Plan A or Plan B, 49ers Still Whip Rams : Football: While San Francisco stuffs its roster, L.A. signs only Curt Warner and two other free agents.

The San Francisco 49ers turned Ram dreams to dust in January’s National Football Conference title game, but apparently their 30-3 victory and subsequent 45-point Super Bowl rout of the Denver Broncos weren’t good enough.

The floggings, we see, continue well into spring, as the 49ers separate themselves even further from an already distant pack with a series of extravagant free-agent signings, costing a total of $4.8 million.

Being hailed as merely one of the greatest teams of all time doesn’t seem to satisfy the thirst of 49er owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., a shopping-mall builder who places no price tag on winning in a division where others insist they must win to survive.

One NFC West source estimates that the 49ers have lost $25 million the last four years in pursuit of their two Lombardi Trophies. The Rams did good business in 1989, turned a profit and produced a winner, but most sports fans weren’t interested in their biggest headline: “Rams Bury 49ers With Quarterly Report.”

With more limited purse strings, the Rams actually reached up and touched the 49ers’ heels last season, thanks in large to the blockbuster Eric Dickerson-for-seven players trade in 1987, a deal since proven a veritable steal in light of Dickerson’s recent clamorings as an Indianapolis Colt.

Still, the Rams find themselves losing sight of the 49ers again, six months before their next rematch. They’ve lost divisional titles to San Francisco before, but never by April.

When it comes to finances and the 49ers, the Rams are at a loss for words and dollars.

What to do?

“I don’t know,” Coach John Robinson admitted Tuesday.

In all, it has been a curious off-season for the Super Bowl champions and their rivals to the south, the Rams--to some the second-best team in football by the end of the 1989 season.

Already the NFL’s clubhouse leaders in player personnel, the 49ers took advantage of the league’s Plan B free agency system by stuffing their roster with aging but still productive players such as Buffalo Bill nose tackle Fred Smerlas (one year, $750,000), Cleveland Brown cornerback Hanford Dixon (two years, $1 million), New Orleans Saint safety Dave Waymer (three years, $1.8 million) and Atlanta Falcon center Wayne Radloff (one year, $330,000).

San Francisco has this thing about being stacked two deep at every position.

The 49ers lost only one player to Plan B, wide receiver Terry Greer.

The Rams, in turn, signed just three Plan B players, and none on defense, where they finished 21st overall a season ago.

Their first two signings were absolute necessities to replace position players lost to Plan B.

Punter Hank Ilesic steps in for Dale Hatcher, who was signed by the Green Bay Packers, and guard Joe Milinichik takes the place of Tony Slaton, who went to the Dallas Cowboys.

The Rams then pulled a surprising free-agent trigger by signing Seattle tailback Curt Warner, a 29-year old former superstar whose per-carry averages with the Seahawks have progressively declined every season since 1986--4.6, 4.2, 3.9, 3.3.

Warner recovered remarkably well from major knee reconstruction in 1984, but needed followup arthroscopic surgery last year.

It helped too that Robinson has admired the runner since Warner’s Penn State days and a certain Fiesta Bowl victory over Robinson’s USC Trojans.

In fact, had the Rams not taken Eric Dickerson in 1983, Warner probably would have been their man.

In the end, Robinson, a tailback-maker by trade, said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to grab Warner, no matter how many good runners he already had in the fold, notably Greg Bell.

Robinson said the same thing last April when he selected Miami fullback Cleveland Gary with the 26th pick in the first round.

So now it’s Warner, Bell, Gary, Robert Delpino, Buford McGee and Gaston Green, none of whom can play cornerback.

Robinson had his reasons.

“If you made a list of the top players in Plan B, you’d probably put Curt in the first three or four just in terms of talent,” Robinson said.

Still, Warner’s value was questionable enough that the Seahawks, who finished 7-9 last season, left him exposed to free agency. Warner gained just 631 yards in 1989 and scored but three touchdowns.

He said in a conference-call interview with Los Angeles reporters Tuesday that he had been taking criticism for Seattle’s poor season and had become expendable.

