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http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/colum...len&id=2199495
"McGee continues to improve at CBBy Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
Archive
He earned his first set of NFL stripes on special teams, as Buffalo Bills return ace Terrence McGee posted an average of 26.3 yards on kickoff returns in 2004 and had three runbacks for touchdowns, a performance that won the youngster his first Pro Bowl berth. Now McGee is poised to earn a contract extension, not so much as a result of his kickoff-return prowess, but because the third-year veteran has emerged over the past 1½ seasons as a viable starting cornerback and a player the Bills want to lock up for the long-term.
There have been sporadic discussions about a contract extension for McGee since about the middle of last season, after he assumed the starting role when Troy Vincent was first injured and then subsequently moved to free safety upon his return. But ESPN.com has learned that negotiations were ramped up this week when Buffalo proposed a four-year extension that would run through the 2009 season, and include a $4.5 million signing bonus and a total of $16.75 million in so-called "new money."
Terrence McGee
Cornerback
Buffalo Bills
Profile
2005 SEASON STATISTICS
Tot Ast Solo FF Sack Int
32 27 5 0 0 2
At an average of $4.19 million over the extension seasons, those numbers were sufficient enough to grab the rapt attention of McGee and agent Terry Bolar, who had previously rebuffed offers aimed at a contract add-on. Bolar is expected to make a counterproposal to the Bills early next week and could even travel to Buffalo for face-to-face negotiations. It's fair to suggest McGee and his representative are encouraged by the offer and that the climate for consummating an extension is significantly improved.
That same term, significantly improved, could also be employed to describe the play of McGee, a fourth-round pick from Division I-AA Northwestern (La.) State in the 2003 draft, and a player chosen more for his return skills than his coverage abilities. But forced into the starting lineup last season when Vincent was sidelined by a knee injury, McGee proved to be a revelation, teaming with Nate Clements to provide Buffalo with one of the NFL's best young cornerback tandems. McGee started 13 games, registered 95 tackles (the third-most by any cornerback in the league), three interceptions and 15 passes defensed, and demonstrated an innate ability to get around the football.
McGee, 25, lacks the prototypical size (5-9, 195 pounds) every team is seeking now at the cornerback position, but he has a feisty demeanor, won't back down from anyone, is quick to support the run and is improving in coverage. In six games this season, McGee has 32 tackles, two interceptions and four passes defensed. While the Bills' No. 1 ranking in defense versus the pass is somewhat misleading, given that opponents have been able to successfully run at a unit that is only 30th against the ground game, the secondary has been solid, with Clements and McGee on the corners and Vincent and Lawyer Milloy manning the safety spots.
Every week, it seems, McGee gets a little better in mastering the nuances of cornerback play. He attributes much of his improvement to his coaches and the veterans around him in the Bills' secondary, but also acknowledged that having the opportunity to log snaps at cornerback in the Pro Bowl, where he got to play some from scrimmage in addition to his return responsibilities, helped accelerate his personal learning curve.
"It's man-to-man coverage [at the Pro Bowl], because there are restrictions on what you are allowed to do defensively, so you're just hung out there yourself most times," McGee said. "And you're working, even in practice, against the best, most [technically] gifted wide receivers in the league. You get a chance to see every route, every move, every trick these guys have. It's like a classroom on the field, a great learning experience. It added to my confidence that I can be a top cornerback. I'm sure people used to think of me mostly as a return guy and maybe say, like, 'Oh, yeah, he can play some corner, too.' You get a lot more chances to make plays at cornerback than on kickoff returns, so that's where I want to most excel. I want to be a double threat, you know?"
Certainly the honors he has garnered for his special-teams play eclipse the recognition he has received at cornerback so far, but the Bills feel that McGee is a defender on the rise and a big part of their future plans. Otherwise, they wouldn't be offering him an extension worth more than $4 million per year, a pricey tax bracket that not even McGee himself could have predicted he might someday be in when he entered the NFL in 2003.
Last week's victory over the New York Jets graphically demonstrated McGee's ability to make huge contributions in both areas. On defense, he had four tackles, an interception and three passes defensed. He also set up two scores, a touchdown and a field goal, with kickoff runbacks of 43 and 42 yards. Through the first six weeks of the season, McGee leads the NFL with 519 yards on 15 returns, and his 34.6-yard average is more than five yards better than the league's No. 2 kickoff returner, Darren Sproles of San Diego. The field position he can potentially provide the Bills is key, especially with the struggles the Buffalo offense has experienced this season. Coach Mike Mularkey admitted this week that the Buffalo staff has actually considered using McGee on offense in some situations.
Securing the services of McGee for the long-term, particularly at a palatable price for an ascending player, is a priority of sorts for Bills officials. Clements, regarded by many in the NFL as one of the league's top five cornerbacks, and just 25 years old, is eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season. The five-year veteran has strongly hinted that he expects to be the NFL's highest-paid cornerback and Buffalo will probably have to use the "franchise" marker, at a cost of roughly $9 million for the qualifying offer, to retain their 2001 first-round draft choice. Finishing off the extension for McGee would at least guarantee the services of a young, emerging cornerback for the long-term.
And for McGee, who signed a three-year, $1.217 million contract as a rookie in 2003, the extension would represent enhanced financial security as well. Without an extension, the Bills will probably use the middle-level qualifying offer for a restricted free agent, which McGee would be without an add-on, likely to be about $1.6 million, to retain right of first refusal. Under terms of the proposal the Bills made this week, McGee could essentially pocket $5.4 million more than the restricted free agent qualifying offer for '06.
The tradeoff is that, with an extension, McGee would forfeit his rights to become an unrestricted free agent following the '06 campaign. But unless there is an extension to the collective-bargaining agreement, and soon, McGee would not be unrestricted anyway, since a player will need six seasons of tenure, not the current four, to be an unrestricted free agent in an "uncapped" year, which 2007 could become.
McGee is progressing as a solid cornerback and, with the events of this week, contract negotiations have some positive momentum now, too. Those two components could converge into a contract extension at some point in the near future.
Stat of the week
Tomlinson
Alexander
Star tailbacks Shaun Alexander of Seattle and LaDainian Tomlinson of San Diego have scored 12 and 11 touchdowns, respectively, through the first six weeks of the season. That means each player has scored more individual touchdowns on offense than 15 franchises have tallied. The offenses with fewer touchdowns than either of the two tailbacks: Miami, Jacksonville, Oakland, Chicago and New Orleans (10 each); Detroit and Washington (nine); Buffalo and the New York Jets (eight); San Francisco, Cleveland and Baltimore (six); and Arizona, Houston and Minnesota (five).
The last word
Harrington
"It's my job. I love my job. It may be banging my head against a wall, but that doesn't mean I stop banging. Eventually, something's got to give. Either the wall is going to fall down, or I'm going to get a headache." -- embattled Detroit quarterback Joey Harrington
Around the league
• Minnesota mess: There is little doubt that Minnesota owner Zygi Wilf is a well-respected businessman with good and honorable intentions. But just as no one could jury-rig the pieces of Humpty Dumpty together once he toppled off the wall, one has to wonder if Wilf or anyone else is capable of restoring order to the dysfunctional franchise in short order.
Apparently, the folks who set the betting lines in Las Vegas feel Wilf is sincere in his public statements that he will sanction players who don't abide by the code of conduct he is implementing, because the Minnesota-Green Bay game was off the board through Thursday night. Why so? Because, some bookmakers acknowledged, they feared key Vikings players might be suspended in the wake of continuing investigation of the alleged Lake Minnetonka sex cruises, and because coach Mike Tice has threatened retribution for players who flaunt team rules, like showing up on times for meetings. But the Vegas bookmakers might be naïve if they actually feel that Wilf and Tice, or anyone else, can quickly rectify a bad situation.
On Thursday, there was a brief verbal skirmish between struggling quarterback Daunte Culpepper and Matt Birk, the four-time Pro Bowl center who is out for the year after September hip surgery. Culpepper apparently took exception to Birk's remarks that the team had better get itself straightened out. At one mid-week practice, Wilf called over a few veterans and promised them he was going to get the spiraling situation under control. The words were strong, noted one player, but the actions might have to be even stronger to clean up the current mess.
• Weighty issues: You've got to wonder who in the Minnesota brass made the call on the Tuesday trade in which the team acquired former San Diego starting guard Toniu Fonoti, a fourth-year pro who had fallen out of favor with Chargers officials. On paper, the deal looks like a decent gamble, because Fonoti has 32 starts on his résumé, including 16 with a Chargers playoff team in 2004, and the former Nebraska standout can be a powerful drive blocker. And, as noted recently in this space, the Vikings, since losing Birk for the year, don't have anyone capable of knocking defenders off the line of scrimmage for the run game. The Vikings figured that Fonoti would recover in a few weeks from the broken hand that has recently sidelined him, could learn the offense during that period, and then perhaps move in as a starter. That would allow rookie Marcus Johnson, a second-round choice who has been working at guard, to move to his natural tackle position and challenge Mike Rosenthal for the starting spot on the right side.
But what the Vikings hadn't counted on was Fonoti's lack of conditioning. Fonoti has always battled weight problems and is most effective when he is in the 340-pound range. His weight when he reported to the Vikings on Wednesday, though, was a (belly-)whopping 404 pounds. Oh, yeah, unless the Vikes sign Fonoti to a contract extension, they're basically playing rent-a-guard for the rest of the season, since he can become an unrestricted free agent next spring. The Chargers got a seventh-round pick in the trade. The choice escalates up to a sixth-rounder if Fonoti is active for six games or starts three contests. If nothing else, Fonoti going to Minnesota represented a bit of good fortune for the forlorn New Orleans Saints. The Saints had tried to deal for the supersized guard, too, and lost out to Minnesota.
• Back from injury: With the return of New England linebacker Tedy Bruschi to the practice field this week -- if the guy never plays a snap in a game this season, the feat is a remarkable one, even if not everyone in the Patriots' organization fully agrees with it -- everyone else on the league's physically unable to perform (PUP) list seemingly became anonymous. Taking nothing away from Bruschi, but there are some other players on the PUP and non-football injury lists, a few of whom also began practicing this week, who might yet aid their respective teams over the second half of the season.
And don't look now, but the league's lone unbeaten team, the Indianapolis Colts, could potentially benefit most from getting players back from the physically unable to perform list. One player, rookie linebacker Tyjuan Hagler, a fifth-round choice from the University of Cincinnati, returned for the Colts this week after rehabilitating from preseason surgery for a sports hernia. Under the PUP rules, now that Hagler has begun practicing, the Colts have three weeks to evaluate him and either elevate him to the active roster or keep him on the reserve list for the rest of the season. Given the Colts' lack of depth at linebacker, the athletic Hagler could end up playing some if he is healthy.
Indianapolis did not allow two other PUP players, sixth-year defensive tackle Josh Williams and second-year cornerback Von Hutchins, to begin practicing this week, and so the three-week clock hasn't starting ticking yet on either. Not putting either Williams or Hutchins back on the field yet, even though both are said to be all but ready to return to practice, might be a savvy and calculated move by Indianapolis management. The PUP rules stipulate that a player can return to practice after the sixth weekend of the season and up to the ninth weekend. The three-week window for adding a PUP player to the active roster doesn't begin until a player returns to practice. Essentially it's a six-week period, then, under which PUP players can return.
So the Colts can hold off on Williams and Hutchins a while longer, in part because Indianapolis is pretty deep at defensive tackle and cornerback right now, and would have to release a player in order to active the rehabbed veterans. The Colts have one of the NFL's top tackle rotations -- Corey Simon, Montae Reagor and Larry Tripplett -- and starting left end Raheem Brock also plays inside on passing downs. So it might be difficult for Williams to get onto the field. But if one of the Colts' tackles goes down with an injury, the team has the option of removing Williams from the PUP list and letting him return to practice.
The situation in the secondary, where the Colts always seem to find enough bodies despite injuries, is similar. And so Indianapolis can delay removing Hutchins from the physically unable to perform list for a couple more weeks, if they so desire.
