NFL's most indispensable

espn.com ran a list of the NFL's 10 most indispensable players today,
so I thought I'd take my own stab at it.

If indispensable = the player his team can least afford to lose this season,
here are my choices.

1. Peyton Manning. His leadership and brilliance cover up a lot that is wrong with
the Super Bowl champs. They're about as deep at RB as the Rams are at DT, and
I don't see Jim Sorgi or a run defense WORSE THAN THE RAMS' LAST YEAR making
up the difference if Peyton ever gets hurt.

2. Drew Brees. He's not even top 10? Do you see Jamie Martin coming in off the
sideline and the Saint offense not missing a beat? With Brees out, opposing defenses
would stack against the run, and the Saint defense doesn't have the big-play
ability to compensate for the downgrade at QB.

3. Frank Gore. Even with Darrell Jackson aboard, there's no way the Whiner passing
game could make up for losing Gore, who's their whole offense. Their defense should
carry them to a few wins this season, but Gore would still be a crushing loss.

4. LaDainian Tomlinson. It's just silly not to have the NFL's best player on this list.
He's the reason San Diego is a playoff team. They could afford to lose Antonio Gates
a lot sooner than they could afford to lose LT, Michael Turner or no.

5. Carson Palmer. He was nowhere near 100% and still got the Bengals to a
respectable 8-8 record last year. With Palmer at 100%, the Bengal offense is
the next best thing to the GSOE.

6. Larry Johnson. I know he had 400 million carries last year, and the Chiefs appear
prepared to rely on him exclusively for offense this season. The problem is, they don't
have an offensive line anymore. LJ's going to have more games like last year's playoff
in Indy. KC's depleted o-line makes LJ less valuable, and therefore less indispensable.

7. Tom Brady. Brady's one of the best, so he's worth listing, but the Patriots are good
enough to win many ways without him. Hey, they won one Super Bowl with him turning
in probably the worst performance ever by a Super Bowl "MVP", didn't they?

8. Clinton Portis. Hey, 10-6 in 2005 with him, 5-11 in 2006 without him. If he's back
100%, the 'Skins are 2007's surprise team.

9. Devin Hester. Seriously, with Grossman still running the offense and Thomas Jones
shipped to the Jets, the Bears may need a lot of TDs out of this guy to return to the
Super Bowl.

10. Jeff Wilkins, Josh Brown, et al. If you're a fan of a team with a solid, clutch veteran
kicker, go thank God for that guy right now. Because if your kicker gets hurt this season,
there is bupkus out there to replace him. And that can dramatically change your team's
fortunes.

Comparing with Jeff Chadiha's list:
Brian Urlacher: I left him off mainly because the Bears have a ton of defensive talent;
Antonio Gates: Extremely valuable and his absence would retard the Charger passing
game by a lot, but no way is he San Diego's most indispensable player over LT;
Julius Peppers: A good pick for having 1/3 of Carolina's sacks, I might have thought
about him longer if I thought the Panthers were a league-dominating offense;
Michael Vick: Yeah, he's so valuable, most football fans today feel the Falcons
would be better off without him;
Walter Jones: overrated;
Champ Bailey: great player, but this season he has a Pro Bowl-quality counterpart
in Dre Bly.

The Rams' stars - Bulger and Jackson - don't make this list because they're both capable
of making up for the other's absence. They'll be on my list of the most indispensable
Rams coming out in a few minutes, though, inconsistent with this list, Jeff Wilkins
won't be on the top...