Tuesday, June 5, 2001

Reports have Rice leaning toward Oakland

According to reports, 16-year veteran WR Jerry Rice will wear the silver & black next season for the Raiders. Rice was expected to sign a four-year deal with Oakland in the next day or two after declining to the 49ers’ $1 million retirement bonus. Rice had narrowed his choices down to the Raiders and Seahawks.

Buchsbaum: Jerry Rice can still be an effective player in the NFL. He claims to have regained the step that he lost, but I think only games will tell that. If he hasn’t, I think the Raiders could run into a problem. What it now looks like is their top three receivers are going to be Tim Brown, Jerry Rice and Andre Rison. You probably have close to 20 Pro Bowls between the three. You also have two and possibly even three potential players who will get Hall of Fame consideration. Obviously one is a lock in Rice, and one very possible (lock) in Tim Brown. However, none of them have anywhere near close to the speed and quickness they had coming out of college, and you’re basically dealing with guys who are very smart, very clever and very effective underneath, but really are not going to stretch the defense. Compounding the problem is the loss off TE Rickey Dudley. While Dudley was very unreliable catching the ball, he gave the Raiders a type of tight end who could really spread a defense with his speed and make you play differently. With the combination they have now and Roland Williams at tight end, defenses will probably play closer to the line of scrimmage, which also could have an adverse effect on the Raiders’ running game because (the defense) may be able to put eight men in the box to stop them. Rice obviously picked the Raiders because he’s got a house in the area, he doesn’t want to move, the Raiders have always had a good stigma about them and he’s comfortable with Jon Gruden and the offense.

On the other hand, it’s really a blow to the Seahawks because with all their young receivers, especially (rookie) Koren Robinson, they were really counting on him coming in and being the tutor and the guy who could get things running for them. Now that can’t happen. Seattle now has got to go back on the market and try to find a veteran receiver who can give them the leadership qualities. They already made a pitch for Charles Johnson and lost him, which is a much bigger blow now because I have the feeling they expected to land Jerry Rice.

Schottenheimer says decision on Sanders can wait

Redskins head coach Marty Schottenheimer indicates Monday that there is nothing the team has to do in regard to CB Deion Sanders until a time closer to the start of training camp.

Buchsbaum: It does not look like the Redskins are ready to release Sanders yet because the chances of him playing football and not baseball are growing with each failure he has with the Reds. And with Ken Griffey, Jr. due back from injury soon, Deion may end up on the bench or back in the minor leagues.

While Deion may be the most marvelous athlete of his time, his inability to handle adversity is one of his greatest weaknesses, and the odds are he’s like the little kid who if he doesn’t make it right away in baseball, he’ll throw his glove against the wall, have a tantrum and play a sport he is very good at like football. Football comes very easy to him, and baseball is work. I don’t think he’s willing to pay the price (in baseball) if he doesn’t have success very soon.

Buchsbaum on former Steelers RB Richard Huntley:

Huntley probably will sign with the Dolphins. The Steelers thought that he’d end up rotating and possibly even win the job from Jerome Bettis a year ago, but he got hurt in training camp with a groin injury, it was worse than they thought and he never really got on track. Also in the past, he’s had a reputation for fumbling, which is not going to help him any and obviously was a big negative in Pittsburgh, where Bettis is known as a guy who has not fumbled much in recent years.

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2000 - 2001 Season