Among the other players, beyond Bruschi, who were removed from the PUP list and started practicing this week: Baltimore tailback Musa Smith, Cincinnati linebacker Caleb Miller and Chicago fullback Jason McKie. Miller is an interesting guy because he played in 13 games for the Bengals in 2004, started three times as a rookie, and could provide coach Marvin Lewis depth and flexibility if elevated to the active roster.
Some other PUP players who might yet get back on the field this year are Kansas City weak linebacker Shawn Barber, Philadelphia linebacker Greg Richmond and Bears fullback Bryan Johnson.
Eagles defensive end Jerome McDougle, the victim of a carjacking in which he was shot in July, was set to return to practice this week. But last weekend, doctors were forced to repair a hernia that apparently was a complication of the wound McDougle received in the carjacking. It now appears that McDougle, a former first-round choice who had done little to reinforce that status in his first two years but had seemed to turn the corner in minicamps, will be out for the entire season.
• Not feeling A.J. in Miami: Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga made his first fortune in waste management. Ironic, because his team has managed to waste a lot of time, effort and most important, money, in some of its quarterback dealings, most notably those involving A.J. Feeley. The Dolphins ended the Feeley Era on Tuesday by shipping the erratic quarterback to the San Diego Chargers.
How far had Feeley plummeted, not just on the Miami depth chart, where he was No. 3 behind the hardly legendary Gus Frerotte and Sage Rosenfels, but in the eyes of league personnel men? The Dolphins had to include a sixth-round draft choice in the deal to convince Chargers general manager A.J. Smith to take Feeley, in exchange for young quarterback Cleo Lemon. When the trade was first announced, it was assumed by many that the Chargers had sent a sixth-rounder to Miami as part of the swap. But, uh-uh, it was the Dolphins who actually had to sweeten the pot.
The spin from South Florida is that the Dolphins wanted a young quarterback with some promise, liked what they had seen of Lemon in preseason, and figured he might fit into their future. The reality, though, is that Lemon has never appeared in a regular-season game, and no one knows how good or bad he might be. The Dolphins invested a second-round pick to acquire Feeley from Philadelphia in 2004. They paid Feeley $3.65 million in bonuses and base salaries to start eight games during his Miami tenure and win three of them.
The Dolphins essentially invested second- and sixth-round draft picks, along with $3.65 million, and the net gain is a quarterback who has never taken a snap in a regular-season contest. And they had to "accelerate" $1.8 million in prorated signing bonus charges for the $3 million in upfront money they gave Feeley when they signed him to a five-year, $17.6 million contract after acquiring him, into this year's salary cap. The only positive is that, by doing so, Feeley is off the books after this season.
On face, this week's trade looks like a swap of a lemon (Feeley) for a Lemon (Cleo). But it was a lot costlier than that for Miami and for Huizenga, who suggested at one point that Feeley might be "the next Dan Marino." The deal for Feeley was dubious from the outset. In 2002, when both Donovan McNabb and Koy Detmer were injured, Feeley posted a 4-1 mark as the Eagles' emergency starter. Following that season, when Feeley's market value should have been soaring, Philadelphia coach Andy Reid has said he got zero inquiries about his availability. A year later, after a 2003 campaign in which Feeley never got onto field and the Eagles couldn't drum up much interest, the Dolphins managed to conclude that he could be the next Dan Marino. Go figure.
• Impact on San Diego: Shortly after completing the Feeley trade, San Diego general manager A.J. Smith told anyone who would listen that no one should read too much into how the addition of the five-year veteran might impact the Chargers' quarterback situation next season. And that's probably the case. A lot of folks leaped to the assumption that adding Feeley would allow the Chargers to trade either Drew Brees or Philip Rivers and still have a No. 2 guy with some experience. But unless Feeley agrees to rework his contract, he doesn't have a prayer of being around San Diego in 2006. His base salary for 2006 is $3.5 million and then goes to $4.55 million for 2007 and to $5.6 million for 2008.
So in getting Feeley, the Chargers didn't exactly land an affordable insurance policy, did they? For this year, he's a reasonably priced No. 3 quarterback, since San Diego only has to pick up $349,411 of his $540,000 base salary. The guess here remains that the Chargers will trade one of their quarterbacks, since Rivers isn't going to bite his tongue forever and will begin to lose value if San Diego doesn't do something with him soon, but Smith certainly won't be forced into a deal. He's got between $20 million-$25 million in salary cap room for 2006, given the projected ceiling on spending, and can, indeed, afford to keep Brees and Rivers around for another year, if he so desires.
• QB shuffle in Tampa: Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden had some very flattering things to say about Brian Griese on Wednesday, when the Bucs brass finally got around to confirming the obvious, that the starting quarterback would require season-ending knee surgery. (Two days later, as we filed this, the Bucs still hadn't detailed the nature of the injury, but, hey, every team is being purposely cryptic about such matters anymore.)
But it will be interesting to see, if new starter Chris Simms plays well the rest of the way and leads the Bucs to a playoff berth, just where the Bucs stand next spring with Griese. The structure of the five-year, $32.26 million contract that Griese signed this spring -- a deal that had to be redone, so that Tampa Bay could avoid paying a $6 million roster bonus, and could realize some much-needed cap relief -- essentially makes it a contract that's renewable every March.
The Bucs paid Griese a modest signing bonus of $3 million and his base salary for this season is $665,000. But next March 3, Tampa Bay owes Griese a roster bonus of $2.6 million, and then a base salary for 2006 of $3.5 million. He carries a salary cap charge of $7.083 million for the 2006 season. There's also a roster bonus of $2.25 million due in March of 2007, and similar bonuses of $1.5 million each in the springs of '08 and '09. The base salaries for those seasons are $4.25 million for 2007 (with a cap charge of $7.35 million), $6 million for 2008 (cap charge of $8.35 million), and $7 million for 2009 (cap charge of $9.35 million). Basically, the Bucs could refuse to pay the $2.6 million roster bonus next spring, essentially cutting ties to Griese. By so doing, they would incur a cap charge of $2.533 million for prorated signing bonus money, but that would still represent a $4.55 million cap savings.
That's not to suggest the Bucs will bounce Griese. Gruden is, though, a guy who seems to traditionally have a sort of love-hate relationship with his quarterbacks. He loves collecting quarterbacks and is not above discarding them, too. Who knows, if the southpaw Simms gets hot, Gruden may become re-enamored of a guy he's had on a roller coaster the last couple seasons. Or maybe Tim Rattay, acquired from San Francisco this week in a trade for a sixth-round draft choice, will become Gruden's guy. The Bucs coach has a habit of having a flavor of the month at the game's most critical position. By next spring, if there is a more attractive alternative, Griese may be out of flavor and out of favor. Because of the structure of Griese's contract, the Bucs could let him walk and not incur a debilitating cap hit.
• Return of the King: Had the Bucs not completed the trade for Rattay, it would have been interesting to see how they would have filled out the quarterback depth chart, since there was some disagreement in the ranks over the free agent quarterbacks the club auditioned earlier in the day. Some of the team's personnel officials favored former New York Giants backup Jesse "The Bachelor" Palmer. Others preferred Shaun King, who played for the Bucs 1999-2003, and with Arizona in 2004. King twice led Tampa Bay to the playoffs and, in the 1999 NFC championship game had them within one dubious officiating decision of advancing to Super Bowl XXXIV.
Team sources said King, who wasn't in any team's camp this summer, had a strong workout for Bucs officials. It marks the third straight positive report on King auditions -- the other workouts were for New England and Detroit -- but he remains unsigned and hoping to get back into the league. King is only 28 years old and, given that the quarterback carousel is spinning at a pretty good rate this year, might still land a contract in 2005.
By the way, other quarterbacks considered by Bucs officials in the wake of the Griese injury included Rich Gannon and Chris Chandler.
Reggie Wayne
Wide Receiver
Indianapolis Colts
Profile
2005 SEASON STATISTICS
Rec Yds TD Avg Long YAC
28 348 2 12.4 51 112
• Keeping Colts on the offensive: Because of the manner in which opponents are playing it, with plenty of Cover 2 zones and secondaries featuring seven or eight defenders in dropping off, the Indianapolis offense might not be as explosive this season as it has been in recent years. But the unit still has tremendous "skill" personnel, and two of its veteran players, tailback Edgerrin James and wide receiver Reggie Wayne, are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents after this season. Don't bet on either player, though, making it to the open market.
One insider noted at Monday night's game in the RCA Dome that Wayne "is going nowhere." Some players, including quarterback Peyton Manning, are doing a hard sell on Wayne, telling him that, even as the No. 2 receiver in Indianapolis, behind Marvin Harrison, he has a great situation, and is still going to get the ball a lot. Wayne wouldn't be the first No. 2 wide receiver to be tempted by the lure of being a "lead" guy somewhere else, and by the money that comes with such status. But he need only look at the history of wideouts who have made such moves, like Alvin Harper and Peerless Price, to see the flawed logic that often accompanies relocating to a different offense. Apparently, from what people were saying Monday night, Wayne is smart enough to understand that, while the money might be greener somewhere else, the grass isn't necessarily more lush.
As for James, he is on pace for a career-best 1,765-yard season. Because defenses are playing soft upfront and rarely committing eight players in the box, James is going to have a lot of creases naturally created by spacing alone. And the game's smartest quarterback is wise enough to just keep handing the ball to James instead of forcing things downfield. James is playing for the one-year "franchise" qualifying offer of $8.1 million. To use the franchise marker on him again after this season would cost the Colts roughly $9.72 million, a huge swallow.
But there is sentiment within the organization to keep James and the inclination will be even stronger should Indianapolis advance to the Super Bowl. There's also the possibility that owner Jim Irsay, who dipped into his own personal account to help fund the deals for Manning and Harrison, could do so again. James remains one of the top five backs in the NFL and the small group of fans in Hoosierland who feel Indianapolis can just plug in someone else, like backup Dominic Rhodes, are incredibly misguided.
• One of the defenses that went "simpler" against the Colts was the Rams on Monday night. The upshot of playing Cover 2 much of the night: Despite stumbling out of the chute, and trailing 17-0 only 12 minutes into the contest, Indianapolis still put up 45 points. Edgerrin James rushed for 143 yards and three scores and Manning was typically efficient in directing an offense that scored on seven of nine possessions after the rough beginning.
No one can fault St. Louis interim coach Joe Vitt for streamlining things in an effort to cut down on mental errors and improve communication. But one Rams defender told us before the contest, at the team hotel, it was the "skinniest" game plan he had seen since joining the team, with only three or four coverages installed. Clearly, for Manning, it was like reading a primer. "They mostly stayed Cover 2 the whole game, and I'm glad, because, when they're moving (strong safety Adam) Archuleta all around, it can be real pain," Manning said. "He can be a really active guy."
On one of the few occasions when the Rams dropped Archuleta down into the box, a "red zone" situation, Manning checked out of a planned running play, audibled to a pass, and connected with Marvin Harrison on a "fade" route for the touchdown that established a new league record for most scoring plays between a quarterback and receiver.
• Holmgren gets tough: It will probably earn Mike Holmgren a nasty letter from an ACLU attorney, some flak from players, and a reminder from the NFL Players Association about the limitations a club can impose, but kudos to the Seattle Seahawks coach for prohibiting his players and coaches from entering the part of town where safety Ken Hamlin was assaulted Sunday night.
In the wake of the incident that left Hamlin with a brain injury, Holmgren told his team that it is no longer allowed to visit Pioneer Square, a historic restaurant and night club area not far from Qwest Field. It marks the first time as a head coach, Holmgren said, that he has ever issued such an off-limits edict. There will be repercussions, almost certainly, and probably from many quarters. But until the NFLPA raps Holmgren on the knuckles, or some attorney argues such a ban is illegal, the Seahawks coach figures it's worth a shot.
Players cannot be, as virtually every NFL coach is eventually forced to agree at some point, baby-sat 24/7. But it gets tiresome to hear excuses about how some players are immature, or how everyone makes a mistake when they're young, doesn't it? The truth is, most people, athletes or otherwise, go their entire existences without ever getting into trouble. And while players are correct in stating they shouldn't have to be recluses -- that they have a right to a night out, dinner and some drinks without being hassled, the same amenities everyone else enjoys -- celebrity carries a price tag. To earn that million-dollar paycheck, sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
• Seahawks soaring: As for matters on the field, things are falling rather nicely for Seattle, not just in the division, but around the entire NFC. The NFC West is unraveling, especially with coach Mike Martz and now quarterback Marc Bulger absent from the Rams, and the Seahawks, if they can maintain their current standard of play, might run away with the division. The schedule is not all that daunting, as only four of the Seahawks' remaining opponents currently can boast of winning records, and Seattle might just be a darkhorse candidate to land the homefield advantage in the NFC playoff bracket.
