Let's make a deal

Price is right in Atlanta, but risk rules the day elsewhere

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Weekends like this past one are why I love NFL free agency, and why I think complaining about it is the dumbest thing on the planet. Media folk and fans alike moan that free agency either a) tears teams apart too soon (so what?), b) makes it impossible to build a great team for the long term (so what?), c) makes it hard to identify with players on one team for very long (this, I readily admit is a problem), or d) takes away football's offseason (hooray!).

The events of the weekend are why my friend Don, who gasses up and tends to my car at the Getty Station in Montclair, N.J., was so pumped up as he dined on one of the world's greatest cheeseburgers Saturday afternoon at Tierney's, our local pub.

"Twenty-six weeks till opening day," he said with a big smile.

I went home and checked, and Don was right: The first Sunday of the 2003 NFL season is precisely half-a-year from yesterday. Don is fired up, as were many other fans in the New York area over the weekend. On Friday, during the 5-6 p.m. drive time on New York's WFAN and ESPN Radio, football talk dominated. Lots of "Jason Sehorn-is-cut" calls, a couple "should-the-Jets-match-the-Chad Morton-offer-sheet?" calls, one "why-are-the-Jets-sitting-on-their-duffs?" call, and one asking where Hugh Douglas will be going. I'm not saying this free agent frenzy is the prime reason for the interest, but it certainly is part of the mosaic of reasons that every network's NFL ratings (with the exception of ABC's, for Monday Night Football) were up last year.

Here's my take on each of the major events of the NFL Hot Stove fun that transpired this past weekend:

1. Jake Plummer lands in the right place. My pet peeve of the Week: Every media outlet I saw reported the deal between the perennially disappointing Plummer and Denver to be for seven years and $40 million. Bunk. This is exactly what Plummer's deal calls for: He gets $7 million to sign, with salaries of $530,000 in Year One and $660,000 in Year Two. If, at the start of the free agency period in Year Three of the contract, 2005, the Broncos want to retain Plummer, they must fork over a bonus of $6 million, which would activate the final five years of the contract. If they don't give him the bonus, he will become a free agent in 2005. So the Broncos are investing $8.19 million over two years in Plummer, with the rest to come only if they still want him in 2005. You must ask yourself, then, not whether you'd pay Plummer $40 million over seven years. No sane person would, after what he did during his six years in Arizona -- though I think he's going to be really good in Denver. The question you should ask yourself is this: Would you pay Jake Plummer, playing in a good offense with a running game like he's never had before, an average of $4.1 million for each of the next two years? I would.

2. Denver also lands Daryl Gardener. Risky. Very risky. Every few minutes, Gardener either a) comes down with a bad back, or b) ticks off his head coach. He played well and without incident for the Redskins last year, but I'm not sold that he's a franchise defensive tackle.

3. The Redskins strike again. Washington gave Chad Morton an offer sheet to be a kick returner and occasional offensive player. I doubt the Jets will match; they'll probably just turn Santana Moss into Morton. Let's see. Trung Canidate and Chad Morton. They look like the same player to me. Somebody in Washington is smarter than I am. (I should hope so.)

4. Speaking of risky … David Boston lands in Schottenheimerville. San Diego signed a great and troubled receiver -- one who is coming off major knee surgery, no less -- to a deal that will pay him $11.5 million over the first two years of what it hopes will be a seven-year marriage. I have my doubts this relationship will last that long, but I understand why San Diego did this. Boston is a tremendous player. In 2001, he led all NFL receivers with 1,598 yards, on 98 catches, and eight touchdowns -- even though most everyone in the park every Sunday knew where Plummer was throwing. "I've made mistakes," said Boston, who joins Militaristic Marty, "and all those are in the past." The Chargers had better hope the only foreign substance cops find in Boston's car from now on is a Toffee Nut Latte.

