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Given the profile with which he operated both during and after his much celebrated 12-year career, and the fact he briefly flirted with a comeback late last season, it's somewhat incredible that the current status of Deion Sanders could be so universally overlooked.
But there is his name, the "Prime Time" guy himself, tucked in with all of the other remnant players still available in the unrestricted free agent pool. And there he is, officially free of all the technicalities and the entanglements that precluded his attempt to sign on with the Oakland Raiders for the final couple games of the 2002 season and, of course, for the playoffs.
Sanders an unrestricted free agent? You bet. The best cover defender of the past 20 years, and sure-fire Hall of Fame inductee, available to any team that offers him enough incentive to end a two-season hiatus? Uh-huh.
ESPN.com confirmed this week, through a league spokesman and also agent Eugene Parker, that Sanders is, indeed, an unrestricted free agent. And while Sanders has no designs on resuming his career at age 35, should the itch return, he would not be stymied this time by the same obtuse rules that kept him from rescuing the injury-depleted Raiders last December.
"Trust me, he has no plans to come back, at least not right now," Parker told ESPN.com. "But after last year, when he got serious about the Raiders, you just never know with Deion. Notice, I said he has no plans right now, OK? But I learned from the experience last year that you never say never when Deion is concerned. You never know when the temptation becomes too much for him to ignore."
For those with short memories, Sanders' comeback was blocked in 2002 because, having retired with six seasons still remaining on the contract that he signed with Washington in 2000, he remained property of the Redskins. He was on the league's reserve-retired list, with no team able to just simply sign him as a free agent, since Washington held his rights.
In a bit of altruism, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder then released Sanders, so that he could pursue his return to the field. But that move subjected Sanders to the NFL waiver wire and, to essentially block the Raiders from signing him, five clubs submitted claims. He was awarded to San Diego, which then moved him to its own reserve-retired list, ending his interest in coming out of retirement.
Where there is an NFL rule, however, there is often a loophole. Or at least a caveat. And in the case of Sanders, given the way in which he was claimed by San Diego last year, he had the right to declare himself an unrestricted free agent after the 2002 season. And not surprisingly, being a the savvy businessman he is, that is exactly what Sanders did.
To this point, Parker said, no teams have contacted he or Sanders to discuss any potential mutual interest. The odds are, he acknowledged, stacked pretty heavily against a "Prime Time" comeback. But come December, if there is a team that feels it could gain an advantage by signing Sanders as a short-term upgrade, the phone could ring again.
And this time around, Sanders would be free to answer the call, provided he really wanted the opportunity to add another Super Bowl ring.
Vick ruffling Falcons feathers? The Atlanta Falcons have maintained political correctness in dealing with the continued absence of star quarterback and franchise icon Michael Vick from the team's offseason conditioning program. But the fact Vick has not attended the first two weeks of the program, because of the old and overused "personal reasons," is more reflective of the player's lack of dependability than team officials will ever concede. Privately there are some in the Atlanta organization, including a few players, steamed by Vick's absence.
In the past year, ESPN.com has confirmed that Vick blew off at least two public engagements he was supposed to attend to represent the Falcons. One of them was an appearance that he was to have made with owner Arthur Blank. The team twice moved back the starting time for the press conference at which it announced the trade for wide receiver Peerless Price, because Vick was supposed to have been there to greet his new teammate, and he never showed up. There's no denying that Vick certainly shows up for the Falcons most Sunday afternoons. But coach Dan Reeves has long been a stickler for attendance at offseason functions and Vick would be wise to find his way to the team's Flowery Branch, Ga., complex next week. There is a pattern of off-field nonchalance on the part of Vick that has become nettlesome internally for the team. The Falcons have built their team, and their marketing pitch, around Vick over the past two years. The time has come, some officials privately acknowledge, for Vick to become the team leader he is publicly purported to be.
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| Seau |
Miami in Seau's future: Look for the Miami Dolphins to strike a deal that will net them linebacker Junior Seau, perhaps over the weekend, no later than Monday afternoon. The Dolphins are the one team that has ardently pursued Seau and, as noted here last week, he is coveted as much for his presence in the locker room as for what he might mean to the team on the field. Team officials have been hard at work, negotiating with agent Marvin Demoff, on a deal that will eliminate some of the hazards of assuming the existing contract Seau still has with the Chargers. The deal would pay Seau much less than the $19.2 million due him over the final three seasons of his San Diego contract, but would allow him to remain, at least on paper, one of the NFL's highest paid players at his position. Seau is due $2.7 million in guaranteed money on April 15 if he is on the San Diego roster, so a trade must be consummated by Monday at 4 p.m., when the league's business day ends. If a deal isn't cut by then, the Chargers are liable for the $2.7 million, and they are desperate to avoid paying it. Seau, who has only 27 "big plays" (interceptions, sacks, fumbles forced or recovered) over the last five seasons, would come to Miami as the starting weak-side linebacker and the Dolphins would almost certainly dump incumbent Derrick Rodgers. Miami is not expected to surrender much in the way of compensation to the Chargers, probably a late-round draft choice. Notable is that Seau has been notoriously late in paying commission fees to Demoff, but the veteran agent is still more than willing to help his client get a representative contract.
