| Here’s the latest scuttlebutt that Pro Football
Weekly contributing editor Joel Buchsbaum is hearing: • CB Deion Sanders
is working hard with a personal trainer/speed coach during the offseason because he
intends to play a full football season. He wants to get two contending teams —
preferably the Broncos and Redskins — into a bidding war for his services. Sanders
would be especially attractive to Denver if the Broncos were to sign QB Steve Young.
• A lot of owners, mostly the less wealthy ones, want a provision in the new
collective bargaining agreement that at least half and as much as all of a player’s
signing bonus would count against the salary cap in the first year of the contract. By
doing that, teams could not spend significantly more than the cap, as has been the case in
places such as Dallas and San Francisco in the past. The goal would be to keep richer
teams from having such a huge advantage.
• No player in the NFL is more on the spot this season than Dallas QB Troy
Aikman. He got the coach he wanted, the offensive coordinator he wanted and the
receivers he wanted, and the head coach he didn’t want was fired. Now it all comes
down to Aikman. He has a great offensive line in front of him and still has a top running
back in Emmitt Smith. It’s up to Aikman to show that he still has it and
isn’t a fading star who is pulling the team down instead of pushing it up as he used
to.
• It will be very interesting to see how the Jets and Dolphins do this season
without Hall of Fame coaches. Both teams have more talent than they had in ’99
(especially the Jets), but the coaching obviously is not going to be the same.
• I don’t think many people realize what a mess Bill Belichick is
walking into in New England. Because they have drafted so poorly in the last three or four
years, invested the big money in the wrong players in most cases and made some ill-advised
free-agent signings, the team is in a huge salary-cap hole. It has gotten old in many key
spots, especially on the defensive line, and in terms of talent going into this season, it
is going to be the fifth-most talented team in the AFC East.
• Another very interesting team to watch this season is the Bills. John
Butler and Dwight Adams have done an amazing job of keeping this team
competitive while it has rebuilt. But now, after losing Bruce Smith and Thomas
Smith, who were the two keys to the defense according to many people, will Buffalo
still be able to stay above water and go at least .500?
• If you ask scouts right now which teams have made the greatest strides during
the offseason, the answers you hear most frequently are the Bears, Eagles and Saints. But
scouts are very cautious about the Eagles and Bears, saying they have made great strides
in terms of talent because of the work in their personnel departments. However, because
they go into the season with second-year quarterbacks who played less than half of the
’99 season as the starters, they may still be another year away and could even take
half a step back in terms of win-loss records in 2000.
• The NFL is thrilled that fans in 28 of the 31 cities can go into the season
believing that their favorite team can be this year’s Rams or Titans. For many years,
the league had one or two teams that were the clear favorites to win the Super Bowl, such
as Dallas or San Francisco. But now it’s a wide-open race in both conferences, and
there is a clear-cut No. 1 team in very few divisions. That’s the opposite of when
you could pencil in division winners such as Dallas in the NFC East and San Francisco in
the NFC West.
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