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WASHINGTON (AP)—Jon Jansen(notes), a fixture on the Washington Redskins offensive line for much of the last decade before injuries took their toll, was cut by the team Friday.

Jansen was released after a morning meeting with owner Dan Snyder, front office chief Vinny Cerrato and coach Jim Zorn. Jansen and his wife were flown in Snyder’s plane from their Michigan offseason home to Redskins Park, where the 33-year-old lineman was offered the chance to retire as a Redskins player.

“He means a lot to me, truly,” Zorn said. “He’s been a tremendous part of this program. I didn’t want to just call him up and go ‘Hey, I’m cutting you today.”’

When Jansen said he wanted to keep playing, the Redskins granted him his release, saying goodbye to a strong locker room leader rather than keep him as an expensive backup.

“What I had to do was weigh all those things together,” Zorn said. “And I will tell you, it didn’t come easy.”

Jansen started 122 games for the Redskins, validating his nickname “Rock” by missing only one snap in his first five seasons while playing close to Pro Bowl level.

A ruptured Achilles’ tendon in 2004, two broken thumbs in 2005, a torn calf muscle in 2006, a broken ankle in 2007 and a sprained knee in 2008 kept him off the field and hindered his skills. Jansen temporarily lost his starting job to Stephon Heyer(notes) last year, but he returned for this year’s offseason workouts and organized team activities determined to show he could still play at a high level.

“He was going to prove to everybody that he could make the Pro Bowl and be an All-Pro player, and that’s what we were hoping for as well,” Zorn said. “At the minicamp and the OTAs, I didn’t see that.”

Jansen, however, questioned the timing of the Redskins’ decision.

“My response was I would have hoped for a better chance at the OTAs and the minicamp and maybe some more reps,” Jansen said in a telephone interview as he headed to the airport for the flight home. “I think that their mind was made up prior to that, and that’s OK. I just wish it would have happened a little sooner. … There would have been more jobs available, more money available.”

The Redskins have three candidates to succeed Jansen at right tackle: third-year player Heyer and offseason signings Mike Williams and Jeremy Bridges(notes).

Jansen, a second-round pick from Michigan in 1999, had two years remaining on a five-year, $23 million contract extension he signed in 2007. He said his agent has already heard from several teams.

“I’m not concerned about having a job,” Jansen said. “I know I’ll be able to land on my feet somewhere.”

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—A federal judge denied on Friday a request by the NFL Players Association to put the suspensions of five players on hold while the case over use of a banned substance is being appealed.

However, NFLPA attorney Jeffrey Kessler said it doesn’t necessary mean the players will miss any games at the start of the 2009 season because there could be action at the appellate court level before the season starts.

Further, he said, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson has sent some issues surrounding the suspensions of Minnesota Vikings defensive tackles Kevin Williams(notes) and Pat Williams(notes) back to the state courts.

Peter Ginsberg, attorney for both Vikings, said Friday’s ruling would not affect them because they have a stay on their suspensions from a state court. “I don’t think it effects our clients at all,” he said. They will be back in front of a state judge next week.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined to comment about the ruling.

The Vikings defensive tackles, who are unrelated, and three New Orleans Saints tested positive for a banned diuretic last year and were each given four-game suspensions for violating the NFL’s doping policy.

Those suspensions were delayed while their cases were in federal court, but last week Magnuson threw out most claims by the Williamses, and all claims involving the Saints’ Charles Grant(notes) and Will Smith(notes), and Deuce McAllister(notes), who was released by New Orleans after last season but hopes to play for another team during the upcoming season.

Both the NFL and the NFLPA have told the courts they plan to appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The union wants the appeals court to reconsider Magnuson’s dismissal of their lawsuit. Attorneys for the union had argued in court documents that the players would suffer “irreparable harm” if the NFL enforces the suspensions during the appeal process.

The league is appealing the judge’s decision to send some of the Williamses claims to state court. Those claims involve Minnesota laws on when and how employers can require employees to submit to drug testing. They also prohibit Minnesota employers from disciplining employees for using a legal substance offsite during nonworking hours.

In his ruling last week, Magnuson said the NFL’s policy is clear: Players are responsible for what they put in their bodies, and inadvertently ingesting a banned substance is not an excuse.

The NFLPA and the Williamses had argued in separate lawsuits that NFL officials knew a weight-loss supplement called StarCaps contained the banned diuretic bumetanide back in 2006, even though it wasn’t listed on the label, and that the league should have notified players and federal regulators.