Around the league
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| Jones |
Tebucky marching for the Saints? The deal that would send New England free safety Tebucky Jones to the New Orleans Saints is inching ever closer to culmination. While the Pats have maintained they will keep their designated "franchise" safety rather than surrender him for a below-market offer, there is an air of compromise from both sides, and that figures to allow the swap to be completed. Patriots officials have been seeking a second-round choice for Jones and the Saints had been offering just a third-rounder. New Orleans in recent days revised its offer, and now seems willing to include a late-round pick this year and another choice in the 2004 draft, to go with this year's third-round choice. That might be enough to turn the Patriots' heads. As noted here in the past, Saints general manager Mickey Loomis and agent Gary Wichard weeks ago reached an agreement in principle on a contract for Jones. If the deal goes through, Jones will get a five-year contract worth about $18.75 million, with a signing bonus of $5 million and second-tier option bonus of $1 million. After the trade wasn't struck at the annual league meetings in March, it became apparent that talks probably wouldn't resume until just before the draft, and talks figure to intensify next week.
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| Palmer |
Bengals on the clock: The subterfuge, and also the well-rehearsed uncertainty on the part of the Cincinnati Bengals, is almost over. Having performed their due diligence, and carefully scrutinized the four players they felt were viable candidates for the top spot in the draft, the Bengals will do what most observers expected them to do from the beginning of the process. Which means that, likely by sometime next week, Cincinnati officials will begin substantive contract negotiations with David Dunn, the representative for Southern California quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer.
Rookie head coach Marvin Lewis has been more convinced about Palmer than he has let on and, when Byron Leftwich had a good but not great workout Monday morning, it all but sealed the deal on the direction the Bengals will take now. To this point, there have been no legitimate trade offers from franchises desperate to move up to the top spot, and that probably will not change. In fact, the rumor that appeared in print in Cincinnati this week, which had the Bengals dealing the first overall choice to Tampa Bay for a package that included defensive tackle Warren Sapp, was about as preposterous as hearsay gets. Sapp is in the final year of his contract, is 30 years old, and who would trade for him without first signing him to an extension? Fact is, Lewis told the guy who printed the rumor that it was bad information, but still it appeared.
What's notable in the decision by the Bengals and Lewis to take Palmer is that the first-year coach, club sources told ESPN.com, has never felt pressured into selecting a prospect who would step immediately into the lineup. Off to an impressive start in his debut head coaching job, having done a marvelous job in providing structure and direction to a franchise that sorely needed both those commodities, Lewis is confident that he's going to be around for a while. And thus, he has no real worries about choosing a prospect like Palmer, who probably won't play much as a rookie. Lewis has already named Jon Kitna the starter for 2003 and, while the fans are going to want to see Palmer at some point during his first season, there will be no rush to force him into the lineup.
Feeling a draft: It may not be exactly the way they come off the board on April 26, but here is one AFC college scouting director's top 12, as of Wednesday: 1. Palmer; 2. wide receiver Charles Rogers, Michigan State; 3. Kansas State cornerback Terence Newman (assuming a shoulder problem isn't serious); 4. defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson of Kentucky; 5. Utah offensive tackle Jordan Gross; 6. cornerback Marcus Trufant of Southern California; 7. Arizona State defensive end Terrell Suggs; 8. Miami wide receiver Andre Johnson; 9. defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy of Penn State; 10. quarterback Kyle Boller from California; 11. Iowa offensive guard Eric Steinbach; 12. Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich.
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| Leftwich |
What about Leftwich? There are some teams in the top 10-12 of the first round who will likely have to make a tough call on Leftwich. The former Marshall star, despite a relatively average workout on Monday, remains a top 10 talent. But with so many teams suddenly hot for Boller, who had just one standout season in his college career, Leftwich could tumble a bit. The Jaguars, with the eighth overall choice, might be tempted, since they eventually must replace Mark Brunell. But the Jags are said to be focusing on Utah tackle Jordan Gross to solidify the left side of their offensive line. Carolina would prefer not to have to make a decision on Leftwich with the ninth pick overall. But if Leftwich is available, the Panthers almost certainly have to consider him, although they are hoping to land an offensive lineman or trade back with New Orleans, which wants to move up for a cornerback. Baltimore owns the 10th choice and, while there has been plenty of smoke about Boller coming from the Ravens, they are still evaluating Leftwich as well.
