Once thought of as a possible upside fantasy player, Washington Redskins RB Ryan Torain is now homeless. Well, he most likely has an actual place to live (we’d assume), but he no longer has an NFL home. According to Chris Russell of ESPN 980 AM, the Redskins have parted ways with Torain.

“Ryan Torain had 135 yards rushing in STL & a combined total of 65 yards since, before his release this AM as ESPN 980 has learned. #Redskins,” Russell tweets.

And he isn’t kidding about those awful numbers. The Redskins really have not found anyone to run the ball since Clinton Portis was actually good. Shocking since Mike Shanahan has paid some much attention to the position. His first year with the Skins, he had old versions of Portis, Larry Johnson and Willie Parker. And it didn’t work out! How?!

This season, he had the grouping of Tim Hightower, Roy Helu, Ryan Torain and Evan Royster. And that didn’t work out either!! Baffles the mind.

Torain could get a look in Dallas, Detroit or Buffalo, but who knows?

Before this season, the San Francisco 49ers signed Braylon Edwards to a one-year, $1.6 million contract. The hope was that he would be a deep threat for them, but that never happened for a variety of reasons.

“I was released today by the 49ers due to my injury that required more time to rehab and hasn’t allowed me to re-sync with the offense…,” Edwards tweeted.

First of all, Alex Smith stinks when it comes time to throw the ball deep. That’s quite a big problem to start with. But also, Edwards had knee issues all season and isn’t very good anymore to begin with. 2007 was a long time ago.

Kyle Williams eventually surpassed him on the depth chart and Edwards only got into nine games this year. He finished the season with 15 catches for 181 yards and no touchdowns.

Good new, Chicago Bears! The Denver Broncos have cut Kyle Orton. It’s kind of a surprise, but not really when you consider that if any QB on the roster is going to get a look should something happen to Tebow (bench/injury), it would likely be Brady Quinn.

So, why pay Orton the remaining $2.5 million on his contract to just sit the bench?

So, one would think that either the Bears, Chiefs or Texans could claim him as they all have injured starting QB’s. And the Bears and Texans are doing well in the playoff race.

Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune says that the Bears will claim him. But, he’s confirming Jay Glazer’s report, even though Glazer never reported that. So, we don’t know what to make of that one.

The Bears have the 30th waiver priority, so there is a chance he doesn’t even make it to them.

File this under “somewhat shocking.” The New England Patriots win a lot of games because of their offense. Their defensive is just horrific, so one would assume that they can’t afford to be losing players. But, after cutting Leigh Bodden a week ago, they have let go of another veteran player.

Albert Haynesworth.

“BREAKING: The Patriots have released DT Albert Haynesworth, I’m reporting. Wow,” Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald tweets.

Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe said Monday night that Haynesworth turned in three of the worst plays every by a defensive tackle. He got “ragdolled easy,” got pancaked and then fell to the ground on an easy shove against the New York Giants Sunday. This led to a sideline confrontation with defensive line coach Pepper Johnson.

Could the Eagles be interested? Would he play hard for Jim Washburn, his old coach from Tennessee? It’s possible.

Albert clearly has enough money at this point. He’s playing…why? He has a ton of talent but he’s clearly just gutless at this point. Oh and throw in the fact that he’s a royal pain off the field too.

To say that we are shocked on this one is an understatement. The Cowboys dumped Marion Barber in the offseason, but drafted DeMarco Murray to be some new blood. They still have Felix Jones, but he’s hurt all the time and ineffective. In the last couple years, Tashard Choice has always done a more-than respectable job to fill in when one of these guys went down with an injury.

But, he won’t be doing a respectable job for the Cowboys now. The Cowboys have waived Choice, according to Tim McManus of ESPN.

“Tashard Choice cut to make room for Bruce Carter. More to come on @ESPNDallas and 103.3,” he tweets.

Bruce Carter, a linebacker, is coming off a knee injury at North Carolina and hasn’t played football since 2010.

“Very excited, very excited,” Carter said. “Trying to get every down, down pat so I don’t [expletive] up, excuse my language. A lot of special teams. A lot of learning, getting in, making mistakes, lot of coaches yelling at you, ‘Go this way and go that way’ and all of that stuff.”

