Unlike basketball and baseball, NFL contracts aren't completely guaranteed. The NFL is a "play as you go" league, produce or else. Put together one or two good years, and management will be knocking at the player door asking for a paycut or offering a pink slip. With the NFL season approaching, here are the players on the hot seat.

32 players on the hot seat
Team	Comment
	Last year was supposed to be Thomas Jones' breakthrough year. It didn't happen. He averaged only seven carries a game over his first two years and only 3.4 yards a carry. With Michael Pittman off to Tampa Bay, Jones must come through as the feature back or he will be sharing time with backup Marcel Shipp.
	Wide receiver Shawn Jefferson is 33 and still has decent speed. All is safe for this season, but the success of the Falcons depends on the success of the receivers. Jefferson is coming off a 37-catch season. For the development of quarterback Michael Vick, he needs dependable help from the outside. Jefferson needs to get back to that 60-catch level.
	Quarterback Chris Redman has only thrown three passes in his NFL career. Now, he starts on a rebuilt team that won a Super Bowl two seasons ago. There were thoughts coming out of Louisville that Redman was a first-round talent. Now is his time to prove himself. If things don't work out, Jeff Blake is there to pick up the pieces.
	Tight end Jay Riemersma resisted management requests for him to take a paycut. Instead of cutting him, the Bills kept him and free-agent acquisition Dave Moore. For Drew Bledsoe to succeed, he needs a sure-handed tight end. Riemersma has to stay open over the middle and be there or management would be looking kindly at him.
	Defensive tackle Sean Gilbert has been one of the highest paid interior tackles for years. But the Panthers are in transition under bright new coach John Fox. Slowly, the team is getting itself in great cap shape for the future. Gilbert needs a good season because ownership will be looking at the high salaries after the season and trying to purge those who aren't living up to expectations.
	Jim Miller had fun last year. Players believed in him, and he stayed relatively healthy. But the stakes go up this year. The Bears are thinking Super Bowl. Behind Miller is Chris Chandler, who's already proven he can take a team to the Super Bowl. He did it with the Falcons. Miller doesn't have the luxury of resting on last year's prosperity.
	Peter Warrick isn't endanger of losing his roster spot in the next couple of years, but it's not out of the question for Bengals to be looking for offseason help at the receiver position if he doesn't pick up his yardage numbers. Warrick, who is quick but doesn't get downfield much, watched his yardage numbers drop from 11.6 to 9.5 yards per catch. He had only one touchdown last year. That's not enough from a feature receiver.
	Maybe it's unfair to put Quincy Morgan in the hot seat in only his second year, but that what the Browns seem to do with wide receivers. They draft them in the second round and look for new second-rounders to beat them out the next year. Dennis Northcutt and JaJuan Dawson have moved aside to give Morgan the chance to beat them out. Now, it's his time, or André Davis could be moving ahead of him in another season. Davis was this year's second-rounder.
	Quincy Carter didn't like when Dave Campo started Chad Hutchinson ahead of him in last week's exhibition game against the Falcons. Carter knows that he's the starting quarterback for now, but at some point, the organization wants Hutchinson behind center. Carter knows that Hutchinson received a $3.1 million signing bonus, and the Cowboys didn't give him the money to be a spectator. Carter has the job as long as he plays well, so he's got to play well to ward off Hutchinson.
	Brian Griese thought live was great when Mike Shanahan gave him a $39 million contract and handed him the keys to his offense. But being 19-19 as a starter doesn't cut it. Shanahan wants Super Bowl rings not .500 seasons. Griese knows the pressure is on him. An average season could have Shanahan in the market for a quarterback after the season.
	Last fall, the Lions were pumping up the future of quarterback Mike McMahon. Coach Marty Mornhinweg said McMahon could be a future star. Well, the future is now. Eventually, Mornhinweg is going to give Joey Harrington the starting job whether it's in Week 3, Week 5 or Week 10. McMahon can only keep his starting job as long as he plays well.
	Defensive end Jamal Reynolds is already an afterthought and he may not have a chance to even get into the hoteat. Despite making him the 10th selection in last year's draft, Mike Sherman spent more than $5 million a year to sign veteran Joe Johnson to play ahead of Reynolds. It's hard to say when Reynolds, who played in only six games, will get his playing time, but he has to show something when he's on the field to earn more playing time.
	Poor Jimmy Herndon. He joined the Texans with the hopes of getting playing time, but he knows the spotlight is on him protecting quarterback David Carr. Initially, Herndon thought he was going to get a shot at left tackle because of Tony Boselli's shoulder problems. Dom Capers instead opted to go with rookie Chester Pitts and let Herndon handle the right tackle spot. If Herndon doesn't do well in Ryan Young's absence he may not be around long past this season.
	Cornerback David Macklin has a tough assignment. Tony Dungy's two-deep zone scheme protects cornerbacks from being beat often by wide receivers. But Macklin is being asked to handle the starting job on a team that is hoping to get back to the playoffs. He can't allow big plays or the Colts will be looking for a new starting cornerback after the season.
	Fred Taylor is playing for a contract, so he doesn't have the luxury of losing time in the training room. Taylor has missed 24 starts in the past three seasons and has only one 1,000-yard season in the past three. Big money may be ahead for him if he has a big season, so he has to perform for the dough.