Still one of the game's best coaches, Mike Holmgren is arguably doing one of his best jobs in years. The Seahawks own the league's top-rated offense, are leading the NFL in yards on first down, and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is playing well. The defense is improved. And the team has overcome some early adversity, like winning its last two outings without either starting wide receiver. Seattle was a chic Super Bowl pick by many pundits in 2004, but maybe everyone was one season too early.
This final thought on Holmgren: He has just one year remaining on his contract. Certainly the team has not been as successful as he or owner Paul Allen hoped when Holmgren came aboard in 1999 to run the entire football operation. But it might be time for Allen to at least start thinking about an extension for Holmgren at the end of this year.
• Haslett on the move? On the subject of contract extensions for coaches, Jim Haslett of New Orleans still hasn't landed that two-year add-on that owner Tom Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis suggested eight months ago he was going to get. The extension embers were sort of rekindled in September, when the Saints relocated to San Antonio, and it was obvious that Haslett faced an untenable (and maybe unwinnable) situation. Since then, though, nary a word about trying to keep Haslett, more respected around the league than he is at times by his own franchise, beyond the 2006 season.
There is a common conception that, given everything the Saints have confronted in this aberration of a season, Haslett will get a free pass. That, no matter how bad things get, Benson can't and won't jettison him at the end of the season. We're not buying it. And, frankly, maybe moving on to another team wouldn't be the worst thing for Haslett, who has been through an emotional wringer on and off the field in 2005. Unlike many coaches who lose jobs this season -- one highly respected league source predicted to us this week that there will be nine changes before the start of the 2006 campaign but we think that number is a little high -- Haslett will have some options if Benson pink-slips him.
• Legal rumblings: In a week in which he dismissed his onetime right-hand man, the executive vice president who negotiated the sweetheart subsidies deal with the state of Louisiana, owner Tom Benson continued to provide at least circumstantial evidence that he, indeed, would like to relocate his franchise. And probably to San Antonio, the Saints' base of operations for this season.
Benson, who on Monday fired vice president Arnold Fielkow, at one time his most influential advisor, later in the week sought to terminate the Saints' lease at their Metairie, La., training complex. Benson attorney Phil Wittman, in a letter to a number of state agencies and the Louisiana National Guard, contended that the facility was damaged when occupied in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by various federal agencies. "As a result of these events, the Saints were unable to return to their training facility and were forced to relocate their entire football operations to San Antonio, Texas, at a very substantial cost," Wittman wrote. "It is not possible for the Saints to use the facility in any capacity, at least through the end of the current season, generating additional costs. Indeed, these actions have effectively terminated the lease for the facility and have caused great and continuing damage to the team. The Saints will not be in a position to reoccupy the training facility for some time (if ever) and they intend to hold the agency or agencies responsible for the damage caused to the facility during its occupation, and thereafter, until the Saints' legal rights to the facility have been established."
The lease to the facility runs through 2018 and the team pays annual rent of $1 on the 34-acre site. Both the team and the state are in the process of assessing the damage -- Wittman conceded to the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper that he has not seen the facility himself -- but it now seems certain that the team and Louisiana are on a legal crash course.
The problem for Benson, assuming he really does want to abandon New Orleans, is that the league and commissioner Paul Tagliabue seem staunchly opposed to such a move. The Saints might qualify as a candidate for relocation under guidelines drawn up years ago, when Raiders owner Al Davis seemed to have his franchise mounted on wheels, but Benson still needs his brethren in the ownership fraternity to approve a move. And it takes just nine votes in opposition to shoot down any relocation proposal. Two league owners told ESPN.com at mid-week that they expect Benson to try to void his lease at the Superdome and argue that, despite assessments it will be ready for at least part of the 2006 season, the facility is unusable in his estimation. Neither owner would acknowledge, however, they had heard that directly from Benson himself.
• Washington excelling for Redskins: Much of the attention in Washington has been on the lack of playing time for linebacker LaVar Arrington, who is said to have practiced well this week, and who might actually log some snaps in Sunday's game against the 49ers.
Marcus Washington
Linebacker
Washington Redskins
Profile
2005 SEASON STATISTICS
Tot Ast Solo FF Sack Int
35 28 7 0 0 0
It might be time, though, to focus on a linebacker who is on the field all the time for the Redskins and making plays for coordinator Gregg Williams. Very quietly and without much acclaim, strongside 'backer Marcus Washington, a surprise Pro Bowl selection in 2004, is having a terrific year once again. Washington has 36 tackles in six games, and hasn't yet recorded a sack, and his numbers are slightly off from a year ago, when he registered 107 tackles and 4½ sacks. But the six-year veteran, signed as an unrestricted free agent in 2004 after he spent his first four seasons in Indianapolis, is never out of position. He stays on the field for most third-down plays and his performance last Sunday, when he limited Kansas City tight end Tony Gonzalez to just two catches for 13 yards, was textbook stuff. There simply aren't many linebackers in the league as technically sound and efficient as Washington.
• Where's Tony? Speaking of Tony Gonzalez, no one in Kansas City is pushing the panic button yet, but clearly the perennial Pro Bowl performer, who lead the entire NFL in receptions (102) a year ago, is having problems getting open. The absence of left end Willie Roaf forced the Chiefs to employ Gonzalez as a blocker more than in past seasons and that contributed to his production in the first four games. But Roaf returned last week and Gonzalez could not shake Marcus Washington much of the game.
Through five outings, Gonzalez has 18 catches. At his current pace, he would finish with 58 receptions, and that would be his lowest total since 1998, his second season in the league, when he caught 59 balls. His career low was 33 catches, as a rookie in 1997. Over the past six seasons, Gonzalez has averaged 79.7 receptions, and has posted 75 or more catches three times.
There have been whispers that, at age 29 and in his ninth season, Gonzalez has started to slow down some. Most safeties and linebackers to whom we spoke this week aren't in agreement. At least not yet. But at this point, Gonzalez is putting him decidedly un-Gonzalez-like numbers. And the Chiefs, who don't have a wide receiver corps that strikes fear in opposing secondaries, need him to step things up.
• Miller time: There are a lot of terrific tight ends in the league, but one guy emerging as a potential big-time player for the rest of this season is Pittsburgh first-round pick Heath Miller. The former University of Virginia star was chosen to provide the Steelers and element their offense has been sorely lacking, a big receiver capable of controlling the middle of the field, and Miller is increasingly becoming a factor. Steelers coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, who played tight end in the NFL for nine seasons, is expanding Miller's presence in the passing game and will continue to do so. Miller has already demonstrated to this point in the season what an impact he can make as a "red zone" receiver.
• Witten receiving praise: Dallas officials haven't yet started negotiations on a contract extension for tight end Jason Witten, and they really don't have to yet, since the former Tennessee star is only in his third season. Even though Witten has reached performance levels that void the final two years of his original five-year contract, signed as a third-round pick in 2003, Dallas can retain him by making him a restricted qualifying offer.
But based on his play in last week's overtime victory against the Giants, Witten, who caught 87 passes in 2004, is a player worth keeping for the long-term. It's not that Witten put up big numbers, but rather the nuance he demonstrated. On a short touchdown pass, Witten went in motion across the back of the formation, then very subtly "sold" the run-fake to a penetrating Giants lineman by dipping his shoulder and feigning a block. When the defender went for the fake, Witten slid into the left flat, where he was wide open. And then Witten, on the game-winning field goal drive, ran a perfect post-corner route to shake open for a big gain.
He is a willing, but only average blocker, but Witten certainly is, in just his third season, already a very polished receiver.
• Draft rumblings: OK, so it's basically anathema, especially after his heroics last week in perhaps one of the best college football games of all-time, to suggest that Southern Cal quarterback Matt Leinart might not be the top prospect in the 2006 draft. But there are some scouts, none of them certifiable or known to have spent any time in straitjackets, who question the physical tools of the Trojans star. No doubt, as evidenced by the fourth-and-nine audible call that Leinart made late in the game, the guy is a thinking man's quarterback. But the lefty, scouts contend, does not have great arm strength and only decent mobility.
Clearly, Leinart could be kept out of the draft's top slot just by who might hold the overall No. 1 choice. The Houston Texans or San Francisco 49ers, having made huge investments in David Carr and Alex Smith, respectively, aren't in position to take another quarterback. That could mean the top spot would be traded. But if the suspicion exists that Leinart might slip a little, because teams at the top of the draft won't choose him, then the trade market might be somewhat diminished.
One thing upon which the scouts agree: There are no senior quarterbacks who are better prospects than Leinart. That said, some juniors who might decide to go into the '06 draft -- Vincent Young of Texas, Michigan State's David Stanton and Brady Quinn of Notre Dame -- might be intriguing prospects and could battle Leinart for the No. 1 quarterback spot.
A guy about whom everyone raves, even if there are some concerns about his lack of size, is Southern Cal tailback Reggie Bush. A human highlight film, Bush has been compared by some scouts to Marshall Faulk, because he can score in a variety of ways. Scouts believe that Bush, who they cannot discuss for attribution since he is an underclassman, will make himself available for the '06 draft.
• Elvis in the building: One of the defensive prospects scouts are hustling to see as evaluations for the '06 draft kick into high gear is Louisville end Elvis Dumervil. The senior has been a virtual one-man wrecking crew, as he leads the team in tackles (40) and tackles for loss (17½) and leads the nation in sacks (16½). Dumervil also has seven forced fumbles, a recovery, one interception and three passes defensed. At just 5-feet-11½ and 254 pounds, scouts aren't certain what to make of Dumervil when projecting him to the NFL level. They aren't sure yet if he can play the hybrid "edge" role in a 3-4, are pretty sure he can't be a 4-3 end, and don't know if he could make the transition to linebacker.
Of this, however, scouts are sure: Dumervil, who had six sacks against Kentucky earlier in the season, can rush the heck out of the quarterback. And the success of an undersized defender like Indianapolis end Robert Mathis, the situational pass rusher who checks in at just 235 pounds but who leads the NFL in sacks (seven), will benefit Dumervil when scouts analyze him.
"Mathis is the guy he reminds me of on tape, but I want to see (Dumervil) in person before I make a real judgement on his quickness," one NFC scouting director said. "But when you put on the tape, the guy is always in the backfield." Dumervil, by the way, was recently named a semifinalist for the Lombardi Award.
• Time for Garica? As this week's "Tip Sheet" was filed Friday morning, Detroit Lions coach Steve Mariucci had not yet determined his starting quarterback for this weekend. Unlike in Arizona, where coach Denny Green has made a decision and the Cardinals players know if it will be Josh McCown or Kurt Warner against Tennessee on Sunday, not even the most veteran Lions players seem aware yet of who will start.
The guess is that, if Jeff Garcia is sufficiently recovered from a broken left fibula and severe ankle sprain, and can move around enough to protect himself behind the porous Lions line, he will replace the struggling Joey Harrington in the lineup. But two Lions players said late Thursday that they felt Garcia still wasn't 100 percent and needed another week or two, but that his competitiveness might compel him to tell Mariucci he is ready to get onto the field. In the long run, it may not matter much if Garcia starts this week, or needs some more time to rehabilitate. At some point this season, it's almost certain, Garcia is going to bump Harrington from the top perch on the quarterback depth chart.
• RB issues in Baltimore: The Baltimore Ravens face a tough decision (or perhaps decisions) at the tailback spot. Their top two backs, Jamal Lewis and Chester Taylor, are both eligible to be unrestricted free agents and it's doubtful the Ravens can retain them both.
Lewis is, on face, the logical guy to keep around. But he has not recovered well from offseason ankle surgery, and his stint in a federal corrections facility, and some have contended that he is moping a bit because he hasn't gotten a contract extension. Cleveland tried to steal Taylor away from Baltimore this spring by signing him to a one-year, $3 million offer sheet as a restricted free agent. The Ravens swallowed hard and matched the offer. So they're paying over $6 million for both tailbacks this season, and it could cost more than that just to keep one of them next year.
