Thursday & Long: Minnesota or Bust for Brian Westbrook?

He's hardly the biggest or hottest name on a full-to-bursting NFL running back market, but Brian Westbrook could be the poster child for one of the key factors at work as rookie backs, veteran backs and all kinds of backs in between look to find work this off-season.

There's a feeling around the league that Westbrook, the recently released Eagles veteran, might just retire. He was shaken up by his concussion problems in 2009 and is an intelligent, thoughtful guy with plans beyond football. But one NFL personnel person told me this week that, "if there's one team that could talk Westbrook into the role he should be playing at this point in his career, it's the Vikings."

The reasons are the ones you'd expect -- Westbrook knows the West Coast offense and played for Brad Childress when Childress was running the offense in Philadelphia. But the implication about the role is what's interesting. If Westbrook is determined to find work as a full-time, 20-carry-per-game back, he's probably out of luck. But there's a lot of work out there for guys who are willing to get 8-10 carries per game, catch a few balls, spell an established starter and basically just add to a team's depth at the position.

This is the role Chester Taylor filled for the Vikings last year, and the Vikings would love to bring Taylor back to do it again. But Taylor believes he can carry a starter's workload and wants to go out on the free-agent market and see if he can find starter's money. That will leave the Vikings looking to fill in behind superstar starter Adrian Peterson. And there are a number of backs on the market who could fit there nicely -- if they're willing to do it.

The running back position in the NFL has evolved in a way that makes having depth just about as important as finding one big back who can carry the load. The nature of the position means that the big guy wears down over the course of a season. And if your starter gets hurt, or your Matt Forte or Steve Slaton doesn't have the year you projected him to have, you'd better make sure there's somebody behind him to pick up the slack.

Veteran backs like Westbrook and LaDanian Tomlinson, who for a variety of reasons aren't what they used to be, are perfect candidates for backup/part-time roles behind guys like Peterson. The trick is talking those guys into the role. Childress and Westbrook know each other well enough that, assuming Taylor takes off, it's easy to see how Childress might be able to convince Westbrook to do it.

Of course, there remains the chance that Westbrook will retire. Or that his chronically sore knees will revolt against him if he signs with a team that doesn't play and/or practice on natural grass. If that happens, this year's running back market will give the Vikings ample opportunity to find a back or two that can help them build a useful arsenal behind Peterson. Here's a look at some of this off-season's RB-market power brokers:

-- Thomas Jones: The veteran back, who will be cut by the Jets on Friday, is coming off the best year of his career. If there's a team out there looking for a free-agent back to be its primary ballcarrier, Jones might be the most appealing option. He's in his 30s, but he's in incredible shape and showed little sign of slowing down in 2009.

-- San Diego Chargers: They're letting Tomlinson walk out of town, though in a late change of plans they decided to keep Darren Sproles. Sproles likely isn't an every-down answer, though. They could be a match with Jones, or they could use an early-round pick on a back such as Jahvid Best, Jonathan Dwyer or Montario Hardesty.

-- Chester Taylor: With guys like Sproles and Jones hitting the market, Taylor might not find teams as receptive as he'd hoped to his pitch for starter's money. The Vikings have let him know he's welcome back in Minnesota if he wants to do the same thing he's been doing the past couple of years, and that may turn out to be his best option.

-- Houston Texans: They could use help on defense, but the most glaring problem the Texans had this year was their complete lack of a running game. If Clemson's C.J. Spiller is still sitting there when it comes time for Houston to make its first-round pick, he's going to be tough for them to pass up. That is, unless they've gone out and signed Thomas Jones in the meantime.

-- Tomlinson: A future Hall of Famer who says he still wants to play and try and win a championship, Tomlinson is a wild card this off-season. Some team could nab him just based on the name alone, or be convinced he has enough left in the tank to flash eight or 10 games' worth of the old Tomlinson magic. Or, he could end up this year's Derrick Brooks -- an all-time great whose career ended because everybody else decided he was done before he did.

-- Washington Redskins: There's some growing sentiment around the league that the Skins could light it up in free agency this uncapped off-season. Sproles was the back with whom they were most often connected, so it'll be interesting to see what their RB Plan B was. If Dan Snyder blows out the budget and signs somebody to a contract that's way beyond market value, that could have a ripple effect on the entire rest of the RB market for the entire rest of the spring and summer. As is so often the case this time of year, lots of people are waiting to see what the Redskins are going to do.

One More Thing

Speaking of the Redskins, I left the scouting combine wondering what on earth Mike Shanahan was thinking about his defense. All of the talk was that Shanahan is planning to transition Washington to a 3-4 defense. This is the root of the chatter about the Redskins pursuing Julius Peppers as an edge pass rusher opposite Brian Orakpo. And while that may be an enticing alignment, given how good Orakpo looked in his first year, it leaves Washington with a major potential problem in the middle of its defensive line.

A year ago this time, Albert Haynesworth was signing a $100 million free-agent contract with Washington. Haynesworth played well his first year, though toward the end of it he expressed his dissatisfaction with his role under then-coach Jim Zorn. Haynesworth said he wanted more freedom to rush the passer from the interior, rather than just take up space and suck up double-team blocks in the middle all day. And given his history in Tennessee, there's a strong case to be made that he deserves that opportunity.

However, if the Redskins are going to switch to a 3-4, they're going to have to talk Haynesworth into playing the nose tackle position. It's possible his future in a 3-4 is as one of the ends, but right now, for the money he's making, and with his interior line skills still where they are, the nose is where they want him. My question is, how are they going to talk him into doing something he doesn't want to do?

And my even bigger question is this: If you're one year removed from doling out a $100 million contract to the best 4-3 defensive tackle in the league...why in the world would you want to run a 3-4?