Will Sanders Have Room To Roam?
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King
SI's
NFL Insider, Peter King, took time out from his training-camp
tour to answer your
questions.
Posted: Fri Aug. 8,
1997
What's the story with Barry Sanders and the new offensive
system in Detroit? Is coach Bobby Ross going to give him
more room to run and more opportunities to dazzle us, or is
Ross simply going to suffocate Barry with too much
structure?
Very, very good question. Barry thinks having a solid
fullback, Cory Schlesinger, can only help him. I'll take
his word on that for now. But Barry has always been at his
best freelancing, not following somebody into a hole. I'm
not sure that this is
going to be the best thing for the future of Barry Sanders,
although it might be the best thing for the future of the
Lions.
I talked to Sanders at length last week, and I was really
impressed. He realizes that for Detroit's defense to play
better, the offense needs to control the ball. That way the
defense isn't on the field all the time. I've always said
this about Barry:
He's one guy who means it when he says he doesn't care how
many yards he gets, as long as the team
wins.
The Dallas Cowboys' defensive backfield looked inadequate
in the team's first preseason game. Can Deion Sanders cut
short his baseball
season?
Deion will almost certainly miss the first two or three
games of the season because the Cincinnati Reds intend to
keep him around until they are mathematically eliminated.
With Deion's declining numbers and the Reds' horrible
record, you'd think
Cincinnati would just set him free. That could happen, but I
wouldn't look for Deion in Dallas until
mid-September.
Will this be John Elway's final year? Do the Broncos have a
chance to go to the Super
Bowl?
It's discouraging for Elway that he ruptured a biceps
tendon in his throwing arm in just his second preseason
game. That may keep him out of action for the rest of the
month. He's at the point in his career where little
injuries can become big problems.
Coach Mike Shanahan tells me he's convinced Elway can play
one or two more years. As long as Shanahan can keep the
Broncos in contention, Elway will stick around. And Elway
is a big reason why I think the Broncos are the team to
beat in the
AFC.
When Jimmy Johnson came to the Dolphins in 1996, he said he
wanted to win a Super Bowl in three years. Is he on
track?
Only if two things happen. First, Johnson has to get a pass
rusher. He started this year with Jason Taylor, a sleeper
from Akron, who could be a double-digit sack guy. But he
needs to go out and get a big-time pass rusher, which is
something Miami
hasn't had in
years.
Second, Johnson needs to hope that
RB Yatil Green can return to form after his recent
season-ending knee injury. If Green's offensive weapons are
still firing in 1998, and Dan Marino is too, who knows?
Clearly, 1997 is not the Dolphins' year, especially
after LB Zach Thomas hobbled off the field with a broken
leg last Monday night in Mexico
City.
Rod Woodson isn't having a great training camp. Should
Niners fans be
worried?
Woodson performed so marvelously on June 2 at his private
workout for
NFL scouts that he might have caused some people to forget the
problems that cropped up in Pittsburgh last year. Woodson
wasn't practicing regularly in Pittsburgh, he was beaten
more
in man-to-man coverage than during any year in his career,
and his blown assignment against New England in the
playoffs opened the floodgates that washed away the
Steelers' Super Bowl hopes. Still, Woodson is a gifted
cornerback who clearly—and I mean
clearly—is going to be the best guy the 49ers have at that
position.
What three teams do you think will surprise people this
year?
1. Seattle. Free agents are beginning to believe in the
Seahawks, as the signing of DE Dan Saleaumua demonstrated. Also, Seattle has more impact
rookies than any other team in the
NFL—CB Shawn Springs,
OT Walter Jones and
DB Eric Stokes, to name a
few.
2. Buffalo. The Bills aren't dead yet. Their defense was
eighth in the NFL last year.
If anything, it's better now that safety Henry Jones is back.
Bruce Smith, entering his walk year, will have to play
great to get a big new contract. One final note about the
Bills: Antowain Smith could be one of the best new RBs to
come into the league in
years. I just love this kid.
3. Tampa Bay. The Bucs have
road wild-card
team written all over them. I love what Tony Dungy has been
doing with the defense, and though I'm not sure RB Warrick
Dunn will be able to hang in there against brutes twice his
size, he evades tacklers like a young Dave Meggett. He just
has to stay
healthy.
How come no one is talking about the Philadelphia
Eagles?
To some degree, I believe the Eagles won last year because
of the fire-and-brimstone rantings and motivation of coach
Ray Rhodes. There's nothing wrong with that. Teams need
that. But to compare their talent with Dallas's or Green
Bay's, or even
Denver's, is a
joke.
In Rhodes's tenure, the Eagles have had to Scotch-tape the
offensive line together about a hundred times. He's had to
play amateur psychiatrist with Ricky Watters, and he has an
owner who doesn't like to give out huge signing bonuses. I
think the
Eagles are an eight-, nine- or 10-win team, but they aren't going
near the Super
Bowl.
What is the deal with Errict Rhett in Tampa Bay? Is he on
the trading block or will he stay in
Tampa?
The Bucs say they have plans for Rhett. Coach Tony Dungy
feels that every team needs a stable of running backs, and
he's probably right. But I think Rhett is the odd man out
now that Dunn and FB Mike Alstott have clearly become, in
Dungy's mind, the
team's two most important backs. Rhett is going to have to play
his way back into prominence. It's his fault. He pulled a
stupid contract holdout thanks to some bad advice from
agent Drew Rosenhaus. The Bucs got sick of him and moved
on.
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