Dyer’s Opinions Complement Knox’s Work Ethic : Rams: Defensive coordinator isn’t the type to just walk around during practice. The two coaches have been together 11 years.

His style is Chuck Knox’s style. Right now, he doesn’t have a low profile; he has no profile.

His philosophy is so simple, clean and unfettered by the cluttered chalkboard chicanery the league spits out, it sounds almost like no philosophy.

George Dyer, the Rams’ new defensive coordinator, has been with Knox for so long now--going on 11 years--his words might as well be Knox’s words, his thoughts just an extension of his mentor’s.

Dyer is proud of that, proud of being with Knox, proud of the system Knox has always lived by. Proud of being a Knox man through and through.

Ask Dyer a question about the future of the Ram defense, and listen to him talk about . . . guess who?

“You see Chuck’s football teams, you see Chuck Knox,” Dyer said. “Bring your hard hat and your lunch pail, I won’t beat myself, you better come on, and I’ll be tougher than a son of a gun.

“They come to play, they always come to play. And I think that’s what we’d like to get on defense, just an extension of Chuck, too.”

Dyer is equally clear that the new version of the Ram defense is going to be a far departure than the last one--Jeff Fisher’s one-year experiment featuring an attack-style, blitzing scheme.

Dyer, 51, says his defense fits Knox’s ethic: steady, blue-collar and always ready to capitalize on mistakes.

“Same thing,” Dyer said. “Hey, you’re going to come hard down the hard road. We’re not going to give you anything. You’re going to have to earn it, let’s line up, you and me, let’s go.

“I’m not saying we’re going to line up with fixed bayonets and not have any creativity, but yeah, the last thing we would want to do is beat ourselves. We would always want to put our people in position to make plays.

“That’s our job. We’re not going to fool anybody, trick anybody, anything like that. We want to be sound and let our kids make plays.

“We tried to do the same thing in Seattle. We’re not a big gambling football team, we’re going to try to play percentages, but we’re going to try to hit you and see what we can get.”

Dyer, who was raised in San Gabriel, was Knox’s defensive line coach for one year in Buffalo, then for all nine seasons with the Seahawks, melding what was usually an array of mediocre talents into effective units.

Before joining Knox, Dyer was Darryl Rogers’ defensive coordinator at Arizona State, the last time he ran a defense. In 1982, he interviewed with Knox, got the line job in Buffalo and settled his football fate. He has been a Knox man ever since.

In Seattle last year, Dyer finally struck it rich with the rapid development of Cortez Kennedy, a defensive tackle who made the entire line seem renewed.

Dyer was all set to join Knox in Anaheim as the defensive line coach in January, but when Seahawk defensive coordinator Tom Catlin elected to stay in Seattle, and when Fisher was not retained by Knox, Dyer, a man Knox had always thought of as a future coordinator, became the man.

“When I came with Chuck, I came as the defensive line coach, and then it all evolved and worked out,” Dyer said. “I knew I was coming with Chuck. He wanted me to be with him, and then all the other stuff started working out. But that wasn’t even in the picture when I came.

“I think there’s a million things in the back of your mind someday you’d like to do, but I wasn’t real worried about when it happened, if it happened, or whatever. I wanted to do what I did and do it well. I’m excited about it, and I’m happy about it, but it was never anything that I thought, if this doesn’t happen by then.

“We’ve got a great staff, and as long as you’re with Chuck, you’re going to be with the best guy there is.”

Said Knox: “We knew that eventually Tom Catlin was going to step aside or be in a situation where he didn’t want to move. So George has been preparing himself for that assignment. He’ll do an outstanding job.”

And because he is a longtime member of Knox’s staffs, Dyer will operate in a way that does not attract attention. For many specific defensive questions, Dyer is happy to refer the questioner to Knox.

Does Dyer think he’s a naturally low-key guy?

“Well, we don’t know,” Dyer said. “Let Chuck handle that one. But there are a lot of other things important to me.

“I’ll tell you what’s really important to me--players and team and staff.”

Dyer says he always favors playing a four-man front over a three-man, but adds that no final decision about the 1992 Rams has been made. In Seattle, Dyer and Knox originally played a three-man front, then switched to a 4-3 when they drafted Kennedy in 1990.

“I think we could go either way,” Dyer said. “I like the four-man front because it keeps a consistent look for your pass rush and also you can get a little better front up against the run. You don’t quite have the bubbles that you do in the 3-4.

“From a personal standpoint, I think I would definitely lean that way.”

Dyer also hastens to point out he does not think the Ram defense is devoid of talent.

“I think we’ve got a challenge in a lot of areas, but I think it can be done, and I don’t think you have to take a broom and sweep everybody out,” he said.

Knox says he isn’t concerned that Dyer also will be coaching the defensive line while overseeing the entire defense. While most teams have “walk-around” coordinators (coordinators who don’t coach a specific position; they just “walk around” the defense during practice) Knox has always believed that defensive coordinators should also coach a specific position.

One of the problems that prompted Knox to replace Fisher was Fisher’s desire to be a walk-around coach.

“Someone said to me, ‘Well, have you ever had a defensive line coach as defensive coordinator?’ And I said, ‘Yes, we had one when I was here with the Rams, and we led the National Football League in defense, and his name was Ray Malavasi,’ ” Knox said.

“And there have been a number of outstanding defensive line coaches who have coached the position and were coordinators. It’s just been in recent years that people have had a walk-around coach, whether it’s offense or defense.

“Just think,” said Knox, “if you had a walk-around defensive coach, a walk-around offensive coach and a walk-around head coach . . . that’s a lot of guys walking around.

“We have guys that are coaching.”