The Dolphins worked the phones hard, and their top target was, and still is, Chicago center Olin Kreutz. It appears Miami was prepared to release longtime starting center Tim Ruddy if it landed Kreutz. But once the Dolphins heard Kreutz's asking price, a signing bonus of $7 million and a per-year average of $4 million on a long-term contract, they backed off him. Now it looks like the Houston Texans are hot on the Kreutz trail.

The Dolphins came very close to striking an agreement with Carolina unrestricted free agent defensive tackle Larry Chester, and that deal almost certainly still will happen. Chester passed a Miami physical here -- he suffered a broken fibula in 2001 -- and the Dolphins definitely feel he could be a terrific No. 3 tackle in a rotation with Tim Bowens and Daryl Gardener.

The team will also meet next week with offensive linemen Mike Wahle, Steve McKinney and Chris Naeole. Coach Butch Davis plans to stress a power running game and wants to assemble one of the league's biggest and toughest-minded blocking units, and everyone the Browns will pursue on the offensive line has to be a guy capable of knocking defenders away from the point of attack.

The three-year veteran is coming off a miserable year, of course, one in which he missed a league-high 14 field goal attempts. But Bills general manager Tom Donahoe drafted Brown during his tenure in Pittsburgh, feels the kicker might benefit from a change of scenery, and wouldn't mind tweaking Steelers officials a bit. Remember, the Steelers dumped Donahoe and chose to keep coach Bill Cowher in a power struggle after the 2000 season.

As it now stands, the Steelers have a low-range qualifying offer of $563,000 on Brown and plan to bring him back. But the kicker can negotiate with other teams, sign an offer sheet, and force the Steelers to match it to keep him. If the Bills signed Brown and Pittsburgh opted not to match the offer sheet, Buffalo would owe the Steelers a seventh-round draft choice as compensation. If the Steelers wanted to retain Brown, they would have to match the Bills offer, which likely would cost them a lot more than $563,000.

The underclassman wowed the scouts on Friday by performing 27 repetitions in the standard 225-pound bench press. That's more than many of the offensive and defensive linemen were able to do. Plus he is a physical specimen, and there is no denying, for anyone who has watched tape of him, that Green is a cut above other tailback prospects like Deshaun Foster (UCLA), T.J. Duckett (Michigan) and Clinton Portis (Miami).

"He's a bitch," said one AFC scout. "He runs hard, he's very fast, and his explosiveness is incredible." What the scouts really like about Green is that he plays the same way in every game, with no letdown, and never taking a snap off.

	Ricky Williams rushed for 1,245 yards in 2001.

The Saints are pursuing offensive right tackles in the free agent market, notably Ephraim Salaam of Atlanta, and would move Kyle Turley to the left side to replace Roaf, if they can land one. Salaam is interesting because he and Turley are former teammates from San Diego State and remain close friends. Salaam was good enough to start on the Falcons' 1998 Super Bowl team as a rookie but hasn't been able to emulate that performance in the three years since. But the Saints feel Turley would have a positive effect on him and that Salaam could be an intriguing reclamation project.

Most observers feel Phillips, who clearly prefers the 3-4, eventually will be forced to stick with the current four-man front, once he realizes Atlanta lacks the personnel for his favorite scheme. The Falcons simply lack the muscle for the 3-4, with no "space eater" nose tackle on the roster and ends who might not be able to anchor against the run. One positive move the Falcons made this weekend was to phone unrestricted free agent safety Lance Schulters of San Francisco and apprise him of their interest. Schulters is one of the top safeties in the league, and one of the best overall players available in free agency, and the Falcons definitely need to upgrade their safety play.

The Chargers' rationale is that they paid so much for Dwight because he will be moved into the lineup as the No. 2 starting wide receiver, opposite Curtis Conway. But the mighty-mite Dwight, arguably the NFL's most reckless and explosive return specialist, never has demonstrated that he can be even a viable No. 3 receiver. In fact, he's never caught more than 32 passes in a season and averaged just 22 receptions his first four seasons.

Plus just by the way he plays, bouncing off tacklers on returns like a human pin-ball, Dwight figures to be a player who will miss three or four contests every year because of injuries. He will make the occasional spectacular catch at wide receiver, but quarterbacks who have played with Dwight acknowledge he doesn't run great routes and that his size (5-feet-8) hardly makes him an easy target to locate.

The upshot is that Hamilton has canceled his plans to play in Europe now and will spend the spring working with fellow Bucs quarterbacks Brad Johnson and Shaun King attempting to assimilate the Gruden offense. The only problem is that even in mini-camps, Hamilton won't get many snaps. He still might have been better off logging some much-needed playing time overseas.

To have been so highly regarded by Colts coach Tony Dungy, however, bodes well for Frazier and his future. The Eagles defensive backs speak laudably of Frazier, and to have been strongly considered for a coordinator job after only three seasons in the NFL is a coup. Frazier played six seasons (1981-86) and was the head coach at tiny Trinity (Ill.) College and an assistant at Illinois before joining the Eagles staff and learning the complex scheme of Philadelphia coordinator Jim Johnson. A class act, an articulate assistant, and described by one Eagles official as "a sponge" when it comes to taking in and assimilating knowledge, Frazier clearly is an assistant on the rise.

	Michael Vick enters 2002 as the Falcons' No. 1 QB.

But while the Falcons try to revamp the offense around the top choice in the 2001 draft, they might be wise to import some offensive linemen, and work with Vick on upgrading his pocket awareness as well. For all of his speed and elusiveness, Vick was sacked 23 times in 136 "dropbacks" in 2001. Project that against the full season for the departed Chris Chandler in 2001, when he had 406 "dropbacks," and you've got your stat of the week. At his rookie rate, of one sack every 5.9 "dropbacks," Vick would be sacked a mind-boggling 69 times if he had as many "dropbacks" as Chandler did last year.

His athleticism aside, Vick will have to work during the offseason on getting the ball out quicker, on reading defenses and making sharper decisions. Otherwise he, and all those Falcons fans who expect miracles when Vick officially moves into the starting lineup, are going to discover that it's awfully hard to run when you're on your back.