One of the knocks on tailback Ricky Williams in New Orleans was that he lacked the speed to break the long touchdown run. In fact, after trading him to the Miami Dolphins this spring, Saints officials went to great lengths to point out that Williams, well, rarely ran great lengths, and that his longest touchdown sprint in New Orleans was 26 yards.

	Ricky Williams leads the NFL with 1,500 yards rushing this season. He also has 15 TDs.

But this year, The Dredlocked One has added a long-run dimension to his game, one that wasn't even anticipated by Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt and his staff when they made the deal.

In the last two weeks alone, for instance, Williams has three touchdown runs of 45 yards or more. The newfound big-play ability can be attributed to three significant factors.

Most important, Williams is in much better physical shape than ever before in his career. Burned by the trade, he made up his mind to work out harder.

The results are obvious. While veterans typically aren't timed in the 40-yard dash, some scouts estimate Williams might be as much as one-tenth of a second faster than earlier in his career. If true, that would represent a quantum leap, especially for a fourth-year veteran.

"He's definitely quicker now and you can see it even in some of the shorter runs," said an AFC East defensive coordinator. "He's to the hole and then through the hole faster than he ever has been. We've always considered him a four-yard (per carry) kind of guy. Really, that's how Miami viewed him, too -- a workhorse who could consistently pound out yards. These long runs, well, they're a bonus for the Dolphins."

In addition, Williams now has a tremendous lead-blocking fullback in the underrated Rob Konrad, a player several personnel directors suggested to us should make the AFC Pro Bowl team. And finally, the Dolphins wide receivers do a great job blocking downfield. Miami has some physical receivers who don't mind sacrificing their bodies and they have authored key blocks on several of the long runs by Williams through 13 games.

The result: Williams has six runs of 30 yards or longer this year after having just one in his three-season Saints tenure. The average length of his 14 touchdown runs is a gaudy 18.8 yards. Williams is averaging 4.8 yards per carry, a full yard more than he did in New Orleans.

Oh, yeah, he now has nearly twice as many gains of 10 yards or more than Saints tailback Deuce McAllister, the man who replaced him.

Around the league
Lewis helped, hurt his cause: It's a plus for the NFL that Washington Redskins defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis didn't take the Michigan State head coach position and, instead, will force league owners to eventually give him a top job.

But the brilliant coordinator didn't do himself any favors with his waffling over the Spartans' offer. There is a perception in the league, shared by some of the folks who have interviewed him for head coach vacancies, that Lewis loves the courtship process but loathes having to pull the trigger. Said one team official: "The impression some people get is that, in the end, Marvin really doesn't want to be a head coach. He says all the right things but something is missing. That said, he'll be a (head) coach in the league within two years."

Certainly the climate has never been more right for Lewis to land a head coach job. With Johnnie Cochran and Cyrus Mehri threatening litigation, the NFL is being forced to deal with the diversity issue, and there will be pressure on owners who make a coaching change to strongly consider Lewis and other qualified black candidates.

Lewis has strong backers -- Steelers owner Dan Rooney (his former boss), Baltimore general manager Ozzie Newsome (for whom he worked) and Atlanta vice president Ray Anderson (his former agent) -- on the NFL's recently appointed diversity committee. Still, the ever pragmatic Newsome, ESPN.com has learned, urged Lewis to accept the job at Michigan State and use it as a springboard. And others very close to him have told Lewis that he probably will not get a head coach job in the NFL during the coming firing/hiring cycle.

Said agent Ken Landphere: "The goal is to be a head coach in the NFL. But don't look for Marvin to take a job if he doesn't feel it's the right one. Some of the places that figure to come open this year might not be the best places for him."

Wherever the best place, it seems Lewis has to understand that the rule of thumb in getting a job is to act like you want it, and ultimately to tell the people doing the interviewing that you are "The Man." His public confidence aside, Lewis hasn't learned that yet, and it has fostered a perception of weakness. "If I were an owner," noted one high-ranking club official, "the seeming wishy-washiness would be a big concern for me. It's one thing to be deliberate in exploring the job, but some people feel Marvin has gone beyond that."

