Friday, June 1, 2001

Patriots sign Charles Johnson

The Patriots continued to bolster their wide receiver corps, signing Charles Johnson to a contract on Thursday. Johnson was cut by the Eagles earlier this offseason after catching 56 passes for 642 yards and seven touchdowns.

Buchsbaum: Johnson is basically a decent second receiver. But his biggest role, along with Torrance Small, is trying to change the Patriots’ attitude, especially Terry Glenn's. Glenn is known as a follower who tended to follow the wrong crowd with the Patriots, a team that had many players of the wrong crowd. Now they’re trying to change the chemistry in the locker room, and trying to change Glenn, who can be as good as any receiver this side of Randy Moss if he’s really focused. He showed how good he can be at times as a rookie, but he has rarely approached that level since then.

Buchsbaum comments on Jerry Rice’s situation

Buchsbaum: It’s a shame that a player such as Jerry Rice can’t finish his career with the team he spent most of his career with, in Rice’s case, the 49ers. But Rice is really making it impossible, because he wants to be paid more than the 49ers, a rebuilding team, feel they can afford to pay him, more so than the cap implications. I really think the league should try to make some sort of agreement with the union so that players who have been with a team for 8-10 years can be discounted greatly against the cap in order to stay with the team. The exception would be quarterbacks, because quarterbacks regularly, if they’re good and don’t have major injuries, will play more than a decade. And that would have let John Elway and Dan Marino be huge discounts for the Broncos and Dolphins while in their prime, which would’ve created an unlevel playing field.

Jerry Jones predicts 10 wins for Dallas

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on Thursday that his team can win 10 games this season and compete for a playoff spot, as reported by the Dallas Morning News today. Jones used that as his explanation for not launching the team into an all-out rebuilding process, saying, "I believe we have the talent and ability to improve to the point that we can win 10 ballgames, and the decisions I’m making are based on that."

Buchsbaum: Anything’s possible in the NFL, considering which teams have been to the Super Bowl lately. But (10 wins is) highly unlikely, unless Tony Banks has one of those years where everything clicks for him and the receivers are golden. The Cowboys aren’t as talentless as everyone seems to think. They still have a good offensive line coached by Hudson Houck. If Galloway and Ismail are healthy, they have great speed at wide receiver, and Emmitt Smith is still a gifted runner. On the defensive line, they have ends who were first-round picks that could develop into big-time players, as could Dimitrius Underwood, if things work out for him at tackle. Linebacker-wise, they’re not as bad as people think, but in the secondary, they really need the youngsters to step up at cornerback.

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2000 - 2001 Season