Punts
Coles
The Jets hired offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger to extend the field and add a vertical element to their passing game, but do not have a completion of longer than 37 yards. Scouts contend that wide receiver Laveranues Coles, who suffered a foot injury in 2003 that he has never had surgery on, continues to be slowed by the ailment. Before the injury, Coles averaged 15.0 yards per catch and had 14 touchdowns and five receptions of 40 yards or more in 47 games. In the 36 games since, his average catch is for 11.9 yards, and he has just seven touchdowns and three 40-yard receptions. The explosiveness Coles once had, some contend, is missing. ... The Houston Texans have not led in any game this season. ... With go-to receiver Drew Bennett expected to miss several weeks following thumb surgery, the Tennessee wideout corps is going to have to grow up very quickly for the Titans offensive to move the ball. New coordinator Norm Chow is getting solid play from his tight ends, particularly second-year veteran Ben Troupe, but needs the young wideouts to start making plays, too. The relative "graybeard" of the bunch is oft-infirm third-year veteran Tyrone Calico. But it's rookie third-rounder Brandon Jones who offers the most potential for some vertical plays. ... Flagged for seven penalties in the past two weeks, Stockar McDougle of the Miami Dolphins has lost the starting right tackle job to 2004 first-rounder Vernon Carey. ... As expected, former Dolphins punter Matt Turk, released three weeks ago, has filed an injury grievance. Turk is contending the Dolphins released him before a groin injury had healed. ... There has been just one "horse-collar" penalty called in the first six weeks of the season. And it was actually against an offensive player, Green Bay tight end David Martin. . . . The teams that have faced Brian Urlacher so far this season claim the Chicago middle linebacker is once again playing with the kind of passion and explosiveness that marked his first two seasons in the league. ... In a surprise, the Philadelphia special teams, a perennial strong point for the Eagles, rate near the bottom of the NFL in virtually every key category. Special teams coordinator John Harbaugh has moved linebacker Keith Adams, removed from the coverage units when he became a starter, back onto special teams. Rookie tailback Ryan Moats, a third-round pick who had an excellent training camp, will debut this weekend as a kickoff returner. ... Desperate for help in the secondary, St. Louis this week auditioned free agent corners Terrell Buckley and Aaron Beasley but opted to sign neither for now. ... The Giants this week worked out free four free agent defensive backs, cornerbacks Mario Edwards and Lance Frazier and safeties Russell Stuvaints and Rich Coady. ... Quarterback Rohan Davey, released by Arizona last week, will work out for Buffalo officials next week. ... Despite the damage on the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina, officials from the Senior Bowl, the top college post-season all-star game, told ESPN.com that the contest will remain at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., and the date remains Jan. 28. ... A tight salary cap is forcing the Jets to play with only 52 players, one below the limit, on their roster. Remarkably, because the Jets haven't placed either Chad Pennington or Jay Fiedler on injured reserve, the roster currently includes five quarterbacks. ... Chicago has averaged 33 points in games against NFC North opponents and 8 points outside of the division. ... Jacksonville's Mike Pearson, who opened the season as the Jaguars' starting left offensive tackle, has been inactive for three straight games. Pearson was coming off 2004 surgery to repair three torn knee ligaments and might need the rest of this year to fully recover and regain his past form. . . . There are rumblings that, despite three seasons remaining on a contract worth $5 million annually, Steve Mariucci could be in some trouble in Detroit. The suggestion is that "Mooch" might not be tough enough on his team. ... They like defensive tackle Gerard Warren, the third overall choice in the 2001 draft, a lot more in Denver than they did in Cleveland. Warren has been a huge part of the resurgence of the Broncos defense, providing plenty of inside push, and the team has already floated the idea of a contract extension for the five-year veteran. . . . Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards, expected to miss 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery to excise a bacterial infection from his arm, could return much sooner than that. Edwards was back on the practice field this week. He won't play Sunday but is making excellent progress, even as specialists continue to study the infection that forced them to make a nine-inch incision in his arm. ... The human vultures preying on the victims of Hurricane Katrina have moved into the sports trainer field, it seems. Rival trainers are telling people that the hurricane knocked longtime speed specialist Tom Shaw, one of the best in what has flourished from a cottage industry into a big-time endeavor, and a guy who has prepared dozens of first-round picks for the draft, out of business. It's not true, and Shaw wants to get the word out that he is ready for his usual legion of high-profile clients at the end of the college season. ... When the Chargers face the Eagles on Sunday, it will mark their third straight matchup against an opponent coming off its bye week. ... There were published reports in London this week that the NFL has begun contacting potential local sponsors for a regular-season game at Wembley Stadium in 2006. The reports suggest that, because of the travel, the teams would both be from the East Coast. ... Tampa Bay would like to upgrade the bottom of its wide receiver depth chart and will audition free agent Drew Haddad next week. ... The Cowboys will start a pair of offensive tackle at Seattle on Sunday, Torrin Tucker (left) and Rob Pettiti (right), who have just 20 regular-season starts between them. Tucker, who is replacing Flozell Adams, lost for the season to a torn anterior cruciate ligament, has never started on the left side before. Despite being desperate for a left tackle, the Cowboys did not consider contacting veteran free agent Ross Verba, who talked himself off the Cleveland Browns roster this summer. Verba may never play in the NFL again. Neither did the Cowboys consider former Seattle starter Chris Terry, who played on the right side for the Seahawks, but had some experience at left tackle.
• Defensive issues in Atlanta: Even with all the flash-and-splash provided by Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcons know that the formula for success depends on the running game: generating one on offense and stifling the other team's ground attack defensively. So far, the Falcons have gotten half the equation down pat, as they lead the league in rushing for a second straight season. But coach Jim Mora, who wants a physical team, has to be alarmed by the Falcons' defense versus the rush. Or, more appropriately, the lack thereof. Atlanta ranks 28th in the league in rushing yards surrendered and only Buffalo has permitted a higher rushing average than the 5.0 yards the Falcons have allowed. The Falcons have given up an NFL-worst 51 rushing first downs. And while they have surrendered just three runs of 20 or more yards, an acceptable quota, that means opponents are pounding the ball consistently on Atlanta, and that the numbers aren't skewed because of a few big plays.
In last week's victory over the Saints, the Atlanta defense allowed 211 rushing yards on 32 carries, and that was without star tailback Deuce McAllister in the New Orleans lineup. Journeymen Antowain Smith (12 attempts for 88 yards) and Aaron Stecker (86 yards on 16 rushes) found gaping holes much of the day.
The Falcons were forced to overhaul their entire linebacker unit in the wake of the season-ending Achilles injury to middle linebacker Ed Hartwell two weeks ago. In the new alignment, weakside 'backer Keith Brooking moved to the middle, strongside starter Demorrio Williams switched to his more natural weakside spot, and rookie Michael Boley took over on the strong side. Boley made some big plays but, watching tape of the game, it was obvious he struggled to disengage from blocks.
The bigger problem, though, might be at safety, where the Falcons aren't even getting routine plays from the starting tandem of Keion Carpenter and Bryan Scott. Teams tend to forget the importance of safeties, and Atlanta chose in the offseason to address their shortcoming at the position with just some minor acquisitions. The result: Opponents are making big yardage in the running game, in part because the Falcons safeties aren't very good. Mora is watching the position closely, and there could be changes, but it isn't as if there are a lot of alternatives for Atlanta right now.
• Cure for Falcons defense? A snippet of good news for the shaky Falcons run defense is that the New York Jets are next on the schedule, for a Monday night matchup at the Georgia Dome. Yeah, the Jets have tailback Curtis Martin, but they also have a dramatically reconfigured offensive line that might be easily overwhelmed by Atlanta's penchant for bringing lots of bodies, both with run- and pass-blitzes.
The season-ending triceps injury to Kevin Mawae means the Jets will have their first different starting center since 1998. Pete Kendall will move from left guard to center to replace Mawae, who started 118 straight games and went to six Pro Bowl games as the Jets' snapper. Fourth-year veteran Jonathan Goodwin, long on promise but short on playing time, moves in at left guard.
The Jets staff earlier in the year flipped their tackles, with Jason Fabini moving to the right side and first-year starter Adrian Jones going from right to left. That means the only player who remains in the spot where he opened the season is right guard Brandon Moore.
So even with the problems the Falcons have had against the run, the Jets could make them healthy again Monday night. And the Falcons, among the lead leaders in sacks, are certain to come hard at 41-year-old quarterback Vinny Testaverde, too. According to Rich Cimini, the excellent New York Daily News reporter on the Jets beat, Testaverde faced five- or six-man fronts on 10 of 26 pass attempts against Buffalo last week. The Falcons figure to bring the house.
• Jets' Reed making most of chance: On the defensive side of the ball for the Jets, tackle Dewayne Robertson is getting a lot of attention, including from this column last week. But his tackle partner, the undersized James Reed, is very quietly having a pretty nice season. Mostly an afterthought within the Jets organization for the previous four years, Reed has become pretty active this season and developed into a pretty nice complement to the impressively talented Robertson.
The improvement comes at an opportune time for Reed, who can be an unrestricted free agent next spring. Reed, 28, won't break the bank with a fat contract, but he might be worth a look from a team seeking a medium-level player who could fit into its tackle rotation. In six games this season, Reed has 23 tackles. That might not sound like a lot, but it projects to 61 stops for the year, and Reed's previous career best was 31 tackles in 2003. A starter in just two of his 64 appearances in the past four years, Reed averaged only 23.5 tackles per season. He has clearly stepped up his play, though, in 2005.
• Jordan wants the ball: During his tenures as a coordinator and head coach, the feature backs in a Norv Turner-designed offense have averaged over 300 rushes per season. And that includes a couple seasons in Washington when Turner really didn't have a big-time tailback to carry the load for him. But through five games, Oakland Raiders tailback LaMont Jordan, signed to a huge contract to remedy the team's case of running game anemia, has logged just 87 carries. That projects out to only 278 rushes for the season, hardly typical for Turner, who needs to start pounding Jordan at defenses a lot more.
Jordan certainly wants more rushes and the former backup to New York Jets star Curtis Martin, hasn't exactly been shy about telling people that. Right now, the Oakland offense is more imbalanced toward the pass than most Turner teams have been. If wide receiver Randy Moss, can't play this week because of a groin injury, look for the Raiders to hand the ball a lot to Jordan against a Buffalo defense that's had all kinds of problems stopping the run.
• Dann can carry the load:Because of his size (5-feet-9, 180 pounds), the perception is that Atlanta's Warrick Dunn can't handle a big workload. But the nine-year veteran, a much tougher inside runner than he is credited with being, is on pace for 296 carries in 2005, which would be a career high. And with No. 2 tailback T.J. Duckett expected to be sidelined at least a couple weeks by an ankle sprain, Dunn could get the ball even more. Dunn rushed a career-high 265 times in 2004, but his receptions fell off to 29, a career low. They could be even lower this season, with Dunn on just a 19-catch pace, with seven receptions for 50 yards in six games.
In the West Coast offense, Dunn doesn't get as many chances to catch the ball out of the backfield. During his five seasons in Tampa Bay, he averaged 51.8 receptions and twice had more than 60 catches. Dunn totaled 87 receptions in his first two years in Atlanta, playing in the Dan Reeves offense, but he may never again reach those levels in the current Falcons paradigm.
• Number crunching: Sometimes you can crunch the numbers a dozen times, they all come out the same, but they still don't add up. Case in point: Through the first six weeks of the season, there have been 13 fewer individual rushing performances of 100 yards than at the same point of the 2004 campaign. Clearly, as we saw first-hand from the New York Giants last week at Dallas, defenses are "selling out" to the run. The Giants employed run-blitzes on nearly every first-and-10 play. But in terms of overall rushing, the numbers from this year aren't much different from those of last season. At this point in 2004, teams had run the ball 4,816 times for 19,448 yards, an average of 4.04 yards per attempt. This season, there have been 4,883 rushes for 20,186 yards, and a 4.13-yard average.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. To check out Len's chat archive, click here .
