Around The NFL In 10 Questions
Answer These Correctly And You Could Be The Next Commissioner
By Jerry DiPaola

Here are 10 questions, the answers to which will help define the 2002 NFL season:

1. Is this the year, finally, for the Cincinnati Bengals to throw off the cloak of mediocrity and earn a berth in the playoffs?

Bengals Coach Dick LeBeau is no stranger to champions or championships. Before he started his NFL coaching career in 1973—uninterrupted, by the way—he played for Ohio State's 1957 National championship team. He was the premier defensive back of his day with the Detroit Lions, and went to the Super Bowl as an assistant coach with the Bengals and Steelers. If he's not in the Hall of Fame someday, there should be an investigation. LeBeau's calm hand appears to be steering the Bengals out of the misery of 11 consecutive losing seasons. The Bengals picked up defensive end Justin Smith in the first-round last year, and immediately upgraded the pass rush. Bengals President Mike Brown has started locking up some of the team's most important players, including running back Corey Dillon and linebacker Brian Simmons, for the long term. Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski, formerly of the Steelers, still has to solve that pesky quarterback problem, but the Bengals won't be easy to ignore.

2. Was New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's Super Bowl season a fluke?

There are those who believe it was, and that's unfair to Brady. He was the second of the Patriots' two sixth-round picks in 2000. Give Brady credit for rising from obscurity to complete 63.3 percent of his passes for 2,843 yards and lead his team to victory in 11 of the last 12 games of the 2001 season, including three post-season games that were decided by three, seven and three points. One mistake by Brady would have derailed the title run, and he was nearly flawless. That doesn't happen by accident. That being said, the Patriots haven't run out and signed Brady to a new contract this year, so he might play the entire season for the NFL minimum for a third-year veteran ($450,000). Ouch!

3. Does Tom Donahoe have a winner on his hands in only his second season as president of the Buffalo Bills?

Can you think of a more delicious scenario than the Steelers and the Bills meeting in an AFC Championship game? That's incredibly far-fetched, but Donahoe and coach Greg Williams have made major strides in improving the Bills and cleaning up a salary-cap mess that led to a 3-13 season a year ago. Donahoe surrendered a first-round draft pick next year when he obtained veteran quarterback Drew Bledsoe from the Patriots. In so doing, Donahoe held onto his own first-round pick this year, and took 6-foot-6, 370-pound offensive tackle Mike Williams, who looks to be the blind-side protector of Bills quarterbacks for a long time to come. Upgrades on the offensive line will help Bledsoe find lanes to throw to one of the best pair of pass catchers in the NFL, Eric Moulds and Peerless Price. Together, they combined for 12 touchdowns and averaged 14.7 yards per catch. The Bills still have serious holes to fill, especially on the defensive line, but the Bills—like the Bengals—won't be anyone's patsy this season.

4. Is running back Ricky Williams ready to step up, fully embrace stardom and, finally, get the Miami Dolphins past the early stages of the playoffs?

The Dolphins have been in the playoffs the past five seasons, but have little to show: 2001—A 20-3 loss to an average Baltimore Ravens team; 2000—27-0 to the Oakland Raiders; 1999—62-7 to the Jacksonville Jaguars; 1998—38-3 to the Denver Broncos; 1997—17-3 to the Patriots. Williams was obtained from the New Orleans Saints for three draft picks, including a No. 1 this year, to put the Dolphins over the hump. That could happen, because Williams is a powerful, if eccentric, running back who rushed for 1,245 yards on a bad Saints team last year, but there are those who question if he has enough heart to carry a team on his shoulders. The view here is the Dolphins will have a better running game with Williams, but Miami still can't stop the run. Unless he can play defensive tackle, Williams won't stop the Dolphins' playoff disappointments.

5. Will Jon Gruden succeed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where respected, but fired, coach Tony Dungy failed?

Gruden averaged 10 victories per season as coach of the Oakland Raiders, and now the Buccaneers are paying him $3.5 million a year to pump juice into their underachieving team. Gruden, who is typically in his office at 5 o'clock every morning, won't stand for underachievement, and he will prod the Bucs to the first NFC South championship. He has depth at quarterback with Johnson and Johnson (Brad and Rob, in that order), and a running back in Michael Pittman who might be this year's Priest Holmes. If not, there's old standby Mike Alstott to grind out the yards, and new wide receiver Keenan McCardell to take some of the heat off Keyshawn Johnson. The Steelers and Bucs are scheduled to play at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium on December 23, and it's a good bet it will be touted as a preview of Super Bowl XXXVII.

