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Giants should put a sock in it
Posted: Wednesday December 01, 1999 11:14 AM
Click here to send your NFL questions to SI's Peter King. I have one thing to say to the New York Giants defense. SHUT UP! Perhaps it's because I live in northern New Jersey and read the New York papers every day, but the continued mouthing-off by Giants defensive players is ridiculous. After they lose to the Redskins and give up 183 rushing yards to Stephen Davis a couple of weeks ago, half the defense is saying: The offense isn't holding up its end; how can we win every game by ourselves? Linebacker Jessie Armstead, in particular, ripped the offense. Then the Giants lose to Arizona -- at home, mind you -- with the defense giving up 27 points. Now, the Cardinals are the 28th-rated team in the NFL on offense. Common sense would tell you the Giants defense should slink into the meeting room on Monday and keep its mouth shut. But, no. There's Michael Strahan, a great player who should know better, continuing the stuff about how the defenders feel so much pressure to shut the opposition out that it's affecting how they play. "We're all worried that if we give up a field goal, we might not be able to make that up [on offense]." Oh. So then you give up three touchdowns and two field goals and you expect the fans and the football world to sympathize with you? The frustration is understandable, because Jim Fassel hasn't fixed this offense in his three years at the helm. He's an offensive guy. This offense should be worlds better than it is, and as the caretaker of it, Fassel has to take responsibility for it. Now, the way the Giants' season is going, I doubt Fassel will be back for his fourth year as coach in 2000. But I do know that the first task of the new coach at his first mini-camp next spring will be to call everyone into one room, shut the door, and tell every player on that team to take care of his own business and stop pitting one unit against the other. Or he could just say what I said in the second paragraph above. Now for your questions ...
I'm glad somebody with a great amount of intelligence about football has finally seen that Jeff George is much more than a distraction; he may be the best free-agent acquisition of the off-season. But I also have a question: Don't you think that the Rams are slightly overrated? Meaning that if you are going to give the Titans less credit because of their strength of schedule, the Rams should drop immensely as well. They have beaten Cincinnati, Cleveland, Atlanta twice, San Francisco twice, a decent team in Carolina, Baltimore and New Orleans. They have played two teams with winning records, Detroit and Tennessee. I am quite sure that both ended in losses. So, really, my only question is how can Tennessee drop in your Top 10 because of schedule and not the Rams? Everybody in the league, in my opinion, misses a main point about George. He's productive, big-time. I keep wondering what the, say, Giants would be like with George playing quarterback this year and playing vertical-ball. You could ask the same question about a dozen teams with bad quarterbacks. The George prejudice is ridiculous. As for the Rams, here's my point there: St. Louis has won its games this year by an average of 23 points. The Titans beat the Rams on St. Louis turnovers, largely, and had to hold on for dear life to do so at home. And the Titans flirt with disaster against Cincinnati and Cleveland. Every game's a struggle. I like Tennessee, but its 9-2 isn't the same as the Rams', in my opinion.
I agree with your commendation of Jeff George. As a diehard Broncos fan who first went to a Broncos game in 1961, I was hoping that they would start fishing for George as the sun set on John Elway's career. Here's my question: Although I hear that Brian Griese is the Broncos' QB of the future, I am skeptical. He doesn't have the arm to make credible a long-passing game. Do you think he can be an effective starting QB, or should the Broncos be shopping? And whom might they be shopping for? Griese is without question the Broncos' quarterback of the future. He has everything Mike Shanahan wants in a quarterback, except for the Jeff George arm. Griese is smart, a tireless worker and student, accurate, gutsy. He'll make Denver a contender again -- next season.
Like many other fans out there, we realize that the Buffalo game most likely force Pete Carroll's demise as head coach. When Bob Kraft does fire Carroll after this season, whom do you see as a replacement for the Pats? Would Bill Cowher be a possibility? Two guys who will run across Kraft's mind are Art Shell and Bill Belichick. Whomever Kraft hires I guarantee will be able to take that team by the throat and stop the petty intramural bickering happening now.
