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In capturing the Super Bowl XXXVII title last season, the Tampa Bay Bucs beat the odds, becoming one of the few teams in recent NFL history to win a championship despite not featuring a 1,000-yard rusher and with a tailback-by-committee approach.
Two different backs, Michael Pittman and Mike Alstott, each had more than 140 carries and Aaron Stecker contributed as a third-down back. But even that committee approach might be better than what the Bucs could face this year if Pittman is sanctioned by the NFL for an incident last weekend in which he allegedly rammed the car of his wife, while their son was a passenger, with his Hummer.
Winning a Super Bowl with three running backs is hard enough. Defending a title minus your leading rusher, and with Alstott perhaps suddenly slotted as the feature runner, could be exponentially more difficult. But that is the now the specter Tampa Bay, which ranked just No. 27 statistically in rushing offense last season, now confronts with less than two months remaining before the start of training camp.
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1,000-yard receivers
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When the San Francisco 49ers released wide receiver J.J. Stokes on Monday, it ended a disappointing tenure, one in which the 1995 first-round choice failed to register even a single 1,000-yard season. But Stokes, the 10th overall prospect selected in '95, is among a large group of recent first-round wide receivers who never recorded 1,000 yards in a year. In fact, of the 45 wide receivers taken in the first round between 1990-2002, just 18 have posted 1,000 yards at least once. Here is a list of those 18 wideouts, with the number of their 1,000-yard performances:
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Player
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Drafted
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1,000 yds
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Randy Moss
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'98
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5
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Marvin Harrison
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'96
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4
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Keyshawn Johnson
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'96
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4
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Herman Moore
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'91
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4
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Johnnie Morton
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'94
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4
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Joey Galloway
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'95
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3
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Torry Holt
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'99
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3
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Eric Moulds
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'96
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3
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Derrick Alexander
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'94
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2
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David Boston
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'99
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2
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Plaxico Burress
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'00
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2
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Curtis Conway
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'93
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2
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Terry Glenn
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'96
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2
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Rod Gardner
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'01
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1
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Charles Johnson
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'94
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1
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O.J. McDuffie
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'93
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1
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Koren Robinson
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'01
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1
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Michael Westbrook
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'95
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1
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-- Len Pasquarelli
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It appears the career of Pittman could well be jeopardized by the incident last weekend. Pittman is now formally charged with a pair of felony counts of aggravated assault. In the state of Arizona, a conviction calls for a mandatory sentence of at least five years for each guilty count.
In most cases, Pittman probably would be able to continue playing until his legal situation was resolved, and indeed he participated in the Bucs' organized workouts this week. But Maricopa County (Ariz.) prosecutors plan to seek, because of the latest incident, to have Pittman's probation revoked, and have him placed in jail. The veteran was on probation because of his two domestic violence incidents in 2001, criminal trespass and criminal damage, for which he was convicted and suspended for one game.
While the league and the Bucs have little recourse but to permit Pittman to continue working until due process runs its course, it's tough to practice while in jail, unless maybe you're starting in a remake of The Longest Yard. And if Pittman has his probation revoked, he could well be jailed, and might sit behind bars for 6-7 months before he goes to trial on the latest allegations.
That would put the Bucs in a tough spot, as well, since they really don't have a viable replacement as a true tailback. This week's addition of veteran Terry Kirby doesn't help much, since he is strictly a roleplayer, and there isn't much left in the free-agent market. The Arizona Cardinals, who continue to attempt to trade former first-rounder Thomas Jones, phoned Bucs officials this week. But there doesn't seem to be much interest, at least at this point, in Jones from Bucs coaches and officials.
Coach Jon Gruden pushed earlier this offseason for the addition of Emmitt Smith, but his entreaties weren't well received internally. Given that Tampa Bay officials were already wary of Pittman's background, and knew of his anger management problems of the past, getting Smith, in hindsight, might not have been a bad idea.
With three players arrested over the past two months, this has a been a trying offseason for Bucs officials, and it could get worse if Pittman is forced to serve jail time pending his trial. Tampa Bay probably remains the early Super Bowl favorite for 2003, but the team has become a graphic reminder, it seems, of how difficult it can be to defend a title.
