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Appetite for picks

Blue chips taste better than several sloppy joes

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Posted: Monday April 19, 1999 09:47 AM

I could be wrong about this, but I think the Colts made a serious mistake in bypassing Ricky Williams. I think he’ll make them regret it for years, even while Edgerrin James is catching 65 balls a season from Peyton Manning. Eastern football needs a brutish inside-running horse. There is no better brutish inside runner in the recent history of college football than Williams.

That leads me to my point of this draft. Everyone’s talking about how New Orleans badly overpaid to get Ricky Williams, but Saints G.M. Bill Kuharich is just responding to NFL historical reality. Teams have learned that the team getting the high pick usually does better in the trade than the team getting the basket of picks.

With justification, the value of high first-round picks went through the roof last week. When New Orleans tried to put a deal together to move up from the 12 hole in Round 1 to the second (Philadelphia) or third (Cincinnati) slot to draft Williams, this is what the Saints offered each team: New Orleans’ first-round pick in 1999, 2000 and 2001, a second-round pick in 2002, and third- through seventh-round picks this year. Each team turned this deal down to select a quarterback. Imagine turning down nine mostly prime picks to move down nine slots! But can you blame the sellers? Recent draft history shows deal after deal benefiting the team trading up. “History says the one blue-chip player is usually worth more than the two or three average starters,’’ Washington GM Charley Casserly told me Saturday. Speaking of history:

• In 1977, Seattle sent the second pick in the first round to Dallas for the 14th pick in the first round and three second-round picks. Dallas got RB Tony Dorsett, who left the game as the NFL’s second all-time leading rusher. Seattle got G Steve August, T Tom Lynch, LB Terry Beeson and WR Duke Ferguson, none of whom were starters past 1983. The winner: Dallas.

• In 1994, the Rams sent the seventh pick in the first round to San Francisco for the 15th pick in the first round and second- and third-round picks. The 49ers picked DT Bryant Young, who became a consistent Pro Bowler. The Rams picked T Wayne Gandy, DT Brad Ottis and WR Ernest Jones, none of whom are Rams today. The winner: San Francisco.

• In 1997, the Jets sent the first pick in the draft to St. Louis for the sixth overall pick, plus picks in the third and fifth rounds. The Rams picked T Orlando Pace, who has turned into one of the best young tackles in football. With further trades, the Jets turned those three picks into eight players: LB James Farrior, WR Dedric Ward, DE Terry Day, RB Leon Johnson, QB Chuck Clements, DT Ronnie Dixon, DT Jason Ferguson and RB Dustin Johnson. Only Ferguson starts. The winner: St. Louis.

See? New Orleans didn’t overpay. The Saints paid what they had to pay, pure and simple.

Now for this draft’s instant awards:

Coach of the Draft: Minnesota’s Dennis Green. I like his style, taking quarterback Daunte Culpepper in the first round, with Randall Cunningham and Jeff George already on the roster. Last year he had Cris Carter and Jake Reed and still took Randy Moss. Green’s philosophy -- ignore need in the first round and take the best player on the board -- ought to be in every team’s draft-day textbook.

Draft of the Year: I like what Arizona pulled off, with two starters plucked in the first round (David Boston and L.J. Shelton) and the leading sacker in college football (Wisconsin’s Tom Burke, in Round 3) coming aboard.

Bad Draft of the Year: I don’t like what the Giants have done. Everyone I talked to said both of New York’s top picks, Notre Dame tackle Luke Petitgout and Ohio State running back Joe Montgomery, were reaches. And what a surprise the Giants reached for two midwestern players! Do they know the Pac-10 plays football? The SEC? Their 1999 picks sound awfully reminiscent of Eric Moore, Derek Brown, Tyrone Wheatley and Thomas Lewis.

G.M. of the Draft: Washington’s Charley Casserly . He’s overseen a pretty bad decade of high-pick failure (Desmond Howard, Heath Shuler, Andre Johnson, Michael Westbrook, Tom Carter) but atoned Saturday by getting the man he wanted, Georgia CB/WR/KR Champ Bailey, and getting a first-round pick in 2000 in a byzantine series of up-and-down moves. Which brings us to...

Deal of the Draft: In the space of 30 seconds, with the Saints on hold on one phone, Casserly finalized a tentative trade with Chicago on another line, then picked the phone up with New Orleans, approved a deal sending the fifth pick in the first round to New Orleans for the 12th overall pick plus seven others (six in 1999 and first- and third- rounders in 2000), then got back on with the Bears and sent the Saints’ two third-round picks and a fourth and a fifth to Chicago to swap 12th and seventh overall slots in the first round. Got that? It meant, ultimately, that Washington dealt down from five to seven, took the player it wanted, probably will get him cheaper because of his lower draft slot, and picked up first-, sixth- and seventh-round picks. For free.

Quote of the Draft: From Leigh Steinberg, the agent for Oregon QB Akili Smith, after he agreed to a tentative contract with Cleveland just before midnight Friday, then being told the deal was on hold pending other developments with the Browns: “I have a feeling we’re just being used for leverage, and that would really stink. Akili is a person, not a piece of steel. And I hope this is not the cruelest hoax of the 20th century.” It was.

Best for last

1. I think Jimmy Johnson got Cecil Collins at precisely the right spot: first pick in the fifth round.

2. I think when I walked into Norv Turner’s office after the Redskins were finished picking Saturday, there was some video playing on TV of North Dakota tight end Jim Kleinsasser, and he looked like a man among Division II boys. “Minnesota got themselves a heck of player with that kid,’’ said Turner. “I really liked him.’’

3. I think the Redskins, euphoric over their draft-day machinations, still have massive offensive-line problems that haven’t been salved by collecting a third No. 1 pick in 2000. Remember, Washington gave up 61 sacks last year.

4. I think I like the Browns picking up fullback Marc Edwards from San Francisco for a fourth-round pick. But Cleveland still doesn’t have a running back. And why don’t the Browns spend some of that cap loot to pick up a decent free-agent pass-rusher like Derrick Alexander of the Vikings?

5. I think Cade McNown’s going to be good. Really good. Even in wind-whipped Chicago. Had to laugh when I heard one of the commentators question the Bears’ pick of McNown because of windy Soldier Field. Two questions: Is it ever windy in San Francisco? And how has Steve Young done there?

6. I think, despite Colts GM Bill Polian saying, “Signability had absolutely nothing to do with it,’’ that the prospect of difficult negotiations with a first-time football agent had to play a role in Indy’s decision not to select Ricky Williams. I’m not trying to make this a black-white thing. It isn’t. It’s about Leland Hardy and Master P, bright men, trying to make a mark in the pro football negotiating world with a high draft choice, and the way they’ll do that is by getting an above-market contract. Contrast that with Edgerrin James, who may not use an agent to negotiate with the Colts. You try getting an above-market contract against Polian. You’d have a better shot dealing Bubby Brister for Peyton Manning.

7. I think there’s one more factor. The Colts know Hardy has said he wants to make Williams “the most celebrated athlete in China.’’ It’s a team game, fellas.

8. I think I wish I was sitting in Madison Square Garden watching Wayne Gretzky right now rather than sitting here, writing this.

9. I think Andy Katzenmoyer hurt himself more than a little bit at the scouting combine when he said that Brian Bosworth was his favorite pro linebacker. There’s a smart guy.

10. I think the Chargers must wonder what it’s like to be in the NFL draft.

 

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