Are you ready to go
camping?
Posted: Wed July 15,
1998
Welcome back to the football season. We've got less than a
week before pitchers and catchers start
reporting.
Once training camp is in full swing, you'll be able to
follow me around the NFL circuit. I'll be sending in
postcards exclusively for CNN/SI users from each place I
visit. We'll kick off the tour next Tuesday from Tampa,
where the Bucs open camp with
more optimism than at any time in their 23-year
history.
Send your questions to my
Mailbag, too. I'll be answering them on Aug. 5 and Aug. 20, then
weekly starting just before the Sept. 6
openers.
Time to tee it up. I've won the toss, so I elect to receive
... your questions. But first, a few thoughts about the
biggest news of the
week:
Why are the Steelers so
good? Because they're proactive and they have the smartest man
lording over any franchise in football, president
Dan
Rooney. Look what they did Tuesday. They didn't get sentimental
over their brutish linebacker,
Greg
Lloyd, still limping from a December staph infection in his
ankle. With little fanfare, they did something that this
cruel business dictates has to be done every now and
then—cut a formerly great player who can't cut it
anymore.
At the same time, the Steelers entered the modern world of
coaches' salaries. I never thought Rooney would make a
coach a $2-million-a-year employee, but he did with
Bill Cowher,
signing him July 14 to a three-year, $6 million contract
extension. Smart move, because Cowher could have made $3
million a year on the open market seven months from
now.
Now for your
questions:
We've heard all the glowing remarks about Chan Gailey
flying around the Dallas compound, but what is the REAL
perception? Do the players have that much confidence in
this unproven head-coaching
commodity?
—John F. Sheehan, Howell,
N.J.
The players like Gailey. They know he's such a radical
improvement over
Barry
Switzer—who wouldn't be?—and he's made the transition
from "laissez-faire" to "tough" a
relatively smooth one. The Cowboys needed a firmer hand.
They also needed to heal from within because there was some
significant division on the coaching staff last year.
Gailey has salved that. I don't think he's been overrated or
overblown since he got the job. I think the team enters
camp with the confidence (if not the real chance) that it
can win the Super
Bowl.
Which team's rookies do you foresee having the greatest
impact in this coming
season?
—Alex Mojica, Puero Vallarta,
Mexico
1. St.
Louis. I think second-round pick
Robert
Holcombe, teaming with
Amp
Lee, will be light years better at running back than
Lawrence
Phillips and Lee could have been, and I love the team's No. 3 pick,
LB
Leonard
Little.
Dick
Vermeil's going to give WR
Az-zahir Hakim
a real chance to take the pressure off
Isaac
Bruce.
2.
Pittsburgh.
Alan
Faneca, the first-round guard, will be a long-term starter, even
if he doesn't start this year; he was the best guard in the
draft. Offensive tackle
Chris
Conrad will start for this team by 2000. This year third-rounder
Hines
Ward will give the Steelers a
Kordell
Stewart-type "runner-receiver-thrower" threat. And I
can't wait to see sixth-round RB
Chris
Fuamatu-Ma'afala sub for
Jerome
Bettis. This guy's going to be a good NFL player.
Now.
3.
Miami. I spent some time with
Jimmy
Johnson in June and I don't recall him being as excited about any
rookie—ever—as he was about second-round CB
Patrick
Surtain. And the first-round pick,
RB John
Avery, is as close to
Warrick
Dunn as any back I've seen since, well, Warrick
Dunn.
Why did Atlanta sign Eugene Robinson? He is old. The
Falcons are not ready to contend for a title. They need to
give the young defensive backs a chance to gain experience.
They can't get it on the bench, because since the Falcons
paid Robinson a substantial amount of money they have to
play
him.
—Randy Taylor,
Indianapolis
I agree. I think this is a classic case of bad spending in
free-agency. I love Robinson the influence and still like
Robinson the player, but you're telling me the Falcons
couldn't have spent the money more wisely trying to keep
free agent wide receiver
Bert
Emanuel or going out and getting a second-tier defensive back for
that kind of
money?
Any possibility that Jimmy Johnson will try to trade Dan
Marino during the preseason in an effort to get the
defensive help he failed to get in the free agent signings?
It appears to me that the Dolphins are modeling the new
offense more toward Craig Erickson's style and away from
Marino's.
