Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
25 YEARS AGO: 1995 GREEN BAY PACKERS Scout doesn’t rank Packers with elite
Editor’s note: This story was published Sept. 3, 1995.
Looking for a totally unbiased look at the Green Bay Packers and their prospects for the 1995 season?
Then take a step inside the pro personnel department of an unidentified National Football League team.
Our scout has agreed, for the second consecutive year, to share his player classification ratings. And if you agree with the theory that the outcome of most NFL games is decided by the team with the most blue-chip players — and how they perform on a given day — the following conclusions can most certainly be drawn, based on our scout’s evaluations:
Sharpe factor: Without Sterling Sharpe, the Packers are a little worse off than they were last year.
Parity: The NFC Central Division will be another hog-rassle among ordinary teams, with the slight edge this time to Detroit.
Toothless Bears: Chicago should finish last in the division. However, the same was true in 1994 and the Bears wound up at 9-7.
Some things don’t change: Dallas and San Francisco are the NFL’s two most talented teams, with the Cowboys having a slight edge.
They’re back: The AFC has gained some ground. Pittsburgh is almost on a par with the Cowboys and 49ers, and three other AFC teams — Miami, Oakland and Kansas City — have better players than anyone else in the NFC.
Our scout might spend as much time watching tapes of NFL games as anyone in the league. He scouts games in person, and in the off-season sees to it that he views at least five tapes of each team from the preceding season.
Many teams use color categories to differentiate among players. Often the colors vary, but what they represent is generally consistent.
Our scout rated all players as blue, red, purple, green, yellow or reject. Blues are truly special players. Reds are outstanding players. Purples are starters with whom you can win. Greens are adequate players. And yellows are fringe starters or backups.
For the purpose of this discussion, only above-average starters — the blues, reds and purples — are considered. Once our scout develops a feeling on a player, he is reluctant to move him up or down without good reason. Although he studies tapes from exhibition games, he will not alter a player’s color until viewing him in the regular season. No rookies or kickers were rated.
This is how our scout rated the top talent on the NFC Central teams. The number in parentheses shows how many players each team has in the top three categories:
Detroit (8): Halfback Barry Sanders and nose tackle Henry Thomas are blues. Linebackers Chris Spielman and
Mike Johnson are reds. Wide receivers Herman Moore and Brett Perriman, tackle Lomas Brown and center Kevin Glover are purples.
Brown remains a holdout.
Green Bay (7): Tight end Keith Jackson and defensive end Reggie White are blues. Guard Harry Galbreath is a red. Tackle Ken Ruettgers, quarterback Brett Favre, defensive end Sean Jones and linebacker Fred Strickland are purples.
Jackson has refused to accept his March 29 trade from Miami.
“Sometimes Jackson didn’t play hard last year, but he’s got as much ability as anybody from the standpoint of being able to block or run,” the scout said. “He’s a lazy guy who can have good games or lousy games blocking,
but he’s always good receiving.”
Tampa Bay (7): No blues. Tight end Jackie Harris and center Tony Mayberry are reds. Wide receiver Alvin Harper, tackle Paul Gruber, guard Ian Beckles, linebacker Hardy Nickerson and safety Thomas Everett are purples.
Minnesota (5): Guard Randall McDaniel and defensive tackle John Randle are blues. Wide receiver Cris Carter and guard Chris Hinton are reds. Quarterback Warren Moon is a purple.
Chicago (2): No blues. No reds. Center Jerry Fontenot and cornerback Donnell Woolford are purples.
“I’ll tell you, he (coach Dave Wannstedt) does a heck of a job with what he has,” our scout said. “They do have a lot of greens that could get better. There’s (Alonzo) Spellman, (Carl) Simpson, (Mark) Carrier, (Curtis) Conway, (Raymont) Harris and (Michael) Timpson. Of course, (Rashaan) Salaam could be good, too.”
