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INDIANAPOLIS -- Only two games into his fourth NFL season, and Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne has accomplished a feat once considered all but impossible. Despite being relegated to the spot opposite Marvin Harrison in the Colts lineup, Wayne has nonetheless managed to dodge the label of the other wide receiver with much the same quickness he has recently used to shake past opposition cornerbacks.

At least in the minds of some pretty important people in Indianapolis.

"People have used a lot of terms for Reggie," acknowledged Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. "You know, No. 2 receiver, complementary receiver, whatever. But to me, the way he has played, Reggie is our left receiver, period. His development has made us a much better offense overall."

High praise, indeed, from a high source, but certainly well deserved given Wayne's play since the start of the '03 campaign. The team's somewhat controversial first-round choice in the 2001 draft, the former University of Miami star totaled only 76 receptions in his first two seasons, then posted 68 catches for 838 yards and seven touchdowns last year.

Even in a 2004 season when the running game has been resurrected leaguewide, as teams spread the field with three- and four-wide receiver sets and then run straight at "nickel" schemes populated by much smaller defenders, everyone still needs a solid No. 2 (sorry, Peyton) wide receiver. And Wayne, whose 68 receptions last year ranked as third-most among players not regarded as "lead" receivers, has certainly emerged as one of the best.

That was obvious in last Sunday's comeback victory at Tennessee, a contest in which Wayne consistently defeated the single coverage of Titans cornerbacks and authored big plays throughout. None was bigger, perhaps, than the 17-yard catch he made early in the fourth quarter to breathe life into a sputtering drive that culminated in a touchdown that nudged Indianapolis into a lead it did not relinquish. On the first-and-20 play from the Colts' 10-yard line, just after a sack, Wayne was hardly the primary receiver, but he found a soft spot in the middle of the field and Manning found him.

Time was when Manning might have simply locked in on Harrison and waited for him to locate a void in the opposition secondary. The development of Wayne, however, has now provided Manning and the Colts with another reliable and viable option. Harrison will always be the primary option in Indianapolis but, when defensive coordinators commit much of their coverage package to taking him away from Manning, the Colts now have a sort of "go-to, too" receiver in the nifty Wayne.

In the first seven seasons of Harrison's career, the second starter at wide receiver for the Colts barely averaged 40 catches. Coming off his 2003 performance, Wayne is capable of producing 70-75 catches annually and reducing the pressure on the Indianapolis star.

"Yeah, I think I help to make us more complete," Wayne said. "I'm more relaxed now and able to let the game come to me, instead of forcing things. I mean, if you're playing with a guy like Marvin, you're going to get opportunities to make plays, right?"

True enough. Then again, if it were that simple, then every franchise with a great "lead" receiver would have a No. 2 wideout of Wayne's ilk, and that isn't the case.

Last season, the 32 players who might be characterized as No. 2 receivers -- admittedly there are some blurs here, especially with a team like St. Louis, which has two standouts in Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce -- averaged 45.9 receptions. A dozen of them posted 50 or more catches and six had 60 or more receptions. On the flip side, there were eight teams with No. 2 wideouts who had 35 catches or less, four teams whose second wideout posted fewer than 30 receptions.

	“	Unless you have been there, you can't (fathom) the importance of having another guy out there who keeps the defenses honest. You can't be a total offense if you are just one-dimensional. And you can't be a great passing offense with only one good wide receiver. ”
		— Chad Johnson, Bengals wide receiver

"I just don't know how you can function like that," acknowledged one NFC quarterbacks coach. "You've got to be more than a one-trick pony in this league."

Wayne tied with three other wideouts -- Peter Warrick of Cincinnati, San Francisco's Tai Streets (now with Detroit) and Justin McCareins of Tennessee (now with the New York Jets) -- with seven touchdowns. The average number of touchdowns for complementary wide receivers was fewer than five. The significance of the position was reinforced in March when the Jets, desperate for a legitimate No. 2 to pair with Santana Moss, invested a second-round draft choice to pry McCareins away from the Titans.

"Unless you have been there," said Cincinnati wide receiver Chad Johnson, one of the NFL's bright, young stars, "you can't (fathom) the importance of having another guy out there who keeps the defenses honest. You can't be a total offense if you are just one-dimensional. And you can't be a great passing offense with only one good wide receiver."