What do you think about the Steelers moving Kordell Stewart to wide receiver this week? I've thought for a while that perhaps the Steelers would be better off getting a pure quarterback (let's be honest -- Mike Tomczak is not the answer) and reprising Stewart's "Slash" days, since that was the last time he was truly effective on a consistent basis. I know Bill Cowher says this'll be a temporary thing, but is there a chance that the Steelers will remove Stewart from quarterbacking full-time and make him a multi-position player once again? Stewart, as I write in this week's Inside the NFL in Sports Illustrated, is suffering from a disease the Steelers have been battling with him for two years: He has rabbit ears. The fans are killing him, and he's so angry and frustrated about it that it's affecting his play. Now, the Steelers have so much money invested in him that they've got to try to go back to the drawing board with him this off-season and fix what ails him. For now, they're doing the smart thing by giving him a role he can feel comfortable with. Maybe, in the long run, it will be the only role that makes sense for him.
In your latest MMQB you mention Jeff Blake as an emerging factor in the February 2000 free-agent market. Since Trent Dilfer has done nothing to convince the Bucs that he is worth re-signing, and Tony Dungy is publicly enamored with rookie Shawn King's skills, does Blake, who brings much of the same skills to the table as King does, seem a likely QB candidate for the Bucs to pursue? Do you think Blake would be a good fit for the Bucs? I love Jeff Blake for Tampa Bay. It's a perfect fit, because they've had a stodgy, stay-at-home quarterback for a long time in Dilfer, and the change of pace that Blake would bring to the offense would be perfect. But if King plays well this last month, the Bucs certainly won't look for help in free agency. Now, there's also a chance that the Bucs would sign Jeff Hostetler as a reliever to help them finish the season. But he almost certainly wouldn't factor into the Bucs' plans long-term.
Do you think if Steve Young returns to the 49ers next year that they may return to playoff form? I don't see how you can make Steve Young a long-term factor for the 49ers. If he plays in 2000, you're rolling the dice on every snap whether it will be his last, so to make any judgment about where he could take the 49ers is like playing the lottery.
God bless Kerry Collins, but he is not a $17 million player. A stable of undistinguished backs, a porous offensive line and the most uncertain QB situation in football all add up to trouble. I think Jim Fassel is a good coach. He's not the offensive guru that he was supposed to be, but he has done a good job under the circumstances. Like Boomer Esiason, he lost a parent (his mother) over the weekend, which didn't help things against the Cardinals. If somebody has to go, it's Ernie Accorsi, who has continued George Young's post-salary-cap, laissez-faire attitude. Mike, we could debate for a long time whether the Giants' way of having a strong GM to make personnel decisions and a coach who has to live with many of them is the right way to go. And I agree that the Collins signing was a ridiculous waste of money; the Giants could have had him for peanuts, and the $5 million bonus will be a weight on their cap that this off-season and next will cost them a free-agent or two they really need. But Accorsi deserves a chance to do things his way, the Giants' way. If they're still toothless on offense and cap-strangled in two years, then you can pass judgment on Accorsi. But not now.
Who are your top-rated players who will become unrestricted/restricted free agents after the season? I was told the Seahawks have quite a few free agents. I guess we will see what kind of a hornets nest Mike Holmgren stepped into. Now, much of the list will vary depending on which players are given "franchise" tags by their teams and thus taken off the market. But my top 10 today, not including any franchise designees:
1. Simeon Rice, DE, Arizona.
What is Rob Johnson's trade value, and if you were the Bills would you rather keep Johnson or trade him for some picks that you can use to get a top rookie QB? There are people in the Buffalo organization who love Johnson and want to see him get a shot to play soon. So I'm not sure what they'll do with him in the off-season. My gut tells me they'll keep him. If not, I see him dealt to a team like San Francisco, because Steve Mariucci doesn't want to draft a young kid and put the franchise in drydock while the kid learns the offense and the NFL game.
When you turned off the VH-1 Top 100 artists program, you missed a heck of a show. Paul McCartney was rated behind Smokey Robinson as a solo artist and with Wings. The Beatles were No. 1 (edging out the Stones). Your little remote-control tantrum must have been eerily similar to Cris Carter's spike in the official's face Sunday after the ref blew a call. Unlike you, Carter stayed in the game and went on to catch 11 for 136 yards and two TDs. Like I said, you missed a heck of a show. My mistake. I thought they would rate each person individually, which, in the hour I watched the show, was all I saw. Re: Cris Carter -- This might be a stupid statement to make, but I'll make it anyway: I can see the man challenging Jerry Rice's career receptions record. After this season, he'll be about 250 catches behind. Carter has two seasons left of prime football, barring injury. Then it just depends how lucky he is with injuries and how long he wants to play. I think Carter is one heck of a player, one of the top 10 player/gamers in the league. Thanks for your words about MMQB. It's fun to do.
Send a question to Peter King, and check back Thursdays for his latest NFL Mailbag.
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