We’re still baffled, though, by this move. We need to find out more. The Cowboys are hardly deep at the running back position and Choice is a nice player. Did he mouth off to someone? Why would you cut a guy at a thin position to make room for a guy who is going to spend most of his time at special teams?

McManus, who follows the team closely, isn’t surprised by this move. He says that Garrett never really liked him.

“Can’t say I’m stunned by Tashard Choice being cut. Jason Garrett clearly was never high on 23. Choice gave him no reason to be this year,” McManus tweets.

Oh well, we thought that they’d hold on to him for depth if nothing else. Someone else will pick him up.

The Philadelphia Eagles have made tons and tons of moves this offseason, so why should now be any different? As the team prepares for the St. Louis Rams in Week 1, they’ve done some roster shuffling.

First and foremost, they’ve sent first-round draft pick Danny Watkins to the bench. He was a mess at right guard and the team couldn’t risk having him alongside fellow rookie, center Jason Kelce. So in his place, they’ll put newly acquired free agent Kyle DeVan. DeVan knows Howard Mudd’s system from his time in Indianapolis, so he should be an upgrade.

They’ve also done more secondary tweaking. The team brought back nickelback Joselio Hanson (and the Giants didn’t sign him….why?) after several teams sniffed but didn’t bite. While he is pretty awful on the outside, the Eagles don’t need him out there. They just need him for nickel.

To make room for Joselio, the team cut last year’s fourth-round pick Trevard Lindley, who is probably more suited to a Cover 2 system. Yet another wasted mid to high pick on a guy that doesn’t have the physical skills to fit their system.

In 2009, the Buffalo Bills took Penn St. defensive end/LB Aaron Maybin with the No. 9-overall pick. Since he doesn’t have one single sack yet and contributes nothing on special teams, the Bills decided they’d had enough. According to Adam Schefter, they have cut their dead weight.

“Another big move for the Bills: Buffalo is releasing former first-round pick Aaron Maybin,” Schefter tweets.

Maybe was behind guys like Danny Batten, Antonio Coleman, and Jammie Kirlew in camp. Who? Exactly. If he hasn’t shown any flashes of anything yet, the Bills figure he’s never going to.

What the hell happened to Scott Kazmir? Remember it was considered a major gaffe when the New York Mets sent him to Tampa Bay for the likes of Victor Zambrano? Yeah, not Carlos Zambrano….Victor.

Kazmir turned into a decent pitcher from 2005-2008 and it looked like he’d have a bright future. But somewhere, it all got lost. He’s been terrible and gave up 30 runs in 15 1/3 innings at the minor league level this year. The Anaheim Angels have obviously decided that enough is enough, and they’ve placed him on waivers.

“#angels put Scott Kazmir on waivers for purpose of granting him his unconditional release,” tweets Bill Shaikin of the LA Times.

Kazmir is due $12 million this year with a $2.5 million buyout for the 2012 season. Think anyone will put in a claim? Of course not. As far as you’re concerned, the 27-year old is a free agent. It remains to be seen if someone will kick his tires. We’re sure someone will.

Yet another team in another town has come to the conclusion that Milton Bradley isn’t worth it. In the past, he’s been incredibly productive, making it worth someone’s while to keep him around and deal with his myriad of antics. But, he’s just not anymore and hence the Seattle Mariners have designated him for assignment.

It looked like Bradley would hang around after Ryan Langerhans got designated for assignment when the M’s called up Mike Wilson. But the roster re-tooling wasn’t done as they also brought up Carlos Peguero.

At that point, you look at Bradley’s .218 batting average and the decision gets quite easy.

If Bradley was a high character guy and a veteran leader on the team, maybe this doesn’t happen. But he’s not and we know he’s not. This is a guy that was arrested for a felony not too long ago for throwing a glass at his wife.

Someone will probably roll the dice on Bradley, but I don’t see anyone making him an everyday starter unless everyone on the team got hurt at the same time.