Johnson's partner, Warrick, had a career-best 79 receptions in 2003. Chosen in the first round of the 2000 draft, with the fourth overall selection, Warrick was supposed to be the Bengals' game-breaking playmaker. Deemed a first-round bust earlier in his career, he has now found a comfortable niche.

Noted Warrick this summer: "There are enough (passes) to go around."

Fact is, ball distribution is a key to any offense, although few coordinators have actually figured out the range of completions they want going to their No. 2 wideouts. Atlanta coordinator Greg Knapp said earlier this week that his goal is to have four receivers -- two wideouts, the tight end and a running back -- with 35 or more catches each. Knapp also noted, correctly so, that the No. 2 receiver for some teams is the tight end.

SIDE LINES
On-Line We tend to concentrate on "edge" matchups far too often in this spot so, for this week, the attention turns inside. One would figure that, in the Jacksonville-Tennessee game on Sunday, something has got to give. The surprising 2-0 Jaguars enter the contest sporting a streak of 17 consecutive games without allowing an individual 100-yard rusher, and that is the longest such active string in the league. On the flip side, tailback Chris Brown, the replacement for Eddie George in the Titans backfield, has rushed for 100 yards or more in each of his first two NFL starts. Even minus left guard Zach Piller, sidelined by a torn biceps, the Titans still are strong in-line and last week used some nifty traps and zone-blocking to carve out holes for Brown against the Indianapolis defense. The task will be more daunting, though, against the Jacksonville tackle tandem of Marcus Stroud and John Henderson, the two inside mashers who key the Jaguars' excellent run defense.
The List The Houston Texans, who entered the league in 2002, have now played 34 regular-season games without notching back-to-back wins. Excluding the Texans, the NFL added nine expansion franchise since 1960, and none had taken more than 28 contests to put together a two-game winning streak. Here is a list of how long it took each of the expansion clubs to register its first consecutive victories: Team -- Expansion year -- Games Cleveland -- 1999 -- 19 Jacksonville -- 1995 -- 6 Carolina -- 1995 -- 7 Seattle -- 1976 -- 28 Tampa Bay -- 1976 -- 28 New Orleans -- 1967 -- 20 Atlanta -- 1966 -- 13 Minnesota -- 1961 -- 21 Dallas -- 1960 -- 14
Stat of the Week The Cincinnati run defense, which permitted New York Jets tailback Curtis Martin to rush for 196 yards in the season opener, got a lift last Sunday night, playing against a Miami offense with a line in transition and a starting running back (Lamar Gordon) who barely knows the offense. No such break, though, this week. In six games against the Cincinnati defense, Baltimore tailback Jamal Lewis has six 100-yard performances. He has carried 139 times for 762 yards and six touchdowns. Lewis hasn't gained more than 62 yards in two outings this season and his worst outing in 2003 was 68 yards. He's primed to break loose and so the Bengals front seven has its work cut out for it.
Stat of the Weak In the final 16 minutes last week, Dallas quarterback Vinny Testaverde and Cleveland counterpart Jeff Garcia combined for five completions in 18 attempts, for 82 yards, with no touchdowns, five interceptions, and an aggregate passer efficiency rating of 5.7. Of course, Garcia pitched a shutout, with a 0.0 rating, only the second such rating in the NFL since 1976.
The Last Word Testaverde "It's past my bedtime." -- Dallas quarterback Vinny Testaverde, 40, on his sentiments about the Monday Night Football prime-time matchup with the Washington Redskins

But in terms of pure numbers alone from the 2003 season, the most common one-two punch in the passing game was the wideout-wideout combination. Thirteen offenses had wide receivers on the top two rungs of their pass-catching totem pole. The other one-two combos: wide receiver-running back (10 teams), running back-wide receiver (four), wide receiver tight end (three), tight end-wide receiver and running back-tight end (one each).

Knapp worked nine seasons in San Francisco before moving to the Falcons this spring and, while his tenure there overlapped for just one season with that of wide receiver John Taylor, maybe one of the best No. 2 wideouts in recent history, he witnessed firsthand the importance of a viable No. 2 option.

