FanHouse Drewbennett

When the Titans selected receiver Brandon Jones in the third round of the 2005 draft, a lot of people who are paid to offer opinions on talent thought that he had the potential to be a real solid player at the NFL level. In four seasons, however, Jones has been largely average. When your career year came in 2006 and only featured 384 yards and four touchdowns, you're closer to Drew Bennett's career arc than Jerry Rice's.

Apparently, though, Jones is still living off of the hype he got in 2005, because that's the only way I can explain the fact that the 49ers have given him a five-year, $16.5 million deal with $5.4 million guaranteed.

While the deal is hardly an eye-opener in the wake of the gargantuan-money contracts being handed out, it can definitely be called "generous" given Jones' career production. It might also be called "desperation" on the 49ers' part, as they could lose both of 2008's starting receivers -- Isaac Bruce (retirement) and Bryant Johnson (free agency) -- in a relatively thin market.

Needless to say, whoever starts at quarterback for the 49ers this year will have his work cut out for him if Jones is the team's best target in 2009.

Two years ago, Drew Bennett was one of the most heavily touted targets of a pretty lackluster free agent wide receiver crop. The Rams managed to outbid several other teams for the ex-Titan, snagging the big receiver with a six-year, $30-million deal.

In hindsight it was one of the dumber moves the Rams have made in a while. The Rams let Bennett go on Wednesday, even though it will save them only $50,000 on the salary cap. In essence, St. Louis decided that it would be better off without Bennett, even though it would have cost them very little to keep him.

Waiver Wire Wonders is your weekly guide on how to use/abuse those pesky waiver claims that come with every fantasy football league.

The beauty of fantasy football is that this late in the season, there are always people of relative importance popping up. Sometimes it's because they took a while to develop, and sometimes they emerge because of early season injuries that turned them into cast offs and pariahs. Yet, here you are, still desperate after all these weeks. Go ahead, don't be shy. You can admit you're at least intrigued by Cadillac.

Cadillac Williams, RB, TB
Yes, that's right. The old car that your grandmother drives is suddenly relevant again. Why? Because he's coming off the PUP soon and Jon Gruden has shown little to absolute zero care about how he manages his roster in the name of winning. (What? Don't believe me? How about starting Brian Griese and putting Earnest Graham in at fullback?) And yeah, Caddy has talent. He's hurt, sure, but, hey, so is Ryan Torian. Sigh. Not your top priority, but certainly worth a claim.

Deion Branch, WR, SEA
Just like this guy. Branch hasn't garnered much attention this year because he hasn't done anything other than pretend he might come back. But he will be back in Week 11, presumably, and that's why you want to grab him now -- if you're hurting at WR and Matt Hasselbeck happens to make it back about the same time, suddenly you're staring at a poor man's Billy Volek - Drew Bennett combo.

In case you didn't get the memo, it's Hate On The Rams week across America when it comes to NFL coverage. Apparently Marshall Faulk did, and he wasn't shy about joining in:

"Decisions have to be made. Do you blow it up, where do you go, what do you do? I mean, players that have had big time success, we're talking Pro Bowl caliber players: Marc Bulger, Torry Holt, Orlando Pace, Steven Jackson. They look like they don't belong in the league. And it's not because they can't play. You're not going to tell me that. I'm not believing that they all of a sudden can't play in this league."

So he's blaming the coaches? Not completely, check out this gem:

"You're not going to tell me that the (Bears) offense that they put out there is more talented than the offense that the Rams put out. It's preparation, it's understanding what you have; it's having guys that are reliable."

It sounds like Marshall is definitely not a fan of Scott Linehan and that he has problems with many of the offensive players ... just not the four he mentioned above.

The word from St. Louis this week is that the Rams are the worst team in the NFL Drew Bennett is out for at least a month with a broken bone in his foot. Bennett was attempting to fill the void left by the departed Isaac Bruce in the offense formerly known as a "show" of some sort. The obvious next in line would have been explosive-at-times rookie Donnie Avery ... only Avery didn't even suit up Sunday against the Eagles and the team still isn't sure he'll be able to play this Sunday. Lucky break for him, really. Who would want to suit up and be embarrassed?

Anyway, the Rams logically decided upon bringing in the ancient Eddie Kennison. It's hard to call Kennison washed up, because he was never really that good a player anyway. But wait, Rams fans, there is hope:

From the 2002 through '06 seasons, Kennison averaged 58 catches for 961 yards for Kansas City. He was released by the Chiefs following an injury-plagued 2007 season, but has stayed in touch with Rams offensive coordinator Al Saunders, who was his coordinator during most of his time in KC.

Wow. Talk about grasping desperately for any shred of positivity.

It's apparently going to be a long season for the Rams, and Scott Linehan better start working on that resume.

Last offseason, the Rams let slot receiver Kevin Curtis sign with Philadelphia but thought that they had covered their tracks by signing Drew Bennett (because, as we all know, white receivers are all exactly the same). That turned out to be, uh, not so smart -- Curtis had 1,110 yards and six touchdowns, Bennett had 375 and three.

