On Wednesday, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Braylon Edwards told the Bay Area media that he didn't plan on missing anymore games. This was spoken in the context of not caring whether or not he'd be 100% going into said games, and that in itself is worrying. He's played a couple games this season at less-than 100% and it's certainly been noticeable. Against the Baltimore Ravens in particular, Edwards looked bad while he was out there. He gave up on plays, ran lazy routes and should have done a lot more to prevent an interception in the end zone.
Even with a depleted group of wide receivers, San Francisco didn't really need Edwards with the way the offense was running. It's silly to say a play-maker like Edwards isn't needed in the great scheme of things, but one time they can certainly stand to be without him is Sunday, when the 49ers make the trip to Arizona to take on the rival Cardinals.
It's not that the game isn't important - the 49ers need to keep an eye on playoff seeding - but San Francisco looks a lot better than Arizona at this point, and they've already beat them once. Now, it's true that the Cardinals have experienced somewhat of a resurgence of late, and should have Kevin Kolb playing quarterback, while the last two times these teams have played it was John Skelton, but San Francisco should still be favored by plenty. Is it a trap game? Maybe, but that doesn't mean Edwards should play at less-than 100%
A receiver who doesn't finish his routes on every single play and a receiver who can't go up and fight for the ball because he's not feeling as well as he'd like to is a detriment on the football field. Now, remember, this piece is assuming that he's not completely good to go on Sunday. If he is, then he should be in there and starting, but if he's not, Edwards needs to rest up for Monday's showdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers.