Rams Looking at Safety Now : Football: With Gray’s departure and Stewart’s holdout, Terrell and Newman are getting their chance.

Jerry Gray is gone and won’t be back. Michael Stewart is away and might not be back in the near or even distant future.

A new staff of coaches is here and turning its eyes toward the safety position for leadership and results.

So, for Pat Terrell and Anthony Newman, who seem to have been around far longer than their combined seven seasons of pro experience, the wake-up call has sounded.

Terrell, 24, is starting his third NFL season but is still looking for that burst of stardom predicted for him when the Rams chose him in the second round of the 1990 draft.

Newman, 26, is entering his fifth NFL season but is still looking for his first full year as a starter after being picked in the second round of the 1988 draft.

Now, they need not be reminded, is the time.

“Since we lost Jerry (to the Houston Oilers in Plan B) and Stew’s not here (while holding out), I’m the oldest guy now,” Newman said this week, “so I’ve got to be responsible for these younger guys, to