6. Will Cleveland have a workhorse at tailback?
The Browns enter the 2010 season with a passing game premised on a has-been (Jake Delhomme), a never-was (Seneca Wallace), and/or a may-not-ever-be (Colt McCoy). To make matters worse, they've also got a fairly bare cupboard at receiver and tight end.

So the running game will be very important, with fourth-year veteran Jerome Harrison and rookie Montario Hardesty jockeying for position.

It remains to be seen whether they share touches, or whether one of them becomes the primary option. While Cleveland will make whatever decision points toward the most victories, tons of fantasy football owners will be keeping a close eye on whether one or the other becomes the primary option for a Browns team that likely will be doing plenty of running, primarily because it won't be able to do much passing.

7. Who will back up Drew Brees?
Last year, the Saints had aging veteran Mark Brunell as the primary backup to Super Bowl 44 MVP Drew Brees. This year, Brunell's at camp with the Jets.

So who'll be the insurance policy for Brees? For now, Tulane product Patrick Ramsey has the most experience in the league, but he has very little in the Saints' offensive system. Behind Ramsey, the Saints have Chase Daniel and Sean Canfield.

If Brees gets hurt, the Saints are screwed.

8. Does anyone care about the Buccaneers?
The NFL has done an excellent job of creating a system that cultivates optimism in the offseason. Every team has a legitimate shot at climbing out of the valley of 0-0 and making it to the playoffs, especially with only four teams in each division.

Every team except Tampa Bay.

Eight years removed from a Super Bowl win, the team has regressed to the rag-tag Tampa teams that primarily resided in the basement of the old NFC Central through 1995. Everyone seems to accept the reality that the Bucs are bound once again for the bottom of the NFC South, and few if anyone in Tampa can plausibly piece together a scenario in which the overmatched franchise has any chance at overcoming the Saints and/or the Falcons.

Fortunately for the NFL, not many other teams fall into that same category in August.

9. Can Ken Whisenhunt coach the Cardinals into a contender?
Arizona's unexpected success over the past two seasons can be attributed to Kurt Warner's resurgence and just enough high-end players at other key positions. Not to mention the Cardinals play in one of the league's worst divisions.

With those big-name players long gone, if the Cardinals are going to succeed this year, the success will flow from coach Whisenhunt.

It's possible Whisenhunt had a lot more to do with the team's recent run of success than people realize. After all, the team had won only one postseason game since the Truman administration before the buck stopped with Whisenhunt; in the last two seasons, the Cardinals have won four of them. And it was Whisenhunt who made the call late in the 2008 preseason to put the top-10 Heisman winner in Matt Leinart on the bench and dust off the graybeard who had seemed to lose his fastball somewhere between St. Louis and New York.

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In the end, if Whisenhunt had a bigger hand than realized in the 2008 and 2009 editions of the team, then the 2010 Cardinals should contend in a still-weak NFC West. If they don't, then the bulk of the credit for the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl berth will go to the players — specifically those who are gone.

10. Can Perry Fewell fix the Giants defense?
With all the attention that has been paid to the Jets, it's easy to forget the Giants' fortunes have plummeted almost as far as the career of the guy who made the one-handed, helmet-aided catch that delivered the unlikeliest of Super Bowl victories.

The key to turning it around will come on the defensive side of the ball, where the Giants need to get back to putting high heat on the quarterback — and where they desperately need a capable replacement for Antonio Pierce at middle linebacker.

More importantly, they need new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell to have the same kind of impact in his first year on the job that Steve Spagnuolo had in 2007, giving the side of the ball not featuring a member of the Manning family a kick in the pants, in the hopes of dropping many opposing quarterbacks on theirs.

Whether and to what extent Fewell can get it done will go a long way toward determining whether coach Tom Coughlin will be back in 2011.

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