OTR wants to let everyone know that if you are friends with a Mariners fan or anyone that lives in the greater Seattle area, you just maybe just let them be this week. It’s a time when those in Seattle really need to spend time with close family and loved ones, and really do a lot of reflecting on the Milton Bradley era.

Numerous media outlets are reporting that the Philadelphia Phillies have decided move on from 2B Luis Castillo. The 35-year old was brought in this spring to try to fill the void left by the mind-boggling Chase Utley knee injury, but the Mets apparently released him for a reason.

This means that the Phillies will stick with Michael Martinez, who also seems to be of Latino decent. Martinez hit just .239 this spring, so that tells you what they think of Castillo.

Photo Caption: The Phillies were on defense at the time. Both of these men were released from their teams for obvious reasons.

Actually, Martinez could be very valuable defensively. He’s very good on defense and can play all over the field. In case you haven’t noticed, the Phillies could really use some versatility right now.

Castillo is now free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment.

The Chicago Cubs apparently didn’t care for comments that Carlos Silva made on Saturday about pitching coach Mark Riggins and the team in general. After Silva found out that he wasn’t going to make the 25-man roster (mainly it was for pitching like shit all spring), he said that Riggins wasn’t “straight” with him and that he needed to realize that he was in the big leagues now. Riggins has some major league coaching experience, but has spent most of his career as a minor league pitching coordinator.

Well, the Cubs decided that they don’t need an overweight finger-pointer on their roster and released Silva today. They will eat his $11.5 million salary.

“Obviously, we’re dealing with a man that at this particular point in his career is not willing to face the facts,’’ general manager Jim Hendry said. “That what he’s done the last few years, except for a two-month period is well below major league standards and who seems to have the continual problem of blaming everybody but himself.’’

Silva showed up to spring training overweight and already got involved in a skirmish with Aramis Ramirez in the dugout after pitching just one inning. Well done, Carlos.

And don’t forget that he won just one game in the second half of last season and only pitched 11 1/3 innings. Well done, Carlos.

“Basically, he wasn’t good enough to make the team,’’ Hendry said. “You factor in not only spring training, but you try to go back and factor in the second half last year, and you’re looking at a guy that had a 14-something ERA from July 11 on and that came to camp with the notion that he already had a spot in the rotation.’’

Hendry wasn’t done there.

“Twenty-nine hits in his first 11 innings of camp, and I wouldn’t have anybody that I’ve ever dealt with classify that as bad luck,” Hendry continued. “Besides that, his comments about Mark Riggins were totally inappropriate and unacceptable. Once again, it’s a weakness for somebody that doesn’t perform well and chooses to blame somebody else on the way out.”

As it is in life, it’s very difficult to get someone to hand you $12 million to do something. To do anything, really. So when someone tells you that they are willing to pay you $12 million and have you do absolutely nothing in return, that’s saying something.

And that’s essentially what the New York Mets have told Oliver Perez. They released the struggling left hander today, still owing him $12 million.

Perez was a question mark coming into Mets camp, and that just illustrates what a stupid idea it was to give him a three-year, $36 million deal in the first place back in 2009. He’d been effective at times, but overall was maddeningly inconsistent.

He did nothing to help himself this spring. He allowed nine earned runs in 9 2/3 innings of Grapefruit League work.

Perez is now free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment.

The Chicago Bears are the latest team to join the player-cutting party. They announced today that they have cut DT Tommie Harris, T Kevin Shaffer and LB Hunter Hillenmeyer.

We aren’t exactly sure what happened to Tommie Harris. Taken 14th overall in 2004, Harris’ career got off to a very promising start. He was a Pro Bowler in 2005, 2006 and 2007. But, the last couple of years haven’t been too good for him and the Bears have no interest in paying him the $2.5 million roster bonus this season.

Hillenmeyer was originally a fifth-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 2003. He played in just one game last year, recording absolutely zero stats.

So much for experimenting with an attitudinal Ukranian. The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that they have placed Nikolay Zherdev on waivers.

“It had eroded to the point where they wanted to see what else is out there,” Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said.

According to Frank Seravelli of the Daily News, Zherdev declined comment on the situation. He ducked out of the team’s practice facility and slid into a limo with a smirk on his face. Zherdev, not Seravelli.