"During the period after (Taylor) left, and before J.J. (Stokes) developed, and then Terrell Owens, you'd just see those secondaries rolling everything toward Jerry Rice," he said. "As great a player as Jerry was, you had to have something else besides just him."

Around the league

In this space last week -- this very space, in fact, the top item of the "Around the League" section -- we skewered the Denver Broncos for having been fined a second time in three years for circumvention of the NFL salary cap. We also suggested that the agent involved in the very serious breach, and who paid $100,000 to an unknown charity as a part of the settlement forged by the Management Council and NFL Players Association, was a "heavy hitter."

Subsequent to that, in the "Morning After" column of Monday, we noted that many people with league ties assumed one of the players involved in the cap infractions was John Elway and that the agent was Marvin Demoff, who represented the former Broncos star and Hall of Fame quarterback. In a Tuesday phone call, Demoff stridently denied those contentions, insisting neither he nor his client were culpable in this very significant case. While the player and agent in the case have still not been identified, it is obvious that neither Elway nor Demoff were parties to the cap violations, and an apology is certainly in order and one has been delivered, both personally and now in print. Demoff has been a pioneer in the agent business, clearly one of the most important men in league circles for a number of years, and merited more consideration. Perhaps because of the first Denver violation, various league people leaped to the conclusion that Elway and Demoff were named in the latest allegations, and such suggestions were certainly widespread.

But a hundred wrong assumptions, of course, don't make something right and this was the latest example of that. Still notable in this case is the tight lockdown on information vis-à-vis the player and agent. One conclusion from which we will not back away: The agent certainly is one with strong NFLPA ties. The union has "outed" agents in the past -- Gary Wichard and Leigh Steinberg leap to mind in a case that included salary cap violations involving their clients with the San Francisco 49ers -- for similar alleged indiscretions. The other point to be reiterated: For a team found guilty of a second cap offense, the Broncos got off pretty easily, paying a fine of $950,000 and forfeiting a third-round pick in the 2005 draft. Several general managers and personnel directors joked to us in recent days that their owners would readily fork over a million bucks and give up a third-round choice just to get their hands around a Vince Lombardi Trophy.

After less than two weeks of practice, cornerback Mike McKenzie will return to the starting lineup for the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. And while the Packers coaches will scrutinize every move of McKenzie, who didn't report until last week because of a long and unresolved contract dispute, New Orleans officials will also closely monitor how well he plays in his matchup with Colts star Marvin Harrison. That's because the Saints still covet McKenzie, who has contended he still wants to be traded, to shore up a solid but hardly scintillating secondary. As the trade deadline approaches, Green Bay might be more apt to come off its asking price of a first-round pick. In fact, there are indications that, in recent discussions with the Saints, including some dialogue this week, that was the case. The problem to date has been that New Orleans can't afford to deal any of the players the Packers have floated as part of a package. As reported previously in this space, a deal might have been consummated long ago had New Orleans backup defensive end Willie Whitehead been healthy in camp. But the veteran situational pass rusher was still trying to fight back from knee surgery and is on the physically unable to perform list. The Packers really wanted Whitehead, but they didn't want him as damaged goods.

In conjunction with the ESPN-produced movie Hustle, which deals with the habit that has kept Pete Rose out of the baseball Hall of Fame, we were asked by some folks at the mothership to survey NFL players about gambling. Suffice it to say that the relatively modest undertaking was incredibly unscientific. And since we are not prone to being Pollyannaish, we can't vouch for the veracity of the responses. But we do feel that the survey at least hinted at how taboo an element gambling is with NFL players. "You walk in that locker room every day, and the first thing you see is the warning up on the wall from (commissioner) Paul Tagliabue," noted one longtime veteran. "Plus you know that every team has a (retired) FBI guy around and keeping tabs on things. You would have to be a damned fool to put your career in jeopardy, especially with the money that we are making." The survey group, gleaned principally during training camp but also through last week's Monday night game in Philadelphia, included 63 players, all of them currently on NFL rosters and all with two seasons or more of league experience. The results: Asked if they "suspected" former or current teammates of wagering on sporting events through a bookie, 15 players responded in the affirmative. Seven players agreed they had "strong knowledge" of players placing bets. Five said they "suspected" other players of wagering on NFL games through bookies and only one contended that he had "strong knowledge" of such gambling.

