Rams Preparing Their Plan B List : Pro football: Dupree, McGee and Smith probably won’t be protected.

Barring 11th-hour reconsideration or trades, running backs Marcus Dupree and Buford McGee and center Doug Smith will head the Rams’ list of Plan B unprotected players submitted by today’s noon deadline, according to a team source.

Ram Coach Chuck Knox said the team was “leaning toward” protecting 37-year-old tackle Jackie Slater and also listening to trade offers.

Teams are allowed to protect 37 players.

“We’re still fooling around with it,” Knox said Friday. “Everybody’s talking to everybody, everybody’s trying to make a deal, see whether or not their 37th guy might be more valuable to you than your 37th guy.”

Because leaving a player unprotected means a team can lose him without compensation, teams are trying to trade players before the deadline to obtain at least a draft choice.

Knox said there were some “interesting” names being offered around as the deadline approached. But he suggested that right tackle Slater, a seven-time Pro Bowl player, would not be among them.

Slater is unsigned and coming off his 16th season in the league, and the Rams apparently have considered leaving him unprotected.

“We haven’t totally resolved that,” Knox said. “But I would say we would be leaning toward protecting him. He’s part of the plans for now. I don’t know for (the) future, five years from now . . . but he’s a fine football player, he can still play. And we have a need at that position.”

Slater said he didn’t know if he would be protected.

“I think I’ll figure out what their plans are for me playing with them this year if I’m on the list or not,” Slater said. “I’d very much like to be in their plans and play next season, but if I’m not, I guess I’d have to consider playing elsewhere.

“I feel like I can still play, for somebody, at a fairly high level in this league. If they leave me unprotected, they must feel they have somebody else who can do the job.”

Dupree is unsigned and was burdened by minor injuries for most of last season, his first full season in the NFL since severely injuring his knee in 1986.

McGee, the team’s most valuable player in 1990, is 31 years old and could be replaced by Ernie Thompson in the team’s fullback rotation.

It is likely both will want to leave the Rams in the Plan B free-agency period, which ends April 1.

Smith, who lost his starting center job last season, is not believed to be in the Rams’ plans.

“I don’t think there were a lot of tough decisions to make,” Knox said. “We would like to have a lot of (the unprotected Rams) back. (But) they can go out, test the market.”

In other Ram news:

--As expected, Knox announced the hirings of former Kansas City Chief tight ends coach Jim Erkenbeck to coach the Rams’ offensive line, former Indianapolis Colt receivers coach Milt Jackson to do the same job with the Rams, and former Green Bay special teams coach Howard Tippett to coach the Rams’ tight ends and special teams.

Knox also added John Becker, his offensive coordinator in Seattle for the last three seasons, as an administrative aide.

Knox now has two openings to fill, at linebackers and for strength and conditioning. Ronnie Jones, a Rams holdover from last year, and Dick Selcer, who coached in Cincinnati last year, are the leading candidates for the linebackers job.

--Although he said nothing has been “etched in stone,” Knox sounded as if he wanted to try a four-man line scheme for the Rams’ defense.

“I would guess if we were leaning toward anything, we’d be leaning toward a four-man line scheme with three linebackers, just off the top of my head,” Knox said.

“(But) the scheme we use will be predicated on what we get out of Plan B, what we get out of the draft.”