Zherdev came to the Flyers as an upside guy. Talented as hell, but not known as a team guy. He loved to get his goals, but don’t ask him to buy into a system, play defense or bust his rear end.

The Flyers got exactly what they expected. He has 15 goals this season and has shown that, when on the ice, he can be really damn good. But that’s the problem; he hasn’t been on the ice for a while now. And it’s mainly because of his me-first play. 15 goals are nice, but four assists? If you are that productive on the offensive end, you’d have more than four assists. That’s pretty bad.

But, after repeatedly being a healthy scratch, he and his agent want to be done with the Flyers so he see if another team wants to put up with him.

“His agent and Nik, they obviously weren’t very happy with the situation here,” Holmgren said. “They asked us for other options. Nothing really came of that through trade. We’ll see what happens at noon tomorrow.”

Doesn’t seem like anyone was beating down Holmgren’s door to trade for him.

Holmgren was then asked about any future that Zherdev might have with the team.

“That’s a topic for another day,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean anything. The request came to me to get him to another team and I’m following up on it.”

Holmgren then went on to try to explain where the whole Zherdev experiment went wrong.

“I’m not sure, I think about this all the time,” Holmgren said. “It was kind of an experiment to bring him here and see what he can do. There were periods of time it was good. He had 15 goals in limited power-play time and limited minutes.

“But over the course of time here, things have eroded. Nik’s work ethic has probably dropped off. Right now he’s just not fitting in. We’ll see what happens. I think everyone wants to play and I don’t think he’s any different in that regard. The fact that he wasn’t playing, maybe he didn’t respond the right way a lot of times.”

Good player, bad attitude. Pretty much what the Flyers thought they were getting in the first place.

Okay maybe this isn’t that shocking, considering the New Orleans Saints got nice production from rookie Jimmy Graham last season. But still, Jeremy Shockey was a very productive tight end for the Saints (when healthy) the last few years.

But alas, the Saints told him not to let the door hit him on the way out. Shockey doesn’t seem too upset by it.

“It’s a business, I understand,” Shockey told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols. “I’ll just go play hard for someone else. Whoever gets me it’s going to be a steal.”

Shockey was owed $4.7 million this season. Thinking about this as I type, we probably should have seen this coming sooner.

St. Louis Rams safety O.J. Atogwe was due an $8 million roster bonus on the 21st of this month. We think that’s quite a hefty some for a good but not great player.

Apparently, the Rams agree with us. According to Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the team has cut him.

“Rams release atogwe, decide not to pay 8 million dollar roster bonus,” he tweets.

Atogwe has said he wants to stay in St. Louis, but that also could have been because they owed him an ass ton of money. Not quite 30, Atogwe could still find a decent contract on the open market. It might be the last big one he gets.

Atogwe is free to sign with another team without waiting for a new CBA.

This was a surprising move (to us at least). The Indianapolis Colts have cut stud safety Bob Sanders. And when we say “stud,” we mean “when he’s on the field.”

Sanders is one of the biggest difference makers in the NFL. When he’s healthy, he completely changes the Colts’ defense. When he’s hurt (which is almost always), the defense has absolutely no teeth. He was a big reason they won the Super Bowl in 2006, and he was named Defensive Player of the Year following the 2007 season.

The problem is that he got a huge contract after that award-winning season and has played in just nine regular season games in the past three years. The numbers just don’t add up.

Sanders has to know that he’s going to have to take a huge pay cut in his next gig. Will the Colts bring him back at a reduced price? It’s entirely possible. But this statement from Jim Irsay makes it sound like he’s gone.

“We have released Bob Sanders today,” Irsay said in a statement. “We thank Bob for all his incredible contributions, from his Super Bowl interception to his Defensive Player-of-the-Year honor.”

Sanders’ comment on his release makes it sound like a goodbye to the Colts as well.

“I want to thank Mr. (Jim) Irsay for the opportunity to play with the Colts,” Sanders said. “I appreciate all he and the organization did for me throughout my career, and I always will consider myself a Colt. I want to thank the fans also for their great support. They played a big part in making my seven years with the team very rewarding.”