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http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/colum...len&id=2199495
"McGee continues to improve at CBBy Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
Archive
He earned his first set of NFL stripes on special teams, as Buffalo Bills return ace Terrence McGee posted an average of 26.3 yards on kickoff returns in 2004 and had three runbacks for touchdowns, a performance that won the youngster his first Pro Bowl berth. Now McGee is poised to earn a contract extension, not so much as a result of his kickoff-return prowess, but because the third-year veteran has emerged over the past 1½ seasons as a viable starting cornerback and a player the Bills want to lock up for the long-term.
There have been sporadic discussions about a contract extension for McGee since about the middle of last season, after he assumed the starting role when Troy Vincent was first injured and then subsequently moved to free safety upon his return. But ESPN.com has learned that negotiations were ramped up this week when Buffalo proposed a four-year extension that would run through the 2009 season, and include a $4.5 million signing bonus and a total of $16.75 million in so-called "new money."
Terrence McGee
Cornerback
Buffalo Bills
Profile
2005 SEASON STATISTICS
Tot Ast Solo FF Sack Int
32 27 5 0 0 2
At an average of $4.19 million over the extension seasons, those numbers were sufficient enough to grab the rapt attention of McGee and agent Terry Bolar, who had previously rebuffed offers aimed at a contract add-on. Bolar is expected to make a counterproposal to the Bills early next week and could even travel to Buffalo for face-to-face negotiations. It's fair to suggest McGee and his representative are encouraged by the offer and that the climate for consummating an extension is significantly improved.
That same term, significantly improved, could also be employed to describe the play of McGee, a fourth-round pick from Division I-AA Northwestern (La.) State in the 2003 draft, and a player chosen more for his return skills than his coverage abilities. But forced into the starting lineup last season when Vincent was sidelined by a knee injury, McGee proved to be a revelation, teaming with Nate Clements to provide Buffalo with one of the NFL's best young cornerback tandems. McGee started 13 games, registered 95 tackles (the third-most by any cornerback in the league), three interceptions and 15 passes defensed, and demonstrated an innate ability to get around the football.
McGee, 25, lacks the prototypical size (5-9, 195 pounds) every team is seeking now at the cornerback position, but he has a feisty demeanor, won't back down from anyone, is quick to support the run and is improving in coverage. In six games this season, McGee has 32 tackles, two interceptions and four passes defensed. While the Bills' No. 1 ranking in defense versus the pass is somewhat misleading, given that opponents have been able to successfully run at a unit that is only 30th against the ground game, the secondary has been solid, with Clements and McGee on the corners and Vincent and Lawyer Milloy manning the safety spots.
Every week, it seems, McGee gets a little better in mastering the nuances of cornerback play. He attributes much of his improvement to his coaches and the veterans around him in the Bills' secondary, but also acknowledged that having the opportunity to log snaps at cornerback in the Pro Bowl, where he got to play some from scrimmage in addition to his return responsibilities, helped accelerate his personal learning curve.
"It's man-to-man coverage [at the Pro Bowl], because there are restrictions on what you are allowed to do defensively, so you're just hung out there yourself most times," McGee said. "And you're working, even in practice, against the best, most [technically] gifted wide receivers in the league. You get a chance to see every route, every move, every trick these guys have. It's like a classroom on the field, a great learning experience. It added to my confidence that I can be a top cornerback. I'm sure people used to think of me mostly as a return guy and maybe say, like, 'Oh, yeah, he can play some corner, too.' You get a lot more chances to make plays at cornerback than on kickoff returns, so that's where I want to most excel. I want to be a double threat, you know?"
Certainly the honors he has garnered for his special-teams play eclipse the recognition he has received at cornerback so far, but the Bills feel that McGee is a defender on the rise and a big part of their future plans. Otherwise, they wouldn't be offering him an extension worth more than $4 million per year, a pricey tax bracket that not even McGee himself could have predicted he might someday be in when he entered the NFL in 2003.
Last week's victory over the New York Jets graphically demonstrated McGee's ability to make huge contributions in both areas. On defense, he had four tackles, an interception and three passes defensed. He also set up two scores, a touchdown and a field goal, with kickoff runbacks of 43 and 42 yards. Through the first six weeks of the season, McGee leads the NFL with 519 yards on 15 returns, and his 34.6-yard average is more than five yards better than the league's No. 2 kickoff returner, Darren Sproles of San Diego. The field position he can potentially provide the Bills is key, especially with the struggles the Buffalo offense has experienced this season. Coach Mike Mularkey admitted this week that the Buffalo staff has actually considered using McGee on offense in some situations.
Securing the services of McGee for the long-term, particularly at a palatable price for an ascending player, is a priority of sorts for Bills officials. Clements, regarded by many in the NFL as one of the league's top five cornerbacks, and just 25 years old, is eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season. The five-year veteran has strongly hinted that he expects to be the NFL's highest-paid cornerback and Buffalo will probably have to use the "franchise" marker, at a cost of roughly $9 million for the qualifying offer, to retain their 2001 first-round draft choice. Finishing off the extension for McGee would at least guarantee the services of a young, emerging cornerback for the long-term.
And for McGee, who signed a three-year, $1.217 million contract as a rookie in 2003, the extension would represent enhanced financial security as well. Without an extension, the Bills will probably use the middle-level qualifying offer for a restricted free agent, which McGee would be without an add-on, likely to be about $1.6 million, to retain right of first refusal. Under terms of the proposal the Bills made this week, McGee could essentially pocket $5.4 million more than the restricted free agent qualifying offer for '06.
The tradeoff is that, with an extension, McGee would forfeit his rights to become an unrestricted free agent following the '06 campaign. But unless there is an extension to the collective-bargaining agreement, and soon, McGee would not be unrestricted anyway, since a player will need six seasons of tenure, not the current four, to be an unrestricted free agent in an "uncapped" year, which 2007 could become.
McGee is progressing as a solid cornerback and, with the events of this week, contract negotiations have some positive momentum now, too. Those two components could converge into a contract extension at some point in the near future.
Stat of the week
Tomlinson
Alexander
Star tailbacks Shaun Alexander of Seattle and LaDainian Tomlinson of San Diego have scored 12 and 11 touchdowns, respectively, through the first six weeks of the season. That means each player has scored more individual touchdowns on offense than 15 franchises have tallied. The offenses with fewer touchdowns than either of the two tailbacks: Miami, Jacksonville, Oakland, Chicago and New Orleans (10 each); Detroit and Washington (nine); Buffalo and the New York Jets (eight); San Francisco, Cleveland and Baltimore (six); and Arizona, Houston and Minnesota (five).
The last word
Harrington
"It's my job. I love my job. It may be banging my head against a wall, but that doesn't mean I stop banging. Eventually, something's got to give. Either the wall is going to fall down, or I'm going to get a headache." -- embattled Detroit quarterback Joey Harrington
Around the league
• Minnesota mess: There is little doubt that Minnesota owner Zygi Wilf is a well-respected businessman with good and honorable intentions. But just as no one could jury-rig the pieces of Humpty Dumpty together once he toppled off the wall, one has to wonder if Wilf or anyone else is capable of restoring order to the dysfunctional franchise in short order.
Apparently, the folks who set the betting lines in Las Vegas feel Wilf is sincere in his public statements that he will sanction players who don't abide by the code of conduct he is implementing, because the Minnesota-Green Bay game was off the board through Thursday night. Why so? Because, some bookmakers acknowledged, they feared key Vikings players might be suspended in the wake of continuing investigation of the alleged Lake Minnetonka sex cruises, and because coach Mike Tice has threatened retribution for players who flaunt team rules, like showing up on times for meetings. But the Vegas bookmakers might be naïve if they actually feel that Wilf and Tice, or anyone else, can quickly rectify a bad situation.
On Thursday, there was a brief verbal skirmish between struggling quarterback Daunte Culpepper and Matt Birk, the four-time Pro Bowl center who is out for the year after September hip surgery. Culpepper apparently took exception to Birk's remarks that the team had better get itself straightened out. At one mid-week practice, Wilf called over a few veterans and promised them he was going to get the spiraling situation under control. The words were strong, noted one player, but the actions might have to be even stronger to clean up the current mess.
• Weighty issues: You've got to wonder who in the Minnesota brass made the call on the Tuesday trade in which the team acquired former San Diego starting guard Toniu Fonoti, a fourth-year pro who had fallen out of favor with Chargers officials. On paper, the deal looks like a decent gamble, because Fonoti has 32 starts on his résumé, including 16 with a Chargers playoff team in 2004, and the former Nebraska standout can be a powerful drive blocker. And, as noted recently in this space, the Vikings, since losing Birk for the year, don't have anyone capable of knocking defenders off the line of scrimmage for the run game. The Vikings figured that Fonoti would recover in a few weeks from the broken hand that has recently sidelined him, could learn the offense during that period, and then perhaps move in as a starter. That would allow rookie Marcus Johnson, a second-round choice who has been working at guard, to move to his natural tackle position and challenge Mike Rosenthal for the starting spot on the right side.
But what the Vikings hadn't counted on was Fonoti's lack of conditioning. Fonoti has always battled weight problems and is most effective when he is in the 340-pound range. His weight when he reported to the Vikings on Wednesday, though, was a (belly-)whopping 404 pounds. Oh, yeah, unless the Vikes sign Fonoti to a contract extension, they're basically playing rent-a-guard for the rest of the season, since he can become an unrestricted free agent next spring. The Chargers got a seventh-round pick in the trade. The choice escalates up to a sixth-rounder if Fonoti is active for six games or starts three contests. If nothing else, Fonoti going to Minnesota represented a bit of good fortune for the forlorn New Orleans Saints. The Saints had tried to deal for the supersized guard, too, and lost out to Minnesota.
• Back from injury: With the return of New England linebacker Tedy Bruschi to the practice field this week -- if the guy never plays a snap in a game this season, the feat is a remarkable one, even if not everyone in the Patriots' organization fully agrees with it -- everyone else on the league's physically unable to perform (PUP) list seemingly became anonymous. Taking nothing away from Bruschi, but there are some other players on the PUP and non-football injury lists, a few of whom also began practicing this week, who might yet aid their respective teams over the second half of the season.
And don't look now, but the league's lone unbeaten team, the Indianapolis Colts, could potentially benefit most from getting players back from the physically unable to perform list. One player, rookie linebacker Tyjuan Hagler, a fifth-round choice from the University of Cincinnati, returned for the Colts this week after rehabilitating from preseason surgery for a sports hernia. Under the PUP rules, now that Hagler has begun practicing, the Colts have three weeks to evaluate him and either elevate him to the active roster or keep him on the reserve list for the rest of the season. Given the Colts' lack of depth at linebacker, the athletic Hagler could end up playing some if he is healthy.
Indianapolis did not allow two other PUP players, sixth-year defensive tackle Josh Williams and second-year cornerback Von Hutchins, to begin practicing this week, and so the three-week clock hasn't starting ticking yet on either. Not putting either Williams or Hutchins back on the field yet, even though both are said to be all but ready to return to practice, might be a savvy and calculated move by Indianapolis management. The PUP rules stipulate that a player can return to practice after the sixth weekend of the season and up to the ninth weekend. The three-week window for adding a PUP player to the active roster doesn't begin until a player returns to practice. Essentially it's a six-week period, then, under which PUP players can return.
So the Colts can hold off on Williams and Hutchins a while longer, in part because Indianapolis is pretty deep at defensive tackle and cornerback right now, and would have to release a player in order to active the rehabbed veterans. The Colts have one of the NFL's top tackle rotations -- Corey Simon, Montae Reagor and Larry Tripplett -- and starting left end Raheem Brock also plays inside on passing downs. So it might be difficult for Williams to get onto the field. But if one of the Colts' tackles goes down with an injury, the team has the option of removing Williams from the PUP list and letting him return to practice.
The situation in the secondary, where the Colts always seem to find enough bodies despite injuries, is similar. And so Indianapolis can delay removing Hutchins from the physically unable to perform list for a couple more weeks, if they so desire.
