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Florida State PK
Sebastian Janikowski
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NEW YORK — For a draft that held so much uncertainty at its outset, the 2000 NFL
draft produced relatively few big surprises.
With Cleveland vacillating on whom it would select with the first overall pick, and a
dearth of NFL-caliber quarterbacks available, many observers were expecting a rash of
trades. Maybe even a blockbuster deal as clubs scrambled to gain a shot at one of the four
players who stood head and shoulders above the rest in this draft class.
What did all this uncertainty produce? Zero trades in the first round. It marked the
first time since 1983 — the year of the great QB class with John Elway, Dan Marino,
etc. — that no first-round trades were consummated after the round had begun.
This is not to say the draft was completely devoid of surprises. There were two
relative shockers in the first round, in fact.
Al Davis engineered the first one. Defying convention, Davis’ Raiders drafted
Florida State PK Sebastian Janikowski in the first round, with the 17th overall
pick. This selection was risky not only because it involved a placekicker, but a
placekicker who is facing a bribery charge that potentially could cause the Polish citizen
to be deported or serve jail time. Janikowski allegedly offered a police officer $300 to
release his college roommate from custody after the roommate had been arrested for
trespassing at a Tallahassee, Fla., nightclub when he refused to leave.
Davis undoubtedly hopes to strike gold as he did in 1973 when he spent the 23rd
overall selection on another kicking-game specialist, Ray Guy, who became one of the best
punters of all time. However, the track record of highly drafted kickers is not good.
Prior to Janikowski, the only other two kickers or punters who had been drafted in the
first round were PK Steve Little, chosen 15th overall by St. Louis in 1978, and
PK-P Russell Erxleben, tabbed 11th overall by New Orleans in 1979. Both Little
and Erxleben were busts in the NFL.
Janikowski certainly appears to have the strong leg needed to excel in the NFL. He has
made 60-yard field goals, and very few of his kickoffs were returned at Florida State. But
success for a placekicker is much more psychological than physical, so only time will tell
how Janikowski will pan out.
The second big surprise of the first round was St. Louis’ selection of Arizona RB
Trung Canidate with the 31st and final pick of the opening round. Pro Football
Weekly personnel analyst Joel Buchsbaum had Canidate rated as a third-round pick, but, if
there was one team that could justify reaching this high for Canidate, it would be the
Rams. The Super Bowl champions had no one to back up Marshall Faulk, who has had some
injury problems. However, Canidate (5-10½, 193) is built like Faulk, and his 4.4 40-time
wowed some scouts. Canidate has his shortcomings — he’s small, a subpar blocker
and doesn’t make tacklers miss often enough — but a team with relatively few
holes to fill could afford to gamble.
Speaking of the Raiders, not only did they draft a placekicker, but they were the only
team to select a punter in the two days of the draft. Oakland grabbed Texas A&M P
Shane Lechler in Round Five. Overall, there were four kickers chosen, three placekickers
and one punter.
There were 12 quarterbacks drafted, but only one in the first two rounds —
Marshall QB Chad Pennington, taken 18th overall by the Jets. In fact, so
shunned was this crop of signalcallers that eight of the 12 drafted were tabbed in the
final two rounds, hardly a vote of confidence in their ability considering how great the
demand for QBs has been in recent years. The dearth of QB talent was perhaps inevitable
considering that five were grabbed up in the first 12 picks in the 1999 draft, and several
top juniors came out early in ’99.
With Steve Young’s football future still in doubt, and their backup QBs unproven
in the NFL, the 49ers actually picked two of the 12 drafted field generals. The Niners got
the guy they reportedly coveted all along, Hofstra’s Giovanni Carmazzi, in the third
round, and they added Louisiana Tech’s Tim Rattay in Round Seven, trading a
sixth-round choice in 2001 to New England for the right to select Rattay.
From this reporter’s vantage point, the Redskins appeared to have had the most
productive draft. They acquired an impact linebacker in Penn State’s LaVar Arrington
and a Pro Bowl-caliber offensive tackle in Alabama’s Chris Samuels. Both players
should be instrumental in the Redskins’ concerted effort to win a Super Bowl.
The Jets, who went into the draft with four first-round picks, filled a number of
needs. They used those No. 1s to pick up two effective pass rushers in Shaun Ellis and
John Abraham, a highly rated tight end in West Virginia’s Anthony Becht and a
quarterback for the future in Chad Pennington. In Round Three, the Jets added Florida
State WR Laveranues Coles, a 4.36 game-breaker who is considered a boom-or-bust type of
player. Clearly, this is a talented group of rookies. But the question remains: Will the
contributions of these five players equal the contributions the Jets would have received
from Keyshawn Johnson if they had kept the disgruntled wide receiver? We’ll have to
wait and see, but in judging the Jets’ draft, be sure to subtract Keyshawn from their
additions on Draft Day.
Nineteen underclassmen were drafted, with Arrington at No. 2 being the first and
Virginia Tech RB Shyrone Stith the last at No. 243.
The Southeastern Conference led all conferences with 41 players chosen, followed by the
Big Ten with 36. Tennessee led all colleges with nine players selected, followed by
Florida State and Michigan State with seven each, and Michigan, Ohio State and Arizona
State with six apiece.
Although there were no trades made during the first round, there were 15 trades
completed during the two days of the draft, including 11 during the second day, five
during the seventh round alone.
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