The coaches seem confident that former cornerback Dwight Smith, one of three players facing legal entanglements, can make the transition to free safety and replace the departed Dexter Jackson. The addition of Dwayne Rudd, who replaces Alshermond Singleton at the strong-side linebacker position, looks like an upgrade. But the offensive line has been scrambled, there will likely be some ramifications from the fact Warren Sapp is entering the final year of his contract and perhaps his last season in Tampa, and reports of unrest between Gruden and the front office have been rampant.
All in all, hardly the kind of tranquil offseason that the Bucs, or Pittman, hoped for.
Around the league
The noise wasn't all that deafening but, when the second shoe fell on Thursday in this week's shakeup of the Washington Redskins front office, no one should have been overly surprised. While it didn't merit much attention, the Redskins on Thursday pink-slipped college scouting director Ron Nay, only two days after firing vice president of football operations Joe Mendes. And let's quit trying to soften the departure of Mendes, folks, since it was a firing and not a mutually agreed upon exit. Mendes and longtime ally Nay had been at loggerheads with personnel director Vinny Cerrato, who was elevated to vice president under the new structure, for some time. And when owner Dan Snyder ceded responsibility for draft and free agency preparation to Cerrato, and came to increasingly lean on his expertise as the Redskins aggressively reshaped their roster this spring, it was obvious Mendes and Nay would eventually be dumped. To excise the pair costs Snyder about $450,000. He owes Mendes roughly $300,000 on a contract that was to have run through February, and Nay had a year remaining on his deal, at $150,000. But in truth, that might be a small price to pay for finally ridding the Redskins of the friction that has marked their front office relationships for more than a year, and which clearly had grown into an untenable situation. From the outset, the second tenure of Mendes and Cerrato with the Redskins seemed doomed, and probably an ill-advised combination set in place by ownership. The first time around, Cerrato was superior to Mendes, but this time the roles were reversed. It may not have been the final straw, since the fates of Nay and Mendes were pretty much sealed months ago, but what transpired recently at the National Football Scouting, Inc. meetings didn't help their cause. Cerrato requested that Nay not attend the combine meetings. Mendes brought him along anyway. The next step: Snyder needs to begin considering a contract extension for Cerrato, his closest football confidant, since his current deal has just eight months remaining. Cerrato now has two openings on his scouting staff and will begin interviewing candidates next week.
We aren't often right about many things but, in reporting in this space last week that the June 1 date would actually result in more signings than salary cap casualties, it seems we finally hit a bull's eye. From Monday morning through Thursday evening, there were just six "vested" veterans (four seasons or more accrued toward the pension plan) released for salary cap reasons, but 13 such players who signed contracts with new teams. Don't be surprised if those kinds of numbers become the norm in ensuing springs. Most teams now make what would have been their June 1 cap cuts much earlier in the offseason, around March 1, to come into compliance with the NFL spending limit. And teams, in general, are far more cap healthy this year. On the flip side, as noted last week, savvy veterans who are still unemployed know that June 1 begins the run up to training camp openings and are more willing to swallow their pride and accept minimum-salary deals.
If defensive tackle Josh Evans is socked with a so-called "lifetime ban," as is expected for what is alleged to be another violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy, the New York Jets will recoup the $3 million option bonus they paid him on March 1. To guard against any further indiscretions by Evans, who has already been suspended twice by the NFL, including a one-year ban for the 2000 season, the Jets wrote a protection clause into his four-year, $9.3 million contract when they signed him as a free agent in 2002. The clause stipulates, in part, that if Evans is in default of his contract "on or before Feb. 1, 2004," the entire option payment of $3 million will be forfeited. Jets officials, who can't speak for attribution about the Evans situation because of league confidentiality rules, expect a ruling on the defensive tackle's appeal in the near future. As for how the pending suspension will impact negotiations with first-round choice Dewayne Robertson, who is now expected to assume Evans' starting spot next to Jason Ferguson, there really was no progress made in discussions this week. New York, which has demonstrated in the past that it won't necessarily wait for the market to be set by draft picks surrounding its own choice, may indeed want to see if there are any other speedy deals in the first round. And very quietly team officials have begun considering what free agent defensive tackles are still available who might be able to come in and provide 15-20 snaps a game if Evans is suspended. One candidate is Steve Martin, who played for the Jets in 2001, but was cut by the Patriots last season because of ineffectiveness and his public complaints about a lack of playing time.
