Pro Football / Bob Oates : Scouts Give Nod to Keith Jackson (the Tight End) or Tim Brown

If the pros were judging the Heisman Trophy race this year, they’d vote Keith Jackson of Oklahoma and Tim Brown of Notre Dame first and second--or second and first.

Most scouts seem surprised that their college teams make such limited use of Jackson and Brown in their pass offenses.

“Jackson is another John Mackey,” said Mike Hickey, the New York Jets’ personnel director. “Tim Brown is a faster, more versatile Al Toon.”

The Jets’ only Pro Bowl starter, Toon plays wide receiver, where he excels at catching bombs and running reverses.

Mackey is the former Baltimore Colt who several years ago was voted tight end of the half century.

The pros are looking for more consistency from the running back candidates, Gaston Green of UCLA, Lorenzo White of Michigan State and the others.

Green, who was injured last Saturday, has graded with Jackson and Brown only on his best days.

Brown is devastating in an open field, the scouts keep saying.

“Every coach in the league wants a Tim Brown returning punts,” Hickey said.

Drafting Bo Jackson--and signing him easily when the world thought he was a baseball player--is an example of the kind of vision that has made the Raiders successful.

Their manager, Al Davis, has been out in front of most of his competition for more than a quarter-century.

But football is a highly visible business. Almost every move Davis makes can be studied carefully. Every move his team makes can be videotaped.

Football, in other words, is a game that can be learned by almost any bright individual who works at it.

And that’s why the Raiders are where they are now, in the view of All-Pro linebacker Andre Tippett of the New England Patriots.

“The rest of the NFL has caught up with (the Raiders) and learned from them,” Tippett told Boston writers the other day.

“Now everybody is going for tough guys on defense, and playing their style of aggressive football.”

This illuminates a truth about this sport. It’s easier to be a pioneer in football than to maintain.

The difference between Eric Dickerson and Bo Jackson--in terms of the future--is that Dickerson is well placed to make a contribution to his new team. He has arrived in Indianapolis at just the right time.

Jackson, by contrast, has arrived at the wrong time to fix what’s wrong with the Raiders. As good as he is, Bo can’t rush a passer or play cornerback, or even line up at offensive tackle.

Dickerson joins a team with a young offensive line that averages 300 pounds and boasts three Pro Bowl types: Ray Donaldson, Ron Solt and Chris Hinton.

The Colts also have considerable class at wide receiver and in their defensive front seven.

“As a (loser) they’ve drafted high for years--and also very well,” said Dick Steinberg, the New England Patriots’ personnel director, identifying Indianapolis linebackers Duane Bickett and Johnie Cooks, among others.

The Colts’ problem areas are at quarterback and in the secondary.

“We like our (secondary) starters,” said Indianapolis general manager Jim Irsay. “We need more depth.”

So although the Colts are coming, they aren’t quite there yet. In the game of the week, they wouldn’t seem to have much chance Sunday against the San Diego Chargers, who are playing like a team of destiny. When you beat Cleveland on an overtime intercepted pass thrown by Bernie Kosar, something or someone somewhere likes you.

At Anaheim, the Rams are lightheartedly counting their new draft choices with both hands--as they enjoyed doing years ago.

Throughout the 1950s and early ‘60s, the Rams were the unofficial talent provider to the league. Their policy then was to draft good young players, train them about four years and send them off for more draft choices, who were then also trained and traded.

The policy had a financial base. Potential stars ask for smaller salaries than established stars.

In those days--among other players--such big Ram producers as Andy Robustelli and Del Shofner were packed off to New York, where they helped form the nucleus of many fine Giant teams along with Y.A. Tittle, the quarterback packed off by the 49ers.

There was a stretch of years when no fewer than three Ram quarterbacks were traded to teams that used them to win NFL titles--Norm Van Brocklin at Philadelphia, Frank Ryan at Cleveland, and Billy Wade at Chicago.

In time, Ram management learned that the problem with draft choices is that they can’t block or tackle. Very often, they look best on a blackboard.

Serious mistakes are made every year by well informed NFL general managers holding high draft choices.

In an average year, moreover, there aren’t many Dan Marinos, Lawrence Taylors or Eric Dickersons out there.

This is not to say that the Rams will blow the six draft choices they got for Dickerson. But on the whole, a known quantity--say, a running back in his prime who has Dickerson’s ability--tends to be a better bet than a collection of draft choices.

As San Francisco’s Joe Montana said after last week’s game: “It was a relief not to have Eric in there.”

George Allen was the coach who put an end to the Rams’ fascination with draft choices in 1966.

“The future is now,” Allen said, trading Ram choices away for proven players, who helped him turn a losing team into a winner.

Dickerson is telling Eastern writers that his problem here was nothing but economic.

“By keeping my salary low, the Rams kept all their players’ salaries low,” he said.

Thus he joins the club’s modern-era talent drain. Among others, Jack (Hacksaw) Reynolds and Bob Brudzinski helped drive two different teams to the Super Bowl after losing financial arguments with the Rams.

Brudzinski is still with Miami. The 49ers haven’t been to the Super Bowl since Reynolds retired.

Now that he’s gone, where is Dickerson to be rated among the game’s great running backs?

It’s hard to tell because the great ones are all so different. Gale Sayers, O.J. Simpson, Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Marcus Allen, Hugh McElhenny, Eric Dickerson, Bo Jackson--each is outside the ordinary mold.

Brown, like Herschel Walker, will be remembered for his power and straight-ahead speed. Dickerson is a stand-up slasher. Jackson, the rookie who still has everything to prove, accelerates in a crouch, as does a sprinter coming off the blocks.

Jackson’s toe dance along the sideline Sunday was a move that is beyond the capacity of most other runners with his size and explosiveness. That was more like Sayers or Simpson.

At Anaheim, Dickerson, playing on a club that never had a pass offense in his time, carried the Rams to the playoffs four straight years. No other back has made a comparable achievement. Perhaps no other could. If he isn’t the best of all time, Dickerson is perhaps the most remarkable.

The defending champion Giants apparently reached the end of the line in Dallas Monday night. In a normal year, they would have had a chance to overcome their 0-3 strike record, but not when their regulars have started 1-3.

“It wasn’t an even deal,” Giant General Manager George Young said of the strike season.

“The teams in California, Texas and Florida had the advantage. There are a lot of good football-playing schools out there.

“We contacted many of the same players that played for them. We called and said we wanted them. Many were called, but few came.”

Many didn’t like their chances on a championship team.

“They didn’t think they could stick with us when the strike ended,” Young said.

The Giant leader, whose deals and drafts built the champions, isn’t mourning his 1987 fate. He’s only bitter about the veteran players.

“They were the ones who went on strike,” he said. “It wasn’t us.”