He has thrown only 34 passes in his three-year NFL career, and
he's not even going to be a free agent after this season.
Nevertheless, the Jaguars' Rob Johnson will be the most coveted
quarterback on the off-season market. Aside from Tennessee's
Peyton Manning and Washington State's Ryan Leaf (assuming the
latter bypasses his senior season), no blue-chippers are in the
draft, and free agency will produce the weakest crop of
quarterbacks since the unrestricted system began in 1993.
The biggest name is the Dolphins' Craig Erickson, but don't
expect him to go anywhere. Miami coach Jimmy Johnson will
probably persuade Erickson to stay put by guaranteeing him that
he'll be Dan Marino's heir as early as sometime next season.
Other available signal-callers include the Cardinals' Kent
Graham, the Eagles' Ty Detmer and Rodney Peete, the Chargers'
Jim Everett (coming off elbow surgery), the Falcons' Jim Miller,
the Rams' Mark Rypien and the Saints' Doug Nussmeier. (Another
player to watch is the Jets' Neil O'Donnell, who, because of the
emergence of Glenn Foley, is no longer the clear-cut No. 1 in
New York. If O'Donnell is still on the roster on Feb. 20, he'll
be due $2.75 million.)
With as many as 12 teams looking for long-term quarterback
solutions, Johnson will be in demand. He has completed 70% of
his preseason passes in three years, and in his only
regular-season start, in the '97 opener against the Ravens, he
completed 20 of 24 attempts and led Jacksonville to a 28-27 win
despite playing most of the second half with a severely sprained
left ankle. Johnson is signed through 1998, but the Jaguars are
comfortable with Mark Brunell and could try to trade their
backup rather than risk losing him in free agency. Brunell was a
year away from restricted free agency when Jacksonville got him
from the Packers in 1995 for third- and fifth-round draft picks,
but because of the current dearth of marquee quarterbacks,
Johnson could fetch much more. Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin says
only, "You need two quarterbacks in today's football. We'll look
at that after the season."
Look at it this way: If you can trade a very good backup for,
say, a mid-first-round pick and use that selection to get
something you desperately need, like a cover cornerback (North
Carolina's Dre' Bly?), the decision is not a difficult one.
Issue date: December 8, 1997
|
|