It’s a shame this had to happen because he’s so damn good. However, it’s like they say, “you can’t make the club in the tub.”

Apparently, the Washington Redskins aren’t the only team to think that Devin Thomas can’t play in the NFL. According to Mike Cranston, the Carolina Panthers have released the former Michigan State wide receiver.

“#Panthers sign S Gerald Alexander and waive WR Devin Thomas,” he tweets with appropriate use of hashtags.

Thomas was active for just one game with the Panthers this year and didn’t catch a single pass. Look at the Panthers WR core and tell me that’s tough to crack into.

Thomas was taken in the second round of 2008….ahead of DeSean Jackson. Ouch.

In 2008, there were a slew of wide receivers taken in the second round. Some turned out to be excellent players and some turned out to be complete busts. The Washington Redskins grabbed two of them and they both seem to be in the latter category.

With a new regime in place, the Redskins seem to be willing to admit their mistakes. Oklahoma’s Malcolm Kelly was placed on injured reserve to start the season. Now, the team has releases Devin Thomas, who some considered the best wide receiver in that draft class.

Photo Caption: Devin Thomas takes practice reps with a group of local high school kids who won a contest.

In 34 career games, Thomas only caught 40 balls. And he’s never really been able to establish much of anything on offense.

He’ll probably catch on with someone who thinks they can get some of that talent out of him.

The Carolina Panthers probably took the wrong USC wide receiver in the 2007 draft. In New York, Steve Smith has blossomed into a very nice player. The Panthers took the much higher profile Dwayne Jarrett back then, and have been rewarded with nothing but DWI arrests.

That’s right, Jarrett got another one. He was arrested at 2:08 AM Tuesday morning for driving while impaired, and was held on $2,000 bond. In June 2008, he plead guilty to driving while impaired. At least he’s getting into a rhythm?

Jarrett gave the Panthers three starts in four years. He has two catches for 40 yards this season.

He had requested a trade earlier this year and we have to think that multiple teams offered several first-round picks in return for this megastud. In his defense though, it is tough to crack a lineup when Brandon Lefell and David Gettis are on the roster.

We’re surprised it took this long for him to get cut.

The Tampa Buccaneers have released RB Derrick Ward. It’s a little mind boggling considering they signed him to a four-year, $17 million contract last year, but he looks like he’s running on the beach right now.

This means that Cadillac Williams is now clearly “the guy” in Tampa and should slide up fantasy draft boards. It also means that Kareem Huggins will be Cadillac’s change-of-pace back to start the season.

Ward clearly owes much of that contract to his offensive line in New York. He looked great in 2008, but he was also running behind an absolute machine. Tampa apparently didn’t look at the tape.

The New York Jets have a lot of bravado. They also have a television show on HBO. In addition, they have released Laveranues Coles.

Coles had just 19 yards on four catches running with the two’s and three’s in the preseason, so this isn’t a total shock.

It also wouldn’t be a total shock if Coles called it quits altogether. He indicated previously that this stint with the Jets would be it for him, and now it seems to be it.

While it doesn’t look like he has anything left in the tank, there are a few teams who are playing with worse wide receivers.

When the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t bringing in players who have issues with the law, they are adding guys who simply can’t help the team. Last year it was Laveraneous Coles. This year? It’s Antonio Bryant.

And the Bengals have finally decided to part ways with the wide receiver that they already spent $7.85 million on. That’s right, the Bengals cut Antonio Bryant.

Photo Caption: Bryant’s jokes and impressions about the mentally handicapped didn’t always go over well at practice.

After signing him to a four-year, $28 million contract in the offseason, the Bengals just couldn’t get him healthy enough to get on the field. So far, he’s practiced one day in training camp.

One would have to think that once Bryant gets himself fully healthy that he’ll be an attractive option for many teams. He can still play, he just needs to get healthy.

The Washington Redskins recently traded for QB John Beck from the Baltimore Ravens. That gave the Ravens some breathing room in terms of their QB depth chart, but now the Redskins have the problem of too many QB’s.

Not for long. ESPN 980 radio in Washington D.C. reports that the Redskins has cut former University of Hawaii standout Colt Brennan. The sixth-round pick in 2008 never lived up to his college hype and there were always rumors that he was kind of a dick.