—Steven Petrie, Davie,
Fla.
No. No chance. Let me amend that: Not a snowball's chance
in Miami. Marino is the quarterback this year. Erickson is
the quarterback, most likely, in 1999. The sooner everyone
in South Florida realizes that and stops beating this dead
horse, the better
off we'll all
be.
Will Vinny Testaverde win the starting quarterback job for
the New York
Jets?
—Ryan Sawko,
Orlando
Glenn
Foley will get the first snap in training camp and he'll have to
play himself out of the job by the third preseason game for
Vinny to start the opener at 3Com Park on Sept. 6 against
the 49ers. Now, having said that, Foley's been so brittle
that there's
little doubt in my mind he'll need bench time during the season.
If Vinny gets in the lineup and plays great, I doubt Jets
coach
Bill
Parcells would hesitate in keeping him in there when Foley comes
back ready to
play.
Do you think that the 49ers made enough improvements in the
offseason to take the next step in getting back to, and
hopefully winning, the Super Bowl? If not, what do you
think they'll be lacking in the coming
season?
—Steve LeClerc, Hamilton,
Ontario
No. No way. The 49ers have spent the last few years
sprucing themselves up at cornerback, defensive end, middle
linebacker, quarterback and running back. Meanwhile, their
offensive line has been crumbling and they've gotten only
two solid reinforcements
on the open market
(Ray Brown, Kevin
Gogan). Now that offensive tackle
Kirk
Scrafford has unexpectedly retired with his neck injury, that leaves
another hole to fill. Sometimes I think the 49ers regard
offensive line coach
Bobb
McKittrick so highly that they forget they have to give the guy a
little talent to work with. The bottom line: I think Green
Bay and Tampa Bay are both better than San Francisco
entering the
season.
Are the Bills overreaching with Rob Johnson? They just
signed him to a five-year, $25 million contract extension.
Doesn't this seem like a lot of money for a QB who has
limited
experience?
—Bill Ginley, Bel Air,
Md.
Of course the Bills are reaching. But let me give you the
scenario and you tell me what you'd do with Johnson. He's a
free agent after the season; let's just say he has a decent
year, and that he's the 13th-rated passer in the NFL this
year, which I
think is a quite realistic goal. If the Bills let him play out
his contract and then had to either negotiate with him or
slap the franchise tag on him, he'd be, at minimum, a
$6.5-million-a-year player come February. If he's a total
bust, all the Bills are
out is the signing bonus pro-rated over the next few years.
So I say this is a smart move, even though it appears
ludicrous.
What is the story on Vikings quarterback Brad Johnson's
recovery from the neck injury he sustained a year
ago?
—Jason Langley, Houlton,
Me.
I spent time with Johnson in June, and he was about 75
percent recovered from the weird neck injury that caused
him to lose his ability to grip the football in that awful
Monday night game against Green Bay last December. He's
hoping that by opening day
he'll be near 100 percent. Doctors tell him that the
surgery they performed should allow him to regain full use
of his hand and that his grip will come back as strong as
ever. They just can't predict exactly when that will be.
The Vikings view him as
their no-doubt quarterback, but I hope backup
Randall
Cunningham is pretty darn
limber.
Do you think rookie quarterback Charlie Batch could take
over Scott Mitchell's starting job for the Detroit
Lions?
—Matt Mitchell, Lapeer,
Mich.
Not at the beginning of the year, not at the middle of the
year—but maybe, if Mitchell is throwing a lot of balls
to other teams in December,
Bobby
Ross will have no choice but to give Batch a chance. Ideally,
Batch is in Detroit to learn and challenge Mitchell next
year at this
time.
With new rookie wide receiver Randy Moss in uniform, what
kind of offensive schemes are the Vikings planning to use
to implement the three great receivers (Moss, Cris Carter,
and Jake Reed) and quality running back (Robert Smith) they
have? How do they plan to spread the ball around to keep
defenses guessing? And how much of an impact do you see
Moss making in his first NFL
season?
—Steven, Chesapeake,
Ohio
Randy Moss will be a lot like
Qadry Ismail
was his first year. He'll play in the slot, catch fewer
balls than Cris Carter or Jake Reed (maybe about 45 or 50)
and learn how to be a great NFL
receiver.
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