The NFL bans bumetanide because it can be used as a masking agent for steroids. The five players were not accused of taking steroids.

With NFL training camps just over two months away, let’s look at some players in the AFC East who will be counted on to provide an impact for their teams in 2009.
Buffalo Bills: DE Aaron Schobel
The Bills are a Tampa 2 defensive football team. Sure, they run their share of Cover 1 and employ multiple zone blitz schemes, but their core coverage is still the Tampa 2 – and without a healthy Schobel coming off the edge, this team is in trouble.
The Bills desperately need Schobel to get pressure on the passer.
(Luc Leclerc/US Preswire)
Schobel played only five games because of injuries last season and has seen his sack total go down since he had 14 in 2006. Considering that fellow DE Chris Kelsay can’t get to the quarterback and Aaron Maybin is a rookie (and someone we can’t count on just yet), it’s essential that Schobel avoid injuries and find a way to get to the quarterback like he did in’06.
I was with the Bills and Schobel in ’06, and when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best coming off the edge, using a combination of speed and athletic ability to beat offensive tackles in one-on-one matchups. But without a solid pass rush, the Tampa 2 is vulnerable, and the Bills will find themselves bringing pressure via the blitz – something this defense doesn’t want to rely on to produce sacks.
Miami Dolphins: FS Gibril Wilson
The Dolphins won the AFC East in ’08 because of their pressure defense and their ability to give quarterback Chad Penningtonand the offense a short field to work with – and easy scoring opportunities.
Yes, the front seven of this defense garnered all the attention in the national media – and it was well deserved – but the back end is just as important when discussing the defense as an entire unit. Wilson, who was cut by the Raiders, comes to South Florida with big expectations and a big contract, but is he the right player for the job?
He struggled tackling in the open field in Oakland, and for him to fit in this defense, he needs to make plays on the football – getting from the middle of the field to the sidelines – and limit any type of explosive plays by the offense in the run game. I love the way Miami’s defense attacks the ball, and Wilson is going to be expected to make plays – because without a reliable safety, any defense is average.
New England Patriots: WR Joey Galloway
The Patriots are loaded on offense, but with the addition of Galloway, they could be even better. Quarterback Tom Bradyhas to stay healthy, but by signing Galloway, the Pats’ offense now has the ability to use his speed and his deep-ball ability to stretch the field even more than last year and provide WRs Wes Welker and Randy Moss with even more favorable matchups.
During my career, the two players who were feared the most in terms of the deep ball were Moss and Galloway – and from what I can see, neither of them has lost a step getting down the field. Now that they’re on the same team, the Pats can go to the three-wide formations and force teams to respect not only Moss, but Galloway as well when it comes to the deep ball, which will put Welker on the inside on a nickel corner or a safety – something that I would take every day.
Adding weapons doesn’t always lead to wins, but if Galloway can still produce at his age (37), he will not only see his share of passes from Brady, he will also open up the field and allow Moss and Welker to see a lot of one-on-one matchups. Remember, speed still wins at this level on the outside.
New York Jets: TE Dustin Keller
Keller was QB Brett Favre’sgo-to guy in the intermediate passing game in ’08, and I believe he has to be even better in his second pro season with rookie Mark Sanchez under center. Whenever you play a rookie QB, you need to provide him with an outlet in manageable down-and-distance situations, and nothing can do that more than a reliable TE who can catch the football and pick up positive yardage after the catch. Keller is that type of football player, and the Jets have to lean on him to be a target for Sanchez out in the field and in the red zone.
Sure, this team has questions on the outside at wide receiver, but it’ll be able to move the ball with the running game and if Sanchez and Keller can build an on-the-filed relationship in the passing game. There are growing pains any time you play a rookie, but Keller is the type of player (someone I compare to Washington’s Chris Cooley who can help ease Sanchez’s transition to the pro game.
The National Football Post is a unique and premier online source of quality and credible news, information and insight about all sides of football featuring professionals with experience in all facets of the NFL. Check out NFP’s 2009 Fantasy Football Front Office with everything you need to manage your team this fantasy season including the NFP Draft Guide, NFP Total Access Pass and Fantasy Football Leagues.

