The Doctor is in
The 1998 NFL All-Pro team, as seen through Zimmerman's eyes
Posted: Friday December 25, 1998 07:56 AM
This is my 1998 All-Pro team, selected from a breakdown of 136 games
seen in their entirety, some in the flesh, most of them via the tapes from
TV games, some from coaching films. I will give you my expanded version,
including my own ratings, which I'll try to explain as I go along. One
thing I can promise you -- I take this more seriously than just about
anything else I do, with the possible exception of trying to provide a
decent living for my family. Note: When two players are in a virtual
tie, I'll give the nod to the one who has received less, or no, recognition
throughout his career. Numbers in parentheses are games I've seen a guy
play. Different numbers for players on the same team mean somebody has
missed games because of injury. I only grade games while they're still
competitive. That's a judgment call. For instance, the last five or 10
minutes of a blowout don't figure into my charts.
OFFENSE QUARTERBACK -- Randall Cunningham,
Minnesota. Seen him 10 times. This was the easiest pick on the
board. My other two finalists were Doug Flutie (6 looks) and
Vinny Testaverde (15
looks) I wasn't happy with Cunningham late in the season, the way he was
flinching away from the rush, but by then he'd done enough damage. He's
never had this kind of touch on his long throws. He's never been able to
read defenses the way he does now. He's never studied the game before.
RUNNING BACK -- Terrell Davis, Denver, and
Marshall Faulk,
Indianapolis. Davis (14) was chalk. So was Faulk (6), who kept the
Colts alive in hopeless causes, and was the most serious pass-catching
threat. Jamal Anderson
(6) was my third choice, Barry Sanders (7) my No.
4. FULLBACK -- Bob Christian, Atlanta.
Three way battle among Christian (6), the Giants' Charles Way (14) and
Denver's Howard
Griffith (13). I rank them in that order, based on blocking, of
course, and they're all fine in that department; catching passes out of the
backfield, in which Griffith is the least important of the three; and
running the ball, where Way is tops. Christian wins it on overall
contribution, and yes, he was an effective runner when he had to be.
WIDE RECEIVER -- Randy Moss, Minnesota, and
Antonio Freeman, Green
Bay. A tough position to grade because there are so many variables --
i.e., how much pressure is taken off because of other good receivers on the
same unit, influence on the defense, number of drops, etc. What I do is
establish a game- by-game performance chart and then grade guys against
each other, based on weekly output, with consistency as the deciding
factor. Moss (10) was clearly so outstanding, particularly when Jake Reed went down and he
had to carry more of the load, that in the end I didn't even include him in
my chart. I lumped Freeman (7) with 10 other wideouts -- Herman Moore (6) and Johnnie Morton (7) of
Detroit, Cris Carter (9)
of Minnesota, Terance
Mathis (6) of Atlanta (sorry, but his running mate, Tony Martin, drops too many
balls), Keyshawn
Johnson (15) and Wayne
Chrebet (15) of the Jets, Jimmy Smith (9) of
Jacksonville, Rod Smith
(14) and Ed McCaffrey
(12) of Denver, and Eric
Moulds (6) of Buffalo. It was a tight battle, going into last
weekend, with Mathis and Jimmy Smith offering Freeman the most serious
challenges and Moulds, my sentimental choice, closing fast. But Freeman's
three-TD, 186-yard explosion in the snow againt Tennessee clinched it.
