FOUNDATION WORK : Panthers Went for Cheap Construction, Jaguars Were Prefabricated; Neither Had to Build From Ground Up

Harold Henderson, chairman of the NFL’s Management Council, says he is still getting calls from Carolina and Jacksonville executives, complaining about the significant competitive disadvantages they have had to contend with since joining the league two years ago.

Those calls have been dwarfed, however, by those of 28 other teams that have complained bitterly that the Panthers and Jaguars have been given the opportunity to become successful overnight because of favorable rules.

“Sour grapes; I don’t know what the hell the rest of the teams are crying about,� Henderson said. “I would have been prayerfully thankful had each of these teams won three games the first year, four or five the second, and had they gone 8-8 in their third year that would have been absolutely spectacular.

“The fact is, these teams have done excellent jobs with far less than other teams. Our goal going in was to make them competitive. They paid top dollar for their franchises and had brand-new stadiums and we didn’t want an embarrassment.

“Looking at their rosters now, they certainly haven’t been successful with a wealth of previously identified talent. Most of the players they have wouldn’t be there, if [the teams] had the choice.�

The expansion owners each paid $140 million for their team, built stadiums and agreed to take 60% less TV money for their first three years--a loss of more than $60 million. For that considerable price tag, the expansion teams received 14 additional draft choices over their first two years.

In 1995 each received an extra pick in every round. Last spring, they received extra picks in Rounds 3-5 and two additional choices in Rounds 6 and 7.

Each team was required to select 30 players in the expansion draft--each existing team had to leave six players unprotected. The expansion teams had to guarantee the salaries of those players picked in the expansion draft against their salary cap, whether they kept them, to reduce the amount of money they would have to sign free agents. Jacksonville selected 31 players and Carolina 35. Five expansion-draft Jaguars remain with the team, six with Carolina.

“Carolina went for the cheapest players to save money under their salary cap to go get some free agents,� Henderson said. “Jacksonville went for the best players they could get.�

After the expansion draft, Carolina and Jacksonville had significant room under the salary cap to go after some of the league’s most attractive free agents. In 1976, when Tampa Bay and Seattle joined the league, there was no free agency.

“It’s a simple difference in how the system operates now and how it operated then,� Rich McKay, Tampa Bay’s general manager, said in explaining the differences between expansion in 1976 and 1995. “When the Bucs began, it was impossible under the old rules to obtain a veteran starter.�

Jacksonville has 15 and Carolina has 14. Tampa Bay had zero.

“Nobody should have to live through what Seattle and Tampa Bay did,� McKay said.

Without free agency, Tampa Bay and Seattle stocked their teams by receiving eight additional choices in the 17 rounds of the college-player draft. They also received 39 players each from the existing 26 teams at the time, but most of those players were on their way out of the league.

Not surprisingly, Tampa Bay lost its first 26 games.

“I don’t know what we could have done differently in setting up the rules for Carolina and Jacksonville,� Henderson said. “Why must we have expansion teams lose for two or three years? These people made huge investments. And yet they didn’t raid other teams as people thought they would. How many big-name players did they really sign?

“What happened is a result of great ownership. They hired sharp personnel people and outstanding head coaches who have gotten performances beyond what you would expect from the talent on their roster. More than anything else, I think it’s time to give them credit for doing a good job.�

HOW PANTHERS WERE BUILT

In the beginning there was Jerry Richardson, a 13th-round pick of the Baltimore Colts in 1958, who caught a touchdown pass from Johnny Unitas in a 1959 championship game victory over the New York Giants.

Earning $4,864 from that championship victory, Richardson started a restaurant, and opened the first Hardee’s franchise. There were more restaurant acquisitions: El Pollo Locos; Denny’s; Quincy’s; and much more success in business culminating Oct. 26, 1993, with the biggest catch in Richardson’s career: the Carolina Panthers.

The team that Richardson bought for $140 million, which was going to play in the stadium he was having constructed for an additional $184 million, was going to have to be built for early success to ensure a return on such a staggering investment.