Among the other players, beyond Bruschi, who were removed from the PUP list and started practicing this week: Baltimore tailback Musa Smith, Cincinnati linebacker Caleb Miller and Chicago fullback Jason McKie. Miller is an interesting guy because he played in 13 games for the Bengals in 2004, started three times as a rookie, and could provide coach Marvin Lewis depth and flexibility if elevated to the active roster.
Some other PUP players who might yet get back on the field this year are Kansas City weak linebacker Shawn Barber, Philadelphia linebacker Greg Richmond and Bears fullback Bryan Johnson.
Eagles defensive end Jerome McDougle, the victim of a carjacking in which he was shot in July, was set to return to practice this week. But last weekend, doctors were forced to repair a hernia that apparently was a complication of the wound McDougle received in the carjacking. It now appears that McDougle, a former first-round choice who had done little to reinforce that status in his first two years but had seemed to turn the corner in minicamps, will be out for the entire season.
• Not feeling A.J. in Miami: Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga made his first fortune in waste management. Ironic, because his team has managed to waste a lot of time, effort and most important, money, in some of its quarterback dealings, most notably those involving A.J. Feeley. The Dolphins ended the Feeley Era on Tuesday by shipping the erratic quarterback to the San Diego Chargers.
How far had Feeley plummeted, not just on the Miami depth chart, where he was No. 3 behind the hardly legendary Gus Frerotte and Sage Rosenfels, but in the eyes of league personnel men? The Dolphins had to include a sixth-round draft choice in the deal to convince Chargers general manager A.J. Smith to take Feeley, in exchange for young quarterback Cleo Lemon. When the trade was first announced, it was assumed by many that the Chargers had sent a sixth-rounder to Miami as part of the swap. But, uh-uh, it was the Dolphins who actually had to sweeten the pot.
The spin from South Florida is that the Dolphins wanted a young quarterback with some promise, liked what they had seen of Lemon in preseason, and figured he might fit into their future. The reality, though, is that Lemon has never appeared in a regular-season game, and no one knows how good or bad he might be. The Dolphins invested a second-round pick to acquire Feeley from Philadelphia in 2004. They paid Feeley $3.65 million in bonuses and base salaries to start eight games during his Miami tenure and win three of them.
The Dolphins essentially invested second- and sixth-round draft picks, along with $3.65 million, and the net gain is a quarterback who has never taken a snap in a regular-season contest. And they had to "accelerate" $1.8 million in prorated signing bonus charges for the $3 million in upfront money they gave Feeley when they signed him to a five-year, $17.6 million contract after acquiring him, into this year's salary cap. The only positive is that, by doing so, Feeley is off the books after this season.
On face, this week's trade looks like a swap of a lemon (Feeley) for a Lemon (Cleo). But it was a lot costlier than that for Miami and for Huizenga, who suggested at one point that Feeley might be "the next Dan Marino." The deal for Feeley was dubious from the outset. In 2002, when both Donovan McNabb and Koy Detmer were injured, Feeley posted a 4-1 mark as the Eagles' emergency starter. Following that season, when Feeley's market value should have been soaring, Philadelphia coach Andy Reid has said he got zero inquiries about his availability. A year later, after a 2003 campaign in which Feeley never got onto field and the Eagles couldn't drum up much interest, the Dolphins managed to conclude that he could be the next Dan Marino. Go figure.
• Impact on San Diego: Shortly after completing the Feeley trade, San Diego general manager A.J. Smith told anyone who would listen that no one should read too much into how the addition of the five-year veteran might impact the Chargers' quarterback situation next season. And that's probably the case. A lot of folks leaped to the assumption that adding Feeley would allow the Chargers to trade either Drew Brees or Philip Rivers and still have a No. 2 guy with some experience. But unless Feeley agrees to rework his contract, he doesn't have a prayer of being around San Diego in 2006. His base salary for 2006 is $3.5 million and then goes to $4.55 million for 2007 and to $5.6 million for 2008.
So in getting Feeley, the Chargers didn't exactly land an affordable insurance policy, did they? For this year, he's a reasonably priced No. 3 quarterback, since San Diego only has to pick up $349,411 of his $540,000 base salary. The guess here remains that the Chargers will trade one of their quarterbacks, since Rivers isn't going to bite his tongue forever and will begin to lose value if San Diego doesn't do something with him soon, but Smith certainly won't be forced into a deal. He's got between $20 million-$25 million in salary cap room for 2006, given the projected ceiling on spending, and can, indeed, afford to keep Brees and Rivers around for another year, if he so desires.
• QB shuffle in Tampa: Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden had some very flattering things to say about Brian Griese on Wednesday, when the Bucs brass finally got around to confirming the obvious, that the starting quarterback would require season-ending knee surgery. (Two days later, as we filed this, the Bucs still hadn't detailed the nature of the injury, but, hey, every team is being purposely cryptic about such matters anymore.)
But it will be interesting to see, if new starter Chris Simms plays well the rest of the way and leads the Bucs to a playoff berth, just where the Bucs stand next spring with Griese. The structure of the five-year, $32.26 million contract that Griese signed this spring -- a deal that had to be redone, so that Tampa Bay could avoid paying a $6 million roster bonus, and could realize some much-needed cap relief -- essentially makes it a contract that's renewable every March.
The Bucs paid Griese a modest signing bonus of $3 million and his base salary for this season is $665,000. But next March 3, Tampa Bay owes Griese a roster bonus of $2.6 million, and then a base salary for 2006 of $3.5 million. He carries a salary cap charge of $7.083 million for the 2006 season. There's also a roster bonus of $2.25 million due in March of 2007, and similar bonuses of $1.5 million each in the springs of '08 and '09. The base salaries for those seasons are $4.25 million for 2007 (with a cap charge of $7.35 million), $6 million for 2008 (cap charge of $8.35 million), and $7 million for 2009 (cap charge of $9.35 million). Basically, the Bucs could refuse to pay the $2.6 million roster bonus next spring, essentially cutting ties to Griese. By so doing, they would incur a cap charge of $2.533 million for prorated signing bonus money, but that would still represent a $4.55 million cap savings.
That's not to suggest the Bucs will bounce Griese. Gruden is, though, a guy who seems to traditionally have a sort of love-hate relationship with his quarterbacks. He loves collecting quarterbacks and is not above discarding them, too. Who knows, if the southpaw Simms gets hot, Gruden may become re-enamored of a guy he's had on a roller coaster the last couple seasons. Or maybe Tim Rattay, acquired from San Francisco this week in a trade for a sixth-round draft choice, will become Gruden's guy. The Bucs coach has a habit of having a flavor of the month at the game's most critical position. By next spring, if there is a more attractive alternative, Griese may be out of flavor and out of favor. Because of the structure of Griese's contract, the Bucs could let him walk and not incur a debilitating cap hit.
• Return of the King: Had the Bucs not completed the trade for Rattay, it would have been interesting to see how they would have filled out the quarterback depth chart, since there was some disagreement in the ranks over the free agent quarterbacks the club auditioned earlier in the day. Some of the team's personnel officials favored former New York Giants backup Jesse "The Bachelor" Palmer. Others preferred Shaun King, who played for the Bucs 1999-2003, and with Arizona in 2004. King twice led Tampa Bay to the playoffs and, in the 1999 NFC championship game had them within one dubious officiating decision of advancing to Super Bowl XXXIV.
Team sources said King, who wasn't in any team's camp this summer, had a strong workout for Bucs officials. It marks the third straight positive report on King auditions -- the other workouts were for New England and Detroit -- but he remains unsigned and hoping to get back into the league. King is only 28 years old and, given that the quarterback carousel is spinning at a pretty good rate this year, might still land a contract in 2005.
By the way, other quarterbacks considered by Bucs officials in the wake of the Griese injury included Rich Gannon and Chris Chandler.
Reggie Wayne
Wide Receiver
Indianapolis Colts
Profile
2005 SEASON STATISTICS
Rec Yds TD Avg Long YAC
28 348 2 12.4 51 112
• Keeping Colts on the offensive: Because of the manner in which opponents are playing it, with plenty of Cover 2 zones and secondaries featuring seven or eight defenders in dropping off, the Indianapolis offense might not be as explosive this season as it has been in recent years. But the unit still has tremendous "skill" personnel, and two of its veteran players, tailback Edgerrin James and wide receiver Reggie Wayne, are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents after this season. Don't bet on either player, though, making it to the open market.
One insider noted at Monday night's game in the RCA Dome that Wayne "is going nowhere." Some players, including quarterback Peyton Manning, are doing a hard sell on Wayne, telling him that, even as the No. 2 receiver in Indianapolis, behind Marvin Harrison, he has a great situation, and is still going to get the ball a lot. Wayne wouldn't be the first No. 2 wide receiver to be tempted by the lure of being a "lead" guy somewhere else, and by the money that comes with such status. But he need only look at the history of wideouts who have made such moves, like Alvin Harper and Peerless Price, to see the flawed logic that often accompanies relocating to a different offense. Apparently, from what people were saying Monday night, Wayne is smart enough to understand that, while the money might be greener somewhere else, the grass isn't necessarily more lush.
As for James, he is on pace for a career-best 1,765-yard season. Because defenses are playing soft upfront and rarely committing eight players in the box, James is going to have a lot of creases naturally created by spacing alone. And the game's smartest quarterback is wise enough to just keep handing the ball to James instead of forcing things downfield. James is playing for the one-year "franchise" qualifying offer of $8.1 million. To use the franchise marker on him again after this season would cost the Colts roughly $9.72 million, a huge swallow.
But there is sentiment within the organization to keep James and the inclination will be even stronger should Indianapolis advance to the Super Bowl. There's also the possibility that owner Jim Irsay, who dipped into his own personal account to help fund the deals for Manning and Harrison, could do so again. James remains one of the top five backs in the NFL and the small group of fans in Hoosierland who feel Indianapolis can just plug in someone else, like backup Dominic Rhodes, are incredibly misguided.
• One of the defenses that went "simpler" against the Colts was the Rams on Monday night. The upshot of playing Cover 2 much of the night: Despite stumbling out of the chute, and trailing 17-0 only 12 minutes into the contest, Indianapolis still put up 45 points. Edgerrin James rushed for 143 yards and three scores and Manning was typically efficient in directing an offense that scored on seven of nine possessions after the rough beginning.
No one can fault St. Louis interim coach Joe Vitt for streamlining things in an effort to cut down on mental errors and improve communication. But one Rams defender told us before the contest, at the team hotel, it was the "skinniest" game plan he had seen since joining the team, with only three or four coverages installed. Clearly, for Manning, it was like reading a primer. "They mostly stayed Cover 2 the whole game, and I'm glad, because, when they're moving (strong safety Adam) Archuleta all around, it can be real pain," Manning said. "He can be a really active guy."
On one of the few occasions when the Rams dropped Archuleta down into the box, a "red zone" situation, Manning checked out of a planned running play, audibled to a pass, and connected with Marvin Harrison on a "fade" route for the touchdown that established a new league record for most scoring plays between a quarterback and receiver.
• Holmgren gets tough: It will probably earn Mike Holmgren a nasty letter from an ACLU attorney, some flak from players, and a reminder from the NFL Players Association about the limitations a club can impose, but kudos to the Seattle Seahawks coach for prohibiting his players and coaches from entering the part of town where safety Ken Hamlin was assaulted Sunday night.
In the wake of the incident that left Hamlin with a brain injury, Holmgren told his team that it is no longer allowed to visit Pioneer Square, a historic restaurant and night club area not far from Qwest Field. It marks the first time as a head coach, Holmgren said, that he has ever issued such an off-limits edict. There will be repercussions, almost certainly, and probably from many quarters. But until the NFLPA raps Holmgren on the knuckles, or some attorney argues such a ban is illegal, the Seahawks coach figures it's worth a shot.
Players cannot be, as virtually every NFL coach is eventually forced to agree at some point, baby-sat 24/7. But it gets tiresome to hear excuses about how some players are immature, or how everyone makes a mistake when they're young, doesn't it? The truth is, most people, athletes or otherwise, go their entire existences without ever getting into trouble. And while players are correct in stating they shouldn't have to be recluses -- that they have a right to a night out, dinner and some drinks without being hassled, the same amenities everyone else enjoys -- celebrity carries a price tag. To earn that million-dollar paycheck, sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
• Seahawks soaring: As for matters on the field, things are falling rather nicely for Seattle, not just in the division, but around the entire NFC. The NFC West is unraveling, especially with coach Mike Martz and now quarterback Marc Bulger absent from the Rams, and the Seahawks, if they can maintain their current standard of play, might run away with the division. The schedule is not all that daunting, as only four of the Seahawks' remaining opponents currently can boast of winning records, and Seattle might just be a darkhorse candidate to land the homefield advantage in the NFC playoff bracket.