TIGHT END -- Frank Wycheck,
Tennessee. It was Wycheck (8) against the usual twosome, Ben Coates of New England
(11) and Shannon Sharpe
of Denver (14). Again, I did a game-by-game pass-catching breakdown, and
Wycheck beat Coates but lost to Sharpe, very narrowly. Blocking is a huge
factor here, though, and I like the way Wycheck goes after people. Also,
there aren't many big-league receivers in that offense, in contrast to
Denver's operation. Then there's the intangible: the Oilers make such
creative use of Wycheck, lining him up in the backfield, on the flank, and
as an in-line tight end, that he creates many headaches. And this is a big
one: he's never been picked to anything before. TACKLE --
Jonathan Ogden,
Baltimore (4) and Larry
Allen (12), Dallas. OK, here's the way I grade offensive
linemen: Pass blocking, of course, which is really negative grading. You
can't record all the competent pass blocks. There are too many of them. I
record sacks and "forces", which doesn't mean that a guy gets the bad mark
if his man is the sacker or forcer. Sometimes the defender will collect one
merely by pursuing the QB on a rollout or bootleg action, which is not the
offensive lineman's fault. Sometimes someone else will flush the passer,
and another lineman's guy will inherit the sack. This becomes a negative
sack mark for the man who's been beaten for the initial disruption. These
are hard things to establish, especially when line stunts or blitz schemes
are involved and you don't know whose pick-up assignment it was, and, in
fairness, if I have any doubt I simply don't grade the play. I spend a lot
of time running the tapes back to pick up the nuances here. Ditto on drive
blocks, which I especially care about, being an old offensive lineman when
it was a running game. I give a partial grade to a shield block or belly-
bump, in which the guy's man is sort of removed from the action, but
nothing dramatic in the way of a blowout has occurred. The latter gets the
same notation, a "B" next to his name, but it's in different color ink, red
ink. I'd say 80 percent of the league's offensive linemen go through an
entire game without getting a red B from me, which only reinforces my
contention that drive- blocking in the old manner is a lost art. But just
plain old B's are important, too, I guess, from the standpoint of making
the play a success, but if two guys are tied on my charts, I'll give the
nod to the one with the most red B's. At the end of a game, my line on an
O-lineman might read 5 B's, no sacks, no forces, no holds. This is a
superior performance. One final word: Sometimes a player benefits from
having good linemen around him, and when a runner gets good yardage, the
whole side of the line -- tackle, guard, center -- might pick up a B
apiece, because the scheme has been so sound. They benefit from being in
the flow. This was particularly true of Denver last year. I'll give
you my grades and notations on all offensive linemen I considered:
Ogden -- 25 B's, average 6.3, two sacks, three forces, two holds.
Allen -- 58 B's, average 5.1, a sack, five forces, one hold.
Tony Boselli, Jacksonville
(8 looks) -- 17 B's, average 2.1, four sacks, three forces, one hold.
Todd Steussie,
Minnesota (9) -- 22 B's, average 2.2, one sack, one hold. I picked
Steussie for my All-Pro team in this week's magazine, based on pass-
blocking consistency. I'd seen Allen, the best drive-blocker in the
business, have some bad games -- particularly against the Saints' Joe Johnson, who was
beating him consistently on running plays ... which, unfortunately, doesn't
show up on my charts. In last weekend's Philly game, though, Allen was
wiping out the entire right side of the Eagles' defense, sometimes going
after a second defender after he'd totaled the first one, a 13-B
performance, high for the year for any offensive lineman. I thought
it through and realized that even if it was inconsistent, I simply
couldn't neglect him. As for Boselli, he starts off OK, but seems to tire
during a game. I think he's playing too heavy. He doesn't knock people off
the line anymore, as he did in his rookie year, when I picked him
All-Pro. GUARD -- Randall McDaniel,
Minnesota, and Kevin
Gogan, San Francisco. McDaniel (10) -- 44 B's, average 4.4, one
hold.
Gogan (10) -- 43 B's, average 4.3, two sacks, one hold.
Kevin Donnalley,
Miami (11) -- 39 B's, average 3.5, two sacks, two holds.
Jeff Blackshear, Baltimore
(5) -- 23 B's, average 4.6. Not a great year for guards. I've never
been a big McDaniel fan, but this was the best season I've ever seen him
have. Gogan was pressed by Donnalley, but his grades tailed off after he
was hurt. Blackshear can be an effective drive-blocker, but his numbers
were swelled by a huge day against Cincinnati. Every decent O-lineman has a
big day against that cockamamie zone blitz. CENTER -- Jeff Christy,
Minnesota. Christy (10) -- 52 B's, average 5.2, two holds.
Tom Nalen, Denver (14)
-- 56 B's, average 4.0, one sack, two forces, two holds.
