The Panthers also are giving serious thought to drafting Nebraska's Grant Wistrom. He would be a perfect fit at their outside linebacker/defensive end position in their 3-4 defense. But the Panthers also will take a look at Buffalo's free-agent-to-be Bryce Paup - the same guy the Broncos passed on during the 1995 off-season.
The NFL draft is a lot of things to a lot of people. For Jason Peter, it will be a coming-out party. Once and for all, he'll be coming out of his big brother's shadow.
Peter thought he had heard the last of the questions about his brother, Christian, whose rap sheet at Nebraska was longer than the list- of all-time Cornhuskers All-Americans. Then he arrived at the NFL scouting combine and every team that interviewed him wanted to make sure they weren't getting a carbon copy of Christian.
"I've gotten a lot of questions about Christian," Peter said"Just how did his problems affect me? That's pretty much the one question they're asking. It's something that happens. It's unfortunate it had to happen to my brother, but I've learned from it."
Did the teams that interviewed him assume he, too, was going to have problems off the field?
"That's what a lot of people were trying to pin on me, that automatically I've committed the same things, broken the same laws," Peter said. "It really wasn't fair to me. Usually, when something is said about me, it's `the brother of troubled former Nebraska defensive tackle Christian Peter.' But I'm used to it and I've learned how to deal with it."
Christian Peter figured as a possible first-round draft choice in 1996. Instead, he went in the fifth to New England, only to be waived after Patriots owner Bob Kraft's wife expressed outrage that the team would select a player with a history of assaulting women.
Jason Peter won't suffer the same fate. He projects as the second defensive tackle selected behind North Carolina's Vonnie Holliday. Most draft forecasts call for Peter to be selected in the latter stages of the first round. ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. predicts the Green Bay Packers to select him 29th, one, notch before the Broncos.
The question with Peter isn't so much whether he'll make it in the NFL, but where he'll play. By his own estimate, half the teams at the combine said they projected him as a tackle, the other half as an end.
He plans to play tackle, but, it so he'll be undersized by NFL standards. The rage in pro football these days is for interior defensive linemen to weigh well into the 300s. The Packers have gone to two Super Bowls with 352-pound Gilbert Brown in the middle of their line, and the Broncos won one in January with 315-pound Keith Traylor at left tackle.
Peter? He weighed in at 275 at the combine. What he lacks in size, he makes up for in quickness and upheld speed. He doesn't just engage offensive linemen and allow the linebackers to step up and make the tackles. Peter can get into: the backfield and disrupt plays, witness his seven sacks and 15 stops behind the line of scrimmage during his senior season in Lincoln. And to think, Peter read in a one publication before last season that he projected as a third-round pick.
"I was kind of shocked," he said. "I used that as motivation. I feel like I've put myself in a good position where I could be drafted high."
Holliday will be selected several notches higher than Peter. He could go sixth to the Rams. Having missed out on free agent Sean Gilbert, the Rams are intent on upgrading their defensive line.
Fallout from an interesting National Football League draft, at least for those who follow the Nebraska program:
The farther former Cornhusker I-back Ahman Green dropped in the draft Saturday night, the louder the second guessing became. It has now reached fever pitch.
Many believe Green could have enhanced his draft status by returning for his senior season. The debate can go on for hours. One thing to consider: Often the team to which a player goes is more important than when he is drafted. In this case, it appears Green landed in a cozy situation when the Seattle Seahawks selected him in the third round with the 76th pick overall.
Seattle liked Green more than most teams. In fact, if offensive tackle Todd Weiner of Kansas State wasn't available in the second round, Seahawks officials said they probably would have taken Green then. Seattle needed a third-string running back who can return kicks. Green hasn't returned a kickoff since he was a sophomore, but his blazing speed (4.18 seconds in the 40-yard dash) and athleticism, suggest he can excel as a return man.
Green is considered a project as an NFL running back, so he faces virtually no immediate pressure. He can mature and develop behind veteran standout Ricky Watters - maybe paid handsomely all the while.
There are a couple rules to follow for next weekend's NFL draft. One: don't believe anything you read or hear about who is going where, and when.
Two: if somebody knows some diing they aren't about to tell anybody. "It is one of the strangest things I've ever experienced," said Jason Peter, a former Nebraska, defensive tackle. "The mock drafts have me in the first five picks and the first pick of the second round. Some have me as a project and some have me as an immediate impact player. Everybody has an opinion and now, with the Internet, I guess we can hear all of them."