Still one of the game's best coaches, Mike Holmgren is arguably doing one of his best jobs in years. The Seahawks own the league's top-rated offense, are leading the NFL in yards on first down, and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is playing well. The defense is improved. And the team has overcome some early adversity, like winning its last two outings without either starting wide receiver. Seattle was a chic Super Bowl pick by many pundits in 2004, but maybe everyone was one season too early.
This final thought on Holmgren: He has just one year remaining on his contract. Certainly the team has not been as successful as he or owner Paul Allen hoped when Holmgren came aboard in 1999 to run the entire football operation. But it might be time for Allen to at least start thinking about an extension for Holmgren at the end of this year.
• Haslett on the move? On the subject of contract extensions for coaches, Jim Haslett of New Orleans still hasn't landed that two-year add-on that owner Tom Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis suggested eight months ago he was going to get. The extension embers were sort of rekindled in September, when the Saints relocated to San Antonio, and it was obvious that Haslett faced an untenable (and maybe unwinnable) situation. Since then, though, nary a word about trying to keep Haslett, more respected around the league than he is at times by his own franchise, beyond the 2006 season.
There is a common conception that, given everything the Saints have confronted in this aberration of a season, Haslett will get a free pass. That, no matter how bad things get, Benson can't and won't jettison him at the end of the season. We're not buying it. And, frankly, maybe moving on to another team wouldn't be the worst thing for Haslett, who has been through an emotional wringer on and off the field in 2005. Unlike many coaches who lose jobs this season -- one highly respected league source predicted to us this week that there will be nine changes before the start of the 2006 campaign but we think that number is a little high -- Haslett will have some options if Benson pink-slips him.
• Legal rumblings: In a week in which he dismissed his onetime right-hand man, the executive vice president who negotiated the sweetheart subsidies deal with the state of Louisiana, owner Tom Benson continued to provide at least circumstantial evidence that he, indeed, would like to relocate his franchise. And probably to San Antonio, the Saints' base of operations for this season.
Benson, who on Monday fired vice president Arnold Fielkow, at one time his most influential advisor, later in the week sought to terminate the Saints' lease at their Metairie, La., training complex. Benson attorney Phil Wittman, in a letter to a number of state agencies and the Louisiana National Guard, contended that the facility was damaged when occupied in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by various federal agencies. "As a result of these events, the Saints were unable to return to their training facility and were forced to relocate their entire football operations to San Antonio, Texas, at a very substantial cost," Wittman wrote. "It is not possible for the Saints to use the facility in any capacity, at least through the end of the current season, generating additional costs. Indeed, these actions have effectively terminated the lease for the facility and have caused great and continuing damage to the team. The Saints will not be in a position to reoccupy the training facility for some time (if ever) and they intend to hold the agency or agencies responsible for the damage caused to the facility during its occupation, and thereafter, until the Saints' legal rights to the facility have been established."
The lease to the facility runs through 2018 and the team pays annual rent of $1 on the 34-acre site. Both the team and the state are in the process of assessing the damage -- Wittman conceded to the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper that he has not seen the facility himself -- but it now seems certain that the team and Louisiana are on a legal crash course.
The problem for Benson, assuming he really does want to abandon New Orleans, is that the league and commissioner Paul Tagliabue seem staunchly opposed to such a move. The Saints might qualify as a candidate for relocation under guidelines drawn up years ago, when Raiders owner Al Davis seemed to have his franchise mounted on wheels, but Benson still needs his brethren in the ownership fraternity to approve a move. And it takes just nine votes in opposition to shoot down any relocation proposal. Two league owners told ESPN.com at mid-week that they expect Benson to try to void his lease at the Superdome and argue that, despite assessments it will be ready for at least part of the 2006 season, the facility is unusable in his estimation. Neither owner would acknowledge, however, they had heard that directly from Benson himself.
• Washington excelling for Redskins: Much of the attention in Washington has been on the lack of playing time for linebacker LaVar Arrington, who is said to have practiced well this week, and who might actually log some snaps in Sunday's game against the 49ers.
Marcus Washington
Linebacker
Washington Redskins
Profile
2005 SEASON STATISTICS
Tot Ast Solo FF Sack Int
35 28 7 0 0 0
It might be time, though, to focus on a linebacker who is on the field all the time for the Redskins and making plays for coordinator Gregg Williams. Very quietly and without much acclaim, strongside 'backer Marcus Washington, a surprise Pro Bowl selection in 2004, is having a terrific year once again. Washington has 36 tackles in six games, and hasn't yet recorded a sack, and his numbers are slightly off from a year ago, when he registered 107 tackles and 4½ sacks. But the six-year veteran, signed as an unrestricted free agent in 2004 after he spent his first four seasons in Indianapolis, is never out of position. He stays on the field for most third-down plays and his performance last Sunday, when he limited Kansas City tight end Tony Gonzalez to just two catches for 13 yards, was textbook stuff. There simply aren't many linebackers in the league as technically sound and efficient as Washington.
• Where's Tony? Speaking of Tony Gonzalez, no one in Kansas City is pushing the panic button yet, but clearly the perennial Pro Bowl performer, who lead the entire NFL in receptions (102) a year ago, is having problems getting open. The absence of left end Willie Roaf forced the Chiefs to employ Gonzalez as a blocker more than in past seasons and that contributed to his production in the first four games. But Roaf returned last week and Gonzalez could not shake Marcus Washington much of the game.
Through five outings, Gonzalez has 18 catches. At his current pace, he would finish with 58 receptions, and that would be his lowest total since 1998, his second season in the league, when he caught 59 balls. His career low was 33 catches, as a rookie in 1997. Over the past six seasons, Gonzalez has averaged 79.7 receptions, and has posted 75 or more catches three times.
There have been whispers that, at age 29 and in his ninth season, Gonzalez has started to slow down some. Most safeties and linebackers to whom we spoke this week aren't in agreement. At least not yet. But at this point, Gonzalez is putting him decidedly un-Gonzalez-like numbers. And the Chiefs, who don't have a wide receiver corps that strikes fear in opposing secondaries, need him to step things up.
• Miller time: There are a lot of terrific tight ends in the league, but one guy emerging as a potential big-time player for the rest of this season is Pittsburgh first-round pick Heath Miller. The former University of Virginia star was chosen to provide the Steelers and element their offense has been sorely lacking, a big receiver capable of controlling the middle of the field, and Miller is increasingly becoming a factor. Steelers coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, who played tight end in the NFL for nine seasons, is expanding Miller's presence in the passing game and will continue to do so. Miller has already demonstrated to this point in the season what an impact he can make as a "red zone" receiver.
• Witten receiving praise: Dallas officials haven't yet started negotiations on a contract extension for tight end Jason Witten, and they really don't have to yet, since the former Tennessee star is only in his third season. Even though Witten has reached performance levels that void the final two years of his original five-year contract, signed as a third-round pick in 2003, Dallas can retain him by making him a restricted qualifying offer.
But based on his play in last week's overtime victory against the Giants, Witten, who caught 87 passes in 2004, is a player worth keeping for the long-term. It's not that Witten put up big numbers, but rather the nuance he demonstrated. On a short touchdown pass, Witten went in motion across the back of the formation, then very subtly "sold" the run-fake to a penetrating Giants lineman by dipping his shoulder and feigning a block. When the defender went for the fake, Witten slid into the left flat, where he was wide open. And then Witten, on the game-winning field goal drive, ran a perfect post-corner route to shake open for a big gain.
He is a willing, but only average blocker, but Witten certainly is, in just his third season, already a very polished receiver.
• Draft rumblings: OK, so it's basically anathema, especially after his heroics last week in perhaps one of the best college football games of all-time, to suggest that Southern Cal quarterback Matt Leinart might not be the top prospect in the 2006 draft. But there are some scouts, none of them certifiable or known to have spent any time in straitjackets, who question the physical tools of the Trojans star. No doubt, as evidenced by the fourth-and-nine audible call that Leinart made late in the game, the guy is a thinking man's quarterback. But the lefty, scouts contend, does not have great arm strength and only decent mobility.
Clearly, Leinart could be kept out of the draft's top slot just by who might hold the overall No. 1 choice. The Houston Texans or San Francisco 49ers, having made huge investments in David Carr and Alex Smith, respectively, aren't in position to take another quarterback. That could mean the top spot would be traded. But if the suspicion exists that Leinart might slip a little, because teams at the top of the draft won't choose him, then the trade market might be somewhat diminished.
One thing upon which the scouts agree: There are no senior quarterbacks who are better prospects than Leinart. That said, some juniors who might decide to go into the '06 draft -- Vincent Young of Texas, Michigan State's David Stanton and Brady Quinn of Notre Dame -- might be intriguing prospects and could battle Leinart for the No. 1 quarterback spot.
A guy about whom everyone raves, even if there are some concerns about his lack of size, is Southern Cal tailback Reggie Bush. A human highlight film, Bush has been compared by some scouts to Marshall Faulk, because he can score in a variety of ways. Scouts believe that Bush, who they cannot discuss for attribution since he is an underclassman, will make himself available for the '06 draft.
• Elvis in the building: One of the defensive prospects scouts are hustling to see as evaluations for the '06 draft kick into high gear is Louisville end Elvis Dumervil. The senior has been a virtual one-man wrecking crew, as he leads the team in tackles (40) and tackles for loss (17½) and leads the nation in sacks (16½). Dumervil also has seven forced fumbles, a recovery, one interception and three passes defensed. At just 5-feet-11½ and 254 pounds, scouts aren't certain what to make of Dumervil when projecting him to the NFL level. They aren't sure yet if he can play the hybrid "edge" role in a 3-4, are pretty sure he can't be a 4-3 end, and don't know if he could make the transition to linebacker.
Of this, however, scouts are sure: Dumervil, who had six sacks against Kentucky earlier in the season, can rush the heck out of the quarterback. And the success of an undersized defender like Indianapolis end Robert Mathis, the situational pass rusher who checks in at just 235 pounds but who leads the NFL in sacks (seven), will benefit Dumervil when scouts analyze him.
"Mathis is the guy he reminds me of on tape, but I want to see (Dumervil) in person before I make a real judgement on his quickness," one NFC scouting director said. "But when you put on the tape, the guy is always in the backfield." Dumervil, by the way, was recently named a semifinalist for the Lombardi Award.
• Time for Garica? As this week's "Tip Sheet" was filed Friday morning, Detroit Lions coach Steve Mariucci had not yet determined his starting quarterback for this weekend. Unlike in Arizona, where coach Denny Green has made a decision and the Cardinals players know if it will be Josh McCown or Kurt Warner against Tennessee on Sunday, not even the most veteran Lions players seem aware yet of who will start.
The guess is that, if Jeff Garcia is sufficiently recovered from a broken left fibula and severe ankle sprain, and can move around enough to protect himself behind the porous Lions line, he will replace the struggling Joey Harrington in the lineup. But two Lions players said late Thursday that they felt Garcia still wasn't 100 percent and needed another week or two, but that his competitiveness might compel him to tell Mariucci he is ready to get onto the field. In the long run, it may not matter much if Garcia starts this week, or needs some more time to rehabilitate. At some point this season, it's almost certain, Garcia is going to bump Harrington from the top perch on the quarterback depth chart.
• RB issues in Baltimore: The Baltimore Ravens face a tough decision (or perhaps decisions) at the tailback spot. Their top two backs, Jamal Lewis and Chester Taylor, are both eligible to be unrestricted free agents and it's doubtful the Ravens can retain them both.
Lewis is, on face, the logical guy to keep around. But he has not recovered well from offseason ankle surgery, and his stint in a federal corrections facility, and some have contended that he is moping a bit because he hasn't gotten a contract extension. Cleveland tried to steal Taylor away from Baltimore this spring by signing him to a one-year, $3 million offer sheet as a restricted free agent. The Ravens swallowed hard and matched the offer. So they're paying over $6 million for both tailbacks this season, and it could cost more than that just to keep one of them next year.
