Malcolm Jenkins fully expects Brett Favre to try to pick on him when the New Orleans Saints play host to the Minnesota Vikings Thursday in the NFL's season opener.

"I'll just have to hold my own," said Jenkins, who will start for All-Pro safety Darren Sharper.

As the Saints open their 2009 title defense, they're not exactly the same team they were a year ago. While all of their offensive starters will be back to watch the championship banner go up in the Louisiana Superdome, the defense will have at least three new starters.

Veteran former Chicago Bears defensive end Alex Brown also is new to the starting lineup, along with an outside linebacker to be named later.

On Sunday, when the Saints held their first practice with their 2010 regular-season roster, it appeared third-year pro Jo-Lonn Dunbar would get the nod at strong-side linebacker, a spot vacated when Scott Fujita left for Cleveland in free agency. But coach Sean Payton was evasive when asked about the Saints' plans, which seemed clear until Jonathan Casillas, who started at outside linebacker throughout the preseason, fractured his foot in the final exhibition game.

Cleveland understood that drafting Montario Hardesty was risky. Now it knows how risky. Cleveland general manager Tom Heckert said the team was comfortable with its medical reports and evaluations of Hardesty, who tore his left anterior cruciate ligament in the Browns' final exhibition game Thursday and is out for the season. Making his pro debut after missing training camp with a bone bruise in his right knee, Hardesty tore his ACL while making a cut on a routine 2-yard run. Hardesty tore his right ACL in 2005 at Tennessee.

Detroit released wide receiver Dennis Northcutt and linebacker Rocky Boiman.

Three of the four rookies involved in curiously timed trades have been cut, prompting the NFL players' union to continue looking into whether the deals were made to avoid paying money into a special player pool. Developments over the weekend only served to reinforce the NFL Players Association's review of trades last week. Under collective bargaining agreement rules for an uncapped year, if a drafted rookie is cut by the team that drafted him, that team is required to pay 85 percent of that player's salary into a rookie pool.

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