	A.J. Feeley Quarterback Miami Dolphins Profile
	2004 SEASON STATISTICS Att Comp PaTD RuTD Int Rat 70 42 2 0 3 66.7

There may be no more insidious element in an NFL locker room than dissension. And while Miami officials and coach Dave Wannstedt insist the Dolphins are not poised on the brink of mutiny, the seeds of discord certainly have been sown. Some of the club's most veteran players raised concerns with Wannstedt in the spring about quarterback A.J. Feeley, and on Sunday night, in the loss at Cincinnati, those concerns spilled over and were captured on national television. Cornerback Sam Madison verbally lambasted the quarterback as he came off the field following an interception and it's clear that most senior Miami players want Jay Fiedler in the lineup. Another shoddy performance by Feeley and they may get their wish, since Wannstedt has allowed nothing is permanent at the position, but few teams have ever succeeded playing quarterback musical chairs over the course of a season. Lost amid all the negative things that have occurred in Miami this season -- and the litany of woe has been so well documented previously in this space that it hardly bears reiteration -- was just how bad the trade for Feeley really was. Consider this: After the 2002 season, in which he posted a 4-1 record as the emergency starter in Philadelphia after injuries to Donovan McNabb and Koy Detmer, Feeley should have been very attractive to teams seeking a quarterback. So how many of those teams called the Eagles' brass to inquire about Feeley's availability? None. So after a 2003 season in which he threw zero passes, the Dolphins surrender a second-round pick in the 2005 draft for a guy no one else really wanted. First off, Miami was bidding against itself. Second, the price tag was too high. Finally, if the Eagles wouldn't deal Feeley for something a lot more reasonable, so what? The past several offseasons have proven that, if you wait long enough, a veteran quarterback will come free, usually for salary cap considerations. The Dolphins panicked, knowing full well that public perceptions would not allow them to stand pat and try to sell Fiedler to the fans again. Only problem is, that sense of panic is now coming back to haunt Wannstedt and other Dolphins officials. Their contentions to the contrary, the Dolphins have a mess on their hands.

Another quarterback being viewed rather cross-eyed right now, although hardly to the extent of Feeley, is Jacksonville second-year starter Byron Leftwich. Despite a 2-0 mark heading into Sunday's big game at Tennessee, the team's 2003 first-round pick has not played well and the Jaguars offense has scored just two touchdowns. Remember that Leftwich played virtually his entire college career at Marshall in the shotgun formation. In fact, one of the biggest questions surrounding him before the '03 draft was whether he would be able to adapt to having to play under center. Some of those same doubts still linger among a few Jacksonville coaches and team officials. The Jags need to keep their quarterback principally under center because, to do otherwise would certainly diminish the effectiveness of tailback Fred Taylor. And so Leftwich is going to have to adapt. It isn't likely the coaches would make a change to backup David Garrard, who is highly regarded in the Jacksonville organization and some quarters of the league, especially with the team off to such a quick start. Leftwich is going to have to step it up, though, since not many long winning streaks are forged on one touchdown per game.

	Dwight Freeney Defensive End Indianapolis Colts Profile
	2004 SEASON STATISTICS Tot Ast Solo FF Sack Int 5 4 1 0 2 0

For the fifth straight matchup between the two, Indianapolis defensive end Dwight Freeney beat Tennessee left offensive tackle Brad Hopkins for a sack. But even playing out on the "edge," Freeney had some help. Well, sort of, it seems. The day before his matchup with Hopkins, still one of the game's best blindside protectors, Freeney phoned buddy Jason Taylor for a little schooling. Taylor had played against Hopkins in Miami's opening game of the season, and passed on to Freeney that the Titans tackle had developed a new move in which he set his hands high, nearly up around the pass-rusher's neck. Freeney used that information to get past Hopkins for his sack. Freeney, Taylor, Terrell Suggs of Baltimore and New Orleans end Darren Howard, all represented by agent Gary Wichard, have taken to frequently swapping notes now on offensive tackles around the league.