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| Dyson |
Even though the Carolina Panthers were stunned by the Achilles injury sustained by wide receiver Kevin Dyson this week, a setback that almost certainly will sideline the team's projected deep threat for the entire 2003 campaign, club officials seem to be in no hurry to add a replacement. General manager Marty Hurney made some quick calls to agents of still unemployed wide receivers, notably the representative for unrestricted free agent Antonio Freeman, but now seems to have thrown on the brakes. The Panthers will wait for a while to assess Dyson's potential recovery timeline but, more realistically, hope that some more wide receivers come available in the next few weeks. Freeman, though, remains one of the few remaining "hot" players in the free agent market. Beyond the Panthers, he continues to draw solid interest from San Francisco, Philadelphia and Jacksonville. The 49ers are balking at his asking price, but Freeman still has a good offer on the table from the Eagles, for whom he was very productive in 2002 as the No. 3 wide receiver behind James Thrash and Todd Pinkston. The Eagles, by the way, have broached the possibility of a contract extension for Pinkston, who really emerged in '02, and who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in the spring of 2005. Don't look for a quick deal with Pinkston, though, since he and his agent are confident that he will continue to flourish in 2003 and post a career season.
In a perfect world, the New England Patriots would have landed a 300-pound mauler this offseason to play the nose tackle position, as coach Bill Belichick moves his club to a 3-4 defensive alignment. But the world isn't perfect and so the Patriots will make do with what they have. That means second-year veteran Jarvis Green, a fourth-round choice in 2002 who played his natural defensive end spot as a rookie, could become the starter on the nose. Green is working there this weekend as the Patriots convene for their only mandatory mini-camp of the offseason. The hope is that, while he doesn't have the bulk normally associated with the position, Green's quickness will help compensate. And the coaches feel that, despite a lack of size, '03 fourth-rounder Dan Klecko might be able to give them some quality snaps on the nose. Regardless of who plays inside, the decision to move former 4-3 tackle Richard Seymour to end in the three-man front, is irreversible. The other end could well be first-round pick Ty Warren. The Pats will also keep a keen eye on the waiver wire in case a pure nose tackle, like Ted Washington of Chicago, is pared later in the spring.
Overlooked in much of the hype surrounding quarterback Michael Vick in Atlanta, was the nice job the Falcons did in getting the ball to tailback Warrick Dunn, who registered 1,304 combined yards from scrimmage in 2002. Coach Dan Reeves suggested, when the Falcons signed Dunn as an unrestricted free agent last spring, that his goal was to get him the ball at least 20 times per game. Many skeptics, including yours truly, were dubious of the Falcons' ability to reach that benchmark. But the mercurial Dunn carried 230 times and caught 50 passes, and while his average of 18.7 "touches" per game was below Reeves projection, it was still higher than his career average of 17.6. Now in his second year in the Atlanta offense, Dunn should be able to expand on his all-around role, and his production could actually improve if 2002 first-rounder T.J. Duckett is the back the Falcons still believe him to be. After missing all of the team's offseason program, so that he could rehabilitate in California with his personal trainer, Duckett finally reported to the Falcons the middle of this week and will participate in drills starting next week. He might take some carries away from Dunn in 2003, assuming his physical ailments are behind him, but Duckett would be a tremendous complement to the speedier starter. He could soften up the interior of opposition defenses and perhaps allow Dunn to improve on his 4.0-yard rushing average of a year ago.
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| Horn |
That one-year contract extension wide receiver Joe Horn signed earlier this week cost the exceedingly cap-healthy New Orleans Saints just $1.1 million in spending room for this season but netted the seven-year veteran $7 million in so-called "new money." Under his old contract, Horn was due a total of $6 million in 2003-2004. The new contract, which adds a season and now binds Horn to New Orleans through 2005, is worth $13 million, but only raises the Saints' cap charge for '03 from $4.212 million to $5.312 million. Under the new deal, Horn received a $5.1 million signing bonus that is payable in six installments. He already pocketed a $200,000 roster bonus on March 15 and then got an additional $1.5 million roster bonus on Thursday. His base salaries for 2003 and 2004 are $700,000 each (down from the scheduled $2.7 million for this year and $2.9 million for 2004 under the old deal) and then the base jumps to $3.8 million for 2005. There is also a $1 million roster bonus due in the spring of 2005. Essentially, the new contract pays Horn $7.5 million between bonuses and base salary for this season. The three-year average is $4.33 million. Even with the Horn contract now officially on the ledger books, the Saints still are $8.93 million under the 2003 cap limit, and only four franchises have more cap room available. Yet the latest example of the excellent job general manager Mickey Loomis has done in maintaining cap consciousness while still retaining a well-stocked roster.
