|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
2000 NFL Draft Report Card
Posted: Monday April 17, 2000 02:21 PM
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- I must preface my 2000 NFL Draft Report Card by saying I don't think these things are worth very much. There is no way any of us -- not me, not Ron Wolf, not Mike Shanahan, not Mel Kiper, not Joe Leatherlungsuddenjethater at the draft Saturday -- can know who shined and who stunk this weekend. I'm a guy who travels or interviews on Saturdays during the fall, catching snippets of games on TV with phone glued to ear. I remember watching Wisconsin beat up Iowa last fall from the Marriott Suites/Chicago O'Hare and seeing Ron Dayne dominate the game and thinking: Boy, is he slow hitting the hole, and is he lucky to have that mountainous offensive line. The NFL will eat him alive. True? I don't know. I do know it's what I thought then and think now. I remember watching LaVar Arrington from the Marriott Mission Valley in San Diego and thinking I was watching Lawrence Taylor Jr. The quickness, the playmaking, the awareness. I remember thinking to myself: I wonder if this guy read John McPhee's profile of Bill Bradley, "A Sense of Where You Are," because he sure knows his way around the football field. I remember seeing Peter Warrick in the bowl game and thinking what a great NFL player he would be. And so for me to say I know with clarity who did well in the draft this weekend is stupid. I will, however, tell you how I think each team did in assessing its needs, responding to its needs and maneuvering to address those needs on draft weekend. My ground rules have one key element: With few exceptions, anything after the fourth round I don't count. Look at the fifth round in 1992, for instance. Three of the 30 guys picked turned into good players -- Ed McDaniel, Santana Dotson, Joe Bowden. I'm not real high on a 10 percent rate of return. Here goes: A-minus1. Oakland. Now, I fault the Raiders for panicking and not dropping down once or twice 10 or so spots and getting an extra four, five or six while ensuring they'd still get their man, kicker Sebastian Janikowski. (A Seahawk mole tells me the Raids turned down a six from Seattle to move down two spots, from 17 to 19, and who knows what else they could have unearthed.) That having been said, this team went 8-8 last year, losing all eight by a touchdown or less. They missed 11 field goals. Janikowski is the best kicking weapon to come out of college football, maybe ever. Assuming he can stay in America and stay out of trouble, Janikowski will increase the Raiders' touchbacks from 8 to about 50 this year, and he should soon be a great pro field-goal man. Punter Shane Lechler was the best in college football this year. Remember: special-teams plays account for about 22 percent of the plays. Field position wins. Love these picks, though I question exactly where Janikowski went. I hear, by the way, that Cleveland was solid on taking Janikowski with the first pick of round two. B-plus2. Seattle. Four words: Shaun Alexander, Chris McIntosh. To get Alexander at 19 -- he'll be a better pro than Ron Dayne -- and a monster blocker for him in McIntosh is a good draft if the Seahawks get no one else. 3. Tampa Bay. I count Keyshawn Johnson, who cost two ones and makes Shaun King 20 percent better just by suiting up. Cosey Coleman's an eight-year starter after Randall McDaniel retires. 4. Washington. They picked the right guys. By the way, remember it's the long-lost Charley Casserly who made Arrington/Samuels happen. 5. Buffalo. Pick 89 overall, Corey Moore, will be one of those classic Bills picks (they always get a very good player after the first round, every year), the kind of player GMs will regret passing on. 6. Green Bay. Bubba Franks becomes the next Mark Chmura, for health and off-field reasons, immediately. Late Sunday, one scout told me Na'il Diggs, the Ohio State linebacker picked in the fourth, will be a classic NFL playmaker, a quicker Spielman. 7. Pittsburgh. Here's one of my post-fourth-round exceptions: Love the pick of Tee Martin late in the fifth. Watch the games. He belongs in the NFL. Steelers got two big receivers (Plaxico Burress and Danny Farmer) and I have a sneaking feeling that Martin will be throwing to them in December, at the end of a lost Steelers season. I like Kevin Gilbride taking Martin under his wing. 8. New England. J.R. Redmond will be the every-down back by Oct. 1. Not bad for the 76th overall pick. B9. Tennessee. Good value in LB Keith Bulluck at 30. The Titans are the NFL's Linebacker U. 10. Cleveland. Courtney Brown is a draft. 