AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > August > 23
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Falcons’ moves desperate, late
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Can you say “Peerless Price?” The Falcons’ latest move to go back to the future for a wide receiver has that same kind of desperate feel. Chuck Noll, the former coaching great of the Pittsburgh Steelers, used to say in training camp, “Help isn’t on the way.” He wished to stress that he had made his decisions through the spring and that the Steel Curtain would succeed or fail with those in the locker room.
Let’s just say that Noll knew that football isn’t baseball. In the NFL, you rarely trade for your version of Fred McGriff after discovering a major need on you roster at the last minute and watch that guy do all sorts of crazy things to lead you into the postseason or something.
The Falcons are searching for several versions of their Fred McGriff, and this isn’t good. After they looked shaky in several areas for a second consecutive exhibition game last weekend, coach Jim Mora pleaded with the personnel department to get help. Like now. For the secondary, for both sides of the line and for the receiving department. Which makes you wonder about the foresight (or lack thereof) of the Falcons decision makers, especially with all of this chaos around Flowery Branch just three weeks away from the start of the regular season.
For instance: Those Falcons decision makers just signed veteran Grady Jackson and his 355 pounds to stifle opposing running backs. That’s fine, but this isn’t: It has taken those Falcons decision makers until nearly the end of training camp to determine the obvious, and that is, their run defense still hasn’t improved from its sorry state of last year. They’ve also discovered — apparently in a flash — that they lack depths at those other spots, from the secondary to the offensive line, and thus their questionable T.J. Duckett trade.
No doubt, Duckett has more than a few issues as a Barry Sanders wannabe trapped in a power back’s body. He spent too much time dancing toward defenders instead of plowing over them. Still, despite his flaws, Duckett occasionally was the power back during the past four years that the Falcons don’t have anymore. Without Duckett, the Falcons rushing hopes inside the red zone belong to Jerious Norwood, a rookie who has fluctuated between highs and lows, and Justin Griffith, mostly a blocking fullback. The wiser move would have been to keep Duckett through this season. Instead, those Falcons decision makers figured they needed a No. 3 receiver to replace the injured Brian Finneran more than they did a power back.
They need both. Whatever the case, the Falcons have changed coaches, general managers and even owners, but some things never change, such as this tendency to reach to the past for future help. (How many times did this organization hire and fire Marion Campbell?) So after failing to draft a potentially explosive Price from the University of Tennessee when the Falcons should have gotten him the first time, they got him a few years later from the Buffalo Bills when he was a mental mess and desperate to leave his subordinate role through desperate means.
Sound familiar? If not, here’s the rest of the story. To quote myself in this space from April 2002 about how the Falcons blew it after drafting somebody named Duckett in the first round instead of what they really needed at the time: “(Dan) Reeves even admitted that the Falcons’ politburo viewed Duckett as 1a or 1b on its draft board with an unnamed wide receiver. Whether that receiver was Hawaii’s Ashley Lelie or Florida State’s Javon Walker is irrelevant to the overall point. Both are the burners that the Falcons need, both were available, and both promptly went to the Denver Broncos and the Green Bay Packers, respectively, after the Falcons caused eyes to roll by selecting Duckett.”
Now Lelie and Walker are the reasons Duckett is working for the Washington Redskins. It goes like this: When the Broncos acquired Walker from Green Bay after last season, Lelie refused to attend the Broncos’ training camp in protest of losing his starting job. That prompted the Falcons to participate in this week’s three-way trade that sent Duckett to the Redskins and Lelie to a Falcons team that already has wide receivers Roddy White and Michael Jenkins, and according to Mora, neither will be replaced as a starter.
Wasn’t Lelie upset with the Broncos because he wasn’t starting, and the Falcons got him anyway?
Don’t ask.
Permalink | Comments (107) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Duckett’s no Riggins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Just a guess: The Falcons won’t miss T.J. Duckett as much as the Washington Redskins will regret getting him.
We’re talking about one of the few big backs in the NFL who preferred to dance instead of bash his way toward the line of scrimmage.
Whether Ashley Lelie can become the accomplished wide receiver that he never was in Denver is debatable.
It’s less debatable on whether Duckett will become more than what he was with the Falcons; and that was somebody who sought to resemble Fred Astaire instead of John Riggins.
Didn’t Riggins star for the Redskins? Yep, and Duckett is no Riggins.
Permalink | Comments (50) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
