Paul Domowitch: Westbrook smart to share the load

SOMETIMES, many times, pro football players can't see the forest for the trees. Six years ago, Duce Staley couldn't.

He was a 29-year-old running back with 1,651 touches on his career odometer. He had just come off the "three-headed monster" season of 2003 that saw him combine with Brian Westbrook and Correll Buckhalter for an impressive 2,465 yards from scrimmage.

Staley averaged a career-high 4.8 yards per carry that season, but the whole ensemble-cast thing left him unfulfilled. He wanted the ball. Wanted it a lot more than the 96 times he lugged it in '03.

He didn't understand that sometimes, less is more. Didn't understand that he could have extended his career - and his NFL paydays - by staying in Philadelphia and rotating with Westbrook and Buckhalter.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers offered him a 5-year, $14 million contract and the chance to be their workhorse running back, he jumped at it.

For the first seven games of the 2004 season, things worked out terrifically for Duce. He got 151 carries in those first seven games and racked up 707 yards. Had four 100-yard games.

Then he pulled a hamstring. He appeared in just three more games that season. Needed knee surgery the following summer and got just 38 carries in 2005. Was activated for just one game in 2006 and was released that December.

Which brings us to Westbrook. He turned 30 last week. His 1,854 regular-season and postseason touches through seven seasons are in the same neighborhood as Staley's.

The difference is, Westbrook seems to get the whole less-can-be-more idea. At least that was the impression I got from listening to him Wednesday at the NovaCare Complex.

I'm sure he is sick and tired of reading his career obituaries the last 8 months. I'm sure he is eager to prove that he's not Shaun Alexander or any of the other running backs who fell off the cliff when they hit 30.

That said, he also seems to have embraced the concept of a workload-sharing partnership with rookie Shady McCoy.

Westbrook understands that fewer touches in September and October could mean a lot less limping and missed practices in November and December. He understands that 15 to 20 touches a game this season instead of 25 to 30 could add a season or two to the tail end of his career and delay those knee-replacement surgeries until his kids are out of college.

While he said he hopes to touch the ball "a lot" this season, he quickly followed that up by pointing out, "We have a lot of good weapons on this team, a lot of guys that can do things with the ball. So I'm sure everybody will get their opportunities.

"I hope they mix it up a little bit. But I think I can still do a lot of dynamic things with the ball in my hands."

Both the Redskins and the Eagles signed players to their practice squads this week who were recently cut by their Week 1 opponents. The Redskins signed former Giants quarterback Andre Woodson. The Eagles added linebacker Jeremy Leman after he was released by Carolina.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin said it was "pretty obvious" why Washington signed Woodson - to pump him for information about the Giants' offense.

Leman said the Eagles haven't picked his brain about the Panthers' defense, but the practice of picking up players for the purpose of obtaining intelligence on an opponent has been going on for a long time.

"It happens," an NFL general manager said. "I wouldn't say a lot, but it does happen. We've done it."

He said the Redskins should be able to get some useful information from Woodson.

"It can make a difference if it's a quarterback," the GM said, "because the quarterback is going to know the playcaller. What he likes to call in certain situations. Red zone. Third down. First down. So he knows the entire offense, the entire playbook ... just the fact that's ruffled Tom Coughlin a little bit is enough."

The GM didn't think Leman, who, despite being one smart cookie - he earned both bachelor's and master's degrees at Illinois - could provide the Eagles with much useful information on the Panthers. "With a linebacker like [Leman], I don't think it would make one iota of difference," he said.

As many as a dozen NFL teams are staring at the very real possibility of having multiple games blacked out this season. Over the last 3 years, just 26 of 768 NFL games have been blacked out because they didn't sell out. But there could be that many this year by midseason.

Nobody is hurting worse than the Jacksonville Jaguars, who haven't sold out any of their eight home games, and aren't expected to. They sold just 39,942 tickets to last week's final home preseason game against Washington in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, which seats 67,164.