	Side Lines
	On-Line In need of a win in a hostile environment, the suddenly inconsistent San Diego Chargers travel to Buffalo on Sunday. It will mark the first time back in Ralph Wilson Stadium for former Bills defensive end Marcellus Wiley since he departed for the big bucks of unrestricted free agency in 2001. It's the second year in a row Wiley will face his one-time mates, and the second straight time he will go up against a rookie right offensive tackle -- this time he meets Bills first-round choice Mike Williams. In the game at San Diego last year, which the Chargers won by a 27-24 count, Wiley had a terrific game. Playing against Jonas Jennings most of the afternoon, he had two sacks, and also added five tackles. Wiley has 28 tackles and five sacks so far this year, is a very active left end, and his matchup with the mammoth Williams will be one of the keys to the outcome of the crucial AFC contest.
	The List If the playoffs started now, there would be two qualifiers for the Super Bowl derby with negative point differentials, more points surrendered than scored. Actually that anomaly is not as rare as it seems. Since the league adopted the 12-team playoff format in 1990, there have been 13 teams who qualified for postseason play with a negative point differential. Here are those teams:
	Year	Team	Pts. (for/against)
	1999	Dolphins	326-336
	1999	Lions	322-323
	1998	Cardinals	325-378
	1997	Vikings	354-359
	1996	Colts	317-334
	1996	Jaguars	325-335
	1996	Vikings	298-315
	1995	Chargers	321-323
	1995	Eagles	318-338
	1994	Bears	271-307
	1993	Raiders	306-326
	1993	Vikings	277-290
	1990	Saints	274-275
	Stat of the Week Whether it's Tom Coughlin or someone else coaching the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2003, the team must do better with its performance in the fourth quarter of games. Over the last two seasons, Jacksonville is 1-14 in games where it trailed entering the fourth quarter. The lone win came against the Bengals in 2001, when Mark Brunell rallied his team from a 10-7 deficit to a 14-10 victory. Over the same span, the Jaguars have lost six games in which they led going into the fourth quarter.
	Stat of the Weak As if the 52-31 trouncing the Cincinnati Bengals absorbed at the hands of the usually toothless Carolina Panthers last Sunday wasn't ignominious enough, the lopsided defeat also dropped head coach Dick LeBeau's career record to 11-31. Why is that significant? Because it leaves LeBeau, a good guy who is probably just three weeks away from the unemployment line, with a paltry .262 winning percentage. That's the worst in team history. Yep, even below the .268 mark established by David Shula, who posted a 19-52 record between 1992-96. Most people felt Shula's club record for futility, one of the worst head coaching marks in league history, would ever be approached.
	The Last Word Davis Cleveland coach Butch Davis, on the fact that the outcome of 16 of the 29 games he has been the Browns' sideline boss have been decided in the last minute: "We have not mastered, as of yet, the art of being able to put people away and keep them away. Maybe it's just a byproduct of having a young football team."

Redskins distraction? The Redskins will deny it, but some team officials and head coach Steve Spurrier considered the Lewis flirtation with the Michigan State job more than a little distracting. Fact is, Spurrier was prepared to move on without Lewis, who early in the season had assumed near co-head coach duties. That was Spurrier's fault, of course, since he was ill-prepared to run a true NFL-style practice, and Lewis had to step in at times and help with the training camp schedule.

As the season wore on, though, Spurrier hoped that Lewis would fade a bit into the background. He didn't and that didn't sit well with some Spurrier loyalists. Fact is, it's been more than a month now since the head coach began dabbling on the defensive side, a move that might have been intended in part to take Lewis down a notch. Spurrier was ready to show Lewis the door, and immediately, if he took the Spartans job. The defensive coordinator, make no mistake about it, would not have stayed on board with the Redskins through the season. Spurrier would have released him from his duties -- with some excuse about how he understood the need for Lewis to quickly get on the recruiting trail -- and it's likely linebackers coach George Edwards would have been promoted to coordinator.

