49ers face tough off-season ahead
Posted: Sunday January 10, 1999 11:16 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King checked in with CNN/SI's Bob
Lorenz and Mark Morgan this weekend to talk about the NFL coaching
carousel, the fading 49ers and the players at the top of this year's NFL
Draft.
BL: Peter, last week you mentioned the huge salary-cap problems
that the 49ers will have in the future. Are we beginning to see the end of
the dynasty and some trouble there with San Francisco?
PK: We very well could be, Bob, for two reasons. Not only because
the 49ers are $23 million over next year's projected cap, but because
they've got an old team. They've got the third-oldest roster in the NFL.
Now there are two very important things they have to do in the off-season.
First thing, receiver Terrell Owens is a
restricted free agent. I think some team like Miami or a receiver-needy
team could make a blockbuster offer to try and steal Owens like the New York Jets stole Curtis Martin last year
from New England. The second thing they have to worry about is their
veteran free agents like receiver J.J. Stokes. This is a
team that could become very old at skilled positions in a hurry. One last
thing -- around the league, it looks very much like in Philadelphia, the
new head coach of the Eagles could well be the quarterback coach of the Green Bay Packers, Andy
Reid. Reid's agent, Bob LaMonte, told me Saturday morning that yesterday
he began negotiating for a contract with Reid in Philadelphia.
BL: Now that Mike Holmgren is the grand poobah supreme in Seattle
where does that leave the Packers?
PK: Well, there could be another departure almost as big, but
clearly not as big as Mike Holmgren, and that's if Reid flies off to
Philadelphia to coach the Eagles. That leaves the Packers with nobody of
the Mike Holmgren genealogy to coach the quarterbacks and coach the offense
of the Green Bay Packers, and what that will mean is that Ray Rhodes, who I
assume is going to be named the head coach of the Green Bay Packers by
Wednesday, is going to have to find a whole new offensive staff and won't
be able to keep that Mike Holmgren edge to his offense
MM: Peter, you were in Jacksonville all week long and spoke with
Tom Coughlin. What type of effort can we expect from Mark Brunell on Sunday?
PK: Well, you used the exact right word in your opening, Mark,
talking about rust. When I walked off the field last week in Jacksonville
talking with Mark Brunell he said there's this little thing about my game
today and it is called rust. That is exactly what plagued him last week,
but he practiced every snap this week I saw him in the locker room in
Jacksonville on Friday and he said "Hey, look, I'll be fine. I'll be able
to do every thing we are supposed to do." So, I don't think Mark Brunell
will be affected for this game, Mark.
MM: Peter, obviously with Keyshawn Johnson what you
see is what you get. You had dinner with him this week. How many of the
perceptions that people have of him are really misconceptions in your mind?
PK: Well, I tell you it is the first time I ever spent any real
time with him. We spent three hours together and I was very, very
surprised. As Bill Parcells told me once about the guy, this guy is a team
player -- everybody's got it wrong. I'll give you one illustration of how I
think people's perception might not be reality. On Monday afternoons,
Keyshawn gives his ideas for that week's game plan -- what passes to use in
that week's game plan. He says four or five times he's suggested plays that
he knows are going to Wayne
Chrebet, his supposedly arch-enemy, and he says "Why, if I hate the
guy, would I give them a pass to give to Wayne Chrebet? Don't believe
everything you read about me."
BL: Peter, the NFL coaching carousel goes round and round it
continues on five spots open none bigger than in Green Bay. When do you
think we will have Mike Holmgren's successor?
PK: I think about 48 hours, Bob. I just saw Jim Solano, the agent
for Ray Rhodes, on the field here at the Meadowlands. He has some players
in this game, and he told me he was going to meet with Rhodes on Sunday
night to discuss all his career options. One of those career options will
be to be head coach of the Green Bay Packers, and his fallback job, if he
doesn't get the job, will be the Carolina Panthers
defensive coordinator's position. That obviously leaves us in Philadelphia
and what happens there. Well, on Saturday, Eagles owner Jeff Lurie flew
Andy Reid, the Green Bay quarterback coach, and his wife to Philadelphia on
a private plane. They met for three hours Saturday night, had dinner at
Lurie's home. Andy Reid is waking up Sunday morning and I think by sundown
Sunday night or later he will be the next coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
BL: Well, Peter, who is at the top of the Chicago Bears' list?
PK: Well, that list is muddled -- that's about as muddled as any
one out there right now. The Bears met this weekend with Terry Donahue, the
TV analyst and former UCLA coach. I look for him to be the frontrunner for
that job, but by no means is that a lock.
BL: Well, Baltimore is kind of in a holding pattern, I guess.
Peter, they've got their eyes on a couple of coaches involved in today's
games?
PK: Well, I think Art Modell's plan is to take a real hot
offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator, which he has done in the
past. He is going to try to get the Vikings' Brian Billick, and if he fails
there and Cleveland gets Billick -- which I think is possible also -- then
I think Baltimore goes to Plan B and that is Chris Palmer, the Jacksonville
offensive coordinator, or Sherm Lewis, the embattled Green Bay offensive
coordinator.
BL: And if not Billick in Cleveland, then what does that franchise
do? They wanted Holmgren, Seifert or Mariucci, and none of that happened,
so what after that?
PK: The Browns are very, very frustrated. I talked to somebody
close to their situation Saturday who said they have no idea what they are
going to do right now and could go to Mack Brown, the Texas coach, but
Brown just recently signed a contract extension to stay in Texas. I don't
even know if he is going to be interested in talking to them, but they
definitely want to talk to him.
BL: The draft is still a few months away, but we now know who is
available. Who do you think is the best of the best out there?
PK: Well, Bob, there is no surprise about the very top of the
draft -- we have all known that it'll be Tim Couch, Dante Culpepper, Ricky
Williams somewhere in that top five. Now after that it is a surprise -- the
guys that have made it into the top five this year are the all-purpose
Georgia corner/wide receiver Champ Bailey, and USC's Chris Claiborne is
going to be a superb middle linebacker for somebody in the NFL. Now for the
second five, the guy who is probably the upset special in here is John
Tait, who is going to be a good left tackle in the NFL. He's coming from
Brigham Young a year early, needs a lot of work. Then Donovan McNabb
definitely sneeks into the top 10 of this group. Now, conspicuous by their
absence in this group in this top 10 are cornerback Dre' Bly of North
Carolina and linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer of Ohio State. Both would have
been top-10 picks had they come out last year, but both have fallen
heavily this year. Look for them to go in the 10 to 25 range.
BL: Well, Peter, this is a draft rich in underclassmen as we have
seen and it is pretty well stocked with quarterbacks, too...
PK: No question about that, Bob. With the three teams picking at
the top of this draft being Cleveland, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, all of
whom have stated desires to go after a quarterback, this could be the first
time in history where three quarterbacks go in a row. Now one little note
about the quarterbacking -- you've got to realize after the season
Minnesota is going to look to trade Brad Johnson for a first-
and third-round pick or something better than that and that could very much
influence who takes what at the top of this draft.
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