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St. Louis overhaul Revamped defense may lead Rams back to Super Bowl
Updated: Tuesday July 24, 2001 11:33 AM
As NFL training camps open, Sports Illustrated's Peter King chatted with Bob Lorenz on CNN's NFL Preview: Bob Lorenz: What's the one storyline you can't wait to explore this preseason? Peter King: I'm looking forward to seeing the St. Louis Rams. In changing eight of 11 starters on their defense, I think they're a really fun team to watch because they don't know how they're going to be on defense come September, they just know they have to be a lot better. So when I see the Rams -- and they're my Super Bowl team from the NFC -- that's what I'm watching for. Lorenz: As many as a dozen teams could have a change at starting quarterback this season. In Cincinnati, six sets of hands have passed through that position over the past four seasons. Head coach Dick LeBeau says he's going to let his three quarterbacks -- Akili Smith, Jon Kitna and Scott Mitchell -- fight it out, but don't you think it's time for Smith to finally be the man, to justify the team picking him third overall a couple years ago? King: There's no question that's what they want to see in Cincinnati. But if you're reading the tea leaves, all signs point to Kitna being the starter on this team. In the team's first preseason practice Saturday, Kitna took the most snaps. I think they really would like Kitna to win the job, even though publicly they're saying it's a three-way competition. Lorenz: The Bengals' quarterback situation might be up in the air but there is no doubt about who's the man at running back in Cincinnati.
King: Corey Dillon signed a long-term contract in the offseason; they handed him $10.5 million, highest-paid player in team history. Now he probably won't get as many carries as he has had he last few years because the Bengals are going to a three-wide-receiver offense as much as 50 percent of the snaps. But he expects to get just as many yards because he's going to be a primary receiver coming out of the backfield. He told me he might get 20 carries and five or six catches per game and that would be fine with him. Lorenz: One quarterback who might be in the mix somewhere is Trent Dilfer, who's still without a team. He turned the Bengals down -- where do you see him winding up? King: Everyone says that Dilfer has made a mistake, that he should have gone to Indianapolis to back up Peyton Manning, that he should have gone to Green Bay to back up Brett Favre. I totally disagree. Dilfer is playing his cards exactly the right way. If he's going to go somewhere, let him choose the place where he's going to have the chance to play and where he's going to have a much better chance to win than in Cincinnati. He will wait until at least mid-August when one or two quarterbacks will have fallen to injury or when a team decides it doesn't like what it has and wants Dilfer as a starter. Lorenz: You think the Rams are a top NFC contender. A lot of people are mentioning the Eagles. But they're entering the season thin at receiver. There's some danger in that, isn't there? King: I have a lot of respect for what Andy Reid has done in Philadelphia -- you have to -- but I really question going into a season when your most experienced wide receiver is James Thrash. They have attempted in the offseason, particularly in the past month, to have Freddie Mitchell and Donovan McNabb form a bond early on. Mitchell has practiced with McNabb 20 times out in the desert of Arizona over the last month so they're trying to make those guys to hit the ground running. But I don't think you can be the prime Super Bowl contender from your conference when you do not have an experienced receiver on your team. Lorenz: It seems we say this every year but where are we at with Kordell Stewart -- better yet, where are the Steelers at with him? King: I think this is the way you have to look at Stewart right now. First, he's going to be in a different offense than in the Kevin Gilbride offense this time around. In Gilbride's offense, you have a route tree -- you might go this way, you might go that way, it depends on what the corner or defensive back is doing. Now Stewart's receivers are going to have absolutely designed routes at the line of scrimmage from which they will not deviate. He's going to be able to look at that and make decisions quicker, he's going to know right away if he's going to have to throw or take off and run. And I'll just say this: On Saturday I spent 45 minutes with Stewart and I've never seem him as ebullient, as bright, as happy, as enthusiastic. He told me, "Peter, I am ready to have the season of my life." Lorenz: What's your 49ers forecast for the season? King: You have to hand it to Bill Walsh because in the span of two years he's gotten two impact players on defense. True, Andre Carter has yet to be seen and Julian Peterson really hasn't fulfilled his potential yet, but if you talk to people around the league, particularly people who played the 49ers late last season, they say that this is a defense that with one or two more elements is going to be among the Top 10 of the NFL. With Carter and Peterson, they have the bookend pass rushers that every NFL team needs. Lorenz: The Redskins report on July 29. Deion Sanders' contract states that if he's not on a major league roster at that time, he has to be there. How do you see this playing out? King: Here's how this thing is going to play out. It's basically a high-profile stare down between Marty Schottenheimer and Sanders. Deion does not want to come back to the Redskins; he wants to get his $8 million signing bonus from last year and be free and clear. But the Redskins are going to challenge him -- they'll say if he doesn't report in a week, they'll try and recoup part of the signing bonus, just the way the Lions did with Barry Sanders. I believe that Deion will be forced to report because he's not going to want to risk giving up all that money. What's Schottenheimer going to do at corner? He's very happy with Donovan Greer, a cornerback he got from Buffalo as a free agent in the offseason, and Darrell Green -- he's about 98 years old -- is going to play that side where Deion was and they think he's good for another year. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and appears each Sunday on CNN's NFL Preview.
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