Cap number up -- slightly: During a league meeting for team cap managers in Dallas early this week, clubs were informed the spending limit for the 2003 season will be roughly $73.9 million, up from the $71.101 ceiling of 2002, but not a very big jump. That wasn't surprising to most cap experts, who had been told more than a year ago to expect an increase of just about $3 million.

Neither was it much of a surprise, since it was part of the extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, that the rookie pool for 2003 will remain "flat." Basically the rookie pool is a cap within a cap, the maximum amount of cap room teams can invest in first-year players, and it will not escalate greatly in coming years, either.

Right now, the teams with the highest cap figures for 2003, according to NFL Players Association documents, are: Oakland, $117.1 million; Denver, $87.36 million; Tennessee, $85.05 million; San Francisco, $80.58 million; Tampa Bay, $78.0 million; Cleveland, $77.91 million; Kansas City, $77.2 million; New England, $77.0 million; and Pittsburgh, $73.47 million.

Hutchinson's contract: In case no one noticed, Dallas rookie quarterback Chad Hutchinson has now logged enough snaps to void the final four seasons of the seven-year contract he signed with the Cowboys in late January. Hutchinson, who has started six games and surpassed Quincy Carter as the quarterback of the now and future in Big D/Little O, needed to participate in just 15 percent of the offensive snaps to void the 2005-2008 seasons. He has played approximately 40 percent of the snaps.

By voiding those seasons, the contract now becomes a three-year deal worth slightly in excess of $4 million. Most of that came in the $3.1 million signing bonus, the key to luring Hutchinson away from the other teams that coveted the former Stanford star, who spent four seasons as a pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals system.

Owner Jerry Jones essentially owes Hutchinson just minimum base salaries for the '03 and '04 seasons. Those base salaries, only $300,000 for next season and $380,000 in 2004, are fully guaranteed. And even if the Cowboys don't augment those bases, or extend the deal, Hutchinson can only become a restricted free agent after the 2004 season.

Feeley's fine: Question ... Where might the Philadelphia Eagles and coach Andy Reid be right now without reserve quarterback A.J. Feeley, who on Sunday gets a third straight start, while Donovan McNabb (ankle) and Koy Detmer (elbow) continue their recoveries from injuries?

Answer ... Perhaps up the Schuylkill River without a canoe, that's where.

But most people forget that any team in the NFL could have claimed Feeley on waivers earlier this year. Because of a spate of injuries at other positions, the Eagles waived Feeley on Sept. 26, and held their collective breath that no one claimed him. The one team that did think about claiming him, the Chicago Bears, dragged their feet and in the end general manager Jerry Angelo opted not to grab him. On Sept. 28, the Eagles signed Feeley to their practice squad and on Oct. 8 they elevated him to the active roster.

But even when Feeley was on the practice squad, league rules stipulate that any other team could have signed him to its active roster. No did and shame on many of the 31 franchises that didn't look hard at the second-year veteran. The Bears, who desperately need a young passer around whom to build for the future and who will almost certainly invest their first-round choice in a quarterback, would have had an intriguing prospect if they had claimed Feeley on waivers or attempted to snatch him from the Eagles practice squad.

Chicago instead has two aging veterans, Jim Miller and Chris Chandler, and the latter won't be around in 2003. Odds are Miller will be back, but essentially as a tutor to a younger quarterback, sort of a "bridge" between the old and the new. They have a couple youngsters, Henry Burris and Cory Sauter, but neither has distinguished himself. Word is that Burris, a former CFL star, will get some playing time this weekend. But having Feeley around as a late-season starter, a player who would have given Chicago some alternatives for '03, would have been a better situation.

Did picks pan out? Is it possible that the Cleveland Browns, who hoped to build a defense around their first-round choices in the 2000 and 2001 drafts, have struck out with both the pricey picks? Given the lethargic performance this season of second-year tackle Gerard Warren, the third overall selection in the 2001 lottery, that might be the case.

Regular readers of the "Tip Sheet" know that third-year end Courtney Brown has been a frequent target of this space. The first choice in the 2000 draft has just 11 sacks in 32 career starts and seems to often be nursing a knee injury, as is currently the case.

