ProFootballWeekly.com
asks personnel expert Joel Buchsbaum for his thoughts on the hottest topics in
football.
Opportunity awaits Eagles RB Westbrook
Brian Westbrook, a third-round draft pick who starred at Villanova, signed a three-year
contract with the Eagles on Thursday. The 5-foot-9, 200-pound running back originally was
expected to compete for playing time on special teams and be a third-down back when the
Eagles selected him with the No. 91 overall pick in the April draft. But Westbrook emerged
as a backup to Duce Staley after Correll Buckhalter went down with a season-ending knee
injury on the first day of the first minicamp. Eagles head coach Andy Reid has been
impressed with Westbrook’s quickness, hands and burst to the hole. The two-time
Atlantic-10 Offensive Player of the Year holds the NCAA record with 9,885 career
all-purpose yards and was the NCAA Division I-AA Player of the Year last season. He rushed
for 1,603 yards, caught 59 passes for 658 yards and scored 29 touchdowns to help Villanova
to an Atlantic-10 co-title.
Buchsbaum: If the Eagles just give Westbrook a chance, he could be the running back the
team is looking for to complement Duce Staley. Westbrook has outstanding run skills,
balance, hands and ability to change direction quickly. He runs with good vision, he has
good balance, he runs low to the ground and he has been a very durable back. Granted, he
missed one year after having knee surgery, but that was the result of a high school injury
that was re-injured when he slipped on black ice. In his other four years at Villanova, he
generally touched the ball more than 300 times a year and was an outstanding and very
durable all-purpose back who was consistently productive and carried his team. He also is
a very competitive young man, smart and quick to pick things up. The Eagles just might be
better off going with him than spending money on a veteran like Dorsey Levens, who will
expect more and put Westbrook in the background.
Free agents lose by playing waiting game
With little more than a week remaining before the first NFL training camp opens,
several high-profile free agents are still visiting teams, hoping to land in an NFL
training camp. Prime among them are former Ravens DT Sam Adams, former Packers WR Antonio
Freeman, former Bengals WR Darnay Scott and Saints unrestricted free-agent WR Willie
Jackson. Except for Scott, who was released earlier this week, the others have turned down
substantial contract offers — a decision that may be creating feelings of remorse
with the tight salary-cap situations now facing most teams.
Buchsbaum: One of the keys for NFL veterans who are offered pay reductions or pink
slips is to know when to hold and when to fold. Unfortunately, most players overvalue
themselves a great deal, as do their agents, and they end up getting burned because of it.
If players like Antonio Freeman, Darnay Scott, Willie Jackson and Sam Adams were willing
to take reasonable pay cuts, they would still be playing for the teams they have had
success with and getting paid quite well. However, instead, now most of them are looking
at a little bit over, if not just at, the veteran’s minimum salary. Egos, the size of
the market, what’s available and what isn’t plus how much money teams have to
spend all go into deciding what a free agent will get. Players should learn very quickly
that if they don’t get a big offer early in free agency, it probably isn’t
coming and they probably would be much better off just going back to their old team.
However, because of egos and inflated opinions of themselves and agents whose biggest
concern is how they look, not how their players look, these players very rarely listen to
that advice and instead insist upon testing the free-agent market.
Freeman is a classic example. He could have stayed in Green Bay, played for a Super
Bowl contender and made about $1 million a year. Now, he’s probably looking at about
$665,000, and his best option may be the Kansas City Chiefs. Just figure the money he
would have earned as well if Green Bay had gone to the playoffs and possibly even gone to
and won the Super Bowl and how he could have reformed his reputation as well.
A player like Scott was making $3 million. He could have made probably $1.5 million,
and the Bengals would have forgotten about Michael Westbrook. Instead, he refused any type
of pay cut at all. Now, he is leaving a young, promising, up-and-coming team for the
X-factor, which he doesn’t know about.
Jackson had great success as a second and third receiver in New Orleans. He had a
tremendous quarterback in Aaron Brooks throwing to him, and it was a good situation
overall. Once again, now he is going to an unknown. People may say a big reason he left is
because the Saints drafted Donté Stallworth in the first round and went out and signed
Jerome Pathon. But would they have made either of those moves if they knew Jackson was
coming back? Possibly one, but definitely not both.
As for Adams, this player doesn’t seem to care much about winning. His biggest
motivation has always seemed to be how much someone will pay him. He is a lazy
underachiever with possibly as much talent as any defensive linemen in the game, but his
makeup more than anything else holds him back from being a great player. If he were more
concerned about getting and staying in shape and less concerned about how many dollars
were in his contract, he would develop into a dominating player and would make only the
type of money he dreams about making at this point. |
