Everett Will Wait to Give Rams a Grade on Plan B

Quarterback Jim Everett took the hits, then took it upon himself at the end of last season to blast the front office for what he said was shortsightedness, and suggested that Coach John Robinson wasn’t being given a fair shot to win.

And although Robinson says he is happy with the situation and appears to have been granted broader powers within the organization, Everett still isn’t ready to stop pressing management to do more.

“I think the jury’s still out,” Everett said. “The jury’s still out on Plan B. Were we successful or were we not? I have no clue.

“There’s still some concerns that I’ll talk about later.”

Everett’s two most recent problem areas concern not signing of Ronnie Lott, who went to the Raiders in Plan B, and the loss of tight end Pete Holohan, who signed a Plan B deal with the Kansas City Chiefs.

“You look at a guy with an attitude like (Lott’s),” Everett said. “I’m not an expert on his physical condition and how much money he wanted, but any time you can have guys like Pete Holohan and Ronnie Lott that bring an attitude to a team, I think you try to do everything you can not to lose them or try and get them.”

Robinson has defended the team’s passing on Lott, arguing that the Rams were better served by signing promising young players instead of expensive veterans. In Plan B, the Rams signed seven players, most of them young and inexperienced.

“I don’t think we can go out and get a bunch of names or a bunch of old veterans to come in here and eliminate those young people,” Robinson said. “The future has to be rebuilt.”

Robinson seems to believe that much of what Everett says is prompted by the personal frustration he feels over 1990 and the desire to never let it happen again.

“I think he got exposed,” Robinson said. “I think successful quarterbacks are protected in relation to the offense. He got exposed because we didn’t run the ball very well. He got exposed because we didn’t play defense very well.

“He was asked to go out and make another big play, keep making big plays, and in trying to make big plays he got himself to where he wasn’t playing within a rhythm and things began to go bad for him. It becomes that person’s fault because he’s the quarterback. If you’re third and 12, you don’t look for the tackle to get you out of third and 12.

“There’s a period where you get out there saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute. I don’t like being singled out.’ We had the worst performance from our offensive line in several years. But it’s harder to point the finger at them and say they’re not doing the job.”