Punts
Coles
The Jets hired offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger to extend the field and add a vertical element to their passing game, but do not have a completion of longer than 37 yards. Scouts contend that wide receiver Laveranues Coles, who suffered a foot injury in 2003 that he has never had surgery on, continues to be slowed by the ailment. Before the injury, Coles averaged 15.0 yards per catch and had 14 touchdowns and five receptions of 40 yards or more in 47 games. In the 36 games since, his average catch is for 11.9 yards, and he has just seven touchdowns and three 40-yard receptions. The explosiveness Coles once had, some contend, is missing. ... The Houston Texans have not led in any game this season. ... With go-to receiver Drew Bennett expected to miss several weeks following thumb surgery, the Tennessee wideout corps is going to have to grow up very quickly for the Titans offensive to move the ball. New coordinator Norm Chow is getting solid play from his tight ends, particularly second-year veteran Ben Troupe, but needs the young wideouts to start making plays, too. The relative "graybeard" of the bunch is oft-infirm third-year veteran Tyrone Calico. But it's rookie third-rounder Brandon Jones who offers the most potential for some vertical plays. ... Flagged for seven penalties in the past two weeks, Stockar McDougle of the Miami Dolphins has lost the starting right tackle job to 2004 first-rounder Vernon Carey. ... As expected, former Dolphins punter Matt Turk, released three weeks ago, has filed an injury grievance. Turk is contending the Dolphins released him before a groin injury had healed. ... There has been just one "horse-collar" penalty called in the first six weeks of the season. And it was actually against an offensive player, Green Bay tight end David Martin. . . . The teams that have faced Brian Urlacher so far this season claim the Chicago middle linebacker is once again playing with the kind of passion and explosiveness that marked his first two seasons in the league. ... In a surprise, the Philadelphia special teams, a perennial strong point for the Eagles, rate near the bottom of the NFL in virtually every key category. Special teams coordinator John Harbaugh has moved linebacker Keith Adams, removed from the coverage units when he became a starter, back onto special teams. Rookie tailback Ryan Moats, a third-round pick who had an excellent training camp, will debut this weekend as a kickoff returner. ... Desperate for help in the secondary, St. Louis this week auditioned free agent corners Terrell Buckley and Aaron Beasley but opted to sign neither for now. ... The Giants this week worked out free four free agent defensive backs, cornerbacks Mario Edwards and Lance Frazier and safeties Russell Stuvaints and Rich Coady. ... Quarterback Rohan Davey, released by Arizona last week, will work out for Buffalo officials next week. ... Despite the damage on the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina, officials from the Senior Bowl, the top college post-season all-star game, told ESPN.com that the contest will remain at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., and the date remains Jan. 28. ... A tight salary cap is forcing the Jets to play with only 52 players, one below the limit, on their roster. Remarkably, because the Jets haven't placed either Chad Pennington or Jay Fiedler on injured reserve, the roster currently includes five quarterbacks. ... Chicago has averaged 33 points in games against NFC North opponents and 8 points outside of the division. ... Jacksonville's Mike Pearson, who opened the season as the Jaguars' starting left offensive tackle, has been inactive for three straight games. Pearson was coming off 2004 surgery to repair three torn knee ligaments and might need the rest of this year to fully recover and regain his past form. . . . There are rumblings that, despite three seasons remaining on a contract worth $5 million annually, Steve Mariucci could be in some trouble in Detroit. The suggestion is that "Mooch" might not be tough enough on his team. ... They like defensive tackle Gerard Warren, the third overall choice in the 2001 draft, a lot more in Denver than they did in Cleveland. Warren has been a huge part of the resurgence of the Broncos defense, providing plenty of inside push, and the team has already floated the idea of a contract extension for the five-year veteran. . . . Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards, expected to miss 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery to excise a bacterial infection from his arm, could return much sooner than that. Edwards was back on the practice field this week. He won't play Sunday but is making excellent progress, even as specialists continue to study the infection that forced them to make a nine-inch incision in his arm. ... The human vultures preying on the victims of Hurricane Katrina have moved into the sports trainer field, it seems. Rival trainers are telling people that the hurricane knocked longtime speed specialist Tom Shaw, one of the best in what has flourished from a cottage industry into a big-time endeavor, and a guy who has prepared dozens of first-round picks for the draft, out of business. It's not true, and Shaw wants to get the word out that he is ready for his usual legion of high-profile clients at the end of the college season. ... When the Chargers face the Eagles on Sunday, it will mark their third straight matchup against an opponent coming off its bye week. ... There were published reports in London this week that the NFL has begun contacting potential local sponsors for a regular-season game at Wembley Stadium in 2006. The reports suggest that, because of the travel, the teams would both be from the East Coast. ... Tampa Bay would like to upgrade the bottom of its wide receiver depth chart and will audition free agent Drew Haddad next week. ... The Cowboys will start a pair of offensive tackle at Seattle on Sunday, Torrin Tucker (left) and Rob Pettiti (right), who have just 20 regular-season starts between them. Tucker, who is replacing Flozell Adams, lost for the season to a torn anterior cruciate ligament, has never started on the left side before. Despite being desperate for a left tackle, the Cowboys did not consider contacting veteran free agent Ross Verba, who talked himself off the Cleveland Browns roster this summer. Verba may never play in the NFL again. Neither did the Cowboys consider former Seattle starter Chris Terry, who played on the right side for the Seahawks, but had some experience at left tackle.
• Defensive issues in Atlanta: Even with all the flash-and-splash provided by Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcons know that the formula for success depends on the running game: generating one on offense and stifling the other team's ground attack defensively. So far, the Falcons have gotten half the equation down pat, as they lead the league in rushing for a second straight season. But coach Jim Mora, who wants a physical team, has to be alarmed by the Falcons' defense versus the rush. Or, more appropriately, the lack thereof. Atlanta ranks 28th in the league in rushing yards surrendered and only Buffalo has permitted a higher rushing average than the 5.0 yards the Falcons have allowed. The Falcons have given up an NFL-worst 51 rushing first downs. And while they have surrendered just three runs of 20 or more yards, an acceptable quota, that means opponents are pounding the ball consistently on Atlanta, and that the numbers aren't skewed because of a few big plays.
In last week's victory over the Saints, the Atlanta defense allowed 211 rushing yards on 32 carries, and that was without star tailback Deuce McAllister in the New Orleans lineup. Journeymen Antowain Smith (12 attempts for 88 yards) and Aaron Stecker (86 yards on 16 rushes) found gaping holes much of the day.
The Falcons were forced to overhaul their entire linebacker unit in the wake of the season-ending Achilles injury to middle linebacker Ed Hartwell two weeks ago. In the new alignment, weakside 'backer Keith Brooking moved to the middle, strongside starter Demorrio Williams switched to his more natural weakside spot, and rookie Michael Boley took over on the strong side. Boley made some big plays but, watching tape of the game, it was obvious he struggled to disengage from blocks.
The bigger problem, though, might be at safety, where the Falcons aren't even getting routine plays from the starting tandem of Keion Carpenter and Bryan Scott. Teams tend to forget the importance of safeties, and Atlanta chose in the offseason to address their shortcoming at the position with just some minor acquisitions. The result: Opponents are making big yardage in the running game, in part because the Falcons safeties aren't very good. Mora is watching the position closely, and there could be changes, but it isn't as if there are a lot of alternatives for Atlanta right now.
• Cure for Falcons defense? A snippet of good news for the shaky Falcons run defense is that the New York Jets are next on the schedule, for a Monday night matchup at the Georgia Dome. Yeah, the Jets have tailback Curtis Martin, but they also have a dramatically reconfigured offensive line that might be easily overwhelmed by Atlanta's penchant for bringing lots of bodies, both with run- and pass-blitzes.
The season-ending triceps injury to Kevin Mawae means the Jets will have their first different starting center since 1998. Pete Kendall will move from left guard to center to replace Mawae, who started 118 straight games and went to six Pro Bowl games as the Jets' snapper. Fourth-year veteran Jonathan Goodwin, long on promise but short on playing time, moves in at left guard.
The Jets staff earlier in the year flipped their tackles, with Jason Fabini moving to the right side and first-year starter Adrian Jones going from right to left. That means the only player who remains in the spot where he opened the season is right guard Brandon Moore.
So even with the problems the Falcons have had against the run, the Jets could make them healthy again Monday night. And the Falcons, among the lead leaders in sacks, are certain to come hard at 41-year-old quarterback Vinny Testaverde, too. According to Rich Cimini, the excellent New York Daily News reporter on the Jets beat, Testaverde faced five- or six-man fronts on 10 of 26 pass attempts against Buffalo last week. The Falcons figure to bring the house.
• Jets' Reed making most of chance: On the defensive side of the ball for the Jets, tackle Dewayne Robertson is getting a lot of attention, including from this column last week. But his tackle partner, the undersized James Reed, is very quietly having a pretty nice season. Mostly an afterthought within the Jets organization for the previous four years, Reed has become pretty active this season and developed into a pretty nice complement to the impressively talented Robertson.
The improvement comes at an opportune time for Reed, who can be an unrestricted free agent next spring. Reed, 28, won't break the bank with a fat contract, but he might be worth a look from a team seeking a medium-level player who could fit into its tackle rotation. In six games this season, Reed has 23 tackles. That might not sound like a lot, but it projects to 61 stops for the year, and Reed's previous career best was 31 tackles in 2003. A starter in just two of his 64 appearances in the past four years, Reed averaged only 23.5 tackles per season. He has clearly stepped up his play, though, in 2005.
• Jordan wants the ball: During his tenures as a coordinator and head coach, the feature backs in a Norv Turner-designed offense have averaged over 300 rushes per season. And that includes a couple seasons in Washington when Turner really didn't have a big-time tailback to carry the load for him. But through five games, Oakland Raiders tailback LaMont Jordan, signed to a huge contract to remedy the team's case of running game anemia, has logged just 87 carries. That projects out to only 278 rushes for the season, hardly typical for Turner, who needs to start pounding Jordan at defenses a lot more.
Jordan certainly wants more rushes and the former backup to New York Jets star Curtis Martin, hasn't exactly been shy about telling people that. Right now, the Oakland offense is more imbalanced toward the pass than most Turner teams have been. If wide receiver Randy Moss, can't play this week because of a groin injury, look for the Raiders to hand the ball a lot to Jordan against a Buffalo defense that's had all kinds of problems stopping the run.
• Dann can carry the load:Because of his size (5-feet-9, 180 pounds), the perception is that Atlanta's Warrick Dunn can't handle a big workload. But the nine-year veteran, a much tougher inside runner than he is credited with being, is on pace for 296 carries in 2005, which would be a career high. And with No. 2 tailback T.J. Duckett expected to be sidelined at least a couple weeks by an ankle sprain, Dunn could get the ball even more. Dunn rushed a career-high 265 times in 2004, but his receptions fell off to 29, a career low. They could be even lower this season, with Dunn on just a 19-catch pace, with seven receptions for 50 yards in six games.
In the West Coast offense, Dunn doesn't get as many chances to catch the ball out of the backfield. During his five seasons in Tampa Bay, he averaged 51.8 receptions and twice had more than 60 catches. Dunn totaled 87 receptions in his first two years in Atlanta, playing in the Dan Reeves offense, but he may never again reach those levels in the current Falcons paradigm.
• Number crunching: Sometimes you can crunch the numbers a dozen times, they all come out the same, but they still don't add up. Case in point: Through the first six weeks of the season, there have been 13 fewer individual rushing performances of 100 yards than at the same point of the 2004 campaign. Clearly, as we saw first-hand from the New York Giants last week at Dallas, defenses are "selling out" to the run. The Giants employed run-blitzes on nearly every first-and-10 play. But in terms of overall rushing, the numbers from this year aren't much different from those of last season. At this point in 2004, teams had run the ball 4,816 times for 19,448 yards, an average of 4.04 yards per attempt. This season, there have been 4,883 rushes for 20,186 yards, and a 4.13-yard average.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. To check out Len's chat archive, click here .
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