Snap Judgments
Don Banks, SI.com
Mamas, whatever you do, don't let your babies grow up to be young franchise quarterbacks in the NFL. There's just no future in it.
Take a look at the carnage that passes for a young, promising quarterbacking career these days:
• The Chargers gave up on Drew Brees, 27, after five years, despite his Pro Bowl season in 2004.
• The Vikings jettisoned their cornerstone, Daunte Culpepper, 29, who had MVP-worthy statistics as recently as 2004.
• Joey Harrington, 27, is about to be tossed on the scrap heap after four tumultuous years in Detroit.
• Patrick Ramsey, 27, is being shopped by Washington to anyone who will take him.
• The Jets are desperate for somebody younger (and healthier) to take 29-year-old Chad Pennington's job.
• In Arizona, Josh McCown, 26, went from being the team's future to the past in about five minutes.
• Entering his fourth season, it's make-or-break time in Baltimore for Kyle Boller, 24. Ditto for 25-year-old J.P. Losman in year three in Buffalo.
• David Carr, 26, was the draft's No. 1 pick just four years ago, but he already has people debating whether the Texans should use another No. 1 to replace him with a newer model, namely Vince Young.
• In Chicago's always wacky quarterback situation, the Rex Grossman era was almost supplanted by the Kyle Orton era, even before the 25-year-old Grossman's time had come.
• And then there's Aaron Brooks, old man Aaron, who turns 30 in a week. With the Saints' signing of Brees, the curtain finally came down on Brooks' inconsistent act in New Orleans.
Those quarterbacks weren't all first-round picks, but the vast majority of them were and to varying degrees they were all hailed as saviors when they first arrived on the scene. Now they're more like survivors.
Suffice to say if George Blanda was just getting to the NFL these days, he'd have maybe three years to prove himself, then it'd be time to get somebody new if the results weren't up to snuff. No hanging around the league for 26 years and playing in four decades. Uh-uh. Who's got that kind of patience? Next?
Fresh starts are the order of the day on the NFL's quarterback carousel: Brees in New Orleans, Culpepper in Miami, McCown in Detroit, Harrington, Ramsey and Brooks somewhere still to be determined. They're all going to get chances to start over and get it right this time.
But they shouldn't make the mistake of settling in and getting too comfortable, because their window of opportunity will be Not For Long in the NFL. Whether they know it or not, they're already on the clock and racing time.
• Do the Lions ever look like they know what they're doing? After claiming that the flaws in Harrington's game were fixable, and staunchly endorsing him as their guy -- contract renegotiation or not -- they reverse field completely and sign Jon Kitna and McCown this week.
I like both signings, but then why all the meaningless signs of support for Harrington in recent weeks by team president/CEO Matt Millen, head coach Rod Marinelli and offensive coordinator Mike Martz?
I said it last fall when then Lions head coach Steve Mariucci first benched Harrington in favor of Jeff Garcia: There's no way to put the genie back into the bottle for Harrington in Detroit. It was a divorce that had to happen. It just shouldn't have taken this long or been handled so messily.
• Mark it down: McCown will be one of the better signings of the 2006 free-agency class. He's experienced enough to win games right away, but young enough, with enough upside to still develop into considerably more than he is today. And two years working with Martz -- who helped make Kurt Warner, Trent Green and Marc Bulger into NFL stars -- is a gift any young quarterback would relish.
• Count me among the few who think Terrell Owens to Dallas is a good fit. For both sides. Unlike San Francisco's Steve Mariucci and Dennis Erickson, and Philadelphia's Andy Reid, Dallas head coach Bill Parcells packs a big-stage persona that is every bit as oversized as Owens'. Parcells will not be intimidated or overwhelmed by T.O.'s celebrity or attention-seeking ways.
There will be challenging moments in the marriage should it come to pass, but if Owens doesn't realize he's working on his third strike and can't afford to make a hash out of his latest opportunity, he's even more myopic than we ever presumed. Call me an optimist, but I think the T.O. story in Dallas will have a largely happy ending.
• Here's the obvious reason why the Patriots have it tougher than ever when it comes to keeping their core roster intact: Because of New England's success, the branches of the Bill Belichick coaching tree now extend in many directions throughout the league, multiplying the effects of the talent drain.
First off, losing a Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis and Eric Mangini in the span of about a year hurts in and of itself. But with Belichick disciples Crennel, Mangini and Nick Saban now holding down head coaching spots in the AFC, and Belichick mentor Bill Parcells in the NFC, the competition for Patriots players and potential Patriots-type players is fiercer than ever.
"Those guys all have relationships with these players, and they're taking advantage of those relationships,'' said a league source. "It makes it tough.''
Dallas, Cleveland, Miami and the Jets are all now trying to emulate the Patriots model on the personnel front, and that means fewer players for New England to choose from, and makes it more difficult for the Patriots to retain their talent edge.
• He probably won't do it because the money won't be big enough, but if Keyshawn Johnson were as smart as he thinks he is, he'd give New England a long, hard look. Johnson has good relationships with both Belichick and Patriots director of football/head coach administration Berj Najarian, dating from their days with the Jets.
And Johnson's strength of being a possession-type receiver who can block and use his body to find creases in the defense would be a nice complement to New England's top pass-catcher, speedster Deion Branch.
• Maybe it was just me, but I found Daunte Culpepper a little late on the apology for his role in the Love Boat scandal in Minnesota. Waiting five months to offer a mea culpa, and then only doing so on his way out of town, leads me to believe he was as lacking in the team leadership role as many Vikings sources seemed to indicate in the past year or so.
• We knew cap-rich Cleveland and Minnesota were going to attack free agency with a vengeance and that Washington always does. But it's hard not to be impressed with Tennessee's first-week effort. The Titans definitely overspent for a guy who has yet to prove he's a No. 1 receiver, but David Givens was a nice pick up, and I could say the same for safety Chris Hope, linebacker David Thornton and veteran center Kevin Mawae. Seems to me that the worst of the medicine-taking is over in Tennessee.
• Given Michael Vick's track record on the health front, I think the Falcons will be sorry if they bite on one of the Jets' offers for coveted third-year backup quarterback Matt Schaub. Having a solid 1A option at quarterback is ultimately more valuable in my book than having another very good -- but not great -- pass rusher like John Abraham.
• One of the bigger surprises of this first week of free agency? How little interest there has been in 49ers outside linebacker Julian Peterson. He's visiting Seattle late this week, but Peterson has largely been off the radar screen early on, and likely won't receive anywhere near the sizable offer he expected. That speaks to just how much his reputation has been tempered by his Achilles tendon injury in 2004 and his sub-par season in 2005.
• Talk about a new twist to an old story. Randy Moss' longtime agent, Dante DiTrapano, was arrested this week in my hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla., and charged with possession of crack cocaine. And Moss came out and pledged to stand behind his troubled friend/representative.
Isn't it usually the agent who rushes to the support of his embarrassed client in this type of situation?