| Editor’s note: Each Friday
during the NFL season, a Q&A with PFW contributing editor and personnel analyst Joel
Buchsbaum appears exclusively on the Pro Football Weekly Internet Edition. Q:
What are the keys to the Tennessee-Jacksonville game?
Buchsbaum: One of the keys is how effectively each team runs the ball. I think the team
that runs the ball more effectively will win the game. The second key is that Steve McNair
has to throw the ball well enough for Jacksonville to respect him as both a runner and a
passer.
Q: What are the keys to the St. Louis-Tampa Bay game?
Buchsbaum: The keys are for St. Louis to just play its game and avoid getting sloppy
and overconfident. I just think the Rams have too many weapons for Tampa Bay to overcome.
Defensively, Tampa Bay matches up with them as well as anybody in the league, but I
don’t think the Bucs will be able to score unless they play on a short field and get
turnovers.
Q: Not that they’ve shown many this season, but what are the Rams’ biggest
weaknesses?
Buchsbaum: Like everyone in the league, the Rams don’t have great depth, and at
certain positions there’s a huge drop-off from their starter to their backup. For
example, if Kevin Carter were to go down, there would be an unbelievable drop-off; if
Grant Wistrom were to go down …; if Todd Lyght were to go down for a long period of
time, there’d be a drop-off; if London Fletcher were to go down … You see what
I’m saying? Yet they’ve been so injury-free in most areas, it really hasn’t
shown.
Q: Against the Colts, Eddie George had a long touchdown run. Were you surprised he
didn’t get caught from behind?
Buchsbaum: No. Eddie George has football speed and great stamina and endurance. You
noticed he didn’t slow down, and you also noticed how hard he was running at the end
of that run. As a rookie, Eddie George broke a long run, and a cornerback,
(Jacksonville’s) Vinnie Clark, ran him down at the end. George vowed he’d never
get caught from behind again.
Q: Speaking of speed, Peyton Manning looks faster now than when he came out of
college. Is that the case?
Buchsbaum: Probably, because he’s always been working on his speed. When he went
to Tennessee, he ran about 5.2 (in the 40-yard dash). When he came out (for the draft), he
was down in the 4.8s already.
Q: Can you comment on the play of the Colts’ offensive line vs. Tennessee?
Buchsbaum: They weren’t overly effective. They really didn’t open up much for
the running game, and, although Manning did a great job of avoiding sacks, he was
constantly being hit or pressured.
Q: What is your analysis of Dan Marino’s arm strength right now?
Buchsbaum: It’s nowhere near what it was, and it tends to get weaker at certain
points in the game. It’s like he doesn’t have full control of his arm, and he
doesn’t know when it’s going to be the Marino arm or when it’s going to be
the rag arm.
Q: Do you think he can get that strength back?
Buchsbaum: I think it’s a possibility. If I were Dan, I’d work during the
offseason and see where my arm (strength) is in a few months.
Q: How do you think Dave Wannstedt will do as Miami’s head coach?
Buchsbaum: I think he should enjoy success, because the Dolphins have an awful lot of
talent on defense, and they have some young talent on offense. They’re
basically a young, fast, aggressive team.
Q: Washington seems as though it will be loaded with talent next season. What are
your thoughts about that?
Buchsbaum: (Former Redskins GM) Charley Casserly put them in a dream situation because
they not only have a playoff team coming back, they also have the second, 12th
and 24th picks in the draft.
Q: In what way are those picks going to add to what the Redskins already have?
Buchsbaum: The second pick gives them an instant-impact player, one of the three blue
chips in this draft — a defensive blue chip if they want one — the 12th
pick gives them a chance to get a semi-blue chip, and the 24th pick gives them
a chance to get a third player who could start for them.
Q: Tampa Bay DE Steve White had a big game against Washington. He’s not exactly
a household name. Could you provide a scouting report on him?
Buchsbaum: He was an undersized player at Tennessee — 6-1 5/8, 246, 4.75 in the
40. He’s very conscientious, understands schemes, works well within a concept, has
gotten bigger and stronger and has very good quickness. He needs to be in a defense where
he isn’t playing head-up on people because he isn’t big and strong enough for
that. He’s in the right defense, and he has a lot of very good people around him so
he doesn’t get double-teamed. He works very well within the scheme the Bucs use.
Q: How do you account for Jimmy Smith going from the NFL’s scrap heap earlier
in his career to the league’s leading receiver?
Buchsbaum: Smith was always hurt or sick early in his career. And teams gave up on him
way too quickly because he’s not an impressive guy in practice, in that he
doesn’t look as fast as he is and he’s deceptive in his movements. The other
thing is that he doesn’t have naturally soft hands; he dropped a lot of passes as a
youngster.
Q: What are your thoughts on the way the Rams managed to keep offensive coordinator
Mike Martz in place on their staff?
Buchsbaum: I thought that was their only option. They had to do it. If he’s
willing to learn from (head coach Dick) Vermeil the people skills and things like that to
go with his brilliant strategy, and learn how to be a head coach of an entire team and not
just an offensive coach, it can only be a plus for him. Otherwise, they would have lost
him. As the Vikings found out with Brian Billick, some people are unique to an offense,
and you can’t replace them. |