But as much as the Browns staff has come to expect a lack of passion from the former Penn State star, who might simply be too smart for his own good, it felt Warren was a different kind of player. Warren is more a "street" kid, the kind of player coach Butch Davis liked to recruit at the University of Miami, and a youngster who seemed to love the game. Warren ran afoul of the law once last year, seemed to have matured earlier in '02, but now is becoming quite a puzzle to the team.

Browns officials, and even a source close to Warren, told ESPN.com the second-year veteran was late returning to Cleveland after the team's Nov. 10 bye week. He was late for practice, having missed a flight out of Gainesville, and Davis was less than happy, and that's putting it mildly. More disturbing, though, is the cavalier attitude and questionable work ethic Warren has demonstrated since the incident. Warren has just 33 tackles and one sack this year, after registering 78 tackles and five sacks in his rookie campaign, and he hasn't dominated the interior line play in a long time. Sources confirm Warren didn't work very hard during the offseason and you can bet the mortgage Davis won't allow that to happen again.

Run Ricky Run: Ricky Williams of Miami gets to run Sunday against an Oakland defense that's frequently overshadowed by the potent Raiders offense, but which is still a unit that is ranked No. 11 overall in the league and third against the run. Coordinator Chuck Bresnahan, who may someday be an NFL head coach candidate, has done a nice job with a defense that has been forced to fight through injuries on both the line and in the secondary.

The one constant for the Raiders (besides the fact its seems venerable free safety and future Hall of Fame member Rod Woodson keeps intercepting every errant pass) has been a linebacker corps that doesn't have any of its starters back from the 2001 unit. Oakland used on of its first-round choices on Napoleon Harris, gambling that the Northwestern star could play in the middle, when most other teams had him pegged strictly as a weakside strongside 'backer.

At age 36, strongside linebacker Bill Romanowski has turned back the clock a few years and still making timely plays. Arguably the best of the Raiders linebackers, though, has been fourth-year veteran Eric Barton, who had just four starts entering this season. A former fifth-round choice in 1999, Barton has quietly had a terrific year, with six sacks and a team-high 102 tackles, and some people feel he deserves consideration for a Pro Bowl spot.

One factoid on Ricky Williams: Now that Miami owes New Orleans its first-round choice in 2003, because Williams triggered an elevated choice when he hit the 1,500-yard mark, teams have now surrendered quite a draft bounty to secure his services. The Saints and Dolphins will have combined to give up three first-round choices, two second-rounders, and five later selections to get the star tailback.

Sending a message: Here's hoping Atlanta coaches and team officials realized this obvious message delivered to the Falcons last Sunday by the Tampa Bay defense, a unit that abandoned its trademark "Cover 2" package and played more "Cover 3" and "Cover 1" than we've ever seen from the Bucs: The Falcons wide receivers don't scare anyone. If Michael Vick is to grow into a truly complete passer, Atlanta must upgrade its wide receiver corps for a second straight season in 2003.

Shawn Jefferson will be 34 next season and can't run anymore. See ya. Brian Finneran should be used as a third-down guy, working out of the slot.

The Falcons would be wise to look at how the Bucs used Joe Jurevicius last weekend, because Finneran is just like the Tampa Bay receiver. Same speed, same lanky physique, same knack for running between the hashes. Jurevicius caught eight passes, all for first downs or touchdowns, for 100 yards and two scores. But while Jurevicius is a roleplayer, the Falcons receivers are so average, Finneran is a starter.

Look for Atlanta to sign a high-profile free agent wide receiver, such as Peerless Price of Buffalo, and to draft a wideout in the first round. There are a lot of teams who question whether Price can be a "lead" receiver, and insist his gaudy numbers this year are in part because he has a standout partner in Eric Moulds, but the former Tennessee star is better than anyone Atlanta has on its roster.

