1. With all due respect to Dr. Z, Mike Holmgren will guide his
Packers to a 31-20 win over the Jaguars in the Super Bowl. Five
days later Seahawks owner Paul Allen will hand Holmgren the keys
to Seattle, giving him a staggering $3.5 million a year to be
coach and general manager. As compensation for signing Holmgren,
Allen will send Green Bay first- and third-round picks in the
1999 draft.
2. On the strength of a 32-touchdown-pass season, Jaguars
quarterback Mark Brunell will win league Most Valuable Player
honors. Among others, Brunell will edge the Packers' three-time
MVP, Brett Favre, and Chiefs cornerback Dale Carter, who will
unseat the Cowboys' Deion Sanders as the best corner in the game
with an 11-interception season.
3. Barry Sanders, who starts the season 2,948 yards
behind alltime leading rusher Walter Payton, will finish it
1,100 yards in arrears—and hold off the Broncos' Terrell Davis
for his fifth rushing title. (I learned my lesson last year
after I picked the Falcons' Jamal Anderson; Sanders nipped
Anderson by 1,051 yards.)
4. For the first time in the '90s, the Cowboys' leading rusher
won't be named Emmitt Smith. Chris Warren, late of the Seahawks,
looks friskier than Smith, and you just know the battle-weary
Smith will miss at least four games with injuries.
5. In a surprise to all except those who remember the job he
did as Browns defensive coordinator in the early '90s, Michigan
State's Nick Saban will beat out George Seifert and a pair of
offensive coordinators, the Packers' Sherm Lewis and the
Dolphins' Kippy Brown, for the Cleveland coaching job.
Issue date: August 17, 1998
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