Said one scout who attended the Leftwich workout: "What he demonstrated was that his (twice-fractured left) leg is fine. But he really didn't throw the ball nearly as well as we thought he would. One of his hallmarks has been his accuracy and he looked pretty rusty. Had he thrown well, he would have helped his cause, believe me. If you're down in that 8-12 range in the first round, you pray he goes before you, because it's going to be a tough call if he's still on the board at that point."
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| McGahee |
McGahee watch: When he auditions for what figures to be a huge contingent of scouts on April 22 on campus, University of Miami tailback Willis McGahee almost certainly will not run the 40-yard dash, but he still plans to perform a pretty ambitious menu of football-related skills. The purpose of the workout, his first and only scheduled one before the draft, is to demonstrate to teams just how far along he is in rehabilitating from the catastrophic knee injury that he sustained in the Fiesta Bowl. With nearly four-dozen other prospects for the 2003 draft, McGahee traveled to Indianapolis last week for a re-check by physicians from virtually every NFL team. The verdict: While his knee is not yet 100 percent recovered, just three months after an injury in which he suffered at least partial tears in three of four ligaments, McGahee remains well ahead of schedule and could be back on the field by the time training camps open. Doctors detected no abnormal swelling in the knee and were pleased at the development of the quadriceps.
"What we have planned (for the scouts) is a range of drills that should provide them a good feel for where Willis is in his recovery, and ought to allow them to project where he will be in three more months," said agent Drew Rosenhaus of the pending workout. "My guess is, for the teams that haven't seen or met with him lately, they're going to be pleasantly surprised." The workout will basically be run by the University of Miami trainers and Dr. John Uribe, who performed surgery on McGahee's knee, essentially the people who best understand precisely what the prized tailback can and can't do at this juncture of his recovery. In a bit of educated conjecture, our hunch is that there is a slightly better than 50-50 chance that some team will gamble on McGahee in the first round. But the April 22 audition will certainly answer a lot of questions for those clubs who still feel McGahee would be best served taking a redshirt year in 2003. The one element that remains constant, and which we have reported now several times in this space, is that McGahee plans to sign with the team that drafts him, no matter the round. "We've told everyone that," Rosenhaus said. "We don't see any benefit in having him sit out a year and then going back into the draft in 2004. Basically, if you draft him, you've got him."
Steelers eyeing Larry Johnson: There have been legitimate questions from scouts to whom we speak on a regular basis about whether the 2003 draft even has a tailback who should be taken in the first round. Of course, McGahee would have been a top 10 pick, and probably top five, had he not suffered the knee injury. But when those ligaments popped in McGahee's knee, it left the first round without a consensus No. 1 tailback prospect, and most scouts regard this lottery as one with a lot of runners who have second-round grades. One team, though, that is thinking seriously about a tailback is Pittsburgh, and ESPN.com learned the Steelers are focused on Larry Johnson of Penn State.
There remain a lot of directions the Steelers can go with their first pick, and they could even select a quarterback, given that the organization is not yet convinced Tommy Maddox is a long-term solution. But the Steelers brass realizes that Amos Zereoue is most effective as a spot player, not a starter, and this is a team, even with the new emphasis on the passing game, that lives with the run. If the Steelers do choose Johnson, it could mean the end of Jerome Bettis' stay with the club. Conventional wisdom in Pittsburgh has been that the Steelers would part with tight end Mark Bruener, who finished the last two seasons on injured reserve, but keep Bettis around for another season, provided he reported in shape for mini-camps and agreed to a reduced role. But getting Johnson might well hasten Bettis' exit.
The rich get richer: As much as Jon Gruden is griping about Rich McKay these days, the Tampa Bay general manager deserves a big-time nod for engineering the acquisition of free agent strong-side linebacker Dwayne Rudd this week. The veteran will replace the departed Alshermond Singleton in the lineup and, most unbiased observers agree, represents an upgrade for the Bucs. McKay was able to cut a bargain deal, getting Rudd on a two-year contract worth just $2.75 million. Upon further inspection, for the Bucs, the contract is even more favorable than that. Rudd gets a signing bonus of $200,000 and a base salary of $530,000 for 2003. That's a total of just $730,000 for a guy who, despite an ill-advised helmet tossing incident that cost the Cleveland Browns a victory in the '02 season opener, is a very solid defender. If the Bucs want to keep Rudd in 2004, they owe him a $300,000 roster bonus next spring and his base salary then becomes $1.72 million. But even if Tampa Bay merely "rents" Rudd for this season, they added a proven commodity at a price that is about as close to rock bottom as you can get. As for Rudd, he gets the chance to get his career back on track, playing in a defensive scheme that will accentuate his strengths, and where he will be surrounded by a better group than the Cleveland unit possessed.