“We still had 11,000 [personal seat licenses] to sell and we were playing at Clemson the first year, so we had to put a team on the field that was going to be representative,� said Bill Polian, the Panthers’ general manager. “Our talk from the start was, ‘What’s the fastest way to get competitive?’ �

The Panthers already had accomplished that: They had hired Polian, who had put together the consistently successful Buffalo Bills, and Mike McCormack, a former successful coach and general manager in the league.

Together they went after Joe Gibbs to coach their team and, failing, they regrouped and narrowed their selection to Dom Capers and Rich Kotite.

How stupid, you say. Almost.

Instead, sheer genius: They went with Capers, went so hard after the Steelers’ defensive coordinator they broke NFL rules for tampering and were penalized two draft picks. But they got their man, and the Panthers were on their way.

“We all agreed to build as good a defense as we could and as quickly as we could,� Polian said. “And do the same in the kicking game, and all with the hope that we could keep games close and steal a few at the end.

“We realized it would take some time to build an offense. It takes cohesion on offense, and you don’t get the kind of players in free agency or any other way that you need to have a big-play offense. You have to draft those guys or trade for them.�

So while the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars went shopping for youth, the Panthers began assembling experience on defense. Nine players on defense are now 30 or older, including their defensive leader, 37-year-old linebacker Sam Mills. Lots of age. Too much age?

“The age didn’t bother us a bit in this era of free agency,� Polian said.

Players will get too old, and the Panthers will sign more players.

On offense, the Panthers spent more than a year studying Penn State’s Kerry Collins and Alcorn State’s Steve McNair, the two highest-rated quarterbacks available in the 1995 draft.

“We wanted a quarterback or a pass rusher with that first pick,� Polian said. “It just so happened there were two quarterbacks there, and we took Kerry.�

It was early, but the grousing already had started around the league. Other teams felt the two expansion teams were going to have an unfair advantage in luring free agents with big signing bonuses because Carolina and Jacksonville were not bogged down by salary-cap limitations.

“Conditions were different for us and more advantageous for us,� Polian said. “Now, having said that, we could have made the same mistakes some other people made. It’s all about picking the right people.

“We could never have achieved what we have achieved without free agency being in place because free agency cuts two ways to the positive for us. It provides a level playing field and hurts teams like San Francisco and Dallas. It helps weaker teams, which we were at the time.�

The Panthers signed kicker John Kasay from Seattle, cornerback Eric Davis from San Francisco and tight end Wesley Walls from New Orleans. They tried to sign Buffalo linebacker Cornelius Bennett, but Bennett opted to sign with Atlanta, so Carolina directed its attention and money to Pittsburgh’s Kevin Greene. It’s that kind of “luck� that also has contributed handsomely to the Panthers’ quick success.

“Our focus was on San Francisco and our division and then ultimately Dallas when we were assembling our team,� Polian said. “You know you have to have corners if you’re going to match up with San Francisco’s wideouts, and if you want to run the ball against teams like Dallas you have to have big people up front. And to go anywhere in this league, you have to have the quarterback. The four teams that have gotten this far all have good quarterbacks.�

The four teams that have advanced this far also have demanding and successful coaches.

“Dom Capers and his staff are 99.9% of the reason why we are where we are,� Polian said.

Capers’ team went 0-5 to start last season, but since then the Panthers have gone 22-6.

“Granted, this is a second-year team, but the way free agency is nowadays, you’re going to have 10 to 15 people coming and leaving every year,� said Greene, who signed as a free agent when the Steelers made no move to keep him. “So, the onus is on the coaches to pull that group together quickly to win, and the onus is on the players to want to come together as a team and win.�

Greene was considered a prize catch, but 19 of the 53 players on Capers’ roster were on the street, unemployed and all but forgotten. Now they are one game away from the Super Bowl.

“It’s special if you get guys who are coming close to the end or if you get guys who have been released and they think it’s over,� Capers said. “If you look around the team we have a number of those guys. I think that’s a factor in our success. We have some guys who value where they are and what they are doing much more now because it was taken away.�

Still, isn’t all this immediate success quite amazing?

“I’m not one of those deep thinkers,� Polian said. “I don’t know.�

Don’t know. The guy’s been doing this for more than 15 years, and he has no opinion?

“Our guys won to get where they are,� Polian said. “They beat the Cowboys.�

A stunning development.