It would be delicious irony if Atlanta signed Price because, when the Falcons swapped their first-round choice in the 2000 draft to Baltimore for an addition second-rounder in 1999, Atlanta fans thought the team made the move to get Price, who was still on the board at the time. Atlanta has an excellent tight end in Alge Crumpler, even if he doesn't get the ball nearly enough, and he can be the starting point for revamping the receiver corps.

But until the Falcons get some burners on the outside, and are forced to keep using those "bunch" offense that constrict the field and limit Vick, then their passing game will continue to be nothing special. And the Bucs won't be the only team to conclude the wide receivers are harmless. Factoid: How well is the Tampa Bay pass defense playing? You have to go back to the Steelers teams of the '70s to find a defense that has such a low quarterback rating against it. Now that's something special, huh?

On the radar screen: The story didn't get a lot of national attention earlier this week, when ESPN.com first reported University of Kentucky defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson had opted to forego his final season of college eligibility to enter the 2002 NFL draft, but it turned the heads of most scouts. Robertson isn't all that well known outside the SEC, but every NFL team had him on its radar screen, and with good reason. Most general managers we surveyed this week feel Robertson is not only a first-round choice but possibly a top 10 pick as well. And anytime there is another stud defensive tackle added to the draft, scouts are thrilled, since the position is so difficult to thrill.

In the past two drafts, there were 10 defensive tackles taken in the first stanza, and that included a league-record six in the opening round of the 2001 lottery. Some scouts to whom we speak on a regular basis estimate there will be 10-12 tackles on the first day of the '03 draft who will play in the NFL as rookies. Adding the powerful yet deceptively quick Robertson to a group that already featured William Joseph (Miami), Jimmy Kennedy (Penn State), Jarrett Johnson (Alabama), Kevin Williams (Oklahoma State), and others, should make for a third straight defensive tackle class with great depth and promise.

Screamin' in Cincy: What starting out as a relatively innocuous move by the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday morning, elevating practice squad quarterback Joe Germaine to the active roster, turned into a firestorm of sorts. Such is life, of course, for a 1-12 team where things are in turmoil and every roster moved is scrutinized by the veterans who feel it carries a hidden agenda.

The Bengals acquired Germaine, a former Ohio State standout and NFL journeyman, about two months ago for their practice squad. The indications are the time were that Germaine might, indeed, make it to the regular roster for the last few weeks of the season. But when he finally did, both Gus Frerotte and Akili Smith reacted angrily, even though Germaine got only 10 snaps in practice during his first day on the roster. Smith was especially bilious, even predicting that the Bengals would play Germaine in the second half of the final game of the season, just to keep starter Jon Kitna from hitting performance benchmarks that will trigger $1.65 million in incentives.

"That's why they signed him," Smith said. "Period. Everybody knows that's what is going on. They tried to do the same thing to me and now it's happening all over again. And that is bad business." Smith feels owner Mike Brown demanded he be benched in 2000 so that he wouldn't reach the numbers he needed to trigger escalators that might have meant an additional $14 million-$15 million for him in base salaries. When he was benched for good in 2000, he still needed 348 yards to reach the necessary performance level. Of course, what Smith doesn't say is that he was the lowest rated passer in the NFL at the time. Frerotte, who won't be back with Cincinnati in 2003 -- for that matter, Smith, who sorely wants a new address, likely won't be either -- pointed out that having four quarterbacks on the roster makes no sense to him. The Bengals have just three healthy wide receivers and have five tight ends on the roster, clearly an imbalance, and he noted another passer was a dubious luxury.

Stepnoski's story: In case anyone has wondered what former Dallas Cowboys center Mark Stepnoski is doing since his retirement 10 months ago, well, here's the deal: The 13-year veteran is an officer and spokesman for NORML. Never heard of it? Well, it's the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Stepnoski has been a card-carrying member since 1998. And, no, despite being a user, he never once tested positive in an NFL screening.

Stepnoski's goal is to ultimately legalize marijuana. For now, he'll settle on having the government reduce the penalties for users who are convicted. He doesn't mind telling you, either, he sees a certain hypocrisy in the manner in which the NFL deals with marijuana. "There were times I had to take shots of painkillers to play," said Stepnoski, a standout snapper despite playing at an incredibly undersized 265 pounds. "Those are powerful drugs. They are synthetic opiates. There is a high potential for addiction with those things. Marijuana is non-toxic. It's non-addictive. It doesn't lead to other drugs."

