| The Ravens deserve plaudits for
pulling off the most underrated free-agent signing of the 2000 offseason. No, it’s
not their deal with the talented and loquacious Shannon Sharpe, though he is quite
talented and very loquacious.
And it’s not their re-signing of QB Tony Banks, who last season finally gave hints
that he could become a quality NFL quarterback.
Baltimore’s best move so far is the signing of Trent Dilfer, who, in this
author’s opinion, will supplant Banks as the Ravens’ QB of the present and
future sometime during the 2000 season.
Dilfer seems to have more detractors than supporters, though Brian Billick,
Baltimore’s head coach, is a member of the latter group, and he’s the only one
who really matters.
Billick has a reputation for developing quarterbacks, and in Dilfer, Billick inherits a
tough, talented signalcaller who became a scapegoat in Tampa Bay, as many others had
before him.
Dilfer may not become the next Steve Young — far and away the most successful of
the Buccaneers’ QB castoffs — but Dilfer certainly can become the next Vinny
Testaverde. Testaverde was miserable as a Buc, better as a Brown and Raven and terrific as
a Jet. In New York, Testaverde finally found the right situation and prospered. Baltimore
is the right situation for Dilfer.
In Baltimore, Dilfer will receive the type of tutoring he never got in Tampa Bay.
Dilfer had a QB coach for only half of his six seasons in Tampa. His offensive coordinator
the last four seasons, Mike Shula, was fired in February, even though the Bucs had made it
to the NFC championship game in January. Their offense simply wasn’t good enough, and
management had seen enough of Shula’s vanilla schemes. It’s amazing Dilfer
wasn’t blamed for the Bucs’ title-game loss (he was injured and didn’t
play), since he was blamed for just about everything else that went wrong during his Tampa
tenure.
Now Dilfer gets to work with Billick, who operates a QB-friendly system. Billick’s
top offensive aide is Matt Cavanaugh, a former NFL quarterback who knows his stuff.
Billick is slowly but surely adding weapons to the Ravens’ offensive arsenal. By the
time the draft is done, Billick will have surrounded his quarterbacks with talent, in the
form of either rookie studs (Thomas Jones and Plaxico Burress are possibilities) or the
best receiver in football. (The Keyshawn Johnson trade talks could heat up again around
draft time.)
While he certainly did not live up to his lofty draft status (No. 6 overall pick in
1994) in Tampa, Dilfer wasn’t that bad. In 1997, Dilfer led the Bucs to the playoffs
for the first time in 15 years. In both ’97 and ’98, Dilfer threw 21 TD passes
with a positive TD-interception ratio. Do you know how many times Troy Aikman has thrown
21 or more TD passes in a season? Try once, in 1992.
While Shaun King has become a folk hero of sorts in Tampa, and rightly so, it was in
fact Dilfer who quarterbacked the Bucs to the first three victories of the six-game
winning streak that propelled them into the playoffs. (He got hurt in Week 12 and was lost
for the season.)
Besides Billick, Dilfer has three things going for him in his quest to turn his career
around: ideal size (6-4, 235), a very strong arm and competitive fire. (Dilfer sold me
when he got into a shoving match — in his civvies — with a Rams defensive back
during the NFC championship game.)
The biggest problem he had in Tampa involved confidence, or lack thereof. Dilfer
didn’t play his best ball when his team needed him most. As a result, he lost
confidence in himself, and his teammates lost confidence in him. But success breeds
confidence, and I’m confident Dilfer will enjoy success under Billick. Once his
confidence returns, Dilfer will begin to live up to his potential.
Despite his success this past season, I’m not entirely sold on Banks. While his
TD-interception ratio (17-8) of last season was impressive, his completion percentage
(52.8) was not. And while the Ravens appear to have placed more faith in Banks than in
Dilfer — signing the former to a four-year contract, the latter to a one-year deal
— looks can be deceiving. Column co-conspirators report that there’s an out
clause in Banks’ contract after two years. Don’t be surprised if the Ravens
exercise it, not so much because Banks is bad but because Dilfer is better. |