5. This Price is right with Atlanta. What's the one thing the Falcons lacked last year? OK, maybe a Strahanesque rusher. But they also desperately needed a No. 1 receiver. Last year, as Peerless Price evolved into sort of a co-No. 1 with Eric Moulds in Buffalo (though I'd take Moulds over Price, certainly, as would most coaches), he fought a perception around the league that he was Leonard Marshall to Moulds' Lawrence Taylor. In other words, a nice No. 2 who caught so many balls because he had such a great player deflecting some of the attention. And so I called Price Friday afternoon to ask him whether he is confident he can be Michael Vick's franchise receiver in Atlanta, despite the fact a lot of people who watch the game think Price will struggle in that role. Price is 26, and at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, he'll take some punishment from some very good defenses in Tampa Bay, Carolina and New Orleans in the NFC South. "It's interesting," he said of the Moulds' comparison. "I weighed that in my decision. I think Moulds and me complemented each other. Given the opportunity to be a No. 1, I knew I could do it, and I wanted to do it. I know everyone thinks I'm a No. 2, but that's not what I think. The thing I don't think people realize is what happened to us in coverage last year. After we got off to such a great start in Buffalo with Drew [Bledsoe], teams started playing us Cover-Two Man -- a corner on us all the time, usually with the safety over the top. So I feel like I got doubled almost every play for the last 10, 12 games of the season. Ask the coaching staff in Buffalo. They'll tell you we saw pretty much the same coverage."

6. The Giants whack Jason Sehorn. Let's face it. When the Giants signed Sehorn to a six-year, $36 million deal two years ago, following major knee surgery, everyone thought it was a vastly inflated contract for an OK corner. Sehorn used to be great. In 1997, I remember voting him as my No. 1 all-pro corner. He was a great cover player with good instincts and decent hitting ability. I remember Michael Irvin referring to him as "the awesome white boy" back in 1996 or '97, when Sehorn wouldn't let opposing wideouts breathe. But those days are gone forever. Sehorn looked awful late in the season, and Terrell Owens ran him out of the 3Com slot when the 49ers embarrassed the Giants with that playoff comeback in January. And the Giants had already exacerbated a bad contract by making it quietly worse when, on Feb. 25, 2002, they rewrote the deal to turn some salary into bonus money and lower his 2002 cap number when the Giants were hurting for cap dollars. After paying him $6 million to sign in 2001, the Giants added $4 million in signing-bonus money in 2002. That's how this cap hit became so massive. Last week, as the rumblings got louder that the Giants had given Sehorn an ultimatum -- agree to cut his $4.3 million salary to $1 million (a huge cut, even in these days of huge cuts) -- I'm told very reliably that Sehorn and the Giants mulled over an interesting compromise: He would agree to play for $1 million in base salary, but if he played 50 percent of the snaps at safety this season, that amount would increase to $1.8 million; if he played 50 percent of the plays at cornerback, that would increase to $2.4 million. Sehorn and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, pursued this with the Giants. Then the Giants, I'm told, informed Sehorn all they would offer was an unguaranteed $1 million in salary this year. Sehorn asked the team to guarantee it, fearing he could be cut June 1, which would have divided his cap hit over the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The team said no, so Sehorn refused the deal, and the Giants are taking an $8 million cap hit this year. That's 12 percent of their entire cap. Talk about one you'd like to have back.

7. The Bucs get a little bit busy. Tampa Bay acquired offensive line insurance with ex-Giant Jason Whittle. The Bucs restructured Simeon Rice's deal so they had room to sign the linebacker they really wanted to keep (Shelton Quarles, 180 tackles in 19 games). If I were Tampa Bay, I'd be worried now about finding a way to keep a linebacker no one but the Bucs seems to appreciate enough, Al Singleton, and also I'd try to get Brad Johnson and Rich McKay to smoke a peace pipe together. How dumb was it that the Bucs tried to slip $1.5 million of guaranteed money in 2004 out of Johnson's contract in the last proposal for an extension?

8. Rodney Harrison thinks about heading north. NFL minds have long viewed the San Diego safety as the modern-day Jack Tatum. Now they may go over Harrison's game tapes with an even finer-toothed comb. Just kidding. Sort of. Harrison and Rod Woodson in the same secondary? If Woodson's healthy -- and when I talked with him at length in January, he had the body and attitude and temperament of a 26-year-old -- this would be a pairing for the ages, not the aged.

9. The Bengals prepare to lose Takeo Spikes. Marvin Lewis is The Man in Cincinnati now, not Mike Brown. Lewis is going to let Spikes, the Bengals' best defensive player, leave for Buffalo to take an offer sheet he signed Friday (six years, $33 million, a very heavy $9 million to sign). Make no mistake about it: Spikes is a Bill. You could tell, by the curt way Lewis talked about Spikes once the sheet was in, that the new coach is not going to allow malcontents on this team. Lewis induced a veteran strongside linebacker, Kevin Hardy, to sign with Cincinnati Friday, and he chose a young interior bullmoose, 6-foot-2, 300-pound defensive tackle John Thornton, to be his run-stopper in the middle over mercenary Sam Adams. The Bengals will pay each about $3.7 million a year. One thing about Spikes that I would call odd: His cap number in the first year is $2.5 million. That's peanuts for a good player. The Bengals could afford him, and 10 more contracts like his. Cincinnati's decision to take a pass on him shows the kind of team, and the kind of attitude, Lewis is trying to build in Bengaldom.

