It’s Time for Lyght to Assume Bigger Role : Ram: With holdout and injuries behind him, rookie cornerback may play as much as 50% of the time against Falcons.

Held back by a holdout, tripped up by a hip problem, restrained by a sprain, Todd Lyght has spent these first seven games of his NFL career learning more about bench time than prime time.

While others have played leading roles in the Rams’ defensive performance, Lyght has had to heal up, hunker down, and wait his turn to play in the spotlight.

Through his training camp holdout to the hip injury that delayed his progress to his most recent ankle sprain on the eve of a game he expected to be his launching pad to this week, when he is being counted on to step in and play as much as 50% of the time against Atlanta’s wide-open “Red Gun” offense, Lyght has always been able to see the end of the tunnel.

His coaches say he is marked for stardom and hint that he will play regularly at one of the corner spots before the season is out--if he earns it. Lyght says he knows things will turn out his way.

Atlanta may be planning on scoring often against Lyght, but he is assured enough not to quake at the prospect.

“You have to be confident, especially going up against a team like Atlanta,” he said. “They have a lot of confidence, they like to run around and smash you in the mouth. That’s the kind of football that they play.

“If you go into a game like this very timid, you’ll get beat.”

Lyght may eventually be many things in his NFL career but timid will never be one of them.

Lyght doesn’t have the cockiness of either of the Falcons’ infamous corners, Tim McKyer and Deion Sanders, but he has an assuredness that has not been dampened since the moment he walked onto the Rams Park field--or into his first freshman practice at Notre Dame, for that matter.

“The first day of practice . . . I thought to myself, ‘I can excel at this,’ ” Lyght said. “I always wanted to play in the NFL, and I thought if I played as hard as I could, things would work out for the best.

“Tim Brown, he was a Heisman candidate, I was going up against him. I wasn’t having too much success, but I knew there would be a time when I would be able to cover guys like him.”

By the middle of his junior season, Lyght was regarded as one of the best college cornerbacks in the game. But a persistent hamstring problem his senior season hampered his play, if not his understanding that he belonged in the NFL.

By the first day of Rams’ practice, he was all the more convinced.

“I felt good,” Lyght said. “There were a lot of rookies, so it was really easy.

“And my first day, after I had signed and was first out with the veterans, I was running around--and I really didn’t know what I was doing, because I didn’t know the defense too well--but I knew I’d be able to play.”

Secondary coach Tom Bettis makes no bones about the Rams’ appreciation of not only Lyght’s physical attributes, but his unflagging confidence at a position that demands it. In the Rams’ man-to-man defensive scheme, cornerbacks who do not flinch from the challenge can anchor the rest of the squad.

“He’s got confidence in his ability,” Bettis said. “I mean, if you don’t have that out there, you’ve got a problem. You’ve got a big problem. It’s not an arrogance or a cockiness about you . . . it’s a confidence you can do the job, bring them on and challenge you.”

Lyght says he figures Falcon quarterback Chris Miller will want to test him early with slot receiver Andre Rison. Lyght played a similar role against the Houston Oilers’ four-wide receiver set in the exhibition season--his only major action this year--and handled Ernest Givins reasonably well.

He says he welcomes more of that Sunday, especially after missing out on the last two games after twisting his right ankle two days before the San Diego game, in which he was scheduled to rotate at cornerback. He still is not completely over the pain.

“I’ve played against (Mike) Pritchard several times, I’ve played against Rison several times,” Lyght said. “So it’s no big deal for me. I’ve played those guys, and they haven’t changed. I haven’t changed, either.”

And it is not lost upon him that the Falcons had a chance to choose him in last spring’s draft, but chose another cornerback, Bruce Pickens of Nebraska, who did not report until recently and has not yet played.

“Oh yeah, I definitely want to show them they should’ve picked me,” Lyght said. “But I’m definitely happy I was picked by the Rams.”

Lyght, who at 6 feet is gangly for a cornerback, has a fluidity that masks his speed, his coaches say. He moves so effortlessly, they say, that it’s hard to tell how fast he is actually going, and that’s one of the reasons the Falcons took Pickens above him.

“That’s just natural God-given talent, I think, to be so fluid, like I am,” Lyght said. “So I just thank God for that.”

Lyght was the fifth pick overall and is being paid $1.1 million a season, and that is not usually a salary for part-time players. But he says he can wait his turn, until next season, if that’s what it takes.

For now, Darryl Henley, a bright spot this season, and Jerry Gray, a four-time Pro Bowl player who has struggled at times this year, remain the starting cornerbacks, and the Rams do not appear to be in a hurry to replace either.

“I’m a rookie and I have still a lot to learn,” Lyght said. “I just want to get into the game and just contribute, like I’ve said from the giddyap.”

Said Bettis: “I think somewhere down the line, we will get him in, but I don’t know how, and I don’t know when. I wish I knew.

“He’s getting there. I see a light at the end of the tunnel. And I know he wants it. He’s frustrated a little bit. But he’s handling it pretty good. He’s working his way through the injury part of it, so he’ll get his playing time Sunday.”