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Pressure on the King Talented team in Tampa surrounds inexperienced QB
Posted: Wednesday May 03, 2000 08:00 AM
No player enters the 2000 NFL season with more weight on his shoulders than Tampa Bay's Shaun King. A second-year quarterback, King has made only five career starts and has thrown just 146 passes and seven touchdowns. Still, he finds he has a much higher standard to meet than, say, Donovan McNabb does in Philadelphia. The Bucs have decided to make the push for the Super Bowl now, trading two first-round picks for Keyshawn Johnson and signing veteran offensive linemen Randall McDaniel and Jeff Christy in the offseason. Remember, last year few defensive coordinators prepared for King; it was Trent Dilfer they had to stop. Even when King took over the starting job, there wasn't enough information to gameplan properly for him until the last week of the season. Now defensive coaches will spend May and June scrutinizing his every habit, tendency, and limitation. Every time I hear someone say Tampa Bay will battle for the NFC championship, I think of King and the other young quarterbacks in recent years who were handed the keys to their teams in their second seasons, among them Danny Kanell, Bobby Hoying, Jake Plummer, John Friesz and Kordell Stewart. Historically the second year can be tough: Vinny Testaverde threw 35 interceptions and Dilfer managed only four touchdowns passes in their second seasons in Tampa. King has a better supporting cast than his two predecessors -- but the expectations are a lot higher, too.
Veteran corners still job huntingFree agency is a two-way street. Some players quadruple their salaries, while others find supply and demand works against them. For example, take cornerbacks Terrell Buckley and Phillippi Sparks. Both players have been testing the waters for months and have gotten no real bites. Their 1999 teams, the Dolphins and the Giants, have showed virtually no interest in them. Then the draft came along and eight corners were selected in the first two rounds. First- and second-round picks get paid a lot of money and are given starting jobs very early in their careers, and that eliminates many potential employers for Buckley and Sparks. And several teams still in need of corners will wait to see whether Deion Sanders becomes available. Will Buckley and Sparks eventually get work? Yes, but not at the price they had in mind months ago.
Several teams in dire straitsSome teams are in such bad cap shape that they're waiting until June 1 to cut the players they don't want anymore. Waiting until June 1 to release guys puts off paying their debt to the league's salary cap until 2001. Just four years ago it was considered bad cap management to have more than $1 million of back debt on the books. Now the league average is $3 million in back debt and four teams -- San Francisco ($10 million), Detroit ($7 million), Denver ($6.3 million) and Oakland ($5.2 million) -- are using nearly 10 percent of their cap space on players who haven't played for them in more than a year. And how about Cleveland? That franchise is only 1 year old and already the Browns have $3.7 million of back debt. That's over the NFL average and that's hard to do. But not every team is tackling its cap problems with the credit-card approach. The Eagles let center Steve Everitt go last week instead of waiting until June 1. That's because Philadelphia executive VP Joe Banner has managed his salary cap well; he has $6 million of space and wanted to use up some room this year. That's good business if you can afford it. As some teams dig themselves deeper and deeper into a hole, the Eagles could be poised to make a real move in the next year or two. Teams with space that are willing to spend money and evaluate talent well are capable of coming from way back in a short period of time.
League may get holdout happyNFL executives were concerned that Joey Galloway's holdout last year would have a ripple effect throughout the league. They were right. Galloway held out, came in for the Seahawks' last six games of the season to get credit for a year toward free agency, didn't play exceptionally well, and then got a huge contract from the Cowboys. In effect, he used the system to get what he wanted. Keyshawn Johnson subtly hinted that he would take the same tact to get what he wanted. The Jets didn't wait for Johnson to hold out like Galloway did. They cashed in on Keyshawn's value and got two first-round picks for him. Now Cincinnati is facing similar situations with Corey Dillon and Carl Pickens. This trend of players holding clubs hostage is a big concern among front offices. Can a showdown between Ricky Williams and the Saints over his contract be far off? If the Vikings turn into a rebuilding team under Daunte Culpepper, what will Randy Moss do? The blueprint is in place and players and agents will use it again and again. Pat Kirwan, who spent 12 years as a pro football coach, scout and personnel administrator, is an NFL analyst for CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are those of the writer.
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