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GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers may have landed
cornerback Mike McKenzie's looming replacement after failing to get
a shot at Brett Favre's eventual successor in the first round of
the NFL draft Saturday. The Packers chose cornerback Ahmad Carroll of Arkansas three
picks after Buffalo's startling deal to move up and select Tulane
quarterback J.P. Losman with the 22nd pick. Coach/general manager Mike Sherman acknowledged things might
have been different were Losman still available. "If I had that choice, it would have been a tough call because
I like Losman," Sherman said. "But I like Carroll, too, because I
think Carroll can impact our team immediately. But I did like
Losman, there's no question about that." The Packers traded away their second-round pick in one of two
deals with Jacksonville and ended up with the 70th and 72nd overall
picks in the third round. They selected another cornerback, Joey Thomas of Montana State,
with the 70th pick. Packing 195 pounds on his nearly 6-foot-1
frame, Thomas is almost three inches taller than Carroll. Then, the Packers took 6-5, 323-pound defensive tackle Donnell
Washington of Clemson two picks later. The Packers swung a third deal, this one with Miami, to move up
and select Ohio State's B.J. Sander, who won the Ray Guy award as
the nation's top punter, with the 87th overall pick in the third
round. The maneuvering left the Packers without a fourth- or
fifth-rounder Sunday. They own one pick in the sixth round and two
in the seventh. The Packers are still in negotiations with Cleveland to acquire
Tim Couch, the top pick in the 1999 draft, to serve as Favre's
backup. McKenzie, their best cornerback, is threatening to retire if
he's not sent to another team. But that's not necessarily why they went for Carroll. They needed to upgrade their secondary anyway -- their other
starting cornerback, Al Harris, is under contract only through
2004. Right now, Carroll is slated as the third cornerback and special
teams duty but is expected to push for either McKenzie's starting
spot on the left side -- if it's vacated -- or Harris's role on the
right. The Packers were adamant they would have selected Carroll even
if McKenzie weren't dissatisfied. "This was not a knee-jerk reaction nor a pick based on what is
happening with Mike McKenzie or anything," defensive coordinator
Bob Slowik said. "This was a pick that we thought could help us
win (even with) Mike being here. Really, that wasn't the reason we
picked him." Carroll is a 5-foot-10, 193-pound junior from Atlanta who missed
spring football at Arkansas during his first two years to run for
the Razorbacks' powerhouse track team. He skipped track this spring
to focus on the NFL draft after deciding to miss his senior season. He's one of the fastest players in this year's draft, and the
Packers love his physical play in bump-and-run coverage. "I'd like all my corners to be 6-foot, 6-foot-1 if I could, but
that wasn't available to us this year in the draft," Sherman said. However, with 4.34 and 4.35 times in the 40-yard dash, "he has
exceptional speed. Some guys have track speed, he has speed on the
field," Sherman added. Even though he's short, the Packers like Carroll's wingspan -- he
has 31-inch arms -- and his 41-inch vertical jump, along with his
speed and agility. Carroll said his size has never been a factor: "I just found
out I was short about two weeks ago." Carroll's weakness is his open-field tackling, Sherman said. "He is someone that we're going to have to coach up in some
ways because he is young and he didn't have a whole lot of spring
ball at Arkansas because he was running track, but this is a guy
that is a worker," Sherman said. Carroll, who is represented by agent Eugene Parker, said he's
confident he can earn a starting job as a rookie. "I've got the ability. I've got the speed. I've just got to
listen to my coaches," he said. "I've got some good coaches, I'm
going to go with a good tradition, a good program. If I just
listen, I'll be a great player." Sherman spoke with McKenzie about his displeasure two weeks ago,
but the rift remains and the frayed relationship might be
irreparable. McKenzie isn't planning to attend the mandatory minicamp that
begins Tuesday. He has boycotted offseason workouts in Green Bay,
bypassing a $200,000 contract incentive to participate. McKenzie has three years left on his contract, which would pay
him $2.75 million this season, a bargain for one of the NFL's top
shutdown cornerbacks.
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