10. Washington continues pillaging the Jets. First, the Redskins took the Jets' best guard, Randy Thomas, and then kicker John Hall, and then returner Chad Morton, whom they signed to an offer sheet last week. Now it's Laveranues Coles' turn. The man head coach Herman Edwards called the Jets' MVP last year (a silly assertion, in my opinion, because Chad Pennington made all the difference on that team) agreed to a seven-year offer sheet with the Redskins Sunday night for over $30 million, including $13 million to sign. Now, the Jets are $5.517 million under the salary cap, so they could match the offer. But it would cripple their cap, as the Redskins planned. Gut feeling: The Jets move heaven and earth to clear the room, because they know how much they need Coles and his 89-catch security blanket for Pennington. If the Jets don't match, they'll get the Redskins' top pick in the draft -- 13th overall in the first round. Why would the Redskins do this? Simple. They need a great receiver. They think there are only two of them available in the draft, Michigan State's Charles Rogers and Miami's Andre Johnson. And neither will be around after pick No. 6 or 7. For what it would take Washington to move up, the 'Skins figure, why not rip Coles away from the Jets? Should be a fun week in New York.

In other news … I really like how Minnesota is trying to steal kicker Paul Edinger from the Bears. Indoors, with that accurate leg, he's going to be consistently good from 49 -- if the Bears don't match the five-year, $7 million offer sheet. Edinger is the guy the Redskins should have gone after. … Speaking of the Bears, I wonder why the they are trying to sign Kordell Stewart. Aren't they going to draft a quarterback high up? Are they going to give the job to Stewart, then make him skittish by shadowing him with the rookie every day in practice? Isn't the quarterback shadow what plagued him in Pittsburgh? … Buffalo, as it worked out, essentially acquired Bledsoe for Price and a slightly lower draft position in the first round of 2003. Think about that. Pretty good job by Tom Donahoe and Gregg Williams, getting a quarterback for the next five years, presumably, in exchange for Price and for moving down a few slots in the draft. And they're $7.6 million under the cap, which, considering how much pain Donahoe went through while tearing his team asunder, is a pretty good accomplishment if you ask me.

Now, help me understand something. UConn, the team with the longest winning streak in women's college basketball history, goes 16-0 in the conference -- winning 13 of those games by double digits -- and 29-0 overall. UConn beat the other contenders for the No. 1 spot in the country, Tennessee and Duke, during the regular season. How on God's green earth is this "anyone's" tournament, particularly in a woeful women's basketball conference such as the Big East?

MMQB: Are you surprised the Bills let you go?

Price: Well, once they franchised me, I started hearing they might just be using the tag to get something for in trade. My agent, Tim McGee, and I thought we'd go to the negotiating table and do a long-term deal, but they never seemed very interested in that. A week and a half went by, and the same deal they offered me right after the season, they were sticking to it.

MMQB: I always wonder about this: When your team doesn't want you, does it make you sad?

Price: We had a great relationship. Me and Eric Moulds were close friends for four years. I loved him. He took me under his wing and guided me. I would have loved to have been there with Moulds, but at the same time you have to do what's right for your family. I could go on and on forever about Drew Bledsoe. He called me the other day and said: "What can I do to sabotage your deal with Atlanta?" What a great guy. See, that's why this is a day of joy, but it's also a day of sadness. I leave friends I built over four years but also a friend in Drew who had so much confidence in me and who I built such a great relationship with on and off the field.

MMQB: You and Michael Vick. What's that going to be like?

Price: Talked to him [Thursday], and he's excited. I'm excited about playing with such a great talent. He flew in for the weekend last week, just to sit down and talk with me. We talked about everything … talked about goals for me and him individually and the team. I think 100 [catches] is possible. That's one of the things me and Vick talked about. I've improved on my stats each and every year. Now, being a No. 1 receiver, first and foremost I'd like to show people that I'm just not a deep threat. Everybody sees me catch 50-, 60-, 70-yard TDs and think all I do is catch deep ones. But a lot of my catches were catch-and-runs. I just catch it and run with it.

BONUS FOURTH QUESTION!