“My name came up quite a bit,” Warner said when the scapegoat questioned was raised. “I’ll leave it at that. It was always, I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing. No one likes to be criticized.”

Seahawk General Manager Tom Flores, the former Raider coach, admitted that Warner’s age and his 1990 salary, $1.1 million, were two reasons he was left unprotected.

“We took a chance,” Flores said. “We realized there was a chance he might go and we’d have to go on with our rebuilding. Look, he’s still a good back. He’s lost a step of home run speed, but he’s still a good back, a very classy back. But running backs take a beating, and he had the misfortune of having a total knee (surgery) in his second season. He hasn’t lost all of his speed, or his ability, but we had to make a decision.”

Warner was so intent on getting out of Seattle’s Kingdome, where the artificial turf grabs and burns, that he took a substantial pay cut to join the Rams, with whom he’ll be earning about $700,000 next season, not including incentives.

Robinson watched Warner work out a few weeks ago at Rams Park and liked what he saw.

“And I looked at a lot of film,” Robinson added. “I thought he definitely had the quickness. There’s not any question he has the ability. If he’s lost a step of speed, well, speed is least important in runners. If you lose quickness and aggressiveness, that’s important.”

Of course, Warner’s signing leaves the Rams with one crowded backfield and almost promises an upcoming trade involving Greg Bell for a defensive player.

“I think it’s pretty obvious we’re going to be moved,” Bell’s agent, Steve Feldman, said Tuesday.

You may wonder why. Despite coming to the Rams from Buffalo with the reputation as a malcontent, Bell has been nothing short of exemplary in two years in Anaheim, rushing for 2,349 yards while scoring 33 touchdowns.

However, even Feldman admits there was trouble brewing. Bell is still bitter over the contract he signed last summer after a rather unpleasant, name-calling, 36-day holdout. Seeking a yearly salary in the $750,000 range, Bell reluctantly signed a two-year deal for less than $1 million. He is due to earn $475,000 in 1990.

Felman said Bell was planning another holdout this summer to vent his anger, which no doubt prompted the Rams to make a move on Warner.

“Unless circumstances changed, we didn’t see ourselves in the Rams’ plans,” Feldman said. “To be real honest, we’re thrilled with the acquisition of Curt Warner. That’s going to enable them to move Greg. Maybe he’ll be a bit more appreciated and a bit better paid.”

Robinson had no comment concerning Bell’s future or that of his backfield mate, Gaston Green, a logical tag-along partner in any Bell trade proposal.

Warner would say only that Bell’s name was mentioned in his conversations with Robinson and it was Warner’s understanding that the issue would be resolved.

“I think that’s up to Coach Robinson to make those decisions,” Warner said. “My responsibility is to get ready, to prepare.”

Warner insisted he is no less a runner than he was back in his prime years of 1983 and ‘86, when he gained more than 1,400 yards each season.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “That’s my opinion. I don’t think I’ve slowed down. I got bumps and bruises over the years. You’re going to deteriorate to some degree. . . . Mentally, I’m a lot tougher now than I was back then. . . . You’ll have to decide when I get out there whether I’m what I was before.”

Whether the Rams can trade Bell for a proven defender and whether Warner can regain his form are questions without immediate answers. And even if the Rams can pull it off, where does that leave them in relation to the 49ers?

There still is no NFL substitute for money and a personnel department that knows how to recognize and organize talent. To that end, the 49ers have no peers.

“They did a good job,” Robinson said of the 49ers’ Plan B signings. “I have no comment on that.”

A Ram front-office source, who asked that his named not be used, maintained that owner Georgia Frontiere can not compete with DeBartolo in open bidding wars for players, even considering the extra $17 million each team will receive next season with the new television contracts.

“She could do it for a very limited time,” the source said of Frontiere. “For a year, maybe. But she basically needs to make money off her club. It’s a tremendous luxury for them. Who wouldn’t want to have Smerlas and Waymer and those guys? But you’ve got to pay them that kind of money. I don’t think we can compete in that environment. It’s stifling.”