11. San Francisco. The 49ers did the right thing by passing on Pennington. Four or five of the defensive draftees will be in the starting lineup on opening day, and none is a slam-dunk great player. Worrisome. But what choice did they have? This gives them the best chance to be good the fastest. C-plus12. Jacksonville. R. Jay Soward and Tom Coughlin. Now that's a match made in heaven. Why do I give this a chance? Because scouts love Soward -- assuming he'd have someone to lean on him 25 hours a day. 13. Philadelphia. Hope they know what they're doing with Corey Simon's health. But I know Andy Reid. I'd be shocked if he makes a mistake here. 14. Jets. Call me a nut. I like Laveranues Coles, who has Deion speed and, at 77 overall, is an almost riskless pick. "I'm not down to my last strike, because I don't have any strikes left," Coles said after getting picked by the Jets. "I'm on pins and needles. Generally when a guy gets dismissed he's not allowed back into football, so I'm thankful for the opportunity. They didn't bring me in to replace Keyshawn. They brought me in to help with special teams and do whatever the coaches tell me." Now, I don't like leaving the receiver thing alone until the third round, and I don't like thinking that the Jets will have two sub-6-foot starting wideouts if Coles and Wayne Chrebet start. The big question here is: Is Keyshawn Johnson for John Abraham and Anthony Becht a good trade? Didn't think you'd think it was. One more point to make about the events of the last week in New York: The knee-jerkers condemning the Jets for not making Keyshawn the highest-paid receiver in history should remember that it's that sort of live-for-today thinking that got New York into what one NFL capologist calls the worst financial shape of any team entering the next two years. "They're the 49ers waiting to happen,'' said this cap man. By 2002, two fading stars -- quarterback Vinny Testaverde and running back Curtis Martin -- will count $20.4 million against the cap. The whole idea behind accumulating more good young players is to get a grip on a salary structure so out-of-control that a nickel back, Ray Mickens, is due to make $5.7 million in 2002. Oh yeah. Chad Pennington. Ask 10 guys in the NFL whether he's going to be a good NFL starter and you'll get five guys coming down on each side. C15. Giants. I do think Dayne's a plodder, which would be okay here if he had a line to open a hole for him. And the receiver thing. The Giants have picked six in the top three rounds of the past seven drafts: Thomas Lewis, Amani Toomer, Ike Hilliard, Joe Jurevicius, Brian Alford, and, this year, Lambuth (Tenn.) College's Ron Dixon. You see, then, why I am not advocating Ron Dixon buy a split-level in Tenafly, or even a condo in Hackensack. 16. Baltimore. I really like Chris Redman at 75 for the Ravens, but the 49ers were skeptical of the beating he's taken in college and the one he'll take as a pro. But the Ravens were dumb not to trade down from 5 for a bounty of picks. Shaun Alexander (who went 19th) will be a better pro than Jamal Lewis (fifth), by the way. 17. Arizona. The Thomas Jones draft. He'd better be the long-term back there, because they've spent too many picks trying to get this right. 18. Cincinnati. One scout I like said Sunday: "I always like their draft. Then every year their team stinks. I don't know what that means." I do: It's the Mike Brown Twilight Zone. I will say this: Peter Warrick will be the offensive rookie of the year or my name is Giovanni Carmazzi. 19. Denver. Deltha O'Neal is a better returner than corner; Denver needs him to be great at both jobs. Bill Romanowski, those are Ian Gold's footsteps you're feeling. And his hot breath on your neck. 20. Kansas City. I like Sylvester Morris. But I can't figure for the life of me why Carl Peterson, who is a smart man, didn't go out and spend a couple of picks to save his running game for years by dealing for Corey Dillon. Dumb, dumb, dumb. C-minus21. Carolina. Top pick Rashard Anderson, a corner/safety, has hands of stone. Not a good quality for an interceptor. 22. Detroit. Stockar McDougle and Aaron Gibson will be pulling this year for James Stewart one play, some linebacker will get leveled by the 748 pounds of padded beef, and he'll file a lawsuit claiming cruel and unusual punishment. 23. Chicago. Brian Urlacher had better be great. I keep getting a feeling that he might be 80 percent player, 20 percent shoot-up-the-chart myth. 24. Indianapolis. Saved from a D by Bill Polian's rep. Rob Morris is a nice man but overrated. SPECIAL ENTRANT IN THE C-MINUS CATEGORY: Brett Favre's Pennzoil commercial. Cute, almost. But you-know-what about the day job. D25. Minnesota. Knee-jerk reactions after the Jevon Kearse/Dimitrius Underwood fiasco of 12 months ago. 26. Miami. JIMMY JOHNSON HAS NO PICKS TO PLAY WITH! VIDEO AT 11! 