Dan Orlovsky and 4 NFL Players Put in the Worst Positions to Help Their Teams

Sometimes, a single player is put in the tough position of having his team's entire season hinge upon his personal success or failure.

While he may step up and make a positive difference or he may not, generally it's not a good sign if a team must base its entire game plan on a single man.

It puts a significant amount of pressure on that player, and it's not a situation anyone seeks out. In the following four slides, I examine four players with troubled teams resting on their respective shoulders

QB Dan Orlovsky, Indianapolis Colts

No other player has had to step into a situation as difficult as the one facing Indianapolis Colts quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who took over as starter for the beleaguered Curtis Painter in the team's Week 13 loss to the New England Patriots.

He inherited the NFL's 28th-ranked offense and the league's only winless team at a time when things couldn't get much worse. The Colts also fired defensive coordinator Larry Coyer after the team's 11th loss and replaced him with Mike Murphy, who hadn't been charged with defensive responsibilities since 1983.

Needless to say, both a lot and yet not much was expected of Orlovsky in his first start. Though his team lost 31-24, Orlovsky managed to complete 81 percent of his passes for 353 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

Though he gained a majority of those yards when the game was clearly lost, Orlovsky managed to look better than Painter this week, which may not be much, but it's at least an improvement in one area for one game.

The Colts' season is lost, that's for sure. If Orlovsky manages to see something worth salvaging among this mess, then that's about the best he can do in the remaining four weeks of the season.

QB Caleb Hanie, Chicago Bears

When the Chicago Bears had to turn to backup quarterback Caleb Hanie, replacing the injured Jay Cutler for perhaps the remainder of the regular season, the team's playoff hopes were not yet in serious jeopardy.

As long as the team employed a more conservative offense, keeping passes short and the offense on the ground behind workhorse running back Matt Forte (and supplemented by goal-line bruiser Marion Barber), they appeared able to maintain their positioning in the NFC and secure a wildcard postseason berth, potentially in time for Cutler to return.

But now, things have gotten much more grim for Chicago, with Forte suffering an MCL injury in the team's embarrassing 10-3 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 13.

If the diagnosis stands, Forte should be out two to four weeks. If it is the full four, that means the season will be over by the time he's ready to take the field, but by that point his team may not be playing football in January.

Hanie has been in trouble the two games he's started for Chicago, completing just 50 percent of his passes in Week 12 while throwing two scores and three interceptions, and having a dismal 45.8 completion percentage in the team's most-recent loss.

Against the Chiefs, Hanie threw for just 133 yards and was picked three times. Forte himself managed only 12 yards on the ground before suffering the injury, and the Bears as a whole had just 188 total yards of offense to their names.

With the Bears' strong defense not even enough to make up for their offense's shortcomings, Hanie has found himself the engineer of a late-season meltdown and not a triumphant playoff run.

RB Maurice Jones-Drew, Jacksonville Jaguars

With quarterback David Garrard relieved of his position prior to the start of the 2011 season, the Jacksonville Jaguars have struggled on offense.

Even powerhouse running back Maurice Jones-Drew has suffered with Luke McCown and Blaine Gabbert alternately getting playing time, though he's been charged with most of the offense's production.

Compared to everyone else on Jacksonville's 31st-ranked offense, Jones-Drew is having a very good year, rushing 230 times for 1,040 yards and five scores and catching 23 passes for 206 yards. However, compared to his years with Garrard as quarterback it's a most disappointing season.

Quarterbacks McCown and Gabbert have been the team's biggest Achilles heels this season, playing so poorly that it helped spur along the firing of head coach Jack Del Rio.

Even the considerable talents of the versatile, smart and fast Jones-Drew is no match for the poor play of the rest of his team. At 3-8 on the year and their future clearly in flux, there's little the Jaguars can do to turn things around, even with Jones-Drew's best efforts.

RB Steven Jackson, St. Louis Rams

Similarly to the Jaguars' Maurice Jones-Drew, St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson has emerged as the single-most productive player on his team's otherwise lackluster offense.

The only offensive unit inferior to the Jaguars, the Rams average just 295 yards of total offense per game this year, with 105 of them coming from the ground.

Considering that Jackson is averaging just over 81 yards per game while missing time earlier this season with a leg injury, and it's clear just how much his production means to the team.

But even a high-yardage day from Jackson doesn't guarantee his team a win. Jackson rushed for well over 100 yards in Weeks 8-10 but the Rams won only two of those games, one earning a weak 13-12 win over the Cleveland Browns.

The Rams struggled early, suffering from a number of major injuries to key starters. Quarterback Sam Bradford himself has alternated between injured and active, never finding a rhythm when he has been healthy enough to start.

It must be frustrating for a player like Jackson, who is averaging 4.7 yards per carry and has 182 rushes for 832 yards and four scores this season and 27 catches for 162 yards and a touchdown, to see his team at 2-9 and at the bottom of the NFC West.

He's performed about as well as any running back in the league, but unfortunately for him, an offense must reply on more than just the success of its back if they want to help the team win games.