Kevin Mawae, Jets (15) --
59 B's, average 3.9, two sacks, one force, three holds.
Dermontti Dawson,
Pittsburgh (8) -- 28 B's, average 3.5. No contest. Dawson,
everyone's perennial All-Pro, is agile and nimble on the back-side cutoff
block but wasn't that effective at the point this year. DEFENSE
Very complicated grading here. An "S" will indicate slash marks that
I make as I'm charting a game. A player can earn a slash in a number of
ways: Tackles or disruptions, i.e., when he's responsible for blowing up a
play, or in the case of long yardage, when his play prevents the first
down. A tackle by a lineman when he's been knocked off the ball and makes
the play downfield gets no slash, although on stat sheets he'll get credit
for a tackle. Ditto defensive backs making routine tackles five or more
yards past the line. Linebackers or DBs can pick up a slash for good
coverage on a pass play. A five-slash day is pretty good. I've had eight-
and nine-slash performances by a lineman, and then I look at the game
summary and his notation might read three tackles, one assist. I pay
little attention to those stats because I see how the guys work when
they're recording them. If the player is a hometown favorite he'll get a
tackle or an assist for merely jumping on the pile. I don't record sacks.
I give a "P" to the guy who creates the sack, which might fall into someone
else's lap, or to the man who earns one all by himself. An "A" indicates
an inherited sack or an assist on one. I'm also pretty strict on "forces".
Just getting in a passer's face isn't enough. The force has to have an
effect on the play. END -- Michael Strahan, Giants,
and Mike McCrary, Baltimore. Strahan (12) -- 67 S's, average 5.6, 13
P's, 13 forces, two forced fumbles, two forced interceptions, one A.
McCrary (5) -- 26 S's, average 5.2, 9 P's, one forced fumble.
Michael Sinclair, Seattle
(10) -- 44 S's, average 4.4, 6 P's, 13 forces, three forced fumbles, one
A.
Chuck Smith,
Atlanta (6) -- 32 S's, average 5.3, 3 P's, five forces, one forced
fumble.
John
Randle, Minnesota (10) -- 35 S's, average 3.5, 8 P's, 10 forces, two
forced fumbles.
Joe Johnson, New Orleans (9) -- 39 S's, average
4.3, 2 P's, seven forces.
Lester Archambeau, Atlanta
(6) -- 19 S's, average 3.3, 8 P's, three forces, three forced fumbles.
Kevin Carter,
St.Louis (2) -- 8 S's, average 4.0, one P. Sinclair vs. McCrary vs.
Smith for the No. 2 spot was the battle here, since Strahan was clearly the
top pick. The P category basically decided it; also, Sinclair was helped
immeasurably by having Chad
Brown rushing from the other side. Randle played more end than tackle
this year, but he wouldn't have made my team inside, either, because he
gives up too much against the run.
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Freeman has caught 77 passes for 13 TDs in 14 games this season AP |
TACKLE -- Bryant Young, San
Francisco, and Darrell
Russell, Oakland. Russell (12) -- 59 S's, average 5.8, 5 P's,
four forces, two forced fumbles, one A.
Young (8) -- 39 S's,
average 4.9, 6 P's, six forces, one forced fumble.
Keith Hamilton, Giants
(13) -- 54 S's, average 4.2, 5 P's, five forces, 2 A.
Travis Hall, Atlanta (5)
-- 22 S's, average 4.4, 3 P's, six forces.
La'Roi Glover, New Orleans
(9) -- 35 S's, average 3.9, 2 P's, four forces, one interception, one
forced safety.
Norman Hand, San Diego (6)
-- 19 S's, average 3.3, 3 P's, two forces.
Chad Eaton, New England
(11) -- 35 S's, average 3.2, 4 P's, two forces, one forced fumble.
James Jones, Baltimore
(5)--19 S's, average 3.8, one P.
Hollis Thomas,
Philadelphia (5)--18 S's, average 3.6, 2 P's, one force.
Young, who
was hurt in game No. 12, saw enough action to qualify on my team.
Technically, he's the best of all of them, although Russell, a surprisingly
disruptive force in the middle, graded higher. Eaton is a weird guy to
include, I know, because he did almost nothing for the first half of the
season, but when people started going down around him he really came on and
had two of my highest-graded games of the year -- against Buffalo and
Pittsburgh, both victories. OUTSIDE LINEBACKER -- Chad
Brown, Seattle, and Derrick
Brooks, Tampa Bay. A word about grading people involved in
coverage: The system is so complicated that I hate to even mention it.
