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 Inside the NFL
Posted: Tuesday March 23, 1999 06:52 PM No Suitors For Webb | Inside the Draft The self-centered Jeff George is too talented to be unemployed By Peter King
A year ago the Bills locked up Doug Flutie with a piddling $50,000 signing bonus, the Ravens were on the verge of releasing Vinny Testaverde, and Randall Cunningham was planted on the Vikings' bench. Yet all three reclamation projects emerged as MVP candidates in 1998, took their teams (Testaverde was scooped up by the Jets) to the playoffs and filled half of the quarterback slots in the Pro Bowl.
But in his two years in Oakland, George committed only one untoward act. After he aggravated a groin injury last Nov. 29, George -- having already missed all or parts of seven games -- announced on a radio show that, with four games left, he was finished for the year. The Raiders, who were still fighting for a wild-card spot, thought that George might still return. (He backed off his statement the next day, and he came off the bench in Oakland's final game.) Truth is, George has never been much of a leader. But in Oakland he was at least a team player who in '97 led the league in passing yards and the AFC in touchdown passes. "It's been frustrating, trying to find a good spot for him," his agent, Leigh Steinberg, said last week at the NFL annual meetings in Phoenix. Or any spot. The Eagles, looking for a veteran starter, signed the Packers' Doug Pederson, who has thrown 32 passes during a four-year career. "You see what happened with [George] and June Jones, and you'd rather go with a guy who isn't a problem," says Philadelphia coach Andy Reid. The Rams signed Trent Green, a hanger-on for five seasons until showing promise with the Redskins last year. "When I'm going to spend a lot of the owner's money, Trent's not as big a risk as Jeff," says St. Louis coach Dick Vermeil, who gave Green a four-year, $16.5 million contract. The Saints will stick with the pedestrian Billy Joe Hobert, coming off Achilles tendon surgery. "Tell me," New Orleans coach Mike Ditka says. "What has Jeff George done?" (George's career winning percentage is only .346.) The Bears have Erik Kramer, who had knee and shoulder surgery in December, and the weakest set of backup passers in football, Moses Moreno and Jim Miller. Coach Dick Jauron says the team will leave no stone unturned in its search for a reliable veteran, yet Chicago has no plans to contact George. "He's never won," Jauron says. The Giants handed Kerry Collins, the quarterback with the lowest passer rating over the past two years, a $5 million signing bonus. Ravens coach Brian Billick traded two draft picks to the Lions for free-agent disappointment Scott Mitchell. Seahawks general manager-coach Mike Holmgren, skittish about Jon Kitna, has worked out Todd Marinovich and Chris Miller, who have been out of the league for six and three years, respectively. Steinberg's office even called Seattle, saying George would play there for the minimum. Don't call us, we'll call you, said the Seahawks, who instead traded a seventh-round pick for Jets reject Glenn Foley last Friday. "Jeff is an enigma," says Holmgren. "You don't know why, but it's never happened for him. I'm trying to build a program, and Jeff's not the type of leader you're going to bring in to help in the locker room or to develop a young quarterback. He's not young enough to be your quarterback of the future." He is, however, talented enough to bring in at least as a backup. The Vikings have an interest in George at a low salary. The Chiefs and the Dolphins should take a look at him, too. If and when some team signs George, it could end up with the best bargain of the off-season.
Video Redux: Here's something to consider in the wake of the return of instant replay, by a 28-3 vote of owners last week: Of the four bad calls that were generally regarded as the most damaging in '98, the challenge system that will take effect next fall would have reversed only two. They would have been the last-minute, fourth-down catch by Patriots wideout Shawn Jefferson that was actually out-of-bounds and the fourth-down scoring run by the Jets' Vinny Testaverde, who really didn't cross the goal line. The blown calls gave New England a win over Buffalo and New York a victory over Seattle. But the other two horrendous calls would have stood. The incorrect pass-interference call on the Hail Mary throw in the same New England-Buffalo game would not have been reviewable because it was a judgment call. In the last minute of the 49ers' wild-card win over the Packers, officials ruled that the play had been blown dead before Jerry Rice fumbled -- another call that cannot be reversed.
Dispatches: Even though he slapped the franchise tag on Richmond Webb to avoid losing the would-be free agent without compensation, Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson has never been a huge fan of the 33-year-old left tackle. Now Johnson is finding that no one else wants to make Webb a $3.5-million-a-year player ... Absurdity of the Week: The 49ers asked the Seahawks for a second-round pick and an undisclosed player in exchange for backup quarterback Jim Druckenmiller, a disappointment since being selected in the first round of the '97 draft ... Patriots coach Pete Carroll on the future of running back Robert Edwards, who suffered severe nerve and ligament damage to his left knee in a beach flag-football game for rookies during Pro Bowl week: "If he makes it back, it will be miraculous." ... To school his new quarterback, Kerry Collins, on passing fundamentals, Giants coach Jim Fassel dug out a 1982 instructional tape featuring a 21-year-old John Elway. Issue date: March 29, 1999
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