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Minority candidates could get chance
Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King chatted with CNN/Sports Illustrated anchor Bob Lorenz about the goings-on around the league on CNN's NFL Preview: Bob Lorenz: As the New York Giants prepare for [Sunday's] NFC Championship Game against the Minnesota Vikings, their cross-town rivals, the New York Jets, are left searching for a head coach. Could one of the leading candidates be on the field? Peter King: Well, I think one of the leading candidates is on an airplane on his way to New York. He is Herman Edwards, a defensive assistant with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Head coach Tony Dungy has pushed him hard for jobs and I think he will be named head coach of the New York Jets sometime this week. That will eliminate one of the big black eyes in recent NFL history. During the last five years, there has been only one black head coach hired in the NFL since Dungy got the head-coaching job in Tampa and that one black head coach was Ray Rhodes, who only lasted one year. Since then, 40 of the 41 coaching hires have been white. The NFL is pushing hard to try to get diversity in its coaching ranks and the Jets with Edwards are a heavy favorite to be the next team to hire a black head coach. Lorenz: The Giants haven't been to the Super Bowl since 1990 but following practice yesterday Jim Fassel called on a Giants legend to help recapture that championship feeling.
Lorenz: Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis is on a few teams' head-coaching candidates list, who might be interested? King: Well, I talked to Lewis on Saturday and one of the things he told me was that he had just met with with Ravens head coach Brian Billick, who two years ago was in the same situation that Lewis is in: Coaching in a championship game and waiting for head-coaching jobs. As soon as the Ravens stop playing and are out of the race, Lewis will be a candidate in all three places; Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit because I believe Detroit will open. Matt Millen, Detroit's new CEO told me flat-out that Gary Moeller is his head coach, but I think Millen is talking a good game about Moeller being his head coach, I still think that will open and Lewis will be the No. 1 choice there. Let's go to Cleveland, where the Browns are legitimately interested in Bob Stoops. But University of Miami head coach Butch Davis has already spurned two advances from Carmen Policy, so I expect Lewis to be a hot candidate there. And in Buffalo, I think Dom Capers is going to be a candidate because of his relationship with new general manager Tom Donahoe , but they want to talk to Lewis and have talked to Ted Cottrell, their current defensive coordinator. Still, I think Lewis holds the key to a lot of these jobs. Lorenz: Michael Vick made it official this week, announcing he'd be entering the upcoming NFL Draft. The San Diego Chargers have the No. 1 pick and certainly are glad Vick is coming out, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are going to take him, does it? King: Not at all. In fact, if Chargers head coach Mike Riley had his druthers, San Diego would not take Vick. He would convert that No. 1 pick into three fairly high picks, maybe the Nos. 7 and 10 from Seattle and trade down even further to get players he could use now. He knows that Vick is not ready to play and he knows that taking Vick is probably a license to get fired. But new general manager John Butler probably will have different ideas and after he studies, I think the Chargers will very much want Michael Vick. Lorenz: How much impact is the rest of the underclassmen going to have on the draft?
King: Well, I had one NFL scout
tell me this week as many as 15 of
the 29 underclassmen who declared
for the draft by Friday will be first-round picks. Take a look at this list, there is a treasure trove of talent: David Terrell, WR, Michigan Kenyatta Walker, OT, Florida Koren Robinson, WR, NC State Nate Clements, CB, Ohio State Justin Smith, DE Missouri Michael Bennett, RB, Wisconsin Jamar Fletcher, CB, Wisconsin Freddie Mitchell, WR, UCLA Gerard Warren, DE, Florida I think 10 of these players have a very good chance of being picked in the top 15. Terrell is a very coveted wide receiver, as is Robinson. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and appears each Sunday on CNN's NFL Preview.
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