Players find it's not easy to stay healthy in preseason

The first rule of NFL training camps is to stay healthy. Already, several teams have broken it.

All kinds of nicks and bruises are common during the long preseason, which includes about twice as many exhibition games as teams need. Coaches, GMs, players and fans accept those annoyances as a necessary evil of the business.

Yet the major injuries, which can destroy a season, are never avoided.

This week's example is Cleveland's defense, which lost its leader, linebacker Jamir Miller, on Saturday with a torn Achilles' tendon. He's done for the season.

"He had such high expectations," Browns coach Butch Davis said. "He'd gone to the Pro Bowl and you want to come back with a very good year. You can imagine how crushed he was."

And how crushed the Browns could be. Davis is putting together what looks like a strong defense, with Miller a centerpiece, the most irreplaceable piece.

"We're going to overcome it," Davis said. "We're going to find somebody who will step up and we're going to play well. Our expectations are not going to diminish because Jamir is not there."

The expectations might not, but the results probably will.

Cleveland has been through this before. A year ago, defensive end Courtney Brown, the 2000 No. 1 overall draft pick, hurt his right knee in the team's final exhibition game. He missed the first 11 regular-season games and was not a factor.

Seattle, which re-signed quarterback Trent Dilfer and promoted him over last year's starter, Matt Hasselbeck, now must change direction after Dilfer hurt his knee. Hasselbeck is back as No. 1 and Dilfer is sidelined, perhaps until October, taking his 15-game winning streak with him.

That's hardly the way the Seahawks want to go into their first season in the revamped NFC West, where St. Louis and San Francisco reside.

In Denver, Terrell Davis is hurting once more. The Broncos are trapped when it comes to Davis: He needs the preseason work to stay sharp, but he is so injury-prone that any work he gets endangers him.

An MRI exam on Davis' left knee, that swelled during workouts, didn't reveal any damage. No timetable was given for how long Davis will be sidelined.

Considering Davis' uncertainty, it's no wonder the Broncos drafted running back Clinton Portis in the second round.

Last summer, the defending champion Baltimore Ravens lost their most important offensive player, running back Jamal Lewis, to a wrecked knee. Baltimore never got its ground game going and was handled easily in the playoffs by Pittsburgh.

The Eagles might have matched that even before training camp began this year when Correll Buckhalter, expected to be their top runner, tore up his knee.