It might be a bit curious to some -- especially since the Denver Broncos are hyping young veterans like Ashley Lelie and Chris Cole and fifth-round draft choice Adrian Madise -- that the team visited with free agent wide receiver J.J. Stokes on Friday. But the Broncos brass is wary of the ages of starters Rod Smith (33) and Ed McCaffrey (34) and realizes the latter still faces more rehabilitation for the broken leg that sidelined him for the end of the 2002 campaign. Stokes was a first-round bust in his eight seasons with the 49ers, but is still just 30 years old, and the Denver offense is very similar to the one in which he played with the 49ers. The feeling remains that Stokes will end up signing in Jacksonville, where former 49ers assistant Larry Kirksey is the receivers coach, but that isn't necessarily a given. "He'll do the visit in Denver and then we'll plan from there," said agent Tom Condon. "There's pretty good interest out there."
Seems that veteran linebacker Derrick Rodgers, in the end, helped to facilitate the trade two weeks ago that sent him from the Miami Dolphins to the New Orleans Saints for a seventh-round pick in the 2004 draft. Under his Miami contract, Rodgers had two years remaining, including a scheduled base salary of $2.5 million for 2004. As part of the deal, Rodgers agreed to have the '04 season deleted, and without that move the trade probably would not have been consummated. The upside for Rodgers is that he is now eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season, in which he will earn $1 million between his $470,000 signing bonus and $530,000 base salary. Then again, unless he plays at a very high level in 2003, the Saints likely would have jettisoned Rodgers anyway before the '04 campaign, to avoid paying such a fat base salary.
Even with the number of new stadiums constructed in the past few years, the disparity in revenues between the franchises at the top of the NFL's financial food chain and the clubs toward the bottom continues to widen, three owners told ESPN.com this week. That fact was made clear, the owners acknowledged, at the league meetings in Philadelphia late last month. One owner said the difference between the top revenue teams and the bottom ones had nearly doubled in the past five years. "You can see (a difference) of nearly $100 million in the near future," said one owner, "and that's dangerous. We don't want to be like baseball, a league of 'haves' and 'have-nots,' that's for sure."
Punts: Some 49ers officials now fear that cornerback Jason Webster, who recently had ankle surgery, will not be fully rehabilitated for the start of training camp. The club is still eager to sign a veteran cornerback, but isn't thrilled by any of the remaining free agents at this point. … San Francisco center Jeremy Newberry will have surgery next week to remove debris from his ankle. … With the extension for linebacker Brian Urlacher now completed, look for the Bears to begin negotiations with free safety Mike Brown to add years to his contract. … Those teams that were hoping the St. Louis Rams would release free safety Kim Herring, in the wake of the signing of Jason Sehorn to play the position, can forget it for now. Coach Mike Martz is adamant that Herring will be in camp with the Rams, at least until Sehorn demonstrates he can handle the switch from cornerback. … The Colts continue to insist they can do business even without a new contract for Peyton Manning. But the team is less than $50,000 under the salary cap, has already reworked the deal of most of its prominent veterans to create salary cap room, and is finding it tough to create more wiggle space. That could ramp up the level of discussions with Manning and his representatives. … The Vikings may sign wide receiver Matthew Hatchette, who began his career with the team, then departed as a free agent two years ago. Hatchette has been a standout in the NFL Europe League this spring. … Those who have seen Arizona in workouts claim that two or three of the Cardinals' starting offensive linemen need to shed considerable tonnage before camp opens. … Bears coaches like what they have seen so far of second-round pick Charles Tillman and feel the former Louisiana-Lafayette cornerback might also be able to move inside and play some safety.
Last word: "He's a pillar that we will continue to build on and around for many, many years to come. And now, all we've done is gold-plated it." -- Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo on middle linebacker Brian Urlacher and his new nine-year contract.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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