The season is finally
here:
How can you not be fired up?
Posted: Thu Sept 3,
1998
Be sure to check out Peter King's Postcards from Camp, a
14-part series of e-mails from his annual
NFL tour. And submit your season-opening questions for Peter's
next Mailbag, coming next week.
I've tried to figure out why I always look forward to the
first weekend of the NFL season more than any other until
the playoff round of eight. This year is no exception; I'll
be in Baltimore for Ravens-Steelers, but I wish I could be
in 3Com for
Jets-Niners or Texas Stadium for Cards-Cowboys or the RCA Dome for
Peyton
Manning's first
game.
I think the reason I'm like this—and from the fervor I
sense on talk shows and in locker rooms the last few weeks,
I'm not alone—is because we spend seven or eight
months watching teams plan and draft and throw money around
and practice and tinker ...
and the bottom line, come September, is we have absolutely no
idea who'll win a lot of these races. I'm clueless about
the NFC East. I think I like Pittsburgh better than
Jacksonville, and the Dolphins better than the Patriots and
Jets, and Denver better
than Kansas City, and Green better than Tampa in the battle
of the Bays.
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Miami's Avery should be one of the NFL's most exciting rookies.
(V.J. Lovero)
| That's just it. I
think, but I don't
know. Labor Day weekend for me is kind of like Christmas. I'm
jacked up to find out if I'll be right about Miami running
back
John
Avery and all-purpose Steeler
Hines
Ward, who I think will be the most scintillating rookies. Those
are the types of things I'll be looking for opening day,
and
beyond.
The limb is long this time of year, but here are my playoff
predictions heading into the opening
weekend:
(Wait! I have to give my National League home run final
totals:
McGwire 66, Sosa 62, Vaughn
54.)
(Wait! I'm not done. A.L. Cy Young: 1.
Pedro
Martinez. You've got to give him a hair of an edge for pitching in
a bandbox, but my vote switches if Clemens keeps throwing
zeroes. 2.
Roger
Clemens. 3.
David
Wells. 4.
David
Cone.)
NFC
Wild Card: Minnesota 20, Carolina
17
Semis: Green Bay 31, Minnesota 23; Tampa Bay 22, Giants
7
Final: Green Bay 24, Tampa Bay
20
AFC
Wild Card: New England 17, Baltimore
15
Semis: Pittsburgh 23, New England 6; Denver 22,
Jacksonville
20
Final: Pittsburgh 16, Denver
13
Super Bowl
XXXIII
Green Bay 27, Pittsburgh
9
Now for your
questions:
I am a die-hard San Diego Chargers fan. I am not expecting
them to go far this year and I am just excited we finally
drafted a legitimate quarterback. Who do you think is
going to catch the majority of balls now that Tony Martin
is in
Atlanta?
—Peter Finneran, Boca Raton,
Fla.
You have the correct expectation level, Peter. Look for
rookie
Mikhael
Ricks, the second-rounder from Stephen F. Austin, to be
Ryan
Leaf's big receiver. Ricks is an impressive guy, a poised,
6'5" target who's been practically joined at the hip,
in a playbook sense, to Leaf throughout the preseason. The
Chargers have made some good moves, but I think they're
still a couple of big players
from contention. The thing I like is that
Bobby
Beathard has solidified the left side of the line with two free
agents, tackle
John Jackson
(from the Steelers) and guard
Aaron Taylor
(from the Packers), so Leaf should have a fair shot as a
rookie because he'll have satisfactory protection on his
blind
side.
With Jason Sehorn going down with his knee injury, could
Donnell Woolford be a quick fix for the Giants if safeties
Conrad Hamilton or Shaun Williams don't pan out in the
secondary? Or is Woolford damaged
goods?
—Pat Curry, Moravia,
N.Y.
Good idea, but there are so many teams hungry for corners
right now that you'd think they'd be lining up at
Woolford's door if he had anything at all left. Here's his
problem: He's lost two steps from his peak years in Chicago
five or six years ago, and
he's a not a diligent worker off the field. The Giants are
better off going with
Conrad
Hamilton and, within two or three weeks, subbing
Shaun
Williams for him when Williams knows enough about what he's doing.
Make no mistake about it, though: New York will feel the
loss of
Sehorn
early and often this year, beginning this week when
Redskins receiver
Michael
Westbrook makes a couple of plays on
them.
So the Redskins improve defensively, and you pick them to
be worse than they were last year? What
gives?
—Jim Steele, Washington,
D.C.