Our scout then listed the top players for the Cowboys and 49ers:
Dallas (15): Wide receiver Michael Irvin, tackle Erik Williams, guard Nate Newton, quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith and defensive end Tony Tolbert are blues. Defensive end Charles Haley, defensive tackle Leon Lett, cornerback Kevin Smith and safety Darren Woodson are reds. Tight end Jay Novacek, tackle Mark Tuinei, fullback Daryl Johnston, linebacker Dixon Edwards and cornerback Larry Brown are purples.
San Francisco (13): Wide receiver Jerry Rice, tackle Harris Barton, quarterback Steve Young and safeties Merton Hanks and Tim McDonald are blues. Tight end Brent Jones and defensive tackle Bryant Young are reds. Wide receiver John Taylor, tackle Steve Wallace, fullback William Floyd, defensive end Tim Harris, defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield and cornerback Marquez Pope are purples.
Harris will miss the first six games on an alcohol suspension.
Another blue, cornerback Deion Sanders, might play for the Cowboys or re-sign with the 49ers.
In the AFC, our scout’s four top teams in the three color categories were Pittsburgh with 13 and Miami, Oakland and Kansas City, all with 12. A total of 10 AFC teams had at least eight top players, or one more than Green Bay.
Atlanta ranked third in the NFC with 11, followed by Philadelphia, the New York Giants and Detroit with eight.
Besides Sharpe, who was a blue, the Packers’ off-season losses included two purples, linebacker Bryce Paup and tight end Ed West, and a rising green, cornerback Corey Harris.
Another way to look at the Packers’ relative position would be to assign three points for a blue, two for a red and one for a purple. Here would be the standings:
Dallas 31; San Francisco 25; Detroit 14; Green Bay 12; Minnesota 11; Tampa Bay 9; and Chicago 2. The Lions were the only team in the NFC Central to improve its point total from ‘94.
And remember, this is just the opinion of one scout. And seldom do two scouts view a player exactly the same way.
Two blues
A pro scout with another National Football League team provided this color code of 31 veteran players on the Green Bay Packers’ 53-man roster. He did not rate kicker Chris Jacke, punter Craig Hentrich, rookies or fringe players. He refuses to change a player’s color based on performances in exhibition games. Thus, all colors were assigned based on ‘94 evaluations.
Players listed as blue are superior talents capable of consistently making big plays. They must rank among the top 10% of NFL players at their positions. Those listed as red are outstanding players who can start for a contending team. Purple players are very good, solid starters. Green players are adequate starters or excellent backups. Yellow players are backup types. If a yellow player is a starter, his team is looking to replace him. If he’s young, he has a chance to improve.
The (+) reference was the scout’s method of indicating that a player is on the high side of the category.
BLUE PLAYERS (2): TE Keith Jackson, DE Reggie White.
RED PLAYERS (1):
G Harry Galbreath.
PURPLE PLAYERS (4): T Ken Ruettgers, QB Brett Favre, DE Sean Jones, LB Fred Strickland.
GREEN PLAYERS (13): WR Robert Brooks, WR Anthony Morgan, WR Mark Ingram, TE Jeff Thomason, HB Edgar Bennett, QB T.J. Rubley, NT John Jurkovic, LB George Koonce, LB Joe Kelly, LB James Willis, CB Doug Evans, S LeRoy Butler (+), S George Teague.
YELLOW PLAYERS (11): WR Terry Mickens, WR Charles Jordan, TE Mark Chmura, T Joe Sims, C Frank Winters, C Mike Arthur, FB Dorsey Levens, NT Gilbert Brown, LB Wayne Simmons, CB Lenny McGill, S Mike Prior.
Players who moved up one color code from evaluations based on the ‘93 season are Morgan, Favre, Jurkovic, Koonce, Strickland and Willis.
Players who moved down one color code are Ruettgers, Winters, Jones, Simmons, Butler and Prior.
Players who stayed the same are Brooks, Sims, Galbreath, Bennett, White and Teague.