Wide receiver Devin Aromashodu was targeted 10 times in the season opener and then played one snap in Week 2.
What's up with that?
"I don't know that we need to justify any of those things to anybody other than I would just say this and then we'll let this thing go," offensive coordinator Mike Martz said.
"I don't know why there's any issue with it. Devin's a bit of a specialist in that he does not play the slot, which we asked him to do in the opener. He's not comfortable in there; he's not familiar with it.
"Our other two receivers, all four of our other receivers, are special-teams players, (and) both backups do play the slot and the outside.
"Devin just plays the outside, so his opportunities to play are reduced dramatically because of his limited knowledge of what we do at that position. Does that make sense? He's not a slot or a nickel guy. He's outside."
Translation: Aromashodu doesn't like going over the middle, where he took a beating in the opener. He also dropped at least 3 passes.
At first, coach Lovie Smith was a little vague about the disappearing act when asked about Aromashodu.
"He was healthy," Smith said. "Early in the week he wasn't as healthy as he needed to be. Nothing against Devin. We'll need everyone at times, but you can't dress all 53 guys. Only so many guys (45) can dress.
"We feel good about the receivers we had out there. The other day Earl Bennett gave us some good play."
Bennett, who missed the preseason and the regular-season opener with a hamstring injury, caught 5 passes at Dallas for 29 yards, a 5.8-yard average.
Aromashodu averaged 14.2 yards on his 5 catches in the opener, but Bennett has no qualms about catching over the middle.
"We see who practices well every week, and who we think gives us the best chance to win," Smith said. "That's the combination we decided to go with last week."
The drops clearly played a role in the decision.
"We evaluate a lot of different things," Smith said. "We feel like that group we went with gave us the best chance. There's not a whole lot more I can say about it.
"We're going to look at the guys this week, and the guys we feel like give us the best chance are the ones we're going with."
Aromashodu said he wasn't given an explanation for his lack of activity and said he didn't ask for one, but he thinks the drops were a factor.
"They didn't mention anything to me about it," he said, "but it could have been. I've been in that situation (before). Early last year I didn't play much. So I've just got to stay focused and keep fighting."
In the first 12 games of the 2009 season, Aromashodu caught 2 passes for 16 yards. In the final four games he had 22 receptions for 282 yards and 4 touchdowns.