Week 1 NFL Predictions: 10 Veterans Who Will Be Irrelevant by Season's End

With the start of the 2011 NFL season just days away, the anticipation is building for all 32 teams. Every single player believes that this is going to be the biggest year of their career, and they will lead their team to a Super Bowl title.

That's part of what makes the NFL such a great game. Every team (with the exception of the Bengals) has a chance to win every year.

Unfortunately as enthusiastic as every team is and as excited as every player is to start the season, not everyone can have success. It is the nature of professional sports—some players are just better than others, and some teams are just better than others.

The NFL is a league that creates stars better than any other sports league in this country, which is ironic because you rarely see a player's face during a game. Everyone believes that their favorite player is going to be the best player in the world forever.

But there are a number of players who will fail to live up to the lofty expectations that have been placed on them, either because of where they were drafted or the big contract they signed or they just aren't that good in the first place.

Here are 10 players who will be made irrelevant because of poor performance by the end of the 2011 season.

Tim Tebow, QB, Denver Broncos

Let me qualify this by saying this has nothing to do with the kind of person that Tim Tebow is. He is a great humanitarian and deserves to be praised as much as anyone for all of his charity work and extracurricular activities.

But the bottom line is he just doesn't look like an NFL quarterback.

Remember when Vince Young first started for the Titans late in the 2006 season, won a few games and was deemed a "great" quarterback even though he couldn't throw the ball? That is exactly what Tebow did last season in the three games that he played.

If you take away the name "Tim Tebow" and just look at him from an objective standpoint, you realize that he has serious flaws in his throwing mechanics that are not going to get fixed.

No one will work harder than Tebow, but hard work alone is not enough to be a successful NFL player. You have to have the talent to be able to play, and, unfortunately, Tebow does not.

Matt Hasselbeck, QB, Seattle Seahawks

Matt Hasselbeck has been flirting with irrelevancy for the last two years, but then he has one or two good games that make you think that he still has something left in the tank.

That will not be the case with the Titans this season as Hasselbeck reaches the end of his long and storied career. He has never been the most durable quarterback, and the odds of him playing in more than 10 games this season have to be slim.

Hasselbeck's time is almost up, and this season will be the beginning of the end for the Titans' starting quarterback.

Alex Smith, QB, San Francisco 49ers

You could make a case that Alex Smith is already irrelevant and not a lot of people would argue with you. One of the few people that does not believe that, or at least doesn't say so in public, is new 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh.

Even though Smith was a free agent and the 49ers could have looked elsewhere for a starting quarterback after six years of disappointment, Harbaugh like what he saw from him in their workouts and has made him the starter for the season opener against Seattle.

The good news if you are a 49ers fan is that if and when Smith fails again this season, he will not be brought back for an eighth season with the team.

DeAngelo Williams, RB, Carolina Panthers

DeAngelo Williams was arguably the best running back in the NFL in 2008 when he ran for over 1,500 yards and 18 touchdowns. He was still productive in 2009 but missed three games due to injury.

The wheels fell off last season for Williams as he played in just six games and ran the ball 87 times with only one touchdown. And for some reason the Panthers felt the need to give him a nice new contract despite his production slipping the last two years.

With Jonathan Stewart in the fold, Williams should see less time on the field than ever before and that contract will come back to bite them.

You don't pay an aging running back with an injury history no matter how good he used to be.

Chad Ochocinco, WR, New England Patriots

One of the great characters in all of sports, Chad Ochocinco is hoping that a move to New England will revitalize his sagging career.

Unfortunately, the Patriots have so many options at wide receiver and tight end that the idea of one of them standing out far above the rest is not likely.

Randy Moss was able to do it in 2007, but Ochocinco is not Randy Moss. His talent rests in his speed and route-running, but injuries and age have taken their toll on his speed leaving him vulnerable against faster cornerbacks.

If any quarterback can make Ochocinco look good again, it is Tom Brady. But I don't see him searching for Ochocinco when he can dump it off to Wes Welker, Aaron Hernandez, Rob Gronkowski or Danny Woodhead, among others.

Pierre Thomas, RB, New Orleans Saints

Pierre Thomas was an integral part of the Saints' championship run two years ago, but he battled injuries throughout 2010 and was never particularly effective when he was on the field.

The Saints traded to draft Mark Ingram to take over the starting running back job, though they will likely feature a two-back system throughout the season to integrate him into the offense slowly.

Thomas' value lies in his ability to catch passes out of the backfield and pass blocking. The Saints want him to get back to being the player that he was in 2009, but with Ingram in the fold now they don't need him to have a successful rushing attack.

Osi Umenyiora, DE, New York Giants

There is no denying that Osi Umenyiora is one of the most productive defensive ends in the NFL. He has recorded at least seven sacks in every season since 2004 and has had three seasons with double-digit sack totals.

But Umenyiora is coming off knee surgery and you get the sense that the Giants know he is going to take a step down in performance this season; otherwise they would have given him a long-term extension.

The Giants want Jason Pierre-Paul to take over as the starting defensive end this season and they want to give him every opportunity to be the man that lines up on the right side of the defensive line. As a result, Umenyiora will see less time on the field and his production will drop significantly in 2011.

Asante Samuel, CB, Philadelphia Eagles

I have always found Asante Samuel to be overrated as a cornerback. He is being paid like a top-tier defensive back when he clearly is not one of the 15 best in the NFL.

Yes, he gets a lot of interceptions because he goes after the ball, but as far as staying with his receiver and being a true cover cornerback, he is not very good. The Eagles knew that, which is why they acquired Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.

Samuel is going to be the No. 3 cornerback on this team by season's end and any trade value that he might have had prior to the season starting will be completely gone. That is why the team made a mistake not dealing him when they could have.

Jason Babin, DE, Philadelphia Eagles

There is a saying in sports, though almost no one listens to it, that you should not pay a player who has a career year in a walk year when they have never produced in their career up to that point.

Jason Babin was a first-round draft pick in 2004 to the Houston Texans, but he failed to live up to expectations in three years with the team. From 2008-2010, he played for three different teams and never played in more than 12 games.

But because the Eagles were convinced that something significant changed with him in 2010, they gave him a big contract in the offseason and hope that he can carry the defensive line.

Babin is not durable at all and has only had one above-average season in eight years. At least he got paid before he breaks down again.

Mario Williams, LB/DE, Houston Texans

Not every player is capable of playing as a 4-3 defensive end and 3-4 outside linebacker. Case in point: Mario Williams.

The Houston Texans hired Wade Phillips to be the defensive coordinator after he was fired as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, and he will be bringing his trademark 3-4 defense with him.

Williams has struggled with the transition throughout training camp and preseason. If he can't get the feel of his new position down, the Texans pass rush is going to struggle because he is still capable of getting after the quarterback.

However, his production has also dropped every season since 2008. He had a career-high 14 sacks in 2007 but his total dropped to 12 in 2008, nine in 2009 and 8.5 last season.

He is only 26 years old, so it's not like he is over the hill, but the team is not doing him any favors by switching to a defensive scheme that he is not comfortable in.