| |
In preseason we trust
Posted: Monday August 16, 1999 02:18 PM
Click here to send your preseason NFL questions to SI's Peter King. FOSTER CITY, Calif. -- "Oh," Troy Aikman said to me the other night. "You're one of those preseason believers, aren't you?" Well, I had to admit, I am. I buy what I see out of the preseason. Maybe not in terms of win-loss records, but in what young players under pressure do when the spotlight's on. I brought this up to Aikman because, as I told him, I liked how the Jets offense attacked Green Bay on the first few series Saturday. And because I'd seen the Patriots stink it up in Foxboro the previous night (frankly, the AFC East is the best division in the game this year, and I think the Colts somehow are going to sneak into the playoffs, and, based on Friday's performance, I can't see how the Patriots are going to make much hay this season). Aikman's cynicism is right, to some degree. I don't think the Giants are better than the Vikings, just because New York's first-team unit stomped Minnesota's Friday night. But there are some truths from the first full weekend of the preseason that I buy: 1. If he keeps his nose clean, Alonzo Spellman will make the Cowboys. He's just been too good in inside-rush drills, and, helped by Deion Sanders , who has been sort of a big brother to Spellman, he's been a model citizen off the field at Dallas camp in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Cowboys could use Spellman as a spot pass-rusher from tackle or end, or in the rotation at tackle, especially now that Leon Lett (suspension) is lost for at least the first month of the season. 2. Barry Sanders will stay retired. Too many people who know him are telling me that he's done. 3. Brian Griese 's 18-of-21 performance against Arizona has Mike Shanahan thinking this more strongly than ever: The Broncos have the quarterback depth, if not the brilliance, to win without John Elway . 4. The Cowboys have two kid receivers, Billy Ogden and Wane McGarity , who Aikman is really starting to like. "But losing James McKnight [for the season with a torn ACL] really hurts," Aikman tells me. "He was just starting to come around in our offense." One other note on the Cowboys: This Dat Nguyen , the undersized third-round linebacker from Texas A&M, is a decleater who can play for my team anytime. At the Cowboys-Raiders game Sunday, he stood up Rashaan Salaam in Dallas territory on a third-quarter, fourth-and-inches play. Defensive coordinator Dave Campo knows the Cowboys have to find a role for this big hitter in a 231-pound body. 5. From what I saw Saturday night, the Jets don't have a lot to worry about at guard yet. Kerry Jenkins and rookie Randy Thomas walled off the Packers' interior line just fine. Now for some of your questions:
Does it bother anyone that the Colts actually gave more money to
Edgerrin James than Marshall Faulk got from
the Rams? Am I stupid or does that mean that the Colts chose to have, for
the same money, James, instead of keeping Faulk, and taking the Saints' and
Bears' offers, winding up with, essentially, Faulk, the No. 7 pick (could
have been Champ Bailey, assuming Washington does not take him at No. 5, or
Torry Holt assuming the Rams take James, or Chris Claiborne, or John Tait)
and the Saints' No. 1 and No. 3 next year? The move made no sense in the
first place, but the Bears trade-down and especially the recent signings
make it look even worse. The fact is, Etienne, that Bill Polian didn't think Faulk was a physical-enough back to withstand the rigors of the AFC East wars. I'm still baffled they didn't take Ricky Williams , because he's more of the big-back banger the Colts wanted. I have a lot of questions about James' durability. This is a guy who played a much less physical schedule than Williams did and is a pretty slight man. Anyway, on to your question. First of all, Washington was not going to trade with anyone on draft day if it meant they weren't going to be able to draft Champ Bailey. I know. I was there that day. Second, you don't risk the back you love to take a receiver, Holt, coming off knee surgery. Third, I love your Claiborne alternative. The Colts loved him, too. Finally, if you think you might make a deal with the Bears, there'd better be someone at No. 7 you really love. But you make some good points. I'm interested in seeing who's a better back over the next three years, Faulk or James. If it's Faulk, the Colts will regret that deal.
What kind of season do you predict Terrell Davis will have
for the Broncos? He has been so dominant and relatively injury-free for the
past two seasons. Can he continue the same success again this year? What Davis has to be at least slightly worried about this season is that defenses may have so little respect for Bubby Brister that they'll go to a lot of eight-man fronts, at least early in the year, before Brister beats a few teams. I'm high on Brister. Shanahan, better than any coach west of Bill Parcells , puts players in position to do what they do best, and that's why I think Brister will be so effective. Shanahan's not going to ask him to run like Steve Young or throw the rainbow-deep ball of Randall Cunningham or be the complete player Elway was. Davis' success is directly related to the new quarterback's in Denver. I say Davis runs for 1,800.
