Football
Len Pasquarelli 17y

Darius drawing early interest from Raiders, Bills, Panthers

Released by the Jacksonville Jaguars last week in a surprising move, veteran strong safety Donovin Darius has quickly drawn interest from several teams in the free agent market, including the Oakland Raiders.

Darius arrived in Oakland on Wednesday and was to undergo a physical exam by Raiders' team doctors. The leading tackler in Jaguars' history, Darius is recovering from a broken right ankle that limited him to 10 games in 2006.

The Raiders have not yet made a contract offer, but are expected to speak with Darius' representatives by phone on Thursday, and might make a proposal then.

Oakland has two young starting safeties in Michael Huff and Stuart Schweigert, second and fourth-year veterans, respectively. The Raiders do not delineate strong and free safeties in their system, but the skill set of Huff, the team's first-round choice in 2006, is more closely associated with those of a strong safety.

Donovin Darius

Darius

Safety
Jacksonville Jaguars

Profile

2006 Season Stats
TotSoloAstFFSackInt
48399000

That might conflict a bit with Darius, who has played strong safety his entire career, but the Raiders will compensate if they acquire the nine-year veteran.

One advantage the Raiders might have over other suitors is that first-year coach Lane Kiffin and Darius have ties from the past. Kiffin served as a quality control coach for the Jaguars in 2000, working primarily with the secondary, in Darius' third season in the league.

Among the other teams that have indicated an interest in Darius are Carolina and Buffalo. But agent Tom Condon said that Darius has not yet arranged any visits with other clubs.

Darius, 31, was unable to participate in Jacksonville's offseason program this spring, as he continued his recovery, but it was believed he was making good progress and was on pace to be ready for training camp. Darius played in only two games in 2005 before his season was ended by a torn anterior cruciate ligament. But the fact he has appeared in a total of 12 games the past two seasons, and suffered fairly significant injuries, hasn't seemed to dissuade many teams in need of safety help.

A first-round choice in the 1998 draft, Darius became an immediate starter with the Jaguars. The former Syracuse star appeared in 115 games, all starts, and had a franchise-record 846 tackles, along with two sacks, 14 interceptions, 35 passes defensed, eight forced fumbles and six recoveries.

Noted more as a run defender early in his career, when Darius' pass coverage skills were viewed as a liability and he was more effective playing close to the line of scrimmage, he became far better on pass defense in recent seasons. Only twice in nine seasons, though, did Darius have more than three interceptions in a season. He totaled 100 or more tackles in six different campaigns.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.

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