One last chance: The move made by the New York Giants this week, suspending third-year wide receiver Ron Dixon for the second time in two seasons, represents the final chance this guy is getting from team officials. Dixon is a talent, there's no denying that, but he is pitifully irresponsible. Not showing up for some of his scheduled treatments with team trainers or physicians can't be abided. The guy is being paid to rehabilitate and get back onto the field. When the Giants chose Dixon from tiny Lambuth University, they knew he was a very immature kid, and figured he would grow out of it in time. That didn't occur and now Dixon is down to his last strike.

Special delivery: If those stories emanating from St. Louis are true, that Rams special teams coach Bobby April is in trouble, then coach Mike Martz definitely faces a tough swallow. Martz genuinely likes April, one of the NFL's truly good guys, and feels he is a solid coach. But for whatever reason, the kicking game in St. Louis hasn't been good for two years, on April's watch, and it appears some management types want a change.

Searching out Saunders: He hasn't been a head coach since 1988, with the San Diego Chargers, but no one should be too surprised if Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders gets some consideration for vacancies this spring. Saunders has done a terrific job with the Kansas City offense which, despite a lack of high profile playmakers at wide receiver, scores against almost everyone. Credit should also go to quarterbacks coach Terry Shea, who worked hard to get Trent Green to cut down on his turnovers this year. But it is Saunders who has taken some of the rudiments of the Mike Martz designed, bastardized them to fit the Chiefs talent, and come up with an explosive attack.

Cal calling: Seems that Carson Palmer of Southern California, one of the Heisman Trophy finalists, isn't the only Pac-10 quarterback moving up the draft charts for the 2003 lottery. Kyle Boller of the University of California has quietly had an excellent year. Most fans aren't onto Boller yet, but league scouts are, and he appears now to have a good shot of being selected in the first two rounds. Boller's game was refined by first-year Cal coach Jeff Tedford, the former Oregon offensive coordinator, a guy who worked with Akili Smith and Joey Harrington. Mark it down: Tedford will be in the NFL within the next 4-5 years. He has been considered for coordinator spots by league teams before and it's just a matter of time until he makes the jump to being an NFL head coach.

Lewis' rehab: Baltimore Ravens star middle linebacker Ray Lewis very quietly had the surgery to repair his left shoulder this week and now the rehabilitation stint begins for the NFL's most dominant defender. The normal recovery for such surgery is four months. Even given the tightly-wound musculature of Lewis' shoulder, which could cause some problems in recovery, the rehab shouldn't take much more than five months. Lewis should be able to participate in the Ravens' mini-camps, and team officials have no reservations concerning his physical readiness for the start of training camp in July.

Mr. Versatility: How versatile is San Francisco linebacker Julian Peterson? The guy lined up at linebacker, defensive end, safety and cornerback -- yeah, cornerback -- in last week's comeback victory at Dallas. In that game, the 49ers used 11 different safeties, including playing wide receivers Terrell Owens, Tai Streets and J.J. Stokes at the position on a Cowboys' last-gasp pass attempt. Speaking of 49ers safeties, how about a shout-out for Tony Parrish, who overcame testicular cancer in the spring and is currently playing with a huge brace on his dislocated left elbow. Parrish has five interceptions, is fourth on the team in tackles, and has made the coaches forget about Lance Schulters, who departed to Tennessee as a free agent. Parrish probably won't make the NFC Pro Bowl squad, but he should.

Brown outs:The Browns have some payroll trimming to do in the offseason and it won't surprise anyone if linebacker Dwayne Rudd -- yeah, the guy who flipped his lid (OK, his helmet) in the opener and cost Cleveland a victory -- isn't back with the team. Ditto linebacker Jamir Miller, who spent the season on inured reserve (Achilles) after being selected for the Pro Bowl in 2001.