The variables are innumerable. For instance, what are they asking the guy
to do? How much zone, how much man, which applies more to the DBs than the
linebackers. Then there are the players who blitz, often, like Brown,
going into a down position in passing situations, and the guys who have to
play in space and cover receivers. And, of course, the most tantalizing
problem of all ... how to identify zone and man coverages on TV, where a
director often cuts away from a play immediately, or picks it up in
progress (my No. 1 gripe). Well, there are ways, and if I'm not sure, I'll
give the defender the benefit of the doubt and call it zone and not give
him a man-coverage grade. Linebacker grades rely heavily on the "slash"
category, since run-stopping is big here. To a certain extent that applies
to strong safeties, too. It's less important with free-safeties and
corners, although a cornerback who's sturdy against the force, such as New
England's Ty Law, draws
my attention. One important factor in looking at LB's is whether or not
the guy stays on the field in nickel situations. If he's pulled, well, I'd
prefer to look at the player who never comes off. OK, you want the
system, here it is, but for brevity's sake I won't list every set of
numbers. Pass coverage: how many passes thrown to the defender in
man-coverage, how many completed, percentage of completions. An indication
rather than a definitive stat, because sometimes a two-yard completion gets
a slash and a "C" (for good coverage), although it will count against his
percentage. Total yards allowed, and average per attempt: Again,
nebulous, because one long completion could throw this number out of whack.
Total C's are very important, particularly for cornerbacks. The
best C game I saw this year was by the Dolphins' Terrell Buckley, who
picked up six against Denver. In fact, that was the best cornerback
performance I saw all season (seven passes thrown at him in man-coverage,
zero completions), when you consider the importance of the game and the
quality of receivers he was facing. Plus Terrell had to run back punts,
too. Did he make my All-Pro team? Afraid not. He had some really terrific
games, but other people were more consistent. Then, of course, there are
interceptions and TDs given up and sacks and forces, coming off blitzes,
and run-stopping ability. Sometimes, at the end of my grading, someone's
numbers will simply jump off the chart and I'll pick the guy All-Pro when I
never intended to. That was the case one year when Dwayne Harper was playing
for Seattle. To sum up the outside linebackers: Brown's stat line
deserves mention, since, slashwise, he's my highest-rated defensive player
on the board, over a significant number of games. Ten looks, 68 S's,
average 6.8, 9 P's, two forces, one A, one interception. Pretty good in
coverage, too, although he seldom gets credit for that. Seventeen C's was
more than any other linebacker I graded, inside or out, and yes, I was
amazed when that total came up, and I went back and re-checked every chart.
Brooks (9) averaged 5.2 S's, and he was my No. 1 among the weakside,
or coverage linebackers. Here's the complete set of outside 'backers
I graded: Mo Lewis,
Jets (once a coverage, or weakside LB, he played the strong side this
season, and toward the end of the year, played in a down position much of
the time); Peter
Boulware, Baltimore; Junior Seau, San Diego
(better in coverage than he used to be, but he's starting to wear down a
bit); Kevin Hardy,
Jacksonville; Bill
Romanowski, Denver (used to come off the field in the nickel, now he
stays on); Dwayne Rudd,
Minnesota (the star of the future ... wow, does he cover ground); Cornelius Bennett, Atlanta;
Mark Fields, New
Orleans (really flies in to stop the run but gives up a bit too much in
pass coverage); Brian
Williams, Green Bay (always underrated, always highly functional).
MIDDLE LINEBACKER -- Ray Lewis, Baltimore.
Four looks (wish I'd seen him more often), a gaudy 7.0 slash average,
best of anyone. Pretty sound in coverage, too. A tough choice over
Detroit's Stephen Boyd
(six looks, 6.2-S average) whose Thanksgiving Day performance against
Pittsburgh (he was iffy right up to kickoff with a shoulder injury) was the
best I've seen this year by an MLB. People told me that the Steelers' Levon Kirkland (eight
looks) slipped this year, but not on my chart. His numbers were
outstanding, 6.3 slash average, and tied with Miami's Zach Thomas (12 looks) for
the most C's (13) of any middle 'backer. Why wasn't Kirkland chosen for
the Pro Bowl, or Thomas, either? Beats me. I never have liked those
choices, anyway. This was a great year for middle linebackers. I
graded nine of them, any of whom could have been Pro Bowl choices in a
different year. The list: the four already mentioned (Thomas is my
favorite pass-covering MLB), plus New England's Ted Johnson (9), K.C.'s Donnie Edwards (10),
Atlanta's Jesse Tuggle (6), Minnesota's Ed McDaniel (10) and
(you're going to wonder what he's doing in this company) Washington's Marvcus Patton (8), who
turned in some heroic work trying to hold that leaky ship together.
