Roy Williams reemerges as catch of draft

Roy Williams is back where he belongs. When the college football season began last August, the fleet Texas wide receiver was considered by many NFL scouts to be the most talented player in the nation, and by nearly every team to be the leading receiver. Nothing he did last season altered those impressions, but by the combine in February, all the talk centered around underclassmen Larry Fitzgerald of Pitt and Mike Williams of Southern Cal, who have passed Williams by on many draft lists.

How this could happen to a 6-foot-2 1/2-inch, 212-pound guy with soft hands, 4.4 speed in the 40 (that at least one team had at 4.35 in his Pro Day workout last month), and a nearly 40-inch vertical leap is difficult to fathom unless you are an experienced NFL scout who has seen this kind of foolishness before.

One veteran AFC college scouting director who requested anonymity was asked last week how Williams began to slide behind those receivers when he had been so productive at Texas and was so obviously a gifted deep threat with separation speed, the ability to make the spectacular catch, production after the catch, and unusual leaping ability.

"It's the kind of thing that you see sometimes when a guy has so much ability," he explained. "Your scouts go into his school knowing how highly he's rated, so instead of just saying how special the kid is, they start looking to poke holes in him. If you aren't careful, you convince yourself he isn't the player you thought he was.

"Then he goes out in the spring [as Williams did March 24] and runs a 4.35 and everyone goes, `Yeah, now I remember why he was rated so high.' By the time the draft comes around, he may end up being the top-rated receiver again. I don't know who's better."

Although many teams still have Fitzgerald rated at the top of the wide receiver pool despite the 4.47 he churned out during his workouts last month, at least one AFC rival of the Oakland Raiders believes if they remain in the No. 2 drafting slot in the first round April 24, Al Davis will find it impossible to pass up Roy Williams.

"The Raiders may trade down figuring they can still get a top receiver or an offensive lineman and pick up another pick, but if they go with a receiver, I don't see Davis passing on Roy Williams," the scouting director said. "Teams have patterns. We all do. Al has always loved the kind of speed Roy Williams has.

"Nobody coming out this year can run better than Roy Williams. Fitzgerald has speed, but not like Williams. Mike Williams is a big, possession type of receiver and a lot of teams like him, but there's a big difference between 4.35 or 4.4 and 4.58 to 4.65. One Williams runs 4.35. The other Williams runs 4.55 to 4.65. You tell me which Williams Al Davis would go for?"

Roy Williams has more speed than Fitzgerald and has been productive longer in a big-time college program. In the end, Fitzgerald could still go first if the Raiders pass on Williams, however, because it is widely rumored Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green will grab Fitzgerald, with whom he has had a long relationship dating back to Green's days as the Vikings' coach and Fitzgerald's time as a high school star in Minneapolis. Although Arizona needs help on defense, it would fit Green's mold to go with Fitzgerald because it would instantly give him a passing offense that resembles the one he built in Minnesota around Randy Moss and Cris Carter. With a young quarterback in Josh McCown, who has only three NFL starts under his belt, Green would like to build options around him. He thinks he has a running back who can be dangerous and productive in ex-Massachusetts star Marcel Shipp, and he already has the only rookie receiver elected to the Pro Bowl in last year's Rookie of the Year Anquan Boldin, who finished with 1,377 yards and eight touchdowns.

Add Fitzgerald's size, speed, and sure hands to that mix, and Green will have assembled the pieces he needs to create the same kind of offensive explosions he used to return to the playoffs year after year in Minnesota.

