Rams Predictably Choose to Protect Younger Players

Longtime stalwarts tight end Pete Holohan, defensive lineman Doug Reed, kicker Mike Lansford, center Doug Smith and safety Vince Newsome headed the Rams’ list of 13 unprotected players as the league’s Plan B deadline arrived Friday.

None of them was a surprise.

Stocked with young, unproven talent, the Rams predictably opted to protect their younger players while leaving some older players--all of the aforementioned are at least 30 years old--off of their 37-man protected list.

“There are always some decisions you have to make about players, figure out how they fit in,” Ram Coach John Robinson said this week while assembling his list. Robinson was not available for comment Friday.

“We have a lot of young players, and we would obviously like to keep most of them.”

Any player left unprotected is free to sign with any other team without compensation until the April 1 deadline. If a player doesn’t sign by then, his rights return to his current team.

The Rams promise that in this Plan B period, unlike in the previous two, they will peruse the available players with hungrier eyes--especially after their 5-11 pratfall in 1990.

Robinson has made Plan B a priority after suffering through last year’s defensive disaster, has received a vague promise from owner Georgia Frontiere to be more involved in acquiring players, and has said that with pressing needs at defensive lineman, middle linebacker and cornerback, Plan B is a fast way to plug able bodies into new defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher’s drastically different system.

“We’re going to be out first and hardest, how’s that?” Robinson said. “It’s not a solution to all our problems, but you can find help through Plan B. If we can find people that fit, people that fit what we’re trying to do, we’re going to be very interested in them. We’ll be looking.”

Said Fisher: “Plan B won’t take you from 2-14 to 12-4. Plan B isn’t going to save you, turn around your whole franchise. But Plan B’s going to help you. We feel like there are going to be some players out there that can help us at least in certain situations.”

Of the five big names left off of their 37-man protected list, the Rams are probably assuming that teams will be scared off by the age, salary and team loyalty of six-time Pro Bowl member Smith (he’s 34) and 10-year veteran Holohan (31). Smith was also left unprotected last season.

Reed, 30, was left unprotected because he is unsigned and the Rams fear another long holdout by him will render him useless in Fisher’s four-man line scheme.

Lansford and Newsome might not fit into the Rams’ plans for the future. Lansford was just 15 for 24 on field-goal attempts last season, and Newsome, 30, is at a position where the Rams have a slew of younger players ready to play.

Other unprotected Rams were: backup linebackers Paul Butcher, Greg Clark and Bruce Klostermann, long-snapper Mike McDonald, punter Keith English, defensive backs Bobby Humphery and Mickey Sutton and linebacker Mel Owens, who missed all of 1990 with a back injury that might have ended his career.

The Raiders exposed three defensive starters to Plan B free agency: safety Mike Harden and linebackers Riki Ellison and Jerry Robinson.

The Raider list also includes former Ram tailback Greg Bell, who played sparingly in 1990 behind Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson; punter Jeff Gossett, quarterback Vince Evans, reserve runners Napoleon McCallum and Vance Mueller, cornerback Elvis Patterson, wide receiver Jamie Holland, linebackers Alex Gordon, Ron Burton, Darin Jordan and Ricky Hunley, who was released before the end of the season; tackle James FitzPatrick, guards Newt Harrell and Todd Peat, and defensive tackle Bill Pickel.

Other big-name players left unprotected around the league included New York Giant tailback Ottis Anderson, voted Super Bowl XXV’s most valuable player, who was left unprotected for the third straight season, and several San Francisco 49ers of note: safeties Ronnie Lott and Dave Waymer, running back Roger Craig, and linebacker Matt Millen.

Also left unprotected was kicker Scott Norwood of the Buffalo Bills.

Times staff writer Chris Dufresne contributed to this story.