Monday, May 13, 2002

ProFootballWeekly.com asks personnel expert Joel Buchsbaum for his thoughts on the hottest topics in football. 

WR class should pan out in Year Two

Several underclassmen provided the meat of the WR crop in the 2001-02 draft. Names such as Koren Robinson (sophomore), David Terrell (junior) and Robert Ferguson (junior) marked the elite of the class. While none of the three lit up the NFL as rookies, history says few rookie receivers do, and that the second year is a better measure of what the future holds.

Buchsbaum: Very often, people are too quick to jump to conclusions about high draft picks. If they don’t make it right away, very often they are instantly labeled busts. However, very often it takes a young player who is immature a year or two to get their feet wet. Most of the top receivers in the 2001 class were underclassmen like Seahawks WR Koren Robinson, Bears WR David Terrell, Packers WR Robert Ferguson, etc. None of them set the world on fire. In fact, the only receiver that made an impact was Dolphins WR Chris Chambers, who was a senior when he entered the draft. It will be very interesting to see how great the strides are that are made by the aforementioned players and Eagles WR Freddie Mitchell this year, being the year they would have come out had they stayed in school, aside from Robinson, who had two years of eligibility when the Seahawks drafted him. All of these players have all the talent in the world to be stars in the NFL, but their immaturity really hurt them last year. Of the group, it will be very interesting to see Ferguson because so many people were down on the Packers’ draft after last year.

Saints’ Benson could have done better

The Saints unexpectedly slashed general manager Randy Mueller last week and director of football administration Mickey Loomis was quickly promoted by owner Tom Benson. It certainly appears that Benson, in ousting a true football man, could have been more exhaustive in finding another such person to replace him.

Buchsbaum: I have respect for Mickey Loomis as an individual in the NFL. However, Tom Benson really blew it. If you are going to replace Randy Mueller as general manager, Benson should have gone all the way and gone after a football man like Tom Modrak of the Bills or Tim Ruskell of the Buccaneers or someone of that ilk. If he had wanted a GM just to turn the team over to, he could have gone after Charley Armey of the Rams. Obviously, Armey would command the most power of the group, and the Rams have yet to give him permission to pursue such a venture.

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2001 - 2002 Season