Peter, what kills me about pro athletes is their ability to want to
null and void contracts they have signed. Take Jamal Anderson of the Atlanta Falcons. He had a
year left on a contract HE signed. Now after he has a few good
years, it's not good enough. Why don't they write contracts that state if
you don't live up to your billing, we will pay you less? If long-term
contracts are not worth the paper they're printed on why do they keep
signing them? What hurts in terms of honoring football contracts, Jim, is that contracts aren't guaranteed, so teams write deals very unrealistically. I mean, does anyone expect Charles Haley to play four more years? No, and neither do the 49ers. But that's a way for the team to spread out his signing bonus, $1 million, over four years and not to take a huge salary-cap hit in Year 1 of the deal. What you find then is teams signing players to contracts neither the team or agent or player ever expects to be honored. And so when a dispute happens like the one Anderson had with the Falcons, I can't get fired up too much anymore, because teams rarely expect players to finish contracts -- do you realize that neither Dan Marino nor Elway has ever finished a contract before signing his next one? -- and because teams have no problem firing a player in the middle of a contract if they think he's not worth it anymore.
Which of the rookie quarterbacks do you think will have the most
impact on their respective teams this year? 1. Cade McNown , Chicago. A star in the making, even though this year will probably be a big hiccup because the Bears aren't a good team. 2. Donovan McNabb , Philadelphia. He'll replace Doug Pederson as soon as Andy Reid thinks he's ready, which should be by mid-October. 3. Tim Couch , Cleveland. Couch might see action before McNabb, but the skill players on the Browns are so weak that I think Couch will struggle more than either of the previous guys. 4. Akili Smith , Cincinnati. He'll have no impact of note. Jeff Blake will start for the bad Bengals. Smith should get some time in December, and that's about the time he'll be ready with this long holdout. 5. Daunte Culpepper , Minnesota. With Cunningham and Jeff George ahead of him, he'll be on the pine all year, barring injury.
There has been some suggestion that the NFL would compensate the Lions
as a result of Barry Sanders' untimely retirement. Is this true? If so,
would the league compensate the Vikings for the departure of Dimitrius
Underwood? The league will give the Lions nothing -- nor should they -- as compensation for Barry Sanders retiring. And the league sure as heck will do nothing about Underwood. The Vikings blew that, not some suit in the NFL office in New York. If they started to help teams cover up for horrible draft picks, they'd be subsidizing 31 general managers a year.
How come the NFL just doesn't support the Raiders moving back to L.A.?
Wouldn't that be a win-win situation for Houston, L.A., and the NFL?
The NFL doesn't trust that Al Davis and L.A. would be a strong marriage. You're right, L.A. belongs in the league and Oakland doesn't, in an ideal world. But NFL geography has never been ideal, at least not in the nineties.
Are the Jets still for real? Or will Vinny Testaverde follow up
'98 with an off-year (like he did when he followed a good '96 with a
disappointing '97)? Or do you think that the receiving corps (Keyshawn Johnson, Eric Green) is enough to
keep that from happening? Whoever thinks Vinny's going to fall to earth is nuts. Did they watch him outplay Elway in Elway's final game in Denver? Did they watch him, under the thumb of Parcells, build a 29-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio? The guy's at a point in his career where the mental part of the game and the pressure and the fans don't faze him a bit. He'll have a good year. I worry about Green's chronically bad knees, but did you see that one-handed catch at Green Bay Saturday night? Wow. What a play. The Jets are good enough to win the AFC, but so are the Broncos. It's going to be a dogfight.
After finally fixing the cap problems and now having the stable of
backs to drive the running game, do you think the Dolphins can win it all?
If not, what do you think is holding them back? I like what Miami did with the offense, getting a great drive-blocker like Kevin Gogan and building a backfield around sledgehammer rookies like Rob Konrad and Cecil Collins . They still lack speed at receiver. They still have just an okay offensive line, and it looks like Richmond Webb might be serious about his holdout. Their young defensive linemen and pass-rushers have to stay healthy, which they didn't do last year. All in all, the Dolphins might have the second-best team in their division, and should make the playoffs. But I think they'd have to win at Denver or at the Jets to advance deep into the playoffs, and winning in the snow belt isn't easy for anyone in mid-January, never mind for a team from the tropics.
If the Cowboys are so desperate for a legit receiver and the Patriots
are so desperate for a legit running back, why not make a Chris Warren for a Shawn Jefferson/Vincent Brisby type deal?
Not a bad idea, but if you're the Cowboys, and it's vital that you don't burn out Emmitt Smith because you can't count on him to be a 350-carry back anymore, it's folly to trade Warren. Chan Gailey ought to be thinking of ways to get Warren 12 carries a game. Funny, though ... I was in New England the other day and there are rumors galore of a Warren-for-Brisby swap. Might be nonsense. And if I'm the Cowboys, I'd never consider it.
I'm very curious about your thoughts on the Indianapolis Colts this
year. The addition of some key defensive players should help the overall
team, do you agree? You heard it here first: Colts at Jags, AFC wild-card game, Jan. 9. Send a question to Peter King, and check back Aug. 26 for his second installment of the preseason NFL Mailbag.
Peter King is a Sports Illustrated senior writer.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
