[SI.COM] Carr set to become latest Class of '02 disappointment

Musings, observations and the occasional insight as the NFL offseason continues to generate headlines on this Valentine's Day. ...

• Once David Carr is moved this offseason by the Houston Texans -- a scenario that looks increasingly likely to unfold -- the failure rate in the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft will be almost wall-to-wall on the offensive side of the ball.

With Texans general manager Rick Smith this week acknowledging that teams have inquired about Carr's availability, and that Houston is open to any and all offers, the chances of Carr returning for a sixth season appear to be inching toward slim and none territory. Texans head coach Gary Kubiak is believed to be interested in acquiring deposed Denver starting quarterback Jake Plummer, who went 32-11 for him when he was the Broncos offensive coordinator. That's a move that just makes too much sense not to happen.

Carr starting over elsewhere would fit the pattern of the '02 draft, which he led as the No. 1 overall pick. In his five years in Houston, the Texans went 23-53 in games Carr played in, and he was sacked an astonishing 249 times. His departure would mean all three quarterbacks taken in '02's first round would be playing for a team other than the one that drafted him, a fate that Joey Harrington (No. 3 to Detroit) and Patrick Ramsey (No. 32 to Washington) have already met. Ramsey, in fact, is likely to be released by the Jets, meaning his next employer will be his third team in six years.

But it's not just '02's first-round quarterbacks who have failed to bloom where they were planted. Receivers Donte' Stallworth (No. 13, to New Orleans), Ashley Lelie (No. 19, to Denver) and Javon Walker (No. 20, to Green Bay) all left the teams that drafted them in the past year, as have both of that year's first-round running backs: William Green (No. 16, to Cleveland) and T.J. Duckett (No. 18, to Atlanta).

Throw in the dismal tenure turned in by offensive tackle Mike Williams (No. 4, to Buffalo), who is now in Jacksonville, and your clear-cut offensive success stories from that year's first round can pretty much be boiled down to Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey (No. 14), and offensive linemen Bryant McKinnie (No. 7, to Minnesota), Levi Jones (No. 10, to Cincinnati), and Kendall Simmons (No. 30, to Pittsburgh).

That's a lot of relocations for a draft that unfolded five years ago this spring. And Carr, as the most recent top overall pick to change teams, besting Cleveland defensive end Courtney Brown ('00), would become the poster child for that all that movement.

• I understand his excitement level at starting a new gig with NBC in his post-football career, and I'm familiar with the breathless language that is employed in most press releases, but I still had to marvel at the following nugget offered up by ex-Giants running back Tiki Barber in an NBC news release that announced his hiring Tuesday:

"Matt Lauer has been my idol and someone I would love to emulate in my career here,'' Barber said.

Matt Lauer is Tiki Barber's idol? Who knew?

I still don't know how I'll recall the Giants' LaVar Arrington era. All six games of it. Maybe like this: It was a bad free-agent signing last year, of a player who was both overrated and unproductive for most of his final three seasons in Washington. In other words, it will not exactly turn out to be a crippling blow to New York's chances in 2007.

• Nobody has called seeking my opinion, but if I had a say in San Diego's coaching search, my top three candidates would be:

1. Jim Mora -- The ex-Falcons head coach will learn from the mistakes of his first crack at holding down the top job in an organization. The Chargers are a talented team built to win now. Leaning toward a candidate with recent head coaching experience just makes sense in this situation.

2. Norv Turner -- He has both head coaching experience and San Diego experience, having served as the Chargers offensive coordinator in 2001 under Mike Riley. Turner's touch with quarterbacks also would be a quality development for San Diego's Philip Rivers, whose still-nascent game last month lost the benefit of having offensive coordinator Cam Cameron around.

3. Rex Ryan -- As much as the candidacies of highly regarded assistants Ron Rivera, Mike Singletary and Jim Caldwell all have their plusses, in my view, the head coaching prospect with the most upside is Ryan, the architect of Baltimore's dominating defense. If San Diego is going to go with someone who will be cutting their head coaching teeth, Ryan's blend of intelligence, versatile schemes and great rapport with players is tough to beat.

• I love the Mike Reinfeldt hiring in Tennessee. Reinfeldt has an almost unique blend of both the business acumen and the personnel evaluation elements that are needed to be a quality general manager in today's NFL. He knows the cap, knows his way around a contract negotiation, and as a longtime former player who worked under GM Ron Wolf in Green Bay's front office, his personnel evaluation skills are stronger than is widely perceived.

The team of head coach Jeff Fisher and Reinfeldt as general manager has a chance to be together for a long while in Tennessee -- just as Fisher and ex-Titans GM Floyd Reese were.

• So Marty Schottenheimer wanted his brother, Kurt Schottenheimer, to replace Wade Phillips as the Chargers defensive coordinator, and San Diego general manager A.J. Smith preferred former Bills, Jets and Vikings defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell. Smith and Cottrell were in Buffalo together from 1995 to 2000.

Based on their respective coaching reputations, I would have to say Smith was on the correct side of that issue. Cottrell's resume far outweighs the one compiled by Marty's younger sibling. Depending on whom San Diego hires as head coach, Cottrell might still wind up as the Chargers defensive coordinator.

• Pretty amazing how quickly a coach's reputation can gather dust in the NFL. Mike Martz, Jim Fassel and Steve Mariucci all have been available and eager to be considered for head coaching jobs this offseason, but none of them have gotten within a mile of landing a position.

Martz and Fassel took teams to the Super Bowl -- with both losing -- as recently as 2000 and 2001. Mariucci went to the playoffs four times in San Francisco during the six-year span of 1997-2002. But I'm guessing those successes feel like a lifetime ago about now.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/don_banks/02/14/carr/index.html

 

For the record, the title is misleading. He was a dissapointement to me the day he was drafted. QB's from the Western Athletic Confernce shouldn't be taken #1 overall.