Rams Need to Continue Success of ’91 Draft Day

Draft day used to be the worst Sunday of every year for the Rams, but that, of course, was before 1991.

In fact, as Sundays went for the Rams in 1991, draft day made the other list for the first time in a decade.

Best Sundays for the Rams, 1991:

3. April 21: Rams Draft Todd Lyght.

2. Oct. 6: No Game. NFC West Bye.

1. Dec. 29: No Game. Rams’ Season Ended Dec. 22.

“Never On A Sunday (Or A Monday)” is the suggested working title for the poor souls at NFL Films commissioned with assembling a watchable reel of “highlights” from the Rams’ 1991 season. (Question: What type of music goes best with fumbled center snaps?) The Rams lost 13 games in 1991, after losing 11 in 1990, and that two-year record of 8-24 not only got John Robinson fired, but also underscored the reason why.

You can fool some of the people all of the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool 49ers and Lions and Saints when you fool around every time on draft day.

If it takes three years to reap or write off a draft crop, consider when the Rams’ seeds for 1990 and 1991 were sown.

In 1987, the Rams had no first-round draft choice. Their first selection came in the second round and they used it on Donald Evans, a defensive end from Winston Salem State . . . and later, the fullback from Winston Salem State . . . and, by 1988, the ex-Ram from Winston Salem State.

Only two selections from that draft remain on the Rams’ roster: linebacker Larry Kelm, a fourth-rounder, and safety Michael Stewart, an eighth-round survivor.

In 1988, the Rams had two first-round choices and spent one on Gaston Green, the tailback who sandwiched three years of nothing in between 1,000-yard seasons at UCLA and Denver, and used the other on Aaron (IR) Cox, the man with the world’s most dangerous hamstring.

Flipper Anderson, in the second round, and Robert Delpino, in the fifth, were bailouts, but the Rams also burned two other second-round picks on the oft-injured Fred Strickland and the lightly used Anthony Newman.

Bracket those Aprils with 1986 (Mike Schad in the first round) and 1989 (Bill Hawkins and Cleveland Gary in the first round) and you have, in essence, a team swinging and missing in the first round for four consecutive years.

Not even the Redskins could withstand such a shortfall. The Rams tricked themselves into thinking they could in 1989, when they reached the conference championship game, but that was mainly and merely the consequence of Jim Everett’s last great season and Fritz Shurmur’s active imagination.

In 1990, the bottom cracked and splintered and in 1991, it completely fell out. When the feeder system shuts down, starvation sets in--and it can happen quickly. In 24 months, the line on the Rams went from “second-best team in the league” to “no talent anywhere.”

This is where Chuck Knox enters. Where, and why.

The Rams did some of their best drafting under Knox in the ‘70s. In five pulls of the lever, his front-office staff hit the jackpot three times.

1973: Cullen Bryant-Ron Jaworski-Jim Youngblood-Eddie McMillan-Cody Jones.

1975: Mike Fanning-Dennis Harrah-Doug France-Monte Jackson-Rod Perry-Pat Haden.

1977: Bob Brudzinski-Nolan Cromwell-Billy Waddy-Wendell Tyler-Vince Ferragamo.

The off years?

The ’74 draft brought in John Cappelletti and Bill Simpson; the ’76 influx included Pat Thomas, Jackie Slater and Carl Ekern.

Now, the mid-1970s may seem like antiquity from the vantage point of 1992, and Knox may have a new front-office staff, and the Rams may have the same general manager (John Shaw) and personnel director (John Math) that oversaw the April washouts of the 1980s, and no one goes the NFL draft alone. But Knox, as he has spoken, is “accountable” for what happens this weekend.

Right now, all Ram fans have to go on is that track record . . . and that shimmering, glittering No. 3 draft pick.

What to do with it?

Knox never met a cliche he didn’t like and his favored approach to the draft is the hoariest cliche out there--”We’ll go with the best athlete available.” Knox wants a can’t-miss, or as close to it as possible, and he figures there are three of them on Sunday’s board: Washington defensive tackle Steve Emtman, Texas A&M; linebacker Quentin Coryatt and Wisconsin cornerback Troy Vincent.

He also figures that Emtman and Coryatt will be gone by the time the Rams select. This could change, for as we speak, Emtman is trying to filibuster his way out of deportation to the Colts, much the same way John Elway did in 1983. One difference: Emtman doesn’t have another contract offer waiting with the New York Yankees.

So the Rams could still trade up to snag Knox’s new Cortez Kennedy, or they could trade down into the thick of maybe-they-won’t-miss territory. If they stand pat, they stand to land Vincent, which would give the Rams a sterling set of young cornerbacks, but doesn’t address Bermuda Triangle West--the Rams’ defensive line.

The greatest failure of all the Rams’ failed drafts of the 1980s was the inability to land one pass-rusher of the rabble-rousing order. Rabble, they’ve had more than their share. In nine years under Robinson, the Rams expended only three first- or second-round picks on defensive linemen--Evans, Hawkins and Brian Smith--and look where that got them last season.

Seventeen sacks in 16 games--or one less than Pat Swilling.

Emtman would be a step in the quarterback’s direction. So would Sean Gilbert, the Pittsburgh defensive lineman whose draft stock has risen the same way he plays--in a rush. Negatives on Gilbert are his immaturity (he’s coming out as a junior) and his less-than-Spartan work ethic, but Washington’s eagerness to trade up for him is as good a scouting report as any.

The Rams have before them their most important draft pick in, what, 20 years?

It is the first pick of the second Knox era.

It is the third pick of the 1992 NFL draft.

It is the highest pick the Rams have had since 1983.

It is, quite simply, a pick the Rams cannot afford to blow. They worked too long and too hard to earn it.