TOP 10 NFL PLAYERS THAT THEIR TEAMS HAVE BEEN BETTER WITHOUT

by DMtShooter, Five Tool Tool

10. Matt Leinart. With a QB rating of 61.9 and major distractions brewing earlier in the year from his irritation at splitting time with Kurt Warner, Leinart had locker room cancer written all over him. Since going down, the Cards have been better at moving the sticks and giving their defense more help, and when Warner can't go, Tim Rattay has given them exactly what they were getting from Leinart. (There is, after all, a reason why they are 4-5.)

9. Tatum Bell. Running backs by committee only work when the RBs (a) complement each other by doing different things, and (b) are both actually good players. Bell's history of bad fumbles, worse blitz pick up and awful pass-catching skills is an all-or-nothing back that's worse than nothing. The Lions are better off with Kevin Jones doing most of the work and TJ Duckett getting the goal line carries, though with Mike Martz calling the plays, the RB situation really isn't as important as it would be with, you know, a sane football team.

8. Eddie Kennison. Hard to say this about a team with substandard WRs, but Fast Eddie's absence for most of the year has accelerated the development of Dwayne Bowe, who looks like the real deal as a #1 WR; when you are on pace for 1,000 yards in your rookie year with Damon Huard and Brodie Croyle as your QBs, you are a stud. Kennison returned last week in the blowout loss against the Broncos, and even if were at full strength, he can't fix the QB situation... but if the Chiefs go out and sign a Brees-like QB in the offseason, this division is ripe for the taking with Bowe, Kennison, Gonzalez and Johnson giving the team their best set of weapons in a long, long time.

7. Laurence Maroney. By not having the star RB to feed down low, the Patriots lost the last blocking element to Tom Brady going full throttle. Would they have lost a game had Maroney been healthy all year? Maybe not, but they certainly wouldn't be blowing teams out to the same extent, and that threat of all of those points is causing teams to play against them as if the laws of gravity do not apply.

6. Terry Glenn. His absence has allowed Patrick Crayton to develop into a credible, though erratic, #2 WR in Dallas. His return, which Glenn claims will happen in the next few weeks, could prove to be a fantastic boost for a team that's already the class of the conference. Right now, Patriots-Cowboys is probably an even bet in the Vegas sportsbooks, and if it's not, you might want to consider it.

5. Ladell Betts. The truly motivated Clinton Portis season has came at the expense of Betts, who went from the smart pick as the real #1RB in the Skins attack to an afterthought. Whether or not the Skins are actually better on the field with less depth is subject to debate, but you can't help but think that Portis feeling frisky enough to break out the costumes again is helping to keep the attention off Jason Campbell, and that's a net gain for Washington.

4. Byron Leftwich. Atlanta's been just a bit frisky now with Joey Harrington, but with that offensive line, it's simply a matter of mobility -- and Harrington has a little, while Leftwich is a statue. Surprisingly, they've also been better with Jerious Norwood on the sidelines. If they can somehow knock off the Bucs at home this week, they'll be just a game out in the NFC South race, which is really, um, remarkable. Yes, that's the word: remarkable.

3. Brian Griese. Look, the Bears aren't very good, the division is long out of reach with the Packers at 8-1, the defense isn't anywhere close to what it was, and nobody (least of all Fat Ced Benson) seems to be able to run for more than 3 yards and a cloud of suck. With all of that said, you don't really need a noodle-arm game manager like Griese: you *need* the Rex Cannon on that wall, throwing twenty fly routes a game to Devin Hester and Bernard Berrian and hoping to get lucky. At least when you lose this way, it'll be kind of entertaining.

2. Carnell "Cadillac" Williams. Another situation where the loss of a marginal star has freed his team to go to a more effective committee and unshackled his QB. While the Bucs may miss Williams a bit in the red zone (Garcia has only thrown for 9 TDs in 9 games, and Ernest Graham hasn't gotten in as much as they'd like), they are also moving the chains enough to keep their aging defense off the field, keeping them effective enough to lead the NFC South. It remains to be seen whether they can keep it up, but for a team that looked like one of the worst in the league in week one, it's a start, and it's going to keep Jon Gruden employed.

1. Shaun Alexander. So long as Shaun's out, Seattle gets to use the strength of their team (many good WRs and a very good QB) all of the time, instead of trying to get their fading star on track. Mo Morris is good enough to make a play-action pass credible, and he's better than Alexander at picking up a blitz. Seattle is still a home-only team with a front-runner defense, but they're also the class of their division, and capable of having a hot streak at the right time. Before the injury, not so much.