Brian Westbrook, LaDainian Tomlinson End Era, but Will They Resurge?

Within a single day, these two franchise anchormen unfortunately are being released by their teams, which have decided that the players no longer can fit in the organizations' plans moving forward.

In what is yet another downside of the business of the NFL, neither player will have the opportunity to finish his career where he started, leaving behind all the hard work, goals, relationships, and pounding they both endured in their quests for a Super Bowl.

The crucial play and performances of these two load-carrying work horses have played as catalysts for much of their offenses' successes as consistently strong contenders.

Ironically, LT and Westbrook both played significant running back roles as key parts of the building foundations for two of the better teams in the NFL. Both teams in this past decade have been almost mirror images of each other, as they shared very similar results in their separate conferences.

The Eagles and the Chargers have had some of the worst heartache and luck with several of their seemingly SB-bound talented teams, prematurely stalling in the postseason when it appeared they were the teams to beat going in, more so than any others over this past decade with the exception of the Colts. Westbrook's Eagles eventually appeared in the Super Bowl, which was a loss to New England.

Most of the NFL teams are seemingly moving towards younger, multi-back style back fields like the Saints have with Thomas, Bell, and Bush, and the Cowboys have with Barber, Choice, and Jones, and the Jets, Ravens, Vikings, and so on. The chances that before they may have to hang them up, these two veteran, battle-tested backs will fit into a winning system that is SB-bound and in which they could be effective seem very slim to most.

However, with rumors of the Saints, Texans, and Packers as some of the possibilities, apparently there is still value in some teams' eyes for such players.

The question still remains of how much of a role either of them could play as banged-up, high mileage risks, which could depend more heavily on both players' personal expectations in the short time they have left in their great careers.

With other good, high mileage veterans like Larry Johnson, Fred Taylor, and Chester Taylor also possibly hitting the market, it is even more unlikely that either of them see favorable contracts.  

Although both are 30 years old and coming off rough, injury-filled seasons, I think most of us believe that both are still of high value to several teams and have a considerable amount left in the tank. They can still be valuable contributors who act as secondary options if they are not used as the primary back or offered the biggest work load. Rather, as a supplement to a main/feature back or an even split in some systems.

I hope both of them take lessons from Emmitt Smith, Edgerrin James, and Curtis Martin and end their great careers in better situations as they retire.