For Peter, former teammates Grant Wistrom, Ahman Green, Scott Frost, Eric Anderson, Eric Warfield, Aaron Taylor and a few others, the NFL draft on Saturday and Sunday will help determine their future in football. The seven-round draft allows teams to shore up gaps, build for the future and create hope. The draft can also help a player establish financial stability for the rest of his life.
"It's' a lot of money and a lot of talk and I wish the whole thing was over right now," said Peter. "I prepared as well as I could for the testing- for the pros, and even with a slight hamstring pull, I think I did well. But what the teams are going to do all depends on what they think they need at the time they make their _pick. If they need defensive tackles, then it should be good for me."
Two-time All-American Aaron Taylor, who is projected from the fourth to sixth round of the draft, said he isn't worried about the draft.
"I enjoyed getting ready and going through the testing for the pros and I'm willing to just wait and see," he said. "A couple of teams that run, like Green Bay, Seattle, Pittsburgh and the Chiefs, have asked my agent about my ability to play guard and center. Since I played both (and was All-American at both) it should help my stock some."
Taylor also plans to visit with former Husker Aaron Graham, -who was drafted by Arizona in 1996 and now plays center for the Cardinals. Former Husker tackle Chris Dishman was drafted by the Cardinals last year.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a position-by-position series previewing the NFL college draft April 18-19. Today, the running backs:
It started in the 1980s with Mike Rozier and has continued intoo the '90s with Lawrence Phillips and Calvin Jones.
All great running backs at Nebraska, each an underachiever in the NFL. Now, along comes Ahman Green. He ran for 1,877 yards last season. He starred in the Orange Bowl, when the Cornhuskers played well enough to earn a share of the national championship. He's big (213 pounds), fast (4.34 seconds in the 40-yard dash) and productive; (22 touchdowns last season).
But will it carry over to the pros?
It's a question Green has gotten a lot since declaring himself eligible for the draft after his junior season.
"Maybe a little," said Green, when asked if the reputation of Nebraska running backs figures to hurt him on draft day. "I can't dwell on that. I've been working hard at Nebraska and I want to take it to the next level."
Green might turn into a great pro, but the NFL scouts are skeptical. They know how big those holes were that Green ran through. And they're well aware that several of his long runs came after he took a pitchout from Scott Frost with nothing but wide-open spaces ahead of him.
Phillips appeared to be a can't-miss prospect, but off-field problems caused him to hit the waiver wire before the end of his second NFL season. For all his problems, Phillips is a better back than Green. That's not an opinion, it's a scouting report courtesy of Green.
"I have the size and speed, just like he does he said. "I'd say he has a little better east-west movement, a little better agility. Depending on where he gets the ball, he can be gone on any play, and I feel the same way."
While Phillips was the sixth pick of the 1996 draft most draft projections have Green being selected in the second or third round, ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. envisions the Tampa Bay Bucs taking him with the 83rd pick, seven notches before the Denver Broncos select Huskers quarterback Scott Forst, who projects as an NFL safety.
Grant Wistrom and Jason Peter, college roommates the past 21/s years at Nebraska, enjoyed frequent discussions about their prospects in the National Football League draft.
"We talked all the time about whether it would be better to be picked later by a better team or earlier by a lesser team," Peter said. The close friends will learn the answer first-hand in the near future. The St. Louis Rams, 5-11 last season, selected Wistrom, a defensive end, with the sixth pick Saturday during the first round of the two-day, seven-round draft in New York. The final four rounds will be conducted today.
Peter, a defensive tackle, went to the better team when the Carolina Panthers - 7-9 last year after reaching the NFC title game the previous season - made him the 14th overall selection.
Two other ex-Huskers - quarterback Scott Frost and I-back Ahman Green - were third-round choices. The New York Jets made Frost the 67th selection overall and plan to move him to safety, while the Seattle Seahawks took Green with the 76th overall pick.
Green, who bypassed his senior season at Nebraska, was the eighth running back selected.
The last time Nebraska had multiple players picked in the first round was 1991, when Atlanta chose defensive back Bruce Pickens third and Denver selected linebacker Mike Croel fourth.
Wistrom and Peter became the 29th and 30th players in Nebraska history to be taken in the first round.
