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 Inside the NFL
Posted: Tuesday June 08, 1999 04:18 PM Plugging the Leaks Does Miami now have the speed to make its passing game go? By David Fleming
"We still feel like Yatil is ready to play," says coach Jimmy Johnson. "But we've been disappointed the last couple of years. So now our approach is, when he shows up and contributes, then we'll count on him." Last season wideout O.J. McDuffie, a possession receiver, picked up some of the slack, quietly becoming the first Dolphin to lead the league in receptions, with 90, surpassing his previous career high by 14. "He deserves a lot more recognition than he got, which was none," Johnson said last week at Miami's minicamp. "Our wide receivers are as underrated as any group on our team." Maybe so, but without the speedy Green, Dan Marino didn't have a wideout who could stretch a defense. Although Lamar Thomas caught 43 passes for 603 yards and Oronde Gadsden finished with a club rookie-record seven touchdown catches, the Dolphins tied for 23rd in the league in receptions of 40 yards or more, with six. "The chemistry between our quarterback and our wide receivers was a real problem last year," admits receivers coach Robert Ford. To shore up the position Johnson signed free agent Tony Martin, who caught 66 passes for 1,181 yards and six touchdowns for the Falcons last season. Martin gives the Dolphins the burner they desperately need, but he comes with serious baggage. Atlanta released him after he was arraigned on felony money-laundering charges. (His trial is scheduled for August.) Meanwhile Green continues to work on his comeback. The 6'2", 205-pounder has less than 5% body fat and can still run a 4.3 40. As a precaution Johnson plans to keep him out of two-a-days during training camp and monitor his practice snaps. "This team has spent a lot of time talking about how it's going to play with the big boys," says Ford. "Well, it's time to step up to the plate, take some cuts and see if we belong. If we can keep our receivers healthy and out of jail, we should be fine."
Cold Shoulder in Denver: The night before the Broncos' brass paid tribute to John Elway at the press conference officially announcing his retirement, there was a less extravagant send-off for another mainstay of the two-time Super Bowl champions. Last month, in the back room of a Denver restaurant, 50 players and coaches gathered to say so long to free safety Steve Atwater, the Broncos' first-round draft pick in 1989 who was a starter all 10 seasons that he spent with the team. Atwater, a defensive captain who played in eight Pro Bowls, learned of his release by telephone on Feb. 17. "Yeah, they could have sugarcoated it," Atwater says, "but you take the sugar off, it's still the same thing underneath." Atwater, 32, knew what was coming. Late last season Denver began replacing him in passing situations with the speedier George Coghill. The Broncos were also looking for salary-cap relief, and Atwater was scheduled to make $2.6 million in 1999. "My former team thinks I can't play anymore," he says. Several other teams thought otherwise. The Chiefs and the Eagles had already made bids when the Jets offered Atwater a three-year, $8.25 million contract with a $1.8 million signing bonus. "If it hadn't been the Jets, there was a good chance I would have hung 'em up," says Atwater, who believes the Jets are on the brink of a title. "I feel like a rookie again." Atwater is only a season removed from a sterling Super Bowl performance in January 1998, when he made six tackles, broke up two passes and sacked the Packers' Brett Favre, causing a fumble that set up a Denver field goal. On Oct. 3 the Jets play the Broncos at Mile High Stadium. "I marked it on my calendar," Atwater says. "I'm already daydreaming about knocking one of [the Broncos'] helmets off."
Plugging the Leaks: Steve Mariucci is as relentlessly peppy as a coach can be. But mention the trio of punishing NFC West running backs who stand between Mariucci's 49ers and their quest to regain division supremacy, and the third-year coach becomes gloomier than a Garth Brooks ballad. "All the flashy stuff sells tickets, makes headlines and lights up the scoreboard, but the bottom line is, if you want to have any chance of controlling a football game, you have to stop the run," Mariucci said last week, following a minicamp practice for rookies and selected veterans. "We're well aware of what we're up against -- the best backs in the league, as a division -- and that's one reason we drafted two defensive linemen early on." It's bad enough that the 49ers must play six games against the NFC West's Big Three: the Falcons' Jamal Anderson, who last year rushed for 336 yards in three games against San Francisco; the Rams' Marshall Faulk, who with the Colts in '98 was the league's most productive all-purpose back; and the Saints' prized rookie, Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams. Throw in games this season against Fred Taylor (Jaguars), Eddie George (Titans), Robert Smith (Vikings), Jerome Bettis (Steelers), Corey Dillon (Bengals) and Dorsey Levens (Packers), and there could be a lot of cleat marks in San Francisco's immediate future. The 49ers, who were second in the league in rushing defense in 1997, slipped to ninth last year (19th in average yards per carry) -- and things could get worse. Defensive line candidates include a tackle coming back from a serious leg injury (All-Pro Bryant Young), an end who missed part of the '98 season with a bad leg of his own (Gabe Wilkins), a pair of rookies (first-round draft pick Reggie McGrew, a 300-pound tackle from Florida, and third-rounder Chike Okeafor, a pass-rush specialist from Purdue), an undersized fifth-year tackle coming off a career year (Junior Bryant) and a longtime locker room menace with a bad back who has not made a sack since 1996 (Charles Haley). But Haley, whose series of grotesque off-field antics inspired the team to trade him to the Cowboys in 1992, has defied expectations many times before. He won three more Super Bowls after leaving San Francisco -- he's the only NFL player with five -- and wrote a book, All the Rage, that trashed some of his former Niners coaches and teammates. After Haley, who had retired following the '96 season, returned to his old romping grounds and put forth a pair of fairly impressive postseason performances, Niners general manager Bill Walsh decided to extend Haley's bizarre tenure for a full season. "It might've been a desperation move to bring him in last year," Walsh says, "but this isn't, because we saw what he could still do." The 49ers will take all the help they can get. Walsh says Haley, 35, who is expected to sign a one-year contract soon, would likely be used for only 20 to 30 plays a game and may need a week off from time to time. (Young has recovered well from the broken right fibula and tibia he suffered last November, but his right knee is bothersome, and he probably won't return to full-time duty until the second half of the season -- at the earliest.) The decision on Haley was made somewhat easier by the fact that Walsh, who picked him in the fourth round of the '86 draft, is among the people Haley didn't rip in his book. "[His past] is a consideration, but my relationship with him has been excellent," Walsh says. "Besides, there's a maturity factor. I think he can be a positive force in the locker room." Scary thought. —Michael Silver
Issue date: June 14, 1999
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