"We know there's a lot of passionate fans down in Jacksonville," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last week. "The first 10 years of their existence, they were at the top of the league with respect to ticket sales. "We're a little disappointed where the ticket sales are and we know there are challenges down there. We've been working with Wayne [Weaver, the team owner] and talking to him and seeing what we can do to support him."

Asked what the league can do to support Weaver, Goodell said, "Go down and try to bring attention to this. Try to help him work with business leaders and other leaders." Translation: Mention the possibility of the Jags moving to Los Angeles a couple of hundred times.

One thing the league has no intention of doing is changing its TV blackout policy, which requires games to be sold out 72 hours before kickoff or they won't be shown in the local market.

The NFL announced yesterday that fans whose local teams' games are blacked out will be able to watch replays online for free after midnight.

FROM THE LIP:

* "Money motivates everybody. I'm trying to set myself up for my second contract. I'm a starter that wasn't drafted in the first round, but that's cool. The best thing I can do is set myself up for the long run in this league." - Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson

* "I spent millions of dollars to do exactly what we're supposed to be doing as owners - create a fan experience that will keep the fans coming back. Because you just can't duplicate this anywhere else. I'm maximizing the stadium experience for fans. And I think I have helped advance the ball for the NFL." - Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on his new, $1.2 billion stadium

* "The T.O. question we can understand because he's a Hall of Famer and he left. Can I fill the void? It's not just me. All the guys are going to have to fill the void. But obviously, we all [stink]. Come Sunday, we'll see if we [stink] or not." - Cowboys WR Roy Williams on questions about the team's receiving corps without Terrell Owens

* "My intentions have never been to take a great risk. Now, I know a lot of people would beg to differ, but that's just the way I've always played. There's no doubt in my mind, with every year that I've played, that there should have been more restraint at times." - Vikings quarterback Brett Favre on his penchant for throwing interceptions

BY THE NUMBERS:

* Buffalo News pro football writer Mark Gaughan recently ranked the league's 32 teams based on the total value of the contracts of the 80 players they had in training camp. The Vikings were No. 1 at $736.87 million. Guess who was No. 2? That's right. The Eagles at $721.22 million. The Cowboys were third at $715.40M.

* Eagles wide receivers caught 197 passes in the regular season last year, the most by that unit in the Andy Reid era. But they had just 27 receptions in the red zone, including their three playoff games.

* Mark Sanchez will be the first rookie to start a game at QB for the Jets since Matt Robinson in 1977.

* The Seahawks will log the most travel miles this season - 29,054. The Browns will log the fewest - 7,554. The Eagles are 13th at 17,730, which includes two trips to the West Coast (San Diego and Oakland).

* Last season, the Cardinals completed more passes (418) than the Panthers attempted (414).

* The Panthers fumbled 14 times in their four preseason games.

* The Chiefs are 2-23 in their last 25 games.

THUMBS UP:

You want a thumbs up? You can't handle a thumbs up. Maybe next week.

THUMBS DOWN:

To Browns coach Eric Mangini for refusing to divulge who his starting quarterback was going to be for Sunday's season opener against the Vikings. It was reported Wednesday that Brady Quinn will start ahead of Derek Anderson, but the news didn't come from Secret Squirrel. Mangini explained that he was trying to protect his team's "competitive advantage" against the Vikings. "I'm not saying it's going to be the difference or not the difference," he said. "But I know it's easier to study one [quarterback] than it is to study two."

THUMBS DOWN:

To former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Turk Schonert for running his mouth after getting fired by head coach Dick Jauron last week. The customary way of reacting to firings in the NFL is to zip your lip. Not Schonert. He said Jauron wanted him to run "a Pop Warner offense ... I didn't simplify it to his liking ... He's been on my back all offseason." I'm not going to make a judgment call on whether Schonert's offense was too complicated. But if you work for a guy and he asks you to change something, you have two choices - change it or quit. What you don't do is ignore him and then whine when he cans you.