"Being the No. 6 pick is a great honor," said Wistrom, a 6-foot-4, 273-pound native of Webb City, Mo., located in the southwest part of the state. "It's a lot to live up to, but I think I can do it."
So does St. Louis Coach Dick Vermeil.
"I am really pleased to be able to bring this caliber of player, and this caliber of person, to St. Louis, because he will make an immediate impact," the coach said.
Wistrom could start as a rookie at right end opposite Kevin Carter. The Rams released their starter at left end last year, Leslie O'Neal, who has since signed with Kansas City.
St. Louis gets a bigger version of Wistrom than Nebraska had. He played at about 255 pounds last season but purposely added nearly 20 pounds to avoid being regarded as a 'tweener - too small to play defensive end but not fast enough to play linebacker.
"I may put on more size, depending on what the coaches want me to do," Wistrom said. "Some people question whether I can hold up against the run. We'lll find out pretty soon." Two years ago, St. Louis used the sixth overall pick on ex-Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips. Phillips, though, was later released after a series of legal scrapes.
The Rams feature two former Huskers in thpir starting lineup: Offensive guard, Zach Wiegert and strong skeEy Toby Wright. Wistrom will work hard to join them.
"I know there am some guys out there with more 'athletic ability," Wistrom said. "I don't know if there's anyone who will work harder.
Like Wistrom, Peter is in a position to contribute right away. Carolina plays a 3-4 defense, and Coach Dom Capers said the 6-4, 275-pounder could be used at either end spot or also at nose tackle.
"When they pay the kind of money I'll be getting, they're not looking for someone to sit on the bench," Peter said. "My intention is to start." Carolina's selection of Peter comes two days after the Panthers positioned themselves to complete a trade with the Washington Redskins for standout defensive end Sean Gilbert.
Frost has no qualms about switching positions.
"I'm a football player, No. 1, and I want to play football," he said from his parents' home in Wood River. "It didn't really matter to me what position I played. As a matter of fact, I almost welcome the chance to get over and play defense."
Dick Haley, the Jets' player personnel director, strongly endorsed the 6-3, 225-pound Frost. In the 1989 draft, Haley - then with the Pittsburgh Steelers - was involved in the conversion of Carnell Lake from linebacker to safety. Lake went on to make the Pro Bowl.
Jets Coach Bill Parcells looks forward to Frost joining his club.
"He's a big kid and he's extremely bright and aggressive," Parcells told the New York Daily News. "I don't see any reason this couldn't work."
Green was picked later than most expected but said he wasn't disappointed.
"I'm just glad someone picked me up," he said. "Even with the fast times I ran (for NFL scouts), I expected this. Now, I just want to get on the field and prove myself again."
Joby Branion, one of Green's agents, said the 6-foot, 215-pound speedster should be able to make the team as Ricky Watters' backup.
"Ricky is at the peak of his career," Branion said. "With Ahman, all of his best years are ahead of him. I don't think they'll bring him along too quickly."
Offensive lineman Aaron Taylor, the 1997 Outland Trophy winner, will be among a handful of Nebraska players who hope to be drafted today.
For Scott Frost, Saturday was a long enough day of anticipation. He had no desire to wait until today to learn his future in the National Football League.
The former Nebraska quarterback was happy - and relieved - upon learning early Saturday night that the New York Jets mad him the sixth selection of the third round of the NFL draft.
The final four rounds of the seven-round affair will be concluded today at Madison Square Garden in New York.
"I never left the front of the TV until I got the phone call from the Jets," said Frost, who anticipates being moved to safety. (Lincoln Journal Star)
Sure enough, Scott Frost, who'll make the switch to safety in the NFL, was selected ahead of Ahman Green. Frost went early in the third round to the Jets, nine picks ahead of Green, who landed with Seattle.
That's a statement about Frost's athelticism, but it's also an indictment of Nebraska running backs.
Here's Pro Football Weekly's pre-draft assessment of Scott Frost as a quarterback: "Has a shot-putter's delivery and is not very accurate. Looked horrible throwing at (the NFL combine). Was obviously pressing and could not hit the broad side of a barn."
No wonder the New York Jets are moving the former Nebraska QB - also a third-round selection (67th overall) - to safety.
But Jets Coach Bill Parcells said he doesn't rule out Frost returning to quarterback.
"That's not what we drafted him as," Parcells said. "But I'm sure that we'll try to keep his skills there."