MMQB: What's the one thing you're going to do with your $10 million bonus that you haven't been able to do financially so far in your life?

Price: Mr. King, my Mom held off on buying a house when I signed in the NFL, just to make sure me and my daughter were OK. Now one thing I'm gonna do is get her a house in one of three places: our hometown of Dayton; Cincinnati, where I like to hang out and where my best friend and my agent live; or Atlanta, because that's where I'll be now. She deserves it.

WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES, AND SEE IF YOU SUPPORT TONI SMITH. From U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Hayes of St. Louis: "I'm sitting here at a forward deployed location on the Arabian Gulf using my 15 minutes of Internet time a week to read my favorite column and instead of NFL news, I read about your view on some girl who won't face the flag I'm sworn to defend. Fine, but Mr. King, I don't need to hear your defense of it. Please stick to the NFL, coffee, field hockey -- anything but glorifying a person who people here could die for."

Staff Sgt. Hayes, first of all, thanks. Thanks for defending our country. Thanks for reading the column. I have had precious few letters like this, heartfelt and emotional and eloquent and well-reasoned. I can only imagine how you feel about this, because I can't know. I've never served in the military. My feeling is that protest, even one as powerful as this one, is an important reason why this country is so great. Good luck. I'm going to be thinking about you a lot.

STICK TO SOMETHING YOU KNOW ABOUT. LIKE LATTES. From Craig Kirkland of Orlando: "Keep the politics out of sports! I'm tired of all of you sports hacks applauding Toni Smith as if she is the second coming of Gandhi. If I were the president of the college I would have her suspended from the team. Back to sports. Go Pack, Go."

I'd bet 100 bucks Brett Favre agrees with you.

AND ANOTHER VIEW, FROM SAINTSVILLE. From Mike Rosenblatt of New Orleans: "Great point regarding Toni Smith and her 'statement.' Too many people have forgotten that little thing we call the Constitution. As a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy and a Gulf War veteran, I was disappointed to see a fellow midshipman criticize Ms. Smith during a piece aired on ESPN. However, like Ms. Smith, she is entitled to her express her opinion as well. And I am like you: I wouldn't turn my back on the flag, nor would I burn it for that matter, but the right for anyone to do so is what distinguishes the U.S. from many parts of the rest of the world."

Excellent points. Thanks.

DAN SNYDER NEEDS TO DRINK DECAF. From Bobby Ardoin of Opelousas, La.: "Why is everyone so congratulatory about all the Redskins' free agent signings? Correct my memory if I'm wrong, but I don't remember too many of Snyder's free agents making that much of an impact. I will give him his props for signing Bruce Smith, but it seems to me Snyder is not much more than a closet fantasy football fanatic who happens to have a lot of jack. Wouldn't it be more prudent if Washington signed just a couple of free agents and then tried to build through the draft?"

The one difference between shelling out $7 million in guaranteed money to a broken-down Deion Sanders and paying 10 free agents about $17 million combined is that he's filling multiple holes. Now, I would agree that Snyder has gone overboard on several guys. I don't think I would pay any guard shy of John Hannah six percent of my entire salary cap, on the average, and I would never give John Hall, a middle-of-the-road kicker, premier kicker money. And after I got Trung Canidate, I wouldn't have paid for Chad Morton in an expensive offer sheet. But there's no question this is a better team than the one that left the field in December, and the cap wasn't slaughtered in the process of building it.

YOU'RE A LOON. PLUMMER STINKS. From Jim Kloss of Phoenix. "I just read your take on Plummer, and you HAVE to print this letter and answer it! I like your columns, but you have to be putting something in your Starbucks before drinking it; I have no other explanation. What Cardinals games have you been watching? Plummer is not just the worst starting QB in the NFL -- he is worse than at least 10 backups. Plummer is not someone who just had a bad year or two and is still young. He is a six-year veteran. His performance has steadily declined. His offensive line has been OK, especially last year. Plummer is the worst starting quarterback in the NFL."

Time will tell. No quarterback is ever great in a bad environment.

A VOTE FOR BOWDOIN. From George Naspo of Newport, R.I.: "My son attended Bowdoin College (Class of '97) and the best thing I can say is he left home a teenager and came back a young man. You can't go wrong with Bowdoin for Mary Beth."

