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Lions DE
Robert Porcher
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Editor's note: The following column was taken from our seven-page preview of the
2000 free-agent class. For team-by-team and position-by-position lists of the prospective
free agents come March, as well as our forecast of every club’s strategy in free
agency, get a copy of the print edition of Pro Football Weekly at a local newsstand or subscribe
now.
Let the buyer beware. That thought keeps exploding in my head like fireworks on the
Fourth of July as I ponder the free-agent class of 2000. It is a class that is dominated
by defensive linemen. This should warm the hearts of NFL general managers and head
coaches, because defensive linemen are to the NFL what starting pitching is to
major-league baseball — almost no one ever has enough on their roster.
At the same time, though, I suspect these NFL general managers and head coaches will
spend a lot of time tossing and turning in their sleep in the offseason to come when they
contemplate going after free-agent defensive linemen.
"Look at all the top defensive linemen that are having career years this year, and
almost all of them are free agents," says an NFL insider.
Meaning?
"These guys have ability, but they’ve always been underachievers, and
they’re turning it on because they’re in a contract year," says the
insider.
Meaning?
NFL teams better keep their wallets in their front pocket. If I’m going to pay a
guy like a superstar, he’d better have a lengthy list of major NFL accomplishments on
his résumé. Contract-drive stars are too much of a threat to pull a disappearing act
with their new team that only David Copperfield could explain.
As I see it, an NFL team can only make a break-the-bank free-agent signing every once
in a while. At $6 million a season, the word "risk" shouldn’t be able to
get through the door without a gun and a ski mask.
It’s like receiving a big inheritance. It doesn’t happen every day. You can
take your inheritance to Las Vegas and let it ride at the craps table if you want, but
I’d rather get advice from a savvy, trusted family member or an investment counselor
with impeccable references and then invest the money wisely.
Tying salary-cap fortunes to a player who has had wild fluctuations in production that
include a through-the-roof season during a contract drive has a
come-on-lucky-seven-daddy-needs-a-new-pair-of-shoes feel to it to me. High risk, high
return. You might strike it rich, but I’m not willing to chance going home with
nothing but a sob story.
Speaking about free agency in general, Chiefs president/GM/CEO Carl Peterson says,
"We are always concerned about players who have only one good, productive season, and
that is the season preceding them becoming a free agent. We are also looking at the
history of the player’s entire career. Is he ascending, plateauing or
descending? Has he shown a consistency of fine play? We will probably not be interested in
a free agent with a history of only one year of above-average, productive play."
The season after an up-and-down player signs a huge, new contract can often resemble a
New Year’s party hangover the morning of Jan. 1. It’s called too much of a good
thing. It’s called complacency.
"Some people stay hungry, and some people, I think, get a little passive,"
Jaguars LB Kevin Hardy says.
There is no hard-and-fast rule for determining who will fit into which category, but it
seems to me that an up-and-down player who waits until his contract drive to shift into
overdrive is more likely to get fat and content when he hits the mother lode than he is to
stay hungry. Yet you can’t rule out the possibility that the light bulb finally has
gone on for good as maturity arrives.
It’s enough to put NFL decision-makers in the loony bin.
Let’s consider some of the DL stars of the upcoming free-agency class.
Cardinals DE Simeon Rice figures to be the biggest fish in the ocean. He is enjoying a
monster season, having turned it up two notches with free agency beckoning. Is this a case
of him hitting his stride in his fourth pro season, a time when players have a history of
starting to peak? Or should potential suitors be concerned about his reputation before his
contract drive, when he was viewed as a bit of an underachiever who just played the pass
and wasn’t a real team guy?
If it’s the former, a team will be signing the game’s next superstar
defensive end. If it’s the latter, it will be destroying its salary cap for years to
come.
Chargers DT Norman Hand went from an overweight underachiever to a near Pro
Bowl-caliber performer last season. Once he signs a fat new contract, will he continue to
unleash his hunger on the field instead of at the dinner table?
Jaguars DE Tony Brackens is having a huge season because he is finally staying healthy.
In past years he’d get off to a good start only to get hurt and disappear. Were the
injuries of the past the fluke, or is this season’s good health the aberration?
Seahawks DT Sam Adams is having a big year, displaying the ability to take over a game
at times and make the spectacular play, but before this season he was viewed as an
underachiever who would sometimes coast. Which player do you get if he puts his name on
the dotted line?
These players have enormous upsides. They also bring enormous risk. In this age of the
salary cap, teams simply cannot afford to pay huge salaries for defensive linemen who turn
out to be busts. They take up too big a piece of the pie for a team to be a championship
contender if they do not deliver.
Does this mean they should be avoided at all costs? Of course not. Talent is a valuable
commodity in the NFL. What it means is that if you sign them, you’d better be right
about them.
Personally, I think there’s a better way to go this offseason in the free-agent
market for teams in search of defensive linemen. Their names are Robert Porcher and Chuck
Smith. I thought of these two defensive linemen recently when I was talking to Ravens
offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh about what he looks for when considering players via
free agency.
"If they show you that they really love to play the game, then you know the money
is not going to change them," Cavanaugh says. "If there’s any hesitancy in
how much the game means to them and how much time they’re willing to devote to
practice and studying, then you’ve got a problem."
This doesn’t mean you only look for hard workers. You can’t win without
talent in the NFL. Besides talent, Porcher and Smith have the love of the game, the pride,
the desire that Cavanaugh refers to. The light bulb went on for Porcher several seasons
ago, when he became a driven, hard worker who craves consistency from his game. He is well
on his way to his fourth consecutive double-digit sack season. Smith has the heart of a
champion despite being undersized. Both men play both the run and the pass, another sign
that they are not simply playing for the big payday down the road.
The down side for Porcher and Smith is that they are 30 and 29 years old, respectively.
That’s not ancient, but age will start to creep in by the latter portion of the
contracts they will sign this offseason. Rice (25), Brackens (24), Hand (27) and Adams
(26) have more gas left in the tank. The younger quartet may have more upside, but then
again, so did Ryan Leaf when the Colts faced a Draft Day decision between him and Peyton
Manning. I’m not saying Rice, Brackens, Hand and Adams are a bunch of ninnies like
Leaf. I am saying, though, that with Porcher and Smith, you have a much greater sense of
what you are getting, much as the Colts had when they chose Manning.
Teams cannot afford to get the DL decision wrong. Passion for the game, consistency and
health are the questions. Porcher and Smith are the safest answers. |