The aforementioned Greg Knapp has done a terrific job improving the accuracy of Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who, through two outings, has completed 65.9 percent of his pass attempts. That ratio is more in line with what it takes to succeed in the West Coast offensive derivative that Knapp has installed and what makes it more amazing is that Vick entered the season with a paltry completion rate of 52.2 percent. We have always subscribed to the notion that you are what you are, that if you're a .260 hitter in baseball, that .325 average in April will be back down to .260 by September. But Knapp really feels Vick was a more accurate thrower than his numbers indicated. So how did he get Vick's completion rate up to nosebleed levels? As usual, Knapp noted earlier this week, it all starts with the feet. "I've just always felt that footwork drives accuracy," said Knapp, "and we've stressed (footwork) from day one with Michael. There are still some things he can do better, and he's going to make progress in this offense every week, but his mechanics, and particularly with his feet, that's a big key right now." As for the run aspect of Vick's footwork, well, he posted his third career 100-yard rushing game last week, and only one man has more than that. Most notable is that Vick has his three century-mark rushing performances in only 30 regular-season appearances. It took Billy Kilmer, who authored four 100-yard rushing outings, 170 games to achieve the unusual feat of the feet. There are four other quarterbacks with three games of 100 rushing yards: Donovan McNabb (72 games), Bobby Douglass (91), Tobin Rote (149) and Randall Cunningham (166).

Maybe there is something in the water in Cleveland, huh? Perhaps that sludge from the bottom of Lake Erie is being pumped directly into all the water fountains in the Browns' otherwise pristine complex out near the airport, in Berea. You have got to surmise that something is amiss -- bad luck, rotten karma, some sort of curse -- when a franchise loses as many big-name players to injury as the Browns did last weekend. Coach Butch Davis, who presides over the league's most notable M*A*S*H unit, might need an exorcist, not a trainer. Defensive end Courtney Brown, gone for the year with a mid-foot sprain. First-round tight end Kellen Winslow, a fractured fibula that required surgery, and could well sideline him for two months and maybe the rest of the year. Defensive tackle Gerard Warren, a pectoral injury, which probably means a month on the sideline. Right offensive tackle Ryan Tucker, out for three or four weeks, courtesy of a strained quadriceps. And those are the injuries just from last Sunday alone. They don't account for the other maladies, ones that have kept starters such as tailback Lee Suggs and tight end Steve Heiden out of the lineup so far, or have forced other players to perform at far less than 100 percent efficiency. Incredibly, the Browns already have six players on the injured reserve list. Three others are on the physically unable to perform list. Another is on the league's non-football injury list. But this is, unfortunately nothing new for the Browns. Since the second incarnation of the franchise in 1999, Cleveland has finished the last five seasons with an average of 12.6 players on injured reserve. There were eight I.R. players in 1999, with 14 in 2000, another 16 in 2001, a dozen in 2002 and 13 last year. Many of the players were sidelined by soft tissue-type injuries and some observers feel the team might need to undertake an in-depth study of its training and conditioning programs. But the injuries have occurred under two different coaches, Chris Palmer (1999-2000) and Davis (2001-present), and two different strength and conditioning staffs, so there really is no common denominator.

Speaking of Courtney Brown, the first overall pick in the 2000 draft assured Butch Davis that he planned to return in 2005, and the Cleveland coach went out of his way this week to try to debunk the popular notion that the defensive end lacks real passion for the game. Truth be told, Davis didn't convince many of the critics, who feel that Brown will never live up to his college press clippings. Certainly it's difficult to believe that Brown can return under his current contract, which calls for a base salary of $5.5 million in '05. That's way too much money to pay a guy who isn't a pure pass rusher, stops the run just reasonably well, and is too frequently injured. His latest injury means Brown will have played all 16 games in only his rookie campaign. In the four ensuing seasons, he has averaged 7.8 appearances. Over five seasons, of a possible 80 appearances, Brown has made 47, or just shy of 60 percent. The former Penn State star has just 17 career sacks and, in his 47 starts, has notched at least a half-sack in only 12 of them. By any man's math, that equates to about one sack every four games, and there are players who can do that for a lot less money. Brown has authored just 28 total "big plays" -- sacks, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries and interceptions -- and that simply isn't enough. The one positive is that Brown will be just 27 years old at the start of training camp 2005, and that might be too early to write him off entirely. Then again, sacking the quarterback typically is a natural gift, not a learning experience. There aren't many guys who have never posted double digit sacks by age 27 and then suddenly turn into the scourge of NFL quarterbacks after that.

