Friday, April 14, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
NFL DRAFT
Section B·Page 5
NFL teams hope draft picks are the key to future success
The Associated Press
NEW YORK—The Washington Redskins are expecting tomorrow's draft to propel them to the Super Bowl. The New York Jets are hoping it makes them a contender for years. And the Cleveland Browns hope they'll draft a player to make them respectable in their second season.
The other 28 teams?
They're just trying to find the best player in a draft heavy on receivers and running backs but short everywhere else.
Three things are as certain as things can be at draft time:
1, Two of the first three players to be chosen — Linebacker LaVar Arrington or defensive end Courtney Brown — played together at Penn State. But where No. 1 will be is unknown. Cleveland has the first pick but is willing to trade it for a variety of draft choices. The Jets have four round-ers, two of them acquired this week in the trade for Keyshawn Johnson.
"We truly haven't made up our minds," said Dwight Clark. Cleveland's director of football operations.
2. The Redskins will get two high-quality players to add to a team that won the NFC East and made the second round of the playoffs. They reached their draft position with a series of trades centered around the one at last year's draft that sent Ricky Williams to New Orleans.
The Redskins will take Arrington or Brown and probably offensive tackle Chris Samuels of Alabama, with an outside shot for wide receiver Peter Warrick of Florida State.
3. For all the evaluation and re-evaluation, half the 31 players taken in the first round might be disappointments, and quite a few later-round choices will be stars. Jevon Kearse of Tennessee, who had 14.5 sacks and helped the Titans win the AFC title, was taken 16th overall last season.
"I'm no genius," said Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian, who has been depicted as one for taking Peyton Manning rather than Ryan Leaf two years ago and Edgerrin James before Williams last year, propelling the Colts from 4-12 in 1998 to 13-3.
"The draft is not brain surgery." Polian said. "You evaluate, evaluate and evaluate, study scouting reports and film, and then go with your gut feeling. You also need some luck."
Luck is always a key word, particularly in this draft, in which a lot of high-profile players carry question marks. They include Warrick, whose stock wasn't helped by his two-game suspension in a year when citizenship
NFL DRAFT PICK ORDER
1. Cleveland 17. Oakland
2. Washington 18. N.Y. Jets
3. Washington 19. Seattle
4. Cincinnati 20. Detroit
5. Baltimore 21. Kansas City
6. Philadelphia 22. Seattle
7. Arizona 23. Carolina
8. Pittsburgh 24. San Francisco
9. Chicago 25. Minnesota
10. Baltimore 26. Buffalo
11. N.Y. Giants 27. Tampa Bay
12. San Francisco 28. Indianapolis
13. Tampa Bay 29. Jacksonville
14. Green Bay 30. Tennessee
15. Denver 31. St Louis
16. N.Y. Jets
counts; Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne of Wisconsin, who's considered too heavy or too slow or too injury prone and is ranked third or fourth among running backs, and Florida State kicker Sebastian Janikowski, who might have been a first-rounder but misbehaved in New Orleans at the Sugar Bowl.
Then there are the likes of wide receiver Plaxico Burress of Michigan State, who antagonized the Eagles by canceling a workout to go to the Final Four; Deon Grant, the Tennessee safety who makes big plays but whose tackling is suspect; Dez White, the Georgia Tech burner who drops too many passes, and Brian Urlacher, a versatile, 260-pound linebacker from New Mexico who by one team's count missed 18 percent of the tackles he had an opportunity to make.
All of the above, warts and all, probably will go in the first round — Urlacher in the top 10 and Dayne perhaps at No. 11 to the New York Giants. The Giants aren't talking, but team and league sources say Tom Boisture, the team's personnel director, told Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez that Dayne is their man unless either Thomas Jones of Virginia or Jamal Lewis of Tennessee still are available.
The Browns, who in their return to the NFL last season used the No. 1 pick on quarterback Tim Couch over Akili Smith, says this year's decision is much tougher.
The Browns were thought to be leaning toward Brown, but now are wavering because the 6-foot-3, 250-pound Arrington might have a more immediate impact.
"He's Lawrence Taylor," Clark said.
Bill Parecells, who will be running the Jets' draft and coached LT in the most productive years of his career, said he looked like a great prospect.
"But the bus station is full of guys who were once compared to Lawrence Taylor," Parcells said.
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