“It’s stunning because people picked the Cowboys,� a defiant Polian said. “Who said we’re supposed to lose? They’re wrong. We don’t think we’re supposed to lose. If we beat Green Bay, I know it will be crazy for some people, but I think they will still consider it the Super Bowl in New Orleans.�

HOW JAGUARS WERE BUILT

He was a coach without a team, a leader with no one to follow, author of a playbook with no one to read it.

When Tom Coughlin was hired away from Boston College to become the first coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Feb. 21, 1994, some people wondered what he was going to do for a year, since his team’s first training camp wouldn’t open until the summer of 1995.

Now they know.

Coughlin and Michael Huyghue, the team’s vice president of football operations, spent their time so wisely that the Jaguars have outlasted 26 other teams to make it to the final four of this year’s Super Bowl tournament.

Operating out of a trailer near the Gator Bowl until permanent offices could be secured, Coughlin took off across the country, scouring the pro ranks and the college campuses in search of the people he would need to get his infant program to mature quickly.

With a keen eye, a little luck and an open checkbook, Coughlin and Huyghue have been successful even beyond, truth be told, their wildest dreams.

Here are the raw numbers. The Jacksonville team that will take the field today against the New England Patriots consists of: 28 free agents, five players picked up in the expansion draft, 12 from the collegiate draft, three obtained in trades and five who came the waiver route.

But behind the numbers are 53 stories, none alike, that explain how these men, some who came to Jacksonville in the first year and some in the second, come to find themselves playing for a Super Bowl slot today in Foxboro Stadium.

Here are five of the best and how they came, each by a different route:

--Quarterback Mark Brunell, via trade.

Coughlin found him on the Green Bay Packers’ roster, at the time a two-year veteran from Washington, whose dream in the spring of 1995 was to beat out Ty Detmer for the job of serving as Bret Favre’s backup.

Although Jacksonville offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride describes Brunell, at that point, as “a babe in the woods,� both Gilbride and Coughlin saw the potential in the left-hander who had the talent to either throw or run effectively. When Coughlin saw Brunell during his national talent odyssey, he knew he wanted him. So the Jaguars, loaded with extra draft picks when they were given an additional seven for 1995, gave the Packers a third-rounder and a fifth-rounder for Brunell.

It was a great situation for the inexperienced quarterback. In Green Bay, he wouldn’t play unless Favre couldn’t walk. In Jacksonville, Brunell would learn his trade as the backup to veteran Steve Beuerlein.

The plan was to be patient and wait until Brunell was ready. As it turned out, a great deal of patience wasn’t necessary.

--Running back Natrone Means, via waivers.

Coughlin can hardly take credit for discovering Means. The whole league saw what Means could do in 1994 when he ran for 1,350 yards and 12 touchdowns in the regular season and was a major force in the San Diego Chargers’ successful drive to the Super Bowl.

But by the end of the ’95 season, things had turned sour in San Diego. General Manager Bobby Beathard, tired of Means’ money demands, had put his star running back on waivers.

Many teams were wary. There were rumors that Means had been a disruptive element in the locker room. And besides, why take a chance on someone that Beathard, a highly respected judge of talent, had given up on?

Jacksonville took the chance.

--Defensive end Clyde Simmons, via free agency.

When the Jaguar hierarchy saw Simmons cut loose by the Arizona Cardinals after the ’95 season because of salary-cap considerations, they wet their collective lips and started figuring what their own salary cap could bear.

Coughlin knew that a young team, especially a young defense, needed a steadying influence. Who better than Simmons, a two-time Pro Bowl player who had finished his 10th season in the league at the time and was bearing down on 100 sacks in his career.

Some free agents shied away from the expansion teams, not willing to start over again with a struggling program.

Not Simmons.

“I heard they had a few problems,� he said after agreeing to help solve them.

And so he has as an anchor on Jacksonville’s defensive line.

--Offensive tackle Tony Boselli, via the college draft.

This was a no-brainer. Here the Jaguars knew what everybody else in the 1995 draft knew, that the 6-foot-7, 322-pound Boselli had been an awesome force at USC and promised to be the same in the NFL.

So Jacksonville used the second pick in the draft to take Boselli and he has lived up to that promise.