How bad is the Kansas City defense against the run? In the first two games of 2003, the unit surrendered 124 yards and no touchdowns on 34 attempts. Yet that defense still went on to finish 30th in the NFL versus the rush. The defense has allowed 375 yards and three scores on 75 rushes in the first two games of the 2004 schedule. Yikes! We several times noted here that the addition of Gunther Cunningham as defensive coordinator was one of the most significant acquisitions of the offseason by any team. But Cunningham can't strap on the pads and make plays and, truth be told, the Chiefs are one of the poorest tackling teams we have seen in a long time. Noted one NFL offensive coordinator: "It's like they're playing with one arm (amputated). I look and see a guy like (Monty) Beisel playing middle linebacker, a guy who is a career special-teamer, and I feel pretty good about my chances of running on them."

His team is 0-2, and likely to be 0-3 after this weekend's game at Seattle, but if you are looking for the guy who just might be doing the best coaching job in the entire league at this point, Dennis Erickson of San Francisco should definitely be a candidate. Erickson is operating with precious little margin for error, a quarterback depth chart comprised of guys no one else wanted, not much talent and no depth. The roster has been stripped so that general manager Terry Donahue can perhaps nudge the franchise toward salary cap health in another year or two and there is no money to bring in reinforcements. But the 49ers, who are very young and committed to rebuilding through the draft, have been competitive so far, nearly taking Atlanta into overtime and almost beating New Orleans in the Superdome last week. It's likely the outmanned Niners will see the ceiling fall in on them at some point during the season, because emotion and tenacity only replace talent for so long in this league, but kudos to Erickson for what he was wrought to this point.

The remarks of studio analyst Shannon Sharpe on CBS last week raised some eyebrows. Asked about New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin, the future Hall of Fame tight end said: "I would rather die in an abandoned building, alone (and) with my family not knowing what happened, than to play for this guy." Well, the fact is, Sharpe did play for Couhglin in the 1996 Pro Bowl game. And according to sources, Sharpe's work habits were so lax that Coughlin wanted to send him home. OK, we agree, no one practices hard at the Pro Bowl, right? But Sharpe, apparently, took the relaxed atmosphere to the extreme.

Punts: The shutout pitched by Cleveland quarterback Jeff Garcia last week, an amazing 0.0 passer rating for his performance at Dallas, is just the second since 1976. The other was authored by Washington backup Tim Hasselbeck last Dec. 14. There have only been five quarterbacks since 1970 to post a 0.0 (in)efficiency rating. ... Since the '70 merger, 247 teams have started a season 2-0, and 158 of them advanced to the playoffs. ... The Steelers are the latest team to try to lure quarterback Neil O'Donnell from retirement, and to be rebuffed. In the wake of the elbow injury to Tommy Maddox, coach Bill Cowher phoned O'Donnell twice last week and was told the veteran doesn't want to play again. Makes you wonder what a guy who does want to play again, like Jeff George, has to do to get on the Steelers' emergency phone list, huh? ... Speaking of the Steelers, anyone note that splendid wide receiver Hines Ward, the NFL's most unheralded player despite three Pro Bowl trips, is averaging 19.2 yards per grab? His career average coming into the season was 11.9 yards. ... Last Monday night's game in Philadelphia might have matched the two leading contenders, quarterbacks Donovan McNabb of the Eagles and Minnesota's Daunte Culpepper, for most valuable player honors in 2004. But at least to this point, the edge McNabb has is that he isn't turning the ball over. Culpepper, on the other hand, is still prone to fumble. The Vikings star has 69 fumbles in 60 appearances, and Philly defensive coordinator Jim Johnson acknowledged his charges were aware of that number. "Yeah, they knew Daunte is a guy will carry it a little loose, dangle the thing around a bit," Johnson said. "We certainly made it a big point in our practices." ... Look for the Raiders to give Amos Zereoue increased carries as Oakland tries to get upgraded production at the tailback spot. ... Minnesota owner Red McCombs remains in no big hurry to extend the contract of coach Mike Tice. That's because he can exercise an option for the 2005 season, at a salary of $1 million, small potatoes given the increases that head coaches have realized the past few years.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. To check out Len's chat archive, click here .