CORNERBACK -- Sam Madison, Miami, and Ty
Law, New England. Deion Sanders (7) and Oakland's Erik Allen (10)
were my top two, but both went down in game No. 10, thereby disqualifying
them from consideration. You can't miss that much of the season. Deion
gave up some underneath stuff, more out of boredom than anything else, but
I can't remember the last time I saw someone complete anything deep on him
-- not this year, not the year before. Madison (11) led all my
corners in percentage of completions against him, a gaudy .328, in a
category in which anything under .500 is good. I know why he wasn't picked
for the Pro Bowl: because he's a mouth guy, a taunter, and the selectors
were getting even. Allen, at .389, was second in completion percentage,
Law (12) third at .426 (of course, he turned a few games around with his
interceptions, including a spectacular one-handed grab vs. the Niners in a
game the Patriots simply had to win), Atlanta's Ray Buchanan (6) fourth at
436. Coverage checkmarks, or C's? Law had 21; Denver's Ray Crockett (14) and Charles Dimry (6) --
vastly underrated, coming off the season of his life -- each had 19. Yes, I
gave Dimry 19 coverage checks on only those six looks (sadly, he gave up
some yards, too), Madison and Chicago's Walt Harris (6), each got
14. Final statistical category, yards per attempt (and anything
under 6.0 is outstanding): Allen 3.6, Sanders 4.5, Law 5.3, Madison 5.4,
Buchanan 5.4. One other cornerback made my checklist -- Oakland's fine
rookie, Charles Woodson
(10), a guaranteed star of the future. STRONG SAFETY -- Rodney Harrison, San
Diego.
Fine in completion percentage (.381) and yards per attempt (4.4),
Harrison (6) was able to blitz when he had to, with a trio of sacks in the
opener. Terrific hustle and serious tackling, but everyone's always known
that. He's finally rewarded this year. The rest of my group: Lawyer Milloy, New England
(11); Blaine Bishop,
Tennessee (5); Green Bay's Leroy Butler (10); who was my runner-up;
Seattle's surprising Jay
Bellamy (10); who has never gotten much credit for anything; and
Minnesota's Robert
Griffith (10). Griffith was having an All-Pro year, playing close to
the line in nickel situations and particularly effective against shallow
routes, the trademark of the Walsh offense. Then Torian Gray, the nickel
back, went down and Griffith had to go back into deep coverage, which is
not his style. FREE SAFETY -- Mark Carrier, Detroit.
I'm the only one who feels that Carrier (7) had anywhere near a Pro Bowl
season, but his statistics were incredible: .235 completion percentage, 2.0
yards per attempt, six C's, three interceptions. The only competition was
Atlanta's Eugene
Robinson (6), who did a fine job holding the secondary together, but if
I'm going to have any faith in my system at all, I've got to go with
off-the- board numbers. NICKEL BACK -- Ray Mickens, Jets.
Mickens (15) became a starter in the last two games and did an incredible
job. Almost always in man-coverage, often against the enemy's most
dangerous receiver, and I gave him 21 checks, to go with a gaudy .361
completion percentage and an average of 3.7 yards per. Miami's terrific
rookie, Patrick Surtain
(12), had numbers that were almost, repeat almost, as impressive.
SPECIAL TEAMS KICKER -- Gary Anderson,
Minnesota.
No misses, case closed. Seen him 10 times, and even when I run the
tape back, he doesn't miss. PUNTER -- Matt Turk, Washington.
Eight looks. Playing hurt toward the end of the year, which damaged the
numbers I care about, particularly hang time. But he's the best of all of
them, with an average of 4.78 on my stopwatch (no, I don't count pooches
and positional punts), and he excels in another category rarely mentioned:
lowest percentage of punts returned, not counting end zone jobs. And, of
course, his net, and his inside-the-20-to-touchbacks ratio have always been
excellent. PLAYER OF THE YEAR -- Marshall Faulk,
Indianapolis. He did more with less around him than anyone else.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR -- Can it be anyone but Randy Moss?
COACH OF THE YEAR -- See me on February 1. Current candidates:
Mike Shanahan, Dan Reeves, Dennis Green, Bill Parcells, plus
anyone who sneaks in with a Super Bowl upset.
Got a question or comment for Dr. Z? Click
here. And check back January 8, when the Doc will respond to your
comments about his All-Pro team.
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