Teams picking their spots

Some interesting jockeying is going on among the Chargers, Giants, Raiders, and Browns. The Giants are trying to assure that they will get either Iowa offensive tackle Robert Gallery or Mississippi quarterback Eli Manning. San Diego is considering passing on Manning to pick up an extra pick while settling for either North Carolina State quarterback Philip Rivers, who is rising fast in the eyes of many teams, or Miami of Ohio's Ben Roethlisberger. Last week, San Diego general manager A.J. Smith surprisingly confirmed he and Giants GM Ernie Accorsi had discussed what it would take for New York to move up to the top spot in the draft, and the reason is the Giants fear Oakland might trade its second pick to Cleveland. If that happens, it is widely believed the Browns would grab Gallery. If San Diego stays where it is and takes Manning, that would mean the Giants, picking at No. 4, would have seen the two players they most desire already gone. Talks could persist right up until draft day, with Cleveland certainly doing nothing until the time is right, while Accorsi must try to make his best guess as to what the Raiders might do with the second pick. One thing is sure -- the Browns' porous offensive line certainly could use reinforcements from someone such as Gallery. "He's a heck of an athlete for an offensive lineman," Browns coach Butch Davis said. "He runs well. He's strong and very athletic. He's benefited enormously from being at a place where the head coach [Kirk Ferentz] is a very, very gifted offensive line coach. They were able to take a group of kids three or four years ago, all former tight ends and D linemen, and convert them so they've got attitude and a little more athletic ability [than an average offensive lineman]." . . . Davis went on to compare Gallery to a lineman he coached at Miami, massive tackle Bryant McKinnie. "He's slightly more polished from the standpoint he spent his entire career at Iowa at that particular position," Davis said last week. "Bryant came to us from junior college and he didn't play high school football, so he didn't have the same background. But there's similarities in size, long arms, and athleticism." Davis stressed he might find a developmental tackle later in the draft or play with veteran Ross Verba at left tackle, but if he can find a way to get Gallery without it costing too much in other draft picks, Davis could well move up on draft day . . . Someone pointed out Friday that not only will the Chargers have passed on Michael Vick and Eli Manning if they trade out of the No. 1 slot, but they also had a chance to trade for the right to draft John Elway in 1983, but it would have cost them three No. 1 picks. No one would pay that ransom in advance for anybody, but they might have if they were guaranteed Elway was going to turn into the Hall of Fame quarterback he became in Denver.

Solid scouting credentials

Former Green Bay Packers GM Ron Wolf has been busy in recent weeks evaluating players for Butch Davis after originally rejecting the opportunity to return to pro football full time after several years in retirement. "Ron's role so far is that we have given him film and asked his input on certain positions," Davis said. "Say there are three or four guys that we really like at a particular position and we're considering signing these guys [as free agents]. Making it oblivious to him as to how our coaches rate them and how our personnel people rate them, we ask him to grade them. What's their holes? What's their strengths? How would you rank them 1, 2, 3, 4? We've done that at several positions. We've done the same thing collegiately. We've given him a certain group of guys at certain positions in areas we think we might be interested in drafting guys. Ron doesn't want the ultimate, `We took the guy because Ron Wolf said so.' He's part of -- and a good part of -- the process. He might find that one little thing that everybody missed. He's smart. He's seen a lot of players. It's a valuable relationship." . . . As part of the evaluation process, the Chargers sent their playbook to Manning, Roethlisberger, and Rivers before coach Marty Schottenheimer and his staff met individually with each of them. Schottenheimer's thought was that he wanted to see how much of the Chargers' offense each could absorb quickly. "Just to see, by the time we got there, what kind of information they had been able to assimilate," Schottenheimer explained last week. "We wanted to see whether they had spent any time on the book and they all did.". . . Schottenheimer had high praise for University of Miami safety Sean Taylor, comparing him to one of the game's greatest safeties. "He's big-time," Schottenheimer said. "I hate to draw comparisons, but he's the most athletic big safety that I think I've seen since maybe back to Ronnie Lott. That kind of person." . . . The Broncos swapped places with the Bengals in the first round (up from 24th to 17th) Friday while in addition trading veteran cornerback Deltha O'Neal and their fourth-round pick to a Cincinnati franchise that is continuing to rebuild in earnest. Coach Marvin Lewis has already dumped 10 of the players he had at the end of last season, including starting corners Artrell Hawkins and Jeff Burris. He will replace them with Tory James, O'Neal, and possibly Denard Walker, who was released last week by the Vikings. O'Neal is a former No. 1 pick who has been a disappointment in Denver, but Lewis is hopeful he can help him return to the level of play that made him a 2001 Pro Bowl selection after making nine interceptions.

