NOMINEE	THE SKINNY
	Overrated	Carolina Panthers	Maybe I'm the guilty one. I visited their training camp in South Carolina last July and saw menacing rich presence Sean Gilbert, imported from Washington, leading the defensive troops, with pass-rusher Lamar Lathon revving up for a comeback year. Comeback quarterback Kerry Collins looked sharp in the new West Coast offense, and wideout Rae Carruth looked like a future star. Those four guys either stink, quit or got hurt, and coach Dom Capers wasn't enough of a commanding presence to right the ship.
	Underrated	The New Orleans Saints' defensive front seven	The Saints should have gone 3-13. But you ask Dennis Green and Dick Vermeil and Brad Johnson and Randall Cunningham and Tony Banks which defense tormented them most this year. And though you haven't heard much of Joe Johnson, La'Roi Glover, Wayne Martin and Mark Fields, you will in the next couple of years, if the Saints' offense can hold up its end of the deal.
	Annoying	The endless, sickening intrusion of network promos during televised games	I'm so glad I'm in a stadium every week and can watch football without having to be clubbed over the head by a Party of Five preview. And while I'm at it, how am I to take Cris Collinsworth seriously when I see him promoed as the host of some show featuring a man covered with 8,000 bees?
	Breakthrough	Ed McCaffrey, Denver	"Every game he plays he's an impact player," said Broncos coach Mike Shanahan. Put on a tape of any Denver game this year and there's McCaffrey, making a play that helps decide who wins. He's not just a very good receiver. He's an All-Pro.
	Uplifting	Doug Flutie, Buffalo	No one's even close. Caring for an autistic son, enduring his wife's miscarriage and overcoming all the naysayers who doubted he could make an NFL roster -- never mind an impact -- he was the Magic Flutie all season.
	MVP	Terrell Davis, Denver	Sorry to be boring, but with John Elway iffy almost all season with one injury or other, Davis carried the best team in the NFL on his back and won games when they had to be won.
	Storyline to Follow in 1999	The influx of new quarterbacks	With so few good quarterbacks available in free agency (one, really: Randall Cunningham, who might not move because he loves life as a Viking) the draft will be maniacally monitored for salvation at quarterback. With Kentucky's Tim Couch likely coming out and Central Florida's Daunte Culpepper a top-three pick, the class will also include UCLA's Cade McNown (vastly underrated because he's 6' 1/2" and doesn't have a gun, though he's the smartest and winningest and wiliest quarterback in America), Syracuse's Donovan McNabb, Oregon's Akili Smith and Washington's Brock Huard.