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No longer ``The Man,'' Warrick just a guy in Seahawks' receiver mix
Associated Press
National Football League News Wire
SEATTLE -- Peter Warrick thought his lifeless career was about to be jump-started -- just as he had hoped months before at the Super Bowl.
Joe Jurevicius, the Seahawks' leading touchdown receiver last season, left Seattle in March to sign with his hometown Cleveland Browns. Warrick looked at the remaining wide receivers for the defending NFC champions: Darrell Jackson, who had recently undergone his second knee surgery in four months, veteran Bobby Engram, still-developing D.J. Hackett, a fifth-round draft choice from 2004.
And Warrick, the Cincinnati Bengals' fourth overall pick in 2000 who has been star-crossed ever since.
Suddenly, Warrick could see himself becoming more relevant than he's been in four years. He was finally healthy from knee pain that had lasted most of two years and included a staph infection in 2005. He had lost weight, down to close to 200 pounds, his lightest in three years.
So he spurned what he said were offers from multiple teams. He returned for an opportunity to re-emerge in Seattle -- albeit at one year and a humbling $585,000. That is $40,000 above the veteran minimum and $315,000 less than his 2005 base pay.
"I was like, 'Maybe I have a chance ...'," he said.
Three weeks later, the Seahawks signed slippery Minnesota restricted free agent Nate Burleson. At Burleson's introductory news conference, coach Mike Holmgren said he relished the challenge of finding creative ways to get the ball to Burleson, Jackson and Engram.
Warrick wasn't relishing anything.
"I was like, 'Man, I'm about to fall back into the same category I was with the Bengals'," Warrick said on Monday, the first day of a Seahawks passing camp.
It is Warrick's first chance to see how he might fit in Seattle's 2006 plans.
"I don't have to be 'The Man'," he said. "It's just about when I get the opportunity."
Warrick never had to worry about getting one while a megastar game-breaker at Florida State. His potential appeared to be far better than that of any receiver in the 2000 draft.
How much does Warrick miss being "The Man?"
"I miss it a lot," he said. "At Florida State, Bobby Bowden, he really respected me. He gave me opportunities. We'd script 10 plays for a game at Florida State. Seven of them, I got the ball."
Warrick said when he got to Cincinnati, he wouldn't see the ball "for two or three quarters."
"That hurts," he said.
So does knowing that former Seminoles teammate Laveranues Coles, taken 74 players after he was in 2000, has 5,501 career yards receiving and is the Jets' key receiver. And that Plaxico Burress, selected out of Michigan State four spots behind Warrick, has 5,378 yards receiving and is a top Giants' weapon.
Warrick has 2,991 career yards receiving. His first and best chance to get on the field this season will be as the Seahawks' punt returner, the job he took from fumble-prone Jimmy Williams before the NFC championship in January.
Yet he said this is a better situation than in Cincinnati. The Bengals cut him last September because coach Marvin Lewis had tired of his long rehabilitation from 2004 arthroscopic knee surgery and then a cracked shin bone and a knee infection.
Warrick then came to Seattle -- and did basically nothing for five months.
Now, he's lighter, healthier and moving better than at any time last season.
Receivers coach Nolan Cromwell said he likes that Warrick has enough grasp of Seattle's intricate playbook this spring that he can play any of three positions: split end, flanker or inside slot. He considers Warrick part of a three-string rotation for playing time at receiver.
Holmgren simply likes that Warrick is running faster. That's why he has declared the punt returner job is Warrick's to lose.
As for getting another opportunity as a receiver, Holmgren was less definitive.
"I'm just saying he's looking better to me now," Holmgren said.
"It's early. We have a pretty good group of wide receivers. We'll see how it sorts itself out."
Such waiting may not seem to be a better situation for Warrick than in Cincinnati, and it's nothing like his Florida State experience. But Warrick is just glad to still have an opportunity while on a Super Bowl team.
"Maybe it's not a better situation," he said. "It's just that opportunities present themselves better here."
Healthy WR Warrick Looks For Opportunity
Healthy WR Warrick Looks For Opportunity
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