Posted by Josh Katzowitz

If the Giants aren’t feeling the effects of a Rex Grossman hangover the past two days, they probably should be. On a defense that’s been ravaged by injuries during the preseason -- here’s the list: Osi Umenyiora, Terrell Thomas, Prince Amukamara, Marvin Austin and Clint Sintim -- Grossman had little trouble picking apart New York and led his team to the win against New York.

But it sounds like the Giants might be getting some reinforcements this weekend in the form of Justin Tuck, who sat out Week 1 with a neck injury.

“Honestly, talking to you right now, I don’t see how I won’t play Monday,” Tuck told the Newark Star Ledger. “But that’s me. Obviously we have to go through the process of doctors, coaches, general manager and going through what’s most important for me and for this football team.”

So, even though he doesn’t see how he won’t play, he’s also smart enough to know that he doesn’t necessarily have a say in whether he can.

Tuck told the paper that his neck, where he suffered a stinger during the third preseason game, is feeling better. Apparently, he’s a quick healer since it was just a couple days ago when he said the injury was stagnant and his neck didn’t seem to be improving much at all.

“The pain level has kind of dropped tremendously, actually," Tuck said. "But there are times when it’s very annoying. A lot of the times it’s tremendously hard to get comfortable, feeling tightness in there. Your mind can play with that, too … You just want to take your time with it.”

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

If you’re a Giants defensive player, it might be time to crawl into some sort of bomb shelter, because injuries after injuries after injuries are beginning to pile up for coach Tom Coughlin’s crew.

The latest setback came Tuesday when second-round defensive tackle Marvin Austin tore his left pectoral muscle. He will be lost for the season after he undergoes surgery, and it’s another blow to the rookie class (first-round pick Prince Amukamara won’t return for at least two months while he deals with a broken foot).

Plus, after losing Terrell Thomas for the season with an ACL tear in Monday night’s preseason game -- not to mention the loss of cornerback Brian Witherspoon after Monday’s game and cornerback Bruce Johnson -- the Giants will need to call in some replacements for the defense.

Coughlin was asked in his news conference Tuesday, via Rapid Reporter Alex Raskin, if he thought about moving Antrel Rolle from safety to cornerback, but he said he was reluctant to do that unless the move was permanent. For now, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to happen, even though Coughlin is well aware that Rolle used to play cornerback and even though Rolle said he’d be willing to do it.

Instead, Coughlin said he’ll count on Aaron Ross to fill the void.

“Aaron played well tonight, thank goodness,” Coughlin said after Monday’s game. But there’s also the possibility of other moves to help offset the loss Austin, Thomas and Witherspoon. Maybe even some trades?

Said Coughlin: “I’m sure we’ll consider it.”

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Posted by Will Brinson



Got a link for the Hot Routes? Hit us up on Twitter (@CBSSportsNFL).

• The North Carolina Secretary of State's office sent a search warrant to Bank of America demanding a pile of financial records relating to suspended NFL agent Gary Wichard's financial activity from January 2009 on. This is important to the NFL, because it could -- conceivably -- open up a can of worms with relation to other players, other coaches and pay-for-play accusations. It's way more important to the NCAA side of things, however, because Elaine Marshall's office is currently investigating the big pile of dirty things that happened on Chapel Hill's campus. Of course, Marvin Austin, the guy at the center of this warrant, is about to be an NFL'er, so there's that too.

• Joe Pearson takes a look at how eight prospects for the Panthers No. 1 overall spot fared at the combine.

• The Chiefs are going to make everyone -- and I mean EVERYONE -- take a paycut if there's a lockout.

• Brian Finneran and Brian Williams are not going to be walking in that door, Falcons. But probably because you kicked them out.

• Adrian Wilson, coming off a season in which he played injured much of the time, cannot be stopped.

• No tender offer coming for Troy Smith from the 49ers. Apparently Jim Harbaugh's not a huge fan.

• Jason Whitlock had Mike Florio on his podcast and got him to tell the story of how PFT happened. (I'm a media meta guy so I find this stuff interesting.)

• Jordan Palmer will spend the spring throwing to receivers. That is so cute -- he thinks he can be a quarterback!

• Mike McCarthy isn't too worried about Jermichael Finley's return "ruffling the feathers" of the wide receiver corps in Green Bay.

• How aggressive should Jacksonville be in pursuing a quarterback during this year's draft?

Posted by Will Brinson

This isn't every single winner and loser from the 2011 NFL combine, but it's five of each (and mostly bigger names) that really stood out to me. Take it with a small grain of salt, if only because the inclusion of someone like Cam Newton doesn't mean he won't be a top-five pick. It just means that his appearance at the combine didn't exactly solidify him as someone that's a can't-miss prospect. The combine almost never provides full-on proof of someone's status, but it can either answer some questions or really highlight some issues with various draft prospects.