	Dick Vermeil surrendered a first-round choice to acquire Trent Green to run his offense. Last year was a disaster. Receivers were too raw and inconsistent. This year's receiving crew is better with Johnnie Morton, but it's thin after the starters. Unfortunately, Green won't be given any excuses. He has to play well and get the offense moving or he may be moving on after the season.
	Mark Dixon was a pretty good guard, but now his job is protecting the blindside of quarterback Jay Fiedler. He has back problems. Jamie Nails moved into Dixon's left guard position beating him out. Dixon is in a pressure cooker because the offensive line has to keep Fiedler healthy.
	Michael Bennett had a nice training camp, but the Vikings need at least 1,000 yards from him on the ground to get their potent offense clicking. Bennett gained 682 yards last season and had two 100-yard games. More must come this season.
	Antowain Smith earned a $22.5 million contract by rushing for 1,157 yards, but he has to maintain that standard this season. Fans misinterpreted the Patriots attempt to sign Jamal Anderson as a lack of faith in Smith. That wasn't the case. The Patriots were trying to upgrade their backup position. But Smith has averaged less than four yards a carry most of his NFL career. A slight slip in the average will have fans wondering.
	Quarterback Aaron Brooks isn't happy the Saints haven't given him a new contract before the start of the season. Brooks has the look and feel of a big-time quarterback. He's another Donovan McNabb in the making. Still, he's in that young stage where he's proving himself. Around him are fast receivers and a talented halfback, Deuce McAllister. Brooks has to progess and not have an off season.
	By turning down the Giants contract extension, defensive end Michael Strahan rolled the dice. He's a free agent after the season. He could enter a tight market that might be tough to get more than the $8 million a year he makes. The good thing about Strahan is that he loves the pressure.
	Shaun Ellis is starting to lose esteem. A former first-rounder, Ellis is moving backward for playing time instead of forward. For a while, the Jets weren't sure if he was a better end or tackle. What they are wondering is if he's good enough to be a starter. The drafting of Bryan Thomas indicates Ellis' time is staring to get shorter with the team instead of longer.
	Patience is running thin on kicker Sebastian Janikowski. Fans grumble or boo when he misses a field goal. Janikowski gets the most unusual injuries and seems to require more coaching maintenance than any kicker in recent memory. He's a great talent, but any slippage can't be tolerated.
	Andy Reid drafted Freddie Mitchell to be the team's featured receiver. He ended camp as the team's fourth after Reid signed Antonio Freeman. Mitchell needs to regain the faith of the coach and the team with some big plays, but with his playing time being limited, he has to make an impact early in the season.
	Kordell Stewart is always under the gun. The team is ready to initiate contract extension talks after the season so Stewart can't have an off season. Realistically, all the Steelers need from him is 15 touchdown passes and less than 10 interceptions in a season. Stewart doesn't have to produce big numbers to do well. But he's always the player under the most scrutiny.
	Right tackle John St. Clair has already found his seat on fire. The Rams traded for Grant Williams and are still on the look for right tackles if St. Clair can't handle the job. The right tackle in Mike Martz's offense has to hold up and not have breakdowns because Martz likes to send everybody out into patterns. Breakdowns mean sacks and sacks mean endangering quarterback Kurt Warner. That can't happen.
	Jamal Williams is a great talent that few know about outside of San Diego. He's a run-stuffing defensive tackle, but the departure of John Parrella to San Diego leaves him in the middle of the defense with a big assignment. He's coming off a season that was ruined by a knee injury. The knees occasionally ache, but Williams has a big role in the team's ability to stop the run.
	J.J. Stokes probably had his best training camp. But to stay with the team, he accepted a paycut during the offseason. Usually players asked to take paycuts don't have long futures with teams. The 49ers need more production from their No. 2 receiver. Stokes has never had a season in which he's gained more than 770 yards. In this offense, the No. 2 receiver should get close to 1,000.
	Isaiah Kacyvenski graduated from Harvard, but NFL defenses will try to go to school on him now that he's taken over the middle linebacker job following the release of Levon Kirkland. Opposing offensive linemen will try to drive him crazy this year because the strategy will be to get a guard or a center blocking him to clear running room on inside players. Kacyvenski has to learn how to fend off blockers to be successful.
	The Bucs drafted Kenyatta Walker to be their left tackle for the next decade. Well, he's in Year 2 and the team has moved him to right tackle. Walker struggled like most rookies do at left tackle. But Walker can't afford to slip at his new position. The next move might be to the bench.
	Coach Jeff Fisher asks a lot from his cornerbacks. Last year, most of the secondary was injured and the Titans fell to 31st in pass defense. The success of this year's team will depend on the play of the secondary. That puts a lot of pressure on Andre Dyson. Dyson did okay last year, but the Titans feel as though they can bounce back and be a playoff team. Dyson's play will be critical.
	Stephen Davis is one of the best running backs in football. But he's in a passing offense now, and he has a revised contract that is structured so that each side could part if things don't work out this year. The pressure on him is just being flexible to how Steve Spurrier works his offense. Davis thrives in a running-type of offense. It will be interesting to see how he does in this system.

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.