallen off the Browns season and the Steelers are gearing up for a playoff run, there's not much reason to think Cleveland has a chance Sunday. And this worries Crennel. Well, as much as a meaningless game that precedes the inevitable firing can worry somebody.

"I haven't been able to beat Pittsburgh and that's discouraging to everybody, myself included," Crennel said this week. "It seems like we play them close one game and get killed the next game. That's one of my fears going down this time, [that] we played them a close game this year."

So Crennel is predicting a beatdown, basically. For what it's worth, Vegas opened with Cleveland getting 10 points, but that was before Bruce Gradkowski was announced as the starting quarterback. He'll be the fourth Browns QB to start a game this year, which on most other teams, works out to approximately an 11th- or 12th-teamer. Adjust your lines accordingly.

Romeo Crennel will be a free man in six days. And if yesterday's emotionless post-game presser is any indication, he's already accepted his fate. For the sake of professionalism, however, Crennel will feign interest as the Browns prepare for the Steelers in a meaningless Week 17 affair.

Cleveland, 4-11 and fresh off getting shutout courtesy of the mighty Bengals, will face a Pittsburgh team that has already wrapped up a first-round bye. And while the Steelers will probably play backups for most of the afternoon, the Browns have nothing to lose by playing their starters. The ones left standing, anyway.

Tight end Kellen Winslow has missed three games with a high ankle sprain and the quarterback position has been FUBAR for some time. Derek Anderson was benched for Brady Quinn, who promptly broke a bone in his hand and landed on injured reserve. Anderson then blew up his knee, and now third-teamer Ken Dorsey looks iffy for the Sunday finale. Which means more Bruce Gradkowski for everybody!

In a matter of two weeks, Philadelphia's outlook has completely changed. On Nov. 23, Baltimore absolutely dismantled the Eagles, 36-7 -- dropping the Eagles to 5-5-1 overall, 0-2-1 in their last three and to the edge of postseason life.

Then Philly smoked Arizona on Thanksgiving night and followed that win up by beating the Giants in New York. As it stands now, if the Eagles win their final three games (including over Dallas in Week 17), a loss by either Tampa Bay or Atlanta would send Philadelphia to the playoffs.

Cleveland's outlook is not nearly as optimistic. The Browns have lost three straight -- not reaching double digits in any of those games -- and are now feeling some heat from Cincinnati for third place in the AFC North.

First, a disclaimer. This list is not necessarily a go pick this guy up right now type deal. If you play in an 8-12 team league and you don't have injury or ineffectiveness issues, this list is not for you. If you, however, play in a 16 or more team league with a deep bench, and you have been sitting there waiting on Willis McGahee to show up with a pulse for the past couple weeks, well, I may have something for you.

We call them "Hail Mary" choices because picking up some of these guys would be like throwing a Hail Mary pass. The odds of it winding up helping your team are slim, but there's enough of a chance FTW to hurl it up there. If you have dead weight on your deep bench, let us consider the following dudes.

I've attempted to list them in the order of their likelihood at helping you.

And, actually, the top guy is a sleeper is most leagues for this week ...

Maurice "MoMo" Morris, Seahawks
He's overtaken Julius Jones in the Seahawks backfield. Sure, he's done very little all season -- save for a 100-yard game in Week 12 -- but he gets the hapless Rams in Week 15. You could do worse.

We're heading into Week 15, the Browns have already lost nine times, and head coach Romeo Crennel has pretty much guaranteed that he won't be back after the season. But with three games left on the schedule, he's still -- to borrow a phrase -- playing to win the games.

You see, it only took three-and-a-half months to figure out that maybe Cleveland's sputtering offense could use more Joshua Cribbs and less everybody else.

Browns coach Romeo Crennel said the Browns will use Josh Cribbs more to try to jump-start the offense.

"It looked like Cribbs was a spark, and so I think that we'll have to give him a chance to be more of a spark and try to manage his other duties as well," said Crennel. "That's what I think we can do there."

Spoken with all the conviction of a temporary worker nearing the end of his contract. Why Crennel didn't hatch this plan back in October, when the Browns were beginning their descent to awfulness, is a mystery, and one he'll probably have plenty of time to contemplate in the coming weeks.

I don't think anybody in the Browns organization would care much if commissioner Roger Goodell just announced that he was canceling the rest of the season. The last three months have been an unmitigated disaster in Cleveland, and the sooner we can put it in the rearview, the better.

Unfortunately, it looks like they'll be required to play out their schedule, which means four more weeks of utter ineptitude and disappointment. Silver lining: fans won't be able to blame Derek Anderson because he's out with a knee injury. And with Brady Quinn also on the shelf with a boo-boo on his throwing hand, Ken Dorsey is now burdened with the job over the next four weeks.

Head coach Romeo Crennel is understandably underwhelmed by the prospect.

"He's a very smart quarterback and he's a competitor," Coach Romeo Crennel said. "He probably doesn't have some of the physical skills some other quarterbacks in the NFL have. I think that's probably been the biggest drawback."

Which is the NFL equivalent of saying Dorsey has a great personality. To be fair, it's not like the former University of Miami quarterback has had the benefit of playing on an NFL team that wasn't completely unwatchable. As the News-Herald's Jeff Schudel rightly points out, "Whenever Ken Dorsey has had the opportunity to start an NFL game, he has had the misfortune of stepping into a difficult situation surrounded by teammates who are underperforming or not very good."

Truer words, Jeff, truer words. Still, I don't expect the remaining teams on Cleveland's schedule to give Dorsey a break because of his unbelievably crappy luck. But the Browns are 4-8, so, really, who cares.

The last time Browns fans cheered their starting quarterback going down with an injury the team went to the playoffs. It was 2002, and then-face of the franchise Tim Couch was in the process of getting "Wally Pipped" by Kelly Holcomb. History repeated itself on Sunday, except this time, there will be no postseason. Just a bunch of guys limping through the final month of the season.

Yesterday, some fans at Cleveland Browns Stadium happily voiced their pleasure after Derek Anderson crumpled to the turf and suffered what looks like a season-ending knee injury. Predictably, neither Anderson nor his teammates were impressed.