More moves in the offing?

More than likely the Bengals aren't done swapping. They have productive but grouchy running back Corey Dillon on the market and hope to deal him before the draft, and Lewis acknowledges he would consider a deal for last year's starting quarterback, Jon Kitna. Kitna played well most of the year but faded, as did the Bengals, down the stretch. This led Lewis to name second-year pro and former No. 1 pick Carson Palmer the starter March 1, an unusual move, but one Lewis felt was wise and necessary. "We would have had all that speculation through the spring, summer, and camp, and my mind had been made up for quite a while," Lewis explained. "So our coaches knew and it was just getting uncomfortable for everybody. If we're not successful, we'll change the move. The job is to win football games. It's like we showed the confidence in Jon last year. We've just put the ball in Carson's hands and are showing the same confidence in him. Carson gives us extension [i.e. deep throws] of our offense. We make our offensive team do things better. He can make some other guys shoulder some of the responsibility, which may help us grow as an offense. His presence on the football field is good. It's not going to be too big for him. It's not going to be too small for him. If he doesn't get it done, we've got to go with Jon." That's if Jon's back in Cincinnati, of course . . . Despite statistical evidence to the contrary, Raiders coach Norv Turner insists the Patriots' defense was adversely affected when nose tackle Ted Washington was lost for nearly half the season last year. "He missed the first part of the season and they were a lot different defense when he was playing," Turner insisted. "You look at them over the last six or seven games and no one ran the ball on them and he was a big part of it." Turner said the best part about signing Washington was that he will run the same system with the same terminology in Oakland that he was used to last season in New England because of the presence of Rob Ryan as defensive coordinator. "Rob knows Ted and Ted knows the system," Turner said. "I think all those things give Ted a big chance to be successful." . . . Turner said his decision to sign Warren Sapp after first adding Washington will not change how the Raiders play defense because Sapp will often be used as a rush defensive end. Turner said Sapp played more than 80 percent of the plays in Tampa but will have his workload decreased in Oakland. "When you ask a guy to play that much in his style, it takes a toll in terms of during a season," Turner said. "He's going to be a full-time player, but I think we can spell him in terms of what we're going to do. He can give us some big help in the pass rush, get on the edge like he does, and then he's such an active player, he'll help all our guys in terms of intensity and tempo. And, obviously, he's a playmaker." . . . Turner recently told a revealing story about his job interview with Al Davis. During their talk, Turner, who grew up in northern California, told Davis of a night in 1968 when he and his brother went to see Oakland play the Baltimore Colts. "We sat in the end zone," Turner recalled. "We got down as close as we could because I wanted to see Johnny Unitas come out of the end zone tunnel. Johnny Unitas, John Mackey, and Tom Matte. We got to talking and I said I was at the Steeler game when Terry Bradshaw was a rookie and he dropped back from the 20-yard line and the middle of the field opened up and he ran 80 yards for a touchdown. When I started telling, him I was thinking, `God, I hope this really happened because I remember it that way.' He said, `You saw that run?' I've been a Raider guy and watched the Raiders play for a lot of years." . . . On April 26, a tribute to Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson will be held at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge with the proceeds going to the Penikese Island School, a private secondary school started 30 years ago to help troubled teenage boys get a new start in life. The school sits on a wind-swept spit of land on the western tip of the Elizabeth Islands in Buzzards Bay, off Woods Hole. Johnson is on the school's board of trustees. Many of Johnson's Super Bowl teammates will be on hand at the cocktail party and formal program hosted by Channel 4's Bob Lobel. For information and tickets, call John Cacciatore at 781-938-7444.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.