`Hey, didn't you used to be New Year's Day? (Caught On The Fly).

* Welcome to COTF, this year's wild card to watch.

* The key number for the Broncos this offseason will be 15, as in the millions of dead presidents they'll be living above the cap. After this veteran-heavy team slept through much of the second half, the Rocky Mountain Spies say Mike Shanahan will take a different route next season, one where he relies more on sleeker, late-edition models Clinton Portis and Ashley Lelie and less on less efficient ga$-guzzlers Rod Smith, Brian Griese and Chester McGlockton.

* The Cards are pounding their chest over their everyday eight, but they're casting a blind eye at that post-Matt Morris/Woody Williams rotation. The filler candidates range from so-so (Brett Tomko) to inexperienced (Jason Simontacchi) to broken down (Garrett Stephenson), leaving them lagging in the arms race with the Astros, Braves, Snakes, Phil-in-the-blanks and so on. By having to win now and save for the future, G.M. Walt Jocketty's in an 0-2 hole, which explains why he couldn't take his hacks at Kevin Millwood.

* Sure it's nice having a Canton-bound combo running routes for you, and all signs point to a return engagement for them in 2003 with the Silver and Black. But the whispers from scouts and Raiders players are starting to get louder that deny Porter's ...