The career of an NFL player can be a long and twisting road. There are no formulas for success and no tangible formulas for failure. However, every season, certain players have to know that if they dont perform that year, their future earning potential could be seriously hampered to the point where they are either out of the league altogether or they must begin to view themselves as journeymen who will never sign that elusive enormous free agent contract that sets them up financially for life.
Weve identified five such players whose situations will be most interesting in 2006. Surely there are more than five players in the NFL who must perform this season in order for their high earning potential to remain a real possibility, but we feel that these five present the most intriguing situations.
1. J.P. Losman
It seems awfully early for this year to be Losmans make-or-break season, but the young QB is facing the possibility of being traded, released or being relegated to a long-term backup role if he doesnt show improvement early in the 2006 season. The Bills gave up a lot to earn the right to draft Losman in 2004, and the team jettisoned established starter...