Of course, the situations they were in played a part in that discrepancy -- it's naive to think Curtis would have had such a great season if he stayed in St. Louis -- but Bennett just isn't a very good player. He's still living off the reputation the briefly-prolific Billy Volek-Bennett connection produced, when the duo caught fire towards the end of the 2004 season, but you don't see anyone arguing for Volek as a legitimate starting quarterback. Other than that aberration, Bennett is an average third option who routinely sits near the bottom of the league in catch percentage.

Which is why it makes perfect sense that the Rams handed him a starting job this season. Actually, it's a promotion borne out of necessity, as the team doesn't have any other viable option opposite of Torry Holt. Bennett is saying all the right things about bouncing back, but I'm dubious. Sure, I expect the offense to be better, but with Holt's knee deteriorating the team doesn't have a receiver to draw attention from Bennett.

Maybe he doubles his numbers from last year, which is a step in the right direction, but falling in line with his career thus far -- serviceable, yet wholly overrated.

The Rams saved themselves some cash earlier today by restructuring Leonard Little's contract. The plan was to get Isaac Bruce -- you know ... future Hall of Famer, third in all-time receiving yards, sixth in all-time receptions ... yeah, that Isaac Bruce -- to take a pay cut. Bruce wasn't too receptive to that idea.

So the Rams cut loose the 35-year-old former second-rounder who has spent all 14 of his seasons in St. Louis rather unceremoniously. The dispute was a $2 million roster bonus. The Rams wanted Bruce to forget about that and just play for his $3 million salary.

Bruce had game last year, putting up solid numbers in a terrible offense, but he's obviously at the age where each season is one season closer to a plummet in ability. He'll find work -- and probably pretty quickly -- from someone willing to believe he has another year, and he's a great locker room presence for young receivers. An amateur connect-the-dots places him in San Francisco, where the 49ers need receivers badly and Mike Martz will probably make a push for him. But who knows.

The Rams, meanwhile, better take some of the money they're creating to go find another receiver. If they're planning on going into the season with Torry Holt and his deteriorating joints, the remarkably below-average Drew Bennett (where for art thou, Billy Volek), and that collection of backups ... Chip Rosenbloom's not going to enjoy his first season.

NFL Offseason Roadmap is a series focused on the needs of NFL teams as they begin the offseason.

1. Offensive Tackle. The Rams have been lucky to have an incredible franchise left tackle for the last 11 seasons, and his play did as much for The Greatest Show on Turf as anyone else. But Orlando Pace has been ludicrously brittle the last two years and, at 32, can't really be depended on anymore. The drop-off in production without Pace has been glaring. On the other side, Alex Barron has been disappointing as a first-round pick; there's so much yellow cloth at Barron's feet on gameday that you'd think he stuffed his jersey with Terrible Towels. In the last four years, Barron ranks behind just Robert Gallery in penalties. On top of the starters, after all of the injuries the Rams endured on the line last year, depth should be considered critical. The easy and obvious answer is Jake Long, who should be available when the Rams pick second. Long can play both sides, which certainly helps, and he can immediately take over for Pace should something happen. If the team needs further depth, Kwame Harris or Damien Woody could be affordable options, and Woody triples as a possible guard and center.

Marc Bulger passed a neurological test after suffering a concussion that forced Gus Frerotte into starters duty last week. But that test wasn't designed to see if he would play Sunday. That was just to get out on the practice field.

"Believe me, I'm the No. 1 person - I'm hoping I get cleared this week to play. (But) it will be premature to say on Wednesday, after one practice ... that I'm the starter."

The Rams better hope he can go on Sunday -- Frerotte is now hurt, and third-string quarterback Brock Berlin didn't take any snaps with the team this week. When asked about the possibility of Bulger missing the game this Sunday, Scott Linehan got testy, confidently reminding the media that the Rams have Marques Hagans and Drew Bennett -- two college quarterbacks converted to wide receiver. Great contingency plan there, coach.

But he's not that stupid. If Bulger was seriously in doubt, the team would have given more work to Berlin or signed Todd Bouman, as was rumored, for depth. Should Bulger play though? Concussions are being treated more and more carefully by the league, and if Bulger still has doubts to his availability he can't be completely cleared. It's not as if the Rams have anything left to play for, so why the Rams and Bulger are risking his long-term health is beyond me.

The Rams gave Drew Bennett a six-year, $30 million contract in the offseason. Through six games, Bennett has 94 yards and a touchdown. Extrapolate that across 16 games, and you're looking at 301 yards. But it's unlikely that Bennett even plays 16 games, because he suffered a hamstring injury last week against Baltimore. His status is unknown. Money well spent, eh?

Because Bennett's injury leaves the Rams with Torry Holt and two of the three Stooges, the Rams had to dip into free agency, inking former Raven draft pick Travis Taylor. It's been a long fall for Taylor, a former 10th-overall selection. He never lived up to expectations, failing to ever break 1,000 yards, and had his best season in 2002, when he caught 869 yards and six touchdowns in Baltimore. To be fair, he managed to tally 651 yards and three touchdowns in Minnesota last year, which, all things considered, is sort of miraculous.

That being said, if anyone thinks Taylor is going to improve the Rams offense or offer anything more than a warm body, I've got a bridge to sell you. And if you're a Rams fan, you get double value -- you can even jump off of it.