--Tight end Derek Brown, via the expansion draft.

A former first-round draft choice of the New York Giants, Brown was known as a player who had not realized his potential after signing a four-year, $4-million contract.

That he was in the expansion grab bag was proof. Again, Coughlin and company took a chance.

They had to wait awhile to find out if it had been worth it. Brown sat out all of last year after suffering lacerations in his spleen and a kidney in an exhibition game.

But now, he’s the starting tight end and is a solid blocker.

There are 48 more stories on this roster, but don’t expect to get a better idea from them on how to put together a successful expansion team. Coughlin has no magic formula.

Turns out, it’s lot like cooking: a pinch of this and a little of that and stir a lot. For Coughlin, it was a little from the college draft, a pinch from the expansion draft, a bit in trades, a helping of free agents, toss in the waiver wire and stir a lot.

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HOW THE PANTHERS WERE BUILT

TRADES: 1

WR: Raghib Ismail

*

FREE AGENCY: 32

WR: Dwight Stone

T: Mathew Campbell

T: Mark Dennis

G: Matt Elliott

WR: Willie Green

G: Brandon Hayes

TE: Walter Rasby

QB: Jay Barker

WR: Michael Bates

TE: Syii Tucker

QB: Steve Beuerlein

G: Greg Skrepenak

TE: Wesley Walls

DE: Mike Fox

LB: Lamar Lathon

S: Brett Maxie

LB: Sam Mills

DE: Gerald Williams

LB: Duane Bickett

CB: Eric Davis

LB: Kevin Greene

CB: Toi Cook

DE: Les Miller

S: Damon Pieri

CB: Rod Smith

LB: Carlton Bailey

CB: Steve Lofton

CB: Dino Philyaw

LB: Andre Royal

S: Pat Terrell

K: John Kasay

P: Rohn Stark

*

COLLEGE DRAFT: 10

T: Blake Brockermeyer

QB: Kerry Collins

G: Frank Garcia

T: Norberto Garrrido

WR: Muhsin Muhammad

RB: Winslow Oliver

FB: Scott Greene

S: Chad Cota

CB: Tyrone Poole

CB: Emmanuel McDaniel

*

‘95 EXPANSION DRAFT: 6

WR: Mark Carrier

FB: Howard Griffith

C: Mark Rodenhauser

C: Curtis Whitley

NT: Greg Kragen

DE: Mark Thomas

*

WAIVER CLAIMS: 3

RB: Anthony Johnson

NT: Ed Philion

LB: Myron Baker

HOW THE JAGUARS WERE BUILT

TRADES: 3

QB: Mark Brunell

TE: Pete Mitchell

LB: Ty Hallock.

*

FREE AGENCY: 28

WR: Jimmy Smith

WR: Keenan McCardell

WR: Kendricke Bullard

C: Dave Widell

C: Greg Huntington

T: Leon Searcy

QC: Todd Philcox

RB: Randy Jordan

FB: Chris Griffin

TE: Rich Griffith

S: Dana Hall

S: Travis Davis

S: Darren Studstill

LB: Tom McManus

LB: Eddie Robinson

LB: Jeff Kopp

LB: Brant Boyer

DE: Clyde Simmons

DE: Jeff Lageman

DE: Jose White

DE: Ernie Logan

DL: Don Davey

DT: John Jurkovic

DT: Kevin Pritchett

CB: Mickey Washington

LB: Eddie Robinson

K: Mike Hollis

P: Bryan Barker

*

COLLEGE DRAFT: 12

T: Tony Boselli

T: Jimmy Herndon

QB: Rob Johnson

RB: James Stewart

C: Michael Cheever

G: Brian DeMarco

WR: Reggie Barlow

WR: Curtis Marsh

S: Chris Hudson

CB: Aaron Beasley

LB: Kevin Hardy

DE: Tony Brackens

*

‘95 EXPANSION DRAFT: 5

FB: Le’Shai Maston

G: Jeff Novak

WR: Willie Jackson

TE: Derek Brown

DL: Paul Frase

*

WAIVER CLAIMS: 5

G: Ben Coleman

G: Rich Tylski

RB: Natrone Means

CB: Bucky Brooks

CB: Ricky Bell