Winners 

Prince Amukamara, CB, Nebraska -- People were knocking Amukamara for his speed before the combine. Uh, whoops: he ripped off a 4.43 (4.37 was his first unofficial time, by the by) and proved everyone wrong. Suddenly there's a decent chance both he and Peterson are gone by the end of the top-10 picks.

Julio Jones, WR, Alabama -- So it turns out that Jones did all the combine drills with a fractured foot. That's pretty impressive. It's way more impressive when you see that he somehow managed to close the gap between he and the consensus top wideout A.J. Green.

Marvin Austin, DT, UNC -- He and Robert Quinn were two UNC guys who helped themselves (most of the other ones didn't) at the combine. Austin, the guy who helped take the Tar Heels down via Twitter, has a pile of red flags, but the athletic upside in Indy is going to make someone take a chance on him much earlier than they would have a year ago.

Stephen Paea, DT, Oregon State -- To paraphrase Neil Diamond, "I'm only gonna do one thing, but I'm gonna do it good." Paea could only lift at the combine but MAN did he lift, setting the record for 225-pound bench presses with 49.

Christian Ponder, QB, Florida State -- Ponder all of a sudden finds himself generating "first-round buzz" after a strong combine (on top of a very strong Senior Bowl). Two months ago, that would have been laughable.

Losers

Cam Newton, QB, Auburn -- Newton won't fall out of the top 10 in any mock draft between now and the time the NFL Draft happens because he's an absolute mutant of an athlete. But there are clearly red flags going up everywhere from his "entertainer" comment to the possibility that he underwhelmed teams in interviews to the poor showing he had when throwing the ball.

Ryan Mallett, QB, Arkansas -- Even if he did perform well on the field, his press conference performance and unwillingness to address drug rumors sunk his stock to the point that there are plenty of Ryan Leaf comps floating around.

Kendric Burney, CB, UNC -- Burney ripped up the Senior Bowl but that in-game action (some folks have said ) didn't translate to measurables, and a 4.75 40 isn't exactly the speed a tiny corner wants to show people looking to invest.

Da'Quan Bowers, DE, Clemson -- If you're going to claim that you're "100 percent" at the combine -- even after surgery -- it's probably a good idea to participate in some of the drills, you know?

Nick Fairley, DT, Auburn -- Fairley's still got a very good chance of being the top overall pick in the draft, and the dude had some pretty darn good measurables at the draft. But the gap between he and Marcell Dareus is MUCH shorter than it was a week ago.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

I saw a stunning stat on Twitter as the Browns mucked their way to a loss against the Falcons this past Sunday. It had to do with how much money QB Jake Delhomme is pulling in this year. Naturally, the number is ridiculous, as I’ll detail further in the below paragraphs.

But it gave me the idea for the newest edition of Top Ten With a Twist. Who are the most overpaid players in the game today? By overpaid, I mean the players who are either busts or has-beens or guys who simply found an owner who decided that spending tens of millions of dollars on a problem child was the way to go.

I’m not talking about rookies like Sam Bradford. Of course, the first-round NFL draft picks are overpaid, but at this point, I’m not including them on this list (it’d be an entirely new list altogether). Instead, I’m including guys like Delhomme – either guys who have been around the league for a while who are getting a good payday because they were good at one time, or guys who were supposed to be good but haven’t shown it.

Be forewarned: the salaries we’ll discuss might make you a little nauseous. So, pop a Dramamine or two and let’s go.

10. Eli Manning, QB, Giants: Before last season, you’ll recall, Manning signed a seven-year deal worth $106.9 million that pays him an average of about $15 million from 2009 through 2015, and that doesn’t include his endorsement deals. There’s little doubt that Manning is the most important player on the team, but is he really worth the money? I’m not saying Manning isn’t good, because he is a good quarterback. But he’s not an elite top-five kind of guy, and he’s making elite top-five kind of money. For what it’s worth, he currently makes more than his brother, Peyton (and his oldest brother, Cooper, for that matter).

9. Marvin Austin, DT, Tar Heels: OK, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves if we’re talking NFL. But look at the damage Austin – well, the recruitment of Austin – has done already and look how much money it’s cost the people around him. Austin apparently accepted gifts and other improper benefits from agents (the NCAA determined it was worth between $10,000-$13,000). As a result, Austin was kicked off the team Monday and UNC teammates Robert Quinn and Greg Little have been made permanently ineligible, the NCAA has brought up academic violations, coach Butch Davis might get fired, the Tar Heels football program has been set back in a major way, and the school in general has taken a hit to its reputation. That’s quite a bit of money Austin indirectly is costing everybody, and as one of my colleague says, “And he hasn’t even played yet!”