This means that Beck and Rex Grossman will compete for the backup job to Donovan McNabb (that’s not exactly true. Supposedly, Grossman is “entrenched” as the backup. Take that with a grain of salt). And it doesn’t seem like there will be a third spot to compete for since Mike Shanahan usually only keeps two quarterbacks on the roster.

Domenik Hixon has been a pretty productive player for the New York Giants both as a return man and as a WR. But, he recently shredded his ACL and many think that it was due to the new turf at the new Giants Stadium.

With Hixon already out for the entire season, the Giants don’t feel like he’s any use to them. Due to hit free agency after this year, the team has waived him.

It’s likely that Hixon will land on the Giants injured reserve list. Any team that would want to pick him up would have to pay his $1.7 million salary only for him to sit out the year. Wouldn’t make any sense.

Hixon’s injury is just yet another reason why Sinorice Moss will somehow still be employed.

The Milwaukee Brewers have finally decided to put their foot down when it comes to pitchers that stink. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, they have cut ties with 35-year old RHP Jeff Suppan. Suppan was pulled from the starting rotation after just two starts this year and was relegated mostly to mop-up duties.

Suppan was 0-2 with a 7.84 ERA this year. Many baseball experts think that’s unacceptable.

He was in the final year of a four-year $42 million mistake and owed $12.5 million for the season. $8.3 million remains to be paid and the club will owe him $2 million for a team-option buyout clause for 2011.

Photo Caption: “I don’t think the umpire is necessarily squeezing us. I think it’s more of an issue of you not throwing the ball where it’s so god damn easy for them to hit it and drive it over the wall.”

In short, he must have been butt awful for the team to be willing to shell out all that dough for a guy that won’t throw another pitch for them.

Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting that the New England Patriots have severed ties with cornerback Shawn Springs. At 35-years old, this could be the end of the road for Springs.

Drafted by the Seahawks in 1997, Springs also spent time with the Washington Redskins. He started eight games last year for the Patriots.

Photo Caption: Obviously, this kind of crap happened way too often for Belichick’s liking.

A few months ago, Springs was thinking about retirement and possibly heading to law school to become a player agent. It’s possible that he finds another home on a corner-needy team.

Finally, someone has ended this awful experiment. The New England Patriots have released outside linebacking disappointment Adalius Thomas, according to Mike Reiss and Adam Schefter of ESPN.

Thomas arrived in New England with much ballyhoo in 2007, but never lived up to expectations. He was just around 30-years old when the Patriots signed him and he’s declined ever since. He has 14.5 sacks in three years and missed part of 2008 with an injury.

Thomas was clearly much better when he was with the Baltimore Ravens. And stinking up the joint and clashing with head coach Bill Belichick is a recipe for getting cut, and that’s exactly what’s happened here.

He’ll catch on with another team.

According to Manish Mehta of NJ.com, the New York Jets have released all-world (he was at some point anyway) guard Alan Faneca. There had been rumors that he was being shopped, but apparently they don’t care about what they get for him at all. With no salary cap right now, there are no cap consequences.

“BREAKING: I’m reporting that the #Jets cut Alan Faneca. More on nj.com in a bit,” Mehta tweets.

Faneca was due $7.5 million and as we mentioned before, new rookie Vladimir Ducasse is slated to play guard. Faneca has been an outright stud in his career, but he really didn’t play like it last year.

Faneca is only 33-years old and will draw some interest on the free-agent market. Ducasse is now pretty much a lock to start at left guard.

The St. Louis Rams have announced that they have severed ties with QB Marc Bulger. Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that there was interest from the Washington Redskins and that kept the Rams’ hope of finding a trading partner alive. Now that the Redskins have Donovan McNabb, however, we think it’s safe to say that they no longer would be willing to part with anything to get Bulger.

Bulger played well early in his Rams career but has been 5-32 in his last three year. Ouch. That’s absolutely brutal.

He was due $8.5 million this year and there isn’t a single soul on the planet outside of Marc Bulger who would be comfortable paying Marc Bulger that kind of money.