Friday, April 16, 1999DRAFT PREVIEW: QUARTERBACKS
Will it be another Elway or another Eason?
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerBengals President Mike Brown, who collects quarterbacks the way museums collect antiques, has been telling this story all spring about that last great quarterback draft of 1983.
That's when Hall-of-Famers John Elway and Dan Marino went at the top and bottom of the first round, respectively, and four-time Super Bowl quarterback Jim Kelly went in between.
A few others went in that round, and a Hall of Fame general manager told Brown soon after, “The one name we'll remember from this day is Tony Eason.”
Oh, well.
The Bengals hope they don't find the Tony Eason of the 1999 draft, a crop that has been compared favorably to the Class of '83.
But not even in '83 were the first three picks quarterbacks as it could be this year and as it was when it last happened in 1971 with Jim Plunkett, Archie Manning and Dan Pastorini.
The Bengals, like the rest of the NFL, have been unable to clearly rank this year's top three: Oregon's Akili Smith, Syracuse's Donovan McNabb and Kentucky's Tim Couch. So they'll take whoever is there at No.3.
Each of the three has minuses with his plusses, jumbling draft boards everywhere.
The worst thing for Couch was being anointed the front runner months before the draft and having his weaknesses put under a microscope.
Because of the short passes in the UK offense, the Browns weren't comfortable making a call until they compared Couch's passes of 10 yards or more with Smith's. What the Browns liked was Couch's vision, while the Bengals like his productivity in the Southeastern Conference.
With Couch probably headed to the Browns, the Bengals can't wait to draft McNabb's athleticism or Smith's arm. Smith has just 13 career starts, but he's got better mechanics and a quicker release than Couch and throws a tight spiral that Brown compares to Terry Bradshaw's ball.
McNabb comes out of the Orangemen's freeze option offense, but that doesn't bother Cincinnati too much. Some club insiders fear it might take him two or three years to pick up the offense.
But others point to his four years of experience of leading a winning team with efficient, accurate passing and quick decisions on the option.
UCLA 6-footer Cade McNown might get drafted before Central Florida's Daunte Culpepper in the first round, as Culpepper seems to be dropping out of the top 10. Even though Culpepper is 6-4, 255 pounds, scouts are scared off by his lack of big-time college experience.Then there's Tulane 6-footer Shaun King. The top five are first-round locks, but the 49ers could take a run at King's smarts and accuracy at No.27 to make it a first-round six pack.
TOP QUARTERBACKS
1a. Akili Smith, Oregon
1b. Tim Couch, Kentucky
1c. Donovan McNabb, Syracuse
4. Daunte Culpepper, Central Florida
5. Cade McNown, UCLA
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