FanHouse Albert Haynesworth

It's accurate to say that there aren't a whole lot of players around the league who like Hines Ward. When he's not going over the middle to catch passes, he's always looking to lay a hit on an unsuspecting defender. Heck, the NFL even passed a new rule after Ward broke linebacker Keith Rivers' jaw last year.

So it's no surprise to learn that Ward has been voted as the NFL's dirtiest player in a survey by Sports Illustrated, topping former teammate Joey Porter. With Rodney Harrison now retired, Ward was the obvious choice, which in some way is a badge of honor for the Steelers wideout. After all, how many receivers are tough enough and physical enough to be considered dirty?

Compared to their losses to Detroit, Carolina and Kansas City, the Redskins' 27-17 defeat at the hands of the Eagles doesn't look half bad. It might wind up being the fiasco against Philadelphia, though, that convinces Washington's higher-ups to make some changes.

Monday night, in front of a national-TV audience, Washington simply went through the motions. Physical mistakes, lack of talent, bad breaks -- those are all forgivable. Half-hearted efforts aren't, especially when a team is playing for an embattled head coach. And the Redskins, now 2-5 on the season, are fooling themselves if they think they gave all they could against the Eagles.

"You can say but so much," said Albert Haynesworth, the team's $100 million offseason addition. "You've got to actually want to. So once we get to that point -- where we want to do something -- then we'll do something. But if we just keep going our separate ways, then we'll just keep getting slaughtered like we have."

As the Titans' 2009 season continues to circle the drain, we'll hear a lot in the next couple of weeks about whether Vince Young should start at quarterback. But the biggest decision the Titans need to make is figuring out who to blame for the team's complete collapse on defense.

Last year, the Titans allowed two 300-yard passers all season. This year, rookie Mark Sanchez is the only quarterback in the first five games who hasn't thrown for 300 yards. The Titans are now 31st in the league in passing yards allowed per game, something that is extremely uncharacteristic for a Jeff Fisher coached team.

If finding themselves trailing the Lions wasn't a bad enough first half for the Washington Redskins, things just got worse, as defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth was carted off the field with an injury after sacking Matt Stafford.

The sack came when Haynesworth beat Lions left tackle Jeff Backus to pull down Stafford for a key sack on 3rd-and-5 in Redskins territory, but Backus landed on top of Haynesworth on the sack. Haynesworth didn't get up, and eventually a cart was brought out to take the 350-pounder to the locker room with a right hip injury.

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A month ago, back when Sunday's Rams-Redskins game was still a while in the future, St. Louis center Jason Brown took a little shot at Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth's conditioning, saying that Haynesworth is the kind of player who checks out when the going gets tough.

You won't hear Brown saying anything like that this week since he's going to have to block Haynesworth, but it is worth asking? Does Haynesworth take a lot of plays off? That was the worry when the Redskins signed Haynesworth to a massive contract in the offseason -- would he stop playing all out now that he's been paid?

As we have done since the FanHouse began, I'll be taking a look every week at some aspect of line play. You can read more features in the series here. Check back every Thursday for a new Between The Lines.

When the Redskins signed defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth to the largest free agent deal in NFL history, the contract came with a lot of expectations. One game into his Redskins' career, there are already columns asking, is that all there is?

Haynesworth had four tackles against the Giants. He had no quarterback hurries and no sacks as the Redskins lost 23-17.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The easy conclusion, if you like jumping to those, is that Albert Haynesworth didn't do much in his Redskins debut. The stat sheet says four tackles -- one for a loss. The Giants put 23 points on the board and won the game. And Haynesworth didn't feel a whole lot like talking about it when it was over.

But with Haynesworth, the easy conclusion misses the point. The numbers to look at are on New York's side, where Brandon Jacobs came up with just 46 yards on 16 carries and the Giants, who led the whole way, were unable to grind out the clock in the second half. The Redskins' defensive line, with their massive free-agent acquisition in the middle, smothered Jacobs and the Giants' running game all night. Not that you'd have known it from the big fella's mood in the locker room.

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Amid all these NFL predictions flooding the web this week there are few certainties. But if recent history is any indication, we know for sure that at least one of this year's division winners will be a team that finished in last place a year ago. At least one team has turned the trick every year since the NFL went to the current eight-division format -- 10 teams total in six seasons. The Dolphins did it last year, the Buccaneers the year before, and the Eagles and Saints the year before that.

The reasons for this phenomenon are obvious -- overall parity, four-team divisions, a scheduling system that (basically) makes life easier for the teams at the bottom and tougher for the teams at the top. The only question as the 2009 season dawns is which of last year's last-place finishers will be among this year's division winners. We ranked all eight of them in order of their chances to continue the trend:

Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Offense -- They stormed out of the gate last season, on the shoulders of Clinton Portis. In the second half of the season, though, the offensive line began to wear down and Jason Campbell wasn't productive enough downfield to take attention away from CP26. This season, there are reasons for optimism. The offensive line has been retooled. The growth of second-year wideouts Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly will give Campbell more reliable options in the passing attack in addition to the solid Chris Cooley and Santana Moss.

Two seasons ago, Rosevelt Colvin left the field at Gillette Stadium in the company of a trainer.

A few minutes later, the press box public address system intoned: "Colvin has a shoulder injury and his return is questionable.''

Shoulder? After the game -- to which he didn't return -- Bill Belichick said it was a foot and gave no specifics. Told it been announced as a "shoulder,'' the Patriots coach replied: "OK, let's make it a shoulder and leave it at that.''

That's why nobody expects to learn anything from the Patriots about Tom Brady's throwing shoulder, bruised when he was ground into the turf in Washington Friday night by Albert Haynesworth.