Restricted area: Next Friday marks the deadline by which teams can submit offer sheets to restricted free agents. After that, the incumbent teams regain the exclusive negotiating rights to their restricted players. As of Friday morning, there had been eight restricted players who signed offer sheets with new teams. In four cases, the players returned to their current teams, and four times the players moved to the club with which it signed the offer sheet. Of course, one of the players who moved deserves an asterisk next to his name, since Jets return man Chad Morton was actually awarded to the Redskins by an arbitrator. There remain a few restricted free agents drawing interest and any or all of this group could sign offer sheets before the deadline: linebacker Peter Sirmon (Tennessee), defensive tackle Jermaine Haley (Miami), strong safety Arturo Freeman (Miami), offensive lineman Shaun O'Hara (Cleveland), cornerback Mario Edwards (Dallas), wide receiver Chris Cole (Denver), quarterback Tim Rattay (San Francisco) and defensive end/linebacker Adalius Thomas (Baltimore).
Thoughts on Morton: Three thoughts on the Chad Morton fiasco: While the Redskins brass is thrilled to have landed him, team officials need to back off their claims he can be a viable third-down tailback, a player they can throw to out of the backfield or align in the slot. Morton is anything but a polished receiver, is so short that quarterbacks regularly overthrow him, and has not been an effective third-down receiver at any point in his career.
Second, while some members of the New York media corps are pillorying Jets assistant general manager Mike Tannenbaum for the loss of Morton, the decision to heed the bad advice of the league's Management Council was an organizational one and should not be pinned on one man.
Finally, enough, OK, about how arbitrator Richard Bloch is a Redskins season ticketholder. Bloch apprised both sides of that fact and no one asked him to recuse himself from the case. Once upon a time, a guy by the name of Paul Tagliabue had season tickets for the Redskins, too. Big deal. Jets officials leaked the nugget about Bloch to the media to create a diversion and reduce some of the heat they were experiencing. The bottom line is, they botched the offer sheet, and part of the problem was their own arrogance.
More on Morton: No one was more stunned by the Morton ruling than NFL Players Association officials. A week ago, at an agent seminar in Phoenix, union officials were telling anyone who would listen that Morton would remain with the Jets. The moral victory, they predicted, would be that controversy surrounding the case would force the league to better define the "principal terms" provisions of a restricted free agent offer sheet. That will, of course, be necessary now. But no one in the NFLPA offices really expected that Bloch would send Morton to the Redskins.
Seattle searching for a kicker: While the Seattle Seahawks continue their search for a place kicker to supplant Rian Lindell, who signed with Buffalo as a restricted free agent, we hear the guy that special teams coach Pete Rodriguez most wants to sign is journeyman Wade Richey. The kicker worked with Rodriguez early in his career, then moved on to San Francisco, where he had a solid three-year stretch, converting 54 of 72 field goal tries 1998-2000. That performance earned him a fat contract from the Chargers but, after making just 21 of 32 field goals in 2001, the Chargers were forced to sign veteran Steve Christie last year, and Richey was relegated to kickoff duty. There are whispers around the league that Richey's confidence as a place kicker is way down, and that he just wants to be a kickoff guy now, but Rodriguez feels that he can rehabilitate the kicker. Seattle has trotted a number of kickers in for auditions and is running low on options.
Gruden still learning: Shane Matthews might have a tough time securing a roster spot as a backup quarterback in Tampa Bay, but he's been a big help already to Bucs coach Jon Gruden. Although Gruden is himself an offensive mastermind, it seems he wants to learn more about the Steve Spurrier-designed "fun-and-gun" attack. Matthews played for Spurrier at Florida, and last year in Washington, and is tutoring Gruden on some of the offense's nuances.
Punts: Veteran wide receiver Frank Sanders, an unrestricted free agent, has narrowed his options to Arizona and Baltimore, and will probably reach a decision on his future next week. . . . Despite the criticism they encountered in some quarters for even working out defensive tackle Darius Holland, the Redskins never viewed the free agent as anything more than a training camp body. After he weighed in at 337 pounds, and looked very slow in drills, they lost interest in him even for that role. . . . Penn State defensive tackle Anthony Adams is under 6-feet tall, but is moving up draft boards rapidly, and could now be a second-round choice. . . . The Bengals, who do not have an experienced center on their roster, remain in contract talks with Gennaro DiNapoli, the starter at Tennessee last season.
The last word: "I told them it was because I had never played football without shoes on." -- Penn State defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy, on how he explained to scouts why he is 6-feet-4 when the Nittany Lions media guide always listed him as 6-feet-5.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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