Have you watched them during the preseason? They have the
worst pass rush of any NFC contender. They have a
quarterback who sometimes looks like Braves reliever
Mark
Wohlers out there. They have a leaky offensive line. They have a
brutal non-divison schedule (San Francisco, Denver and
Tampa at home, Minnesota and two improved teams, Oakland
and Carolina, on the road). They're a bubble playoff team,
just like they were last
year, even with the sharp improvement in their run
defense.
Now that the Chiefs have passed on Lawrence Phillips, have
we seen the last of him? Also, his mental problems are well
documented, but have his physical skills diminished so much
that no one will even give him a
shot?
—Chris Nothrop, Omaha,
Neb.
An incredible myth developed around
Lawrence
Phillips as he left Nebraska. It went something like this: This man
has the speed and the power to be a great inside-outside
runner. One problem with the myth—at Nebraska, with
SUV-sized holes in the defense to run through, Phillips
rarely had to burrow into a
line and explode the defense. In St. Louis and Miami,
Phillips had to make some holes and fight and scratch and
claw. And these teams found out he couldn't do it. He's an
awful runner in traffic, and defenses thought if you got a
couple of hard hits on
him he'd lay down. In my opinion, the guy was a mediocre NFL
back the day he stepped into the
league.
What do you think of Elvis Grbac's decision to leave San
Francisco a year ago now, and will Jim Druckenmiller start
for the 49ers in 1999 or
2000?
—Brian Lee, Quebec
City
Any time you can leave a great team as a backup for the
next three or four years and go to a consistent winner to
be a starter, it's a no-brainer. You go. Grbac's decision
was easy.
Steve
Young is going to play probably two more years, and so that
means Grbac would have started for the
Niners—maybe—in 2000. He'd be 30 then. Why wait?
As far as Druckenmiller goes, he's the favorite to start in
2000 for the Niners, but he's been a
disappointment so far, and I think
Ty Detmer
is the fallback should something happen to young in the
next two
years.
Are there any running backs being released or waived that
could give a frustrated Chiefs fan hope
?
—Jim Burdett, Las
Vegas
No. None. Coach
Marty
Schottenheimer told me last week he was going with
Donnell
Bennett and
Kimble
Anders, and he'd look to supplement them with a third back of
some quality, but even if you think that's ex-Giant
Rodney
Hampton, he's nowhere near an answer to be an every-down
guy.
I'm been a Rams fan since '77 and can remember vividly when
sweeping the 49ers and contending for the NFC crown was as
common as waking up. I'm assuming it really went bad when
we didn't give Eric Dickerson his money. Why are we so
perenially
bad?
—James Ward, El Sobrante,
Calif.
Hate to be so basic, but it's the draft. Let's go backwards
and look at who they've picked high. Right end
Grant
Wistrom (19tk, tkth
round)
has had a poor camp and probably was a reach at six this
year. Left tackle
Orlando
Pace (19tk, tkth round) will be a stud. Good pick there.
Running back
Lawrence Phillips
and WR
Eddie
Kennison? Awful return for two first-rounders in 1996, and I
believe
Tony
Banks, drafted in the second round, is not their long-term
answer at QB; he's just not accurate enough on deep balls.
Kevin
Carter, the first-rounder in '95, is an average NFL left
defensive end. Right tackle
Wayne
Gandy ('94) is a backup-quality guy. Running back
Jerome
Bettis and tight end
Troy
Drayton were the first two picks in 1993, and both got run off. I
still can't believe then-coach
Rich
Brooks couldn't get along with Bettis. I mean, I speak for all
writers in the NFL, I think, when I say that Bettis is one
of the best guys in the league, on and off the field. That
enough evidence for
you?
The Ravens have a good, young defense built around their
talented linebackers, an exciting pair of wide receivers in
Jermaine Lewis and Pat Johnson to complement Michael
Jackson, and a proven winner in quarterback Jim Harbaugh.
Why is everybody picking them to finish so poorly this
year?
—George Bowser,
Baltimore
George, you ask a very good question. Here's a real-world
answer for you: Most predictions are made by writers in
June or July, before these teams have developed. Ask most
of the experts what they think now and they'd tell you the
Ravens, along with the
Vikings, could be the surprise teams of the
league.
Who do you think has been the bigger bust in the NFL, Heath
Shuler or Rick
Mirer?
—Eric Isaac, Washington,
D.C.
At least Mirer did it for a year, and at least he'll have a
whisper of a chance to revive his career now that he's with
a great quarterback coaching system in Green Bay
(Mike Holmgren-Andy Reid-Brett
Favre). Shuler never did it once, and now he might never play
again because of his severe foot
damage.
Click here to submit a question to Peter
King.
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