Thanks.

a. Arizona ($28.5 million remaining)
b. Minnesota ($25.3 million, not including the Paul Edinger offer sheet, the 2003 portion of which counts against the cap this year)
c. Houston ($15.8 million)
d. Philadelphia ($15.2 million)
e. New Orleans ($11.5 million)
f. Dallas ($9.9 million)
g. Seattle ($9.6 million)
h. Chicago ($8.8 million)
i. St. Louis ($8.2 million)
j. Cincinnati ($8.1 million)

Just wondering: What is a "wazoo?"

2. I think Hugh Douglas will end up in Philadelphia (if Andy Reid gets his way) or Kansas City (if the Chiefs spend some ridiculous money).

3. I think if you wonder how the Lions got into this mess, you should consider that they're playing free agency basically with one hand tied behind their back. It's only March, and though the amount of dead money -- funds already allotted to players no longer on the team -- they pay out in 2003 is sure to rise before opening day, they've already spent one-sixth of their 2003 salary cap on it. Amazing! Detroit leads the league with $12.6 million of the dead stuff, and only one team in the league is close (Washington, $11 million).

4. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. I have seen no better example of courage recently than 9-month-old Sofia Gault, who is fighting for her life while awaiting a heart transplant in New York City. You've should see this kid: six months in the hospital, mostly in intensive care, and she just won't give up.

b. Coffeenerdness: Imitation Larry King Dot-Dot-Dot Note of the Week: French roast is vastly underrated.

c. I just realized why reality TV shows are so addictive. I was at a home the other night when MTV was on, and a contest that pitted college-aged men against college-aged women in the tropics was airing. The drama and angst and anger and skin was not to be believed. Of course kids would watch a show like that incessantly. It's their lives, played out by Abercrombie and Fitch models.

d. Montclair (N.J.) High School Softball Note of the Week: Well, it's pretty hard to have a softball note when there are eight inches of snow on the ground, but 55 Mounties (35 of them freshman) reported for duty Friday afternoon in a middle school gym to prepare for the 2003 season. Opening day is three weeks from Tuesday, so the girls, including junior hurler Mary Beth King, hope help may be on the horizon in the form of a scrimmage or practice Saturday evening inside the Giants' practice bubble in nearby East Rutherford.

5. I think the 2003 season opener -- Jets at Washington on Thursday, Sept.4 -- should draw boffo ratings for ABC. I really like this matchup, particularly because it'll illustrate how far Steve Spurrier has come with a year under his NFL belt. I expect Patrick Ramsey to have a good year for the Spurriers.

6. I think if the Giants are going to do anything in free agency -- and I just don't see it happening now, in the wake of the Sehorn debacle -- they're going to have to invent some cap space. They're just $87,000 under the cap right now, with a kicker to sign and a rookie pool coming in April.

7. I think Sehorn will sign with Carolina (and old friend John Fox, who still thinks Sehorn can play) or in Minnesota, where the Vikings thinks the rug will help his speed.

8. I think Jake Delhomme is going to make the Panthers very happy this year. He's a guy for whom free agency was invented -- a player the Saints would never have voluntarily given up.

9. I think I'd like to hearken back to something Jimmy Johnson used to do when in Dallas and Miami. It was said that he was great at drafting, and while that was semi-true, what made him special, in large part, was his ability to recognize that you make errors all the time in the draft. Johnson saw that what you must do is stockpile draft choices so you can afford those mistakes. I give you Exhibit A for that philosophy, the Patriots. Following their swap with Washington last week (New England gave up third- and fifth-round picks in this year's draft for Washington's third selection this year and its fourth in 2004), the Patriots moved up in two situations -- this year in the third round and next year from the fifth to the fourth. New England is now left with four picks in the top 75 -- 14th overall (from Buffalo in the Bledsoe deal), 19th (its own in the first), 50th (its own in the second) and 75th (Washington's in the third). The Pats also have two fours, two fives, a sixth and two sevens. My money is on New England to make three or four more trades before the draft ends to move up, either in this year's draft on next year's.

10. I think this is my NFL fantasy league roster for the league in which I'll be playing against 11 other football media folks, following Thursday's draft:

QB: Matt Hasselbeck, Brad Johnson, Mark Brunell.
RB: Travis Henry, James Stewart.
TE: Doug Jolley, Freddie Jones.
WR: Marvin Harrison, Koren Robinson, Donald Driver, Joe Jurevicius, Dennis Northcutt, Trevor Gaylor.
K: Adam Vinatieri.
Team defense: Miami, Tennessee.

We play one quarterback, two backs, three wides, one tight end, one kicker, one defense.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space every week. Click here to send him a comment.

 

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