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Smoke signals Show-Me State holding its draft-day cards in check
It's not often that the team that could corner the draft-day news market is a legitimate Super Bowl contender, and a recent Super Bowl winner. But as St. Louis Rams head coach Mike Martz tells me: "We could have anywhere from one to four first-round picks on draft day." He's being overly optimistic there, but three top picks is very possible. The Rams have one first-rounder now, their own, at No. 20. Assuming the Trent Green trade talks with Kansas City get re-ignited -- and they're definitely not done -- the Rams could get the Chiefs' pick, at No. 12. And defensive end Kevin Carter could bring them another. The Rams expect some team -- Tennessee, maybe, or Oakland -- to go fishing for the defensive end who has 26 sacks during the past two seasons. Martz leaves no doubt they could then use all three first-round picks for defense. They need a speed-and-guts outside linebacker, and a source at the University of Miami says the Rams would love to see the Hurricanes' Dan Morgan fall to them. Add a starting defensive end and corner from this draft -- and perhaps a very cheap Cortez Kennedy, the aging defensive tackle who visited the Rams this week and sounded like he wanted to play for a winner instead of money at this stage of his career -- and the Rams could be the NFC's Super Bowl favorite again.
So, why are the Chiefs not beating down the Rams' door to deal for Green, who had the highest QB rating in the NFC, and should have four or five prime seasons left? Simple. The formula on building a champion mandates strong drafts, and the Chiefs, wisely, are balking at giving St. Louis its first- and third-rounders after already handing over a second-round pick as compensation for signing Dick Vermeil as head coach. Chiefs president Carl Peterson has drafted well through the years, finding tight end Tony Gonzalez and wideout Sylvester Morris down the line in recent first rounds. But Peterson's record has been spotty at best in free agency. And he's smart not to give away the first day of the draft to the Rams. Now it'll be interesting to see who blinks first in the best chess match Missouri's seen in a long time. While we're on the subject of quarterbacks, Carolina head coach George Seifert is leaning strongly toward making Jeff Lewis his starter and demoting Steve Beuerlein to No. 3, behind Dameyune Craig. Aside from the fact that dumping Beuerlein would show that Seifert has lost quite a bit off his fastball, what's more amazing is that four or five other teams aren't rushing to take Beuerlein off his hands. He's started for Carolina for the past two years. Compare his numbers to the two quarterbacks -- Drew Bledsoe and Brett Favre -- who've signed mega-deals this offseason. Beuerlein has been more accurate, with more yards and a much better touchdown-to-interception ratio, than his far richer peers. Beuerlein is 36 years old. And it just goes to show you that in the NFL, it's hard to shake that journeyman tag. For Beuerlein, it's downright criminal to get demoted -- and he can only hope that the Chiefs, or some needy team, comes to its senses and hands him the reins for the next couple of years. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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