Nfl Teams Plugging The Holes Free Agency, Cap Force General Managers To Draft For The Present, Not Long-Term
In the days before the NFL had free agency and a salary cap, teams never drafted anyone but the “best available athlete.”
No more. Modern times require teams to pick players they can plug in almost immediately - or at least in the four years before they’re eligible to seek more money, a better climate or a starting job.
“We all know you can’t afford to wait now for a guy to develop because he many be gone by then,” says John Butler, general manager of the Buffalo Bills, who picks 14th. “You draft now to plug holes.”
Among the people Buffalo will be considering is Washington State linebacker Mark Fields, whose stock has risen dramatically after outstanding offseason workouts. Fields could go as high as the 13th pick, where New Orleans is looking for a fast, aggressive linebacker to plug in after enjoying a decade with the likes of Sam Mills and Pat Swilling.
If the Saints pass on Fields, Buffalo is lurking with the next pick, although the Bills have needs on both lines and in the defensive backfield. Other teams that could be interested in Fields are the Los Angeles Raiders with the 18th pick, the Chicago Bears (21) and Green Bay Packers (22).
The Raiders signed Swilling after Winston Moss joined Seattle, but will need another young linebacker to join last year’s first-round pick, Michigan State linebacker Rob Fredrickson.
Chicago hasn’t had a linebacking presence since Mike Singletary, while Green Bay lost Bryce Paup, an emerging pass-rusher, to Buffalo.
While the Bills added Paup, they lost star linebacker Darryl Talley to Atlanta. Still, Buffalo may focus on replacing past defectors Will Wolford, Howard Ballard and Nate Odomes when the draft unfolds April 22-23 in New York.
Gone are the days when teams could stockpile good players and bring them along slowly as the Bills did when they built the team that brought them four straight AFC championships. Not only does free agency allow players to leave, but the cap prevents good teams from keeping too many stars. They’re simply outbid by have-nots whose current players don’t command big salaries.
The Bills, who have to pay Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith and Thurman Thomas, must replace others they are letting go; the Cowboys must replace center Mark Stepnoski and wide receiver Alvin Harper; and the 49ers must find a running back to plug in for Ricky Watters.
“We know we have some needs on offense that we have to fill,” says Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys. “Under the old system, we’d have kept a Stepnoski. So now we have to find a replacement.”
Which is why, when the Cowboys make their first-round pick, the 28th overall, they might take a Cory Raymer, the Wisconsin center, even though he is rated as about the 35th best available athlete.
After two years of losing players, the Bills had enough money left to sign a few this year. So they raided the Cowboys for Jim Jeffcoat, the Packers for Paup and the Broncos for Ted Washington, all to bolster the pass rush and defensive line.
The loss of Jeffcoat forced the Cowboys to pay about $1 million more than they planned for Tony Tolbert, which was $1 million they might have earmarked for Stepnoski. Along with the aging of Nate Newton and the slow recovery of Erik Williams from a knee injury sustained last year in an auto accident, it forces them to go for what they need the most: offensive linemen.
The other factor in the draft equation is time.
Under the new system, teams have four years to determine a player’s worth, and they would prefer to find that out in one or two years.
Thus, when the New York Giants used a No. 1 pick in the 1992 supplemental draft on quarterback Dave Brown, it made last year’s release of Phil Simms a given because Brown and Kent Graham could become free agents after the 1995 season.
“You’ve only got so much time,” said general manager George Young. “You’ve got to see what a guy can do and we didn’t want a cushion like Phil to fall back on.”
So Brown started last season and struggled, along with the rest of the team.
Now the Bills find themselves in a similar situation, looking for a quarterback who can eventually replace Jim Kelly.
They could go for Brad Johnson of Southern Cal, John Walsh of BYU or Todd Collins of Michigan on a lower round. Or - and this is another bonus from the free agency era - use the extra picks they got for losing Ballard and Odomes (to Seattle) to trade up to grab one.
Stokes on rebound
UCLA wide receiver J.J. Stokes was expected to be a high draft pick, but scouts cooled to him when he ran a 4.77-second 40-yard dash in a March workout. Stokes rebounded in April to run in the 4.6s, so his stock is back on the rise. But not fast enough to catch Colorado’s Michael Westbrook and Ohio State’s Joey Galloway. They’re the top two wideouts on the board.
Westbrook set school records with his 76 catches for 1,060 yards in 1992. His offensive coordinator that year was Les Steckel, who is now the receivers’ coach of the Oilers. Don’t be surprised if Houston takes Westbrook with the third pick of the draft instead of Alcorn State quarterback Steve McNair.
Stokes, Westbrook and Galloway are among the players Seattle must consider with the eighth pick.
Stringer plummets
The stock of Ohio State offensive tackle Korey Stringer continues to plummet. He was the Big Ten’s Offensive Lineman of the Year in 1993-94, but showed up at the combine heavy at 345. Scouts hoped he’d check in at 320.
Stringer canceled one workout for NFL coaches and scouts in March, then showed up at his April workout weighing 331. He tried to run a 40-yard dash but pulled a hamstring and finished neither the dash nor the workout. He was expected to be a top 10 pick. Now he’s sprinting toward the second round.