8. Joey Porter, LB, Cardinals: Blame the team in this case instead of the player. The team which gave a 33-year-old LB a three-year deal for $17.5 million which could max out at $24.5 million. Porter was coming off a pretty good season in Miami in 2009, where he recorded nine sacks in 14 games. This year, though, has been a rough one. He’s recorded 16 solo tackles, good for 10th on the team, and he’s only recorded one sack through the team’s first five games. No doubt that Porter has had a standout career, but there’s also little doubt that he’s not the player he once was. He’s still making good bank for it, though.

7. Brandon Jacobs, RB, Giants: Perhaps if Jacobs had been signed as a discus hurler, his four-year, $25 million extension that he signed before last season would have made sense. Instead, Jacobs is solely a RB who’s gained 172 yards in the team’s first five games and who’s lost his starting position (for the record, in 2009, his attempts rose from the 2008 season, but his yards gained fell and his touchdowns dropped from 15 to five). Plus, you had the throwing-his-helmet-into-the-crowd incident at the Indianapolis game. The $15 million he was guaranteed doesn’t look so good now.

6. Darrius Heyward-Bey, WR, Raiders: We’re not discussing rookies in this list, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about second-year players (or players that are still in college, I suppose). For some reason, the Raiders took him with the seventh pick in the 2009 Draft, and then they blew up the slotting system by awarding him a five-year contract worth $38.25 million ($23.5 million guaranteed). He promptly went out and caught nine passes in 11 games. This year, he’s got 11 catches through five games, so that’s an improvement. Good thing the Raiders took Heyward-Bey instead of, say, Jeremy Maclin.

5. Tyson Jackson, DE, Chiefs: He was the third overall pick of the 2009 Draft, and while he wasn’t great last year – hell, he wasn’t even decent – he wasn’t the worst bust in the history of the Draft. It could be argued that he wasn’t nearly as bad as Glenn Dorsey, the Chiefs 2008 first-round pick who had tallied exactly two sacks in his first two years. But Dorsey is playing better this year, while Jackson – 38 tackles last year but zero sacks – has been out with a sprained MCL. At this point, he’s a big disappointment.

4. Andre Smith, OL, Bengals: The one thing I’ll always remember about Smith – aside from the whole running-the-40-shirtless-at-his-pro
-day-only-to-be-mocked-unmercifully
thing – is that after he signed his contract for $21 million on HBO’s Hard Knocks, his agent turned to him and said, “Congratulations. You’re a millionaire now.” Yep, that’s pretty much how he’s acted the past two years in Cincinnati. He’s been overweight, and his work ethic has been questioned. He only played in six games last season, starting one, and he still can’t be used as an every-play offensive lineman. Dennis Roland, who’s much less talented than Smith, has been starting ahead of him.

3. Matt Cassel, QB, Chiefs: One good year can get you a big contract, and for proof, look no further than Cassel. In 2008, he led the Patriots to a 11-5 record while completing 63.4 percent of his passes for 3,693 yards, 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. After New England QB Tom Brady returned, Cassel signed with the Chiefs for a six-year, $63 million deal with $28 million guaranteed. Not bad for a career backup in the NFL and in college at USC. This year, he’s completed 54.7 percent of his passes for 650 yards (about 162.5 yards per game), four TDs and three INTs. That’s not much production for a guy being paid a lot of money.

2. Albert Haynesworth, NT, Redskins: You thought I was going to put Haynesworth No. 1, didn’t you? While we’ve spent so much time on Haynesworth and the $100 million contract and the tens of millions of dollars of guaranteed money, he’s begun to play better lately (he sat out this past week, though, after the death of his brother). Surely, he’s not worth the money, but considering some thought he could have been released from the Washington squad at this point, the fact he’s still playing is sort of a win. Sort of. Still, it’s hard to overlook the fact he’s made six tackles and recorded exactly zero sacks this season.

1. Jake Delhomme, QB, Browns: Ah, the impetus for this column in the first place. Delhomme, between what the Browns and his former team, the Panthers, are paying him, is making $19.7 million this season. Doesn’t that number just absolutely blow you away? He started the first game of the season but was lost for three games with an ankle injury. Then, he backed up Seneca Wallace against the Falcons on Sunday, replaced him when he went out with an ankle injury and then reinjured his own ankle. He’s likely to be out for a while now. On the year, he’s 33 of 60 for 324 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions. Not real good. Not a real good return on Cleveland’s money either.

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