6. Can Steve Spurrier take his Fun & Gun passing attack from Gainesville to the the shadow of the Washington Monument and make it work?

Sure he can. Just ask him. The coach who is so sure of himself that he is the antithesis of Gruden and prides himself on working eight-hour days has a team that could be one of the surprise stories of the NFL. But it won't be surprising if the Redskins' defense turns out to be more proficient than the offense. Even in a bad season, the Redskins had the 10th-ranked defense in the NFL, sixth against the pass. Their linebackers may be the best grouping at that position in the league, or, at the very least, second to the Steelers. If new defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis can get one more productive season out of the likes of veteran defensive ends Marco Coleman and Bruce Smith, the Redskins' defense could rival Lewis' Super Bowl wrecking crew of 2000 when he was in Baltimore.

7. Can Michael Strahan and Tiki Barber co-exist in a metropoliton area as big as New York/New Jersey?

That's a lot of ego to keep under control, but Giants coach Jim Fassel will try. Barber is upset that Strahan is upset about contract negotiations, and Barber didn't think it was the best thing for team unity when Strahan turned down a $17 million signing bonus that would have helped keep a good defense together. Quarterback Kerry Collins has a strong arm, but averaged an interception per game last year. He has, perhaps, the NFC's most promising rookie this season in tight end Jeremy Shockey, and some good wide receivers, even without Collins' former Penn State teammate Joe Jurevicius. Still, the Giants will fight to escape the NFC East basement, when they aren't fighting among themselves.

8. Will Randy Moss lift the Minnesota Vikings back into the playoffs, or cause further problems with his me-first, lackadaisical attitude?

Moss is probably the most talented overall football player in the league, with great speed, strength and catching ability. But he plays hard only when the mood strikes him, and that will be a problem if the Vikings revert back to 2001 and finish 5-11, or something close to it. New coach Mike Tice is the lowest-paid coach in the NFL ($630,000), but he will earn every cent of it trying to keep Moss interested.

9. Are quarterback Quincy Carter and running back Emmitt Smith—and a starring role on HBO's "Hard Knocks"—enough to return the Dallas Cowboys to the playoffs?

It wasn't so long ago that some people thought Anthony Wright would be the first starting quarterback for the Steelers in Heinz Field. Now, Wright is on the trading block in Dallas after falling behind Jerry Jones' hand-picked successor to Troy Aikman, Quincy Carter. The Cowboys will somehow get along without Wright, thanks in large part to a surprisingly effective defense. It was good last year, and might be better this year. The big story in Big D, though, is Smith, who needs just 540 yards to surpass Walter Payton and become the leading rusher in the history of the NFL. If he stays healthy, Smith should have no trouble racing into immortality. Jones exposed his team to HBO cameras this summer at training camp, and the Cowboys are downplaying the potential distractions. But the Ravens were stars of the cable world last year, and the result was early playoff elimination for the defending Super Bowl champion.

10. Will Jim Haslett take his new $3 million deal and recapture the magic of his first season in New Orleans, or will their season-ending four-game losing streak of a year ago be too much to overcome?

If the Saints had won their last four games of 2001 and turned a 5-7 record into a 9-7 finish, they probably would be one of the favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. But they were horrible in December with consecutive 34-21, 48-21, 40-10 and 38-0 defeats. And Haslett is supposed to be a defensive coach? Now, he has a contract extension, lots of guaranteed money rolling in and a disgruntled quarterback in Aaron Brooks who can't understand—even though he didn't play well last year—why the team isn't showing him the same type of love. Haslett knows how to push his players' buttons. He's much like Bill Cowher in that respect, even though neither man's ego would permit such a comparison. With Haslett's Steelers and western Pennsylvania background, Saints-Steelers would be an even more intriguing Super Bowl than Rams-Steelers or Bucs-Steelers.

Jerry DiPaola covers the Steelers for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.