"Tomlin fires team" -A.P.

Check this out.

Tomlin’s response to the Super Bowl champions’ latest improbable loss and the franchise’s longest losing streak since a five-game slide in 2003? He’s taking out an eraser and wiping away names.

You hear that, James Harrison? You're about to get erased!

Rookie cornerback Joe Burnett is expected to start for the oft-beaten William Gay, who sustained a concussion late in the Steelers’ can-you-believe-it 27-24 loss to the Raiders on Sunday. Gay might not play in Cleveland.

Another rookie cornerback, Keenan Lewis, plus defensive end Ziggy Hood and wide receiver Mike Wallace, also might earn elevated status for the Browns (1-11). Wallace is expected to start if Hines Ward (hamstring) can’t go, which seems likely given the short week.

These are not significant changes. Burnett or Lewis are behind Taylor and Gay. Likewise for Wallace in regards to Ward and Holmes. If one of our starters goes out, we bring in fresh blood. That's called a depth chart. And asking Nick Eason and Travis Kirschke--career journeymen backups-- to make way for our first round pick, that isn't exactly a shakeup.

“Nothing stays the same in this game,” Tomlin said. “Players are ascending, players are descending. People catch up with schemes, schemes evolve. Playing and coaching, this thing is ever-changing.”

That's entirely fine. I trust Tomlin will make the necessary adjustments. He's not erasing the team.

I bring this to your attention as something of a silver lining: the Steelers are playing terribly pathetic ball, but at least we don't have the problem of determining whether our first round draft pick QB is better than Kerry Collins, Brad Gradkowski, Derek Anderson or Daunte Culpepper. We don't have to guess as to whether we could be doing better than Ward, Holmes, Mendenhall, Miller, Harrison, Farrior, Woodley, Keisel, Hampton, Sepulveda, Wallace, etc.

There are few teams that have as few question marks as we do.

Obviously, there have been some red flags in the secondary as of late. We need to experiment with personnel, but that's not the same thing as having to decide between Hank Poteat or a wide receiver to play nickelback (that's what the Browns go through every game).

I think we may see more Keyaron Fox. Farrior is so clutch in bringing that D together... or at least that's the rap on him. The D hasn't been coming together, and having our oldest player on the field for 4 quarters doesn't serve any advantage then. I'm not saying that he'll be the one cut down in playing time, but I wouldn't be surprised if we went to a MLB rotation like we did last year, with Timmons and Foote platooning, and thus moving Potsie around to different positions.

I wonder if Townsend will play any safety. Wouldn't be a huge surprise.

I spent about 2 hours thinking about this on the drive home the other day: I haven't given up on Limas Sweed. He was too promising in college and in the preseason. While we were winning and had 4 quality receivers in front of him, there was no reason to play him. But now that shit is mayhem, I think he may get one last trial by fire before offseason roster moves (we'd still have rights to him for another two years at very cheap, should we hold onto his contract).