Without Brunell, will the Jags flag?
Send a question to Peter
King
In the September 1 issue of Sports Illustrated, Peter King
kicks off the season with a feature on the zone blitz, as
well as a new edition of Inside the NFL. Both will be
available online beginning
August 27.
Posted: Fri August 22,
1997
Can backup
QB Rob Johnson hold the Jaguars together until Mark Brunell
returns?
—Keith
Johnson
Brunell should miss only September. But after watching
Johnson the last couple of weeks,
I have no doubt that he will fill in very well. Last weekend
in San Francisco he took his team up and down the field
three times in the first half against a pretty
good defense playing its first unit. Here's what
I like about this guy: The Jaguars aren't going to have to
dumb down their offensive game plans in September for him.
They'll be able to do everything they would normally have
done with
Brunell.
Now that WR Alvin Harper has been reunited with coach Norv
Turner in Washington, will he become the type of impact
player he was with the
Cowboys?
—Tony
Sauer
Harper ran into trouble in Tampa Bay because the Bucs
counted on him to be a No. 1 guy. He just can't take the
pressure. That was a true waste of $10 million by the Bucs,
who never thought Harper would drop a lot of balls, get
nicked with small injuries
all the time and be a moody, unproductive
guy.
For the Redskins, Harper needs to be a
40-catches-per-season, 16-yards-per-catch guy. He's capable
of that. Michael Westbrook and Henry Ellard should be
quarterback Gus Frerotte's main go-to guys. Harper and
Leslie Shepherd will be the third and fourth
receivers in a pass-oriented offense. Harper has a good
security blanket with Norv Turner, who knows him
well.
What is your opinion of the Eagles' last three drafts, all
overseen by Ray Rhodes? I'm
disappointed.
—Brian Grayson
You should be disappointed. The Eagles badly overestimated
DE Jon Harris in the first round this year. Last year they
did make one of the best picks in the draft, getting TE
Jason Dunn in the second round. But LT Jermane Mayberry,
the 1996 No. 1 pick,
needs to play and play well this year. Otherwise, last year's
draft is nearly a washout for
Philly.
Two years ago, the Eagles picked DE Mike Mamula with the
seventh pick overall. I'm not as down on Mamula as a lot of
people are. I think he'll be a consistent 12-sacks-a-year
pass rusher. But overall the Eagles haven't gotten as much
out of the draft in
the last three years as they should have. Of course,
they're not alone. Traditionally smart teams like the
Giants and the Chargers have been totally stiffed in the
last few drafts,
too.
Are the Carolina Panthers going to be as bad this year as
they have looked in the
preseason?
—Todd
Cebe
I don't think the preseason is a precursor to a bad season
for Carolina. In fact, I still maintain that if the Packers
are the best team in football—and this seems like a
no-brainer right now—the Panthers are a close No.
2.
The Panthers should be concerned about how much they've
been penalized in the preseason. They've had fewer
penalties and fewer penalty yards than their opposition in
21 consecutive regular-season games. That's an incredible
run. This summer, though,
they've been very mistake-prone. But once they get
LB Kevin Greene back—and that should happen before the first
game—I think Carolina will be
fine.
What's wrong with the
Bears?
—Jack
Barnes
For one, they keep getting hurt. The broken collarbone
suffered by
WR Curtis Conway is devastating. For the next six weeks the
Bears have lost their top receiver. That only exacerbates
the problems faced by a weak passing
game.
The Bears could have traded for
QB Rick Mirer last year at the trading deadline and didn't.
That would have given Mirer plenty of time to learn the
Chicago offense. Instead, the Bears acquired Mirer during
the off-season. He has been a slow learner, so
coach Dave Wannstedt will open the season with Erik Kramer
at
QB.
Until recently the Bears have lacked a savvy personnel guy.
They have been plagued by poor judgment. That should change
now that Mark Hadley has been hired to help
Wannstedt.
Will Desmond Howard be as successful in Oakland as he was
with the Packers, who have great special
teams?
—Nick Delo
When I was in Green Bay this summer, Qadry Ismail told me
that the Packers' punt-return team had the best blocking
he'd ever seen on any special team. Those guys—Lamont
Holinquest, Jeff Thomason and Bernardo Harris are the guts
of the unit—return intact
this year. That's something Desmond will definitely miss in
Oakland.
Blocking schemes notwithstanding, if you've got half a
brain as a special teams coach, you consistently tell your
punter and kickoff man to kick away from Howard—or at
least kick the ball with greater hang time than you
normally would. If you're smart,
it's easy to game-plan Howard out of making an
impact.
Do you think Jerry Jones will fire Barry Switzer? If so,
when?
—Mike
Gomez
I think Switzer is heading into his last four months
as Cowboys coach. Jerry Jones told me last week
that on the day Switzer walked into the Dallas/Fort Worth
airport with a loaded gun, Jones thought pretty seriously
about firing
him.
Jones even told one of his confidants, "Tell me why
I shouldn't fire Barry." The guy must have made a decent case.
Jones held
off.
Switzer was good for Jerry for a while. But Switzer's
inattention to detail, his uninterest in the draft and
free-agent process, and his lack of discipline will seal
his
doom.
Will
CBS win back
NFL broadcast
rights? And will the new
TV contract result in an 18-game regular season and two new
teams for
1999?
—Rick
Rubenbauer
Jerry Jones, who is on the broadcast committee, will have a
very quiet meeting with new
CBS boss Mel Karmazin in the next couple of weeks. Karmazin
will also meet with other members of the broadcast
committee. My gut feeling: This is all a moot point.
CBS would have to pay so much to wrestle rights away from an
existing rights-holder that it would almost certainly lose
money on the
deal.
CBS execs are on the record as saying that the network will
not use football as a loss leader. That's one reason I find
it hard to believe that CBS would spend anything like what
ABC is willing to spend on Monday Night Football. And
Denver owner Pat
Bowlen, a member of the broadcast committee, has told me
there's no way there will be a Thursday-night
package.
As for your other questions: There will not be an 18-game
regular season because the players would demand more money
to play the two extra games, and the owners don't want to
pay. They also don't want to expose their players to two
more weeks of
potential injury. At most I think there will be one more team by
1999—and that's only if an existing team doesn't move to
Cleveland and the league is forced to put an expansion team
there.
You previously picked Green Bay over Jacksonville in Super
Bowl XXXII. Given Brunell's injury, what is your pick
now?
—Un-Tian
See
I'll stay with Green Bay over Jacksonville. Why? Two
words: Rob Johnson. As I said earlier, he's not going to hurt the
Jags a bit. (Oops.
I guess that was more than two
words.)
Thanks for the questions. See you next
week.
Previous
editions of Peter King's
Mailbag
Send a question to Peter
King
| 