27. San Diego. When you have one pick in the top 80, as it seems the Chargers do every year, draft is annually unimpactful. 28. St. Louis. I have no idea why you take a Marshall Faulk (Trung Canidate) when you have a Marshall Faulk (Marshall Faulk). 29. Atlanta. Still paying for the sins of 1999, the deal with Baltimore that netted the Ravens their No. 5 overall pick this year and netted the Falcons an invisible tight end named Reggie Kelly. Their draft looks totally non-impactful. 30. Dallas. I count the two poorly spent No. 1's on Joey Galloway, miscast as a receiver set to run all over the field catching balls. He's not physical enough. Can any of these corners play? We'll see. They'll get a shot. 31. New Orleans. Uninspired. And it's all Ricky Williams' fault. Ten Things I Think I Think, Post-Draft Edition1. I think Baltimore coach Brian Billick has it right when he says of the reasons for no trades in the first round Saturday: "From five down, beauty was so much in the eye of the beholder. You could make a case that nine, 10, 12 or 14 were specific players for you. What did you see when you looked at them? Usually there's some definite indexing, but from five on, the board had more diversity that you've seen for a long time. People had their own opinions." 2. I think the dumbest thing I heard pre-draft was this: The Detroit Lions would pick a running back in the first round to take some of the pressure off newly signed back James Stewart. What? You pay a guy $25 million and then you want to pick a back in the first round? THAT IS CERTIFIABLY, ABSOLUTELY LOONY. AND IF THE LIONS THOUGHT FOR THREE SECONDS ABOUT THIS, THEN THEY ARE SIMILARLY LOONY. 3. I think ESPN does a wonderful job covering the draft. Two points, though: Do any of their anchors ever ask a tough question to a coach? And I noticed Suzy Kolber mentioned from Cleveland that she had "the script," with their future draft picks on them, and she said she wasn't going to reveal them because she wanted to keep the suspense up. Wow. That's some solid journalism there. Reminds me of the draft two years ago when the whole world knew Peyton Manning was Indy's pick over Ryan Leaf the night before the draft, and ESPN went on Saturday at noon like there was still this suspense over which quarterback the Colts would pick. I did, however, love the ripping by Ron Jaworski of the Browns' picking a Spergon Wynn over Joe Hamilton in round six. One other ESPNism: Love Mike Tirico, and maybe he was just tired when he said this, but I could have sworn he called Ralph Friedgen "an offensive genius" Sunday. Say it ain't so, Mike. 4. I think I wonder this: Why does Plaxico Burress pronounce his first name "PLEX-i-co?" Shouldn't Burress have been named "Plexico" if he was going to be called "Plexico?" 5. I think ABC definitely offered Bill Parcells a seat in the Monday Night Football booth, despite the network's denials now. There are days, those close to Parcells say, when he thinks he'd like to stay in the Jet front office beyond this offseason. But there are more days that he finds himself thinking how good a life it would be to live in Sea Girt, N.J., a block from the Atlantic Ocean, and, about noon every Saturday, either drive or helicopter up to Bristol, Conn., to work Sundays and Mondays in the ESPN studios. Two workdays a week for what I'm sure must be nearly seven figures. Nice work if you can get it. 6. I think the line of the day Sunday came from Kirk Herbstreit. "I think Midget and Bean can cover very well," Herbstreit said. Drafted back to back in round five, corners Robert Bean and Anthony Midget went to Cincinnati and Atlanta, respectively. Midget's 5-10, so I guess he's no Mini-Me. 7. I think I wonder whether anybody watches all these dot.com commercials and thinks, like I do, that I don't have any idea what they mean. They look good, I suppose, but why is something called jobs.com showing some marketing guy bursting balloons in an office with some young woman walking confidently through the office? I mean, somebody explain that to me. 8. I think I wonder why the Grande Hazelnut Latte at the Starbucks bars I frequent in Burlingame, Calif., and Embarcadero when in the Bay Area costs $2.95, while the Grande Hazelnut Latte at my Starbucks in Montclair, N.J., costs $3.45. Does it cost 50 cents to ship a pod of espresso from Seattle to New Jersey? Shouldn't there be bulk rates for this kind of thing? Shouldn't I have better things to worry about on draft weekend? 9. I think LaVar Arrington will make Redskins fans very happy. 10. I think opening weekend is exactly 20 weeks away. I like Tampa Bay over Indy for the marbles.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview.
| ||||||||||||||||