In my continuing series on impact players for the 2009 season, here’s a look at the NFC East.
Dallas Cowboys: OLB Anthony Spencer(notes)
The Cowboys have all but closed the book on OLB Greg Ellis(notes) – he’s expected to be traded soon – and that leaves Spencer, the former first-round pick, to replace his production. As Michael Lombardi wrote Thursday morning, the Cowboys’ defense is predicated on getting to the quarterback. They led the NFL in sacks last season with 59, but they also gave up over 22 points per game. This defense – although nasty when it gets to the quarterback – is the equivalent of a big-play offense. It’s effective because it can provide the amount of pressure that can alter a ballgame – and that’s where Spencer comes in.
Spencer sacks Shaun Hill(notes) in Week 12 last season.
He has only 4½ sacks in his career and only posted 1½ in ’08. He’s long, but he lacks the burst off the line of scrimmage to consistently create havoc in the backfield, which is something Ellis will take with him along with his 77 career sacks and the eight he recorded last season. We can all agree that Ellis might be at the end of his career, but the Cowboys still have to replace his production, and Spencer needs to show that he can consistently get to the quarterback in this attacking defense – because without that, the Cowboys will struggle.
New York Giants: WR Hakeem Nicks(notes)
It isn’t often that a late first-round pick is expected to contribute and produce immediately in an offense – especially at the wide receiver position – but that’s exactly what the Giants were thinking when they drafted Nicks out of UNC.
As I wrote Wednesday when I discussed the Giants and QB Eli Manning(notes), this offense needs a big, physical No. 1 target – especially in the intermediate passing game. Nicks is long, and he has the body to shield defenders away from the football, plus he has the ability to go up and catch the ball, something former Giants WR Plaxico Burress(notes) possessed – but he’s still a rookie wide receiver. Are the Giants asking too much?
Maybe, but that’s really not the point right now. This team is loaded on defense and along the offensive line, and it might just have the best running game in the league, but Nicks is going to be expected to produce and play like a veteran immediately – or Manning and the passing game will struggle early in the season. Say what you want about Manning, but he plays at a higher level when he has a big receiver who can go get the football. Nicks has to be that player.
Philadelphia Eagles: LT Jason Peters(notes)
Beyond the fact that the Eagles paid top dollar – plus traded away draft picks – to bring Peters in from Buffalo, the expectations for him will, and should be, immense for the ’09 season.
Peters struggled in Buffalo last season, and now he comes to the NFC East, where he’ll face some of the best pass rushers in the game. The Eagles used their top two draft picks on offensive talent – WR Jeremy Maclin(notes) of Missouri and RB LeSean McCoy(notes) of Pittsburgh – to give QB Donovan McNabb(notes) more weapons. But those additions won’t matter if Peters doesn’t return to Pro Bowl form and become a dominant left tackle in the Eagles’ West-Coast system. I was a teammate of his in Buffalo, and I can attest to his athletic ability for a man his size, but he still has to prove that he can handle the pressure defenses in this defense.
There were a lot of reasons why Peters’ game slipped in ’08, but when you command the type of salary he now possess, the Eagles and the city of Philadelphia are going to expect major production. This team should be considered one of the contenders to not only win the East, but to go deep into January – but that will only happen if Peters plays at a high level and gives McNabb time to throw.
Washington Redskins: RB Ladell Betts(notes)
As I’ve stated before when it comes to feature backs in the NFL, they tire over the course of a 16-game season when they don’t have a complement in the backfield. Clinton Portis(notes) is the feature attraction in the Redskins’ offense, but I felt that during the ’08 season he wore down as the season progressed, and I started to question why Betts wasn’t given more carries.
I have a lot of respect for the way Portis plays the game. I was his teammate for two seasons in Washington, and I still feel that he doesn’t get enough credit for his toughness as a football player. But it doesn’t hide that fact that Portis carried the football 342 times compared to Betts’ 61, and his numbers drastically decreased over the last two months of the season.
This offense has plenty of question marks along the offensive line, and some in quarterback Jason Campbell(notes), but Portis is the real deal when he’s fresh and when he’s healthy down the stretch. Head coach Jim Zorn needs to work Betts into the rotation because he’s a back who can run with power, can catch the ball out of the backfield and is more than capable of moving the chains.
The Giants led the league is rushing for a reason – they had multiple options out of the backfield. And Washington needs to follow their plan for this offense to move the ball on the ground, something that’s essential to winning games in the NFC East.
The National Football Post is a unique and premier online source of quality and credible news, information and insight about all sides of football featuring professionals with experience in all facets of the NFL. Check out NFP’s 2009 Fantasy Football Front Office with everything you need to manage your team this fantasy season including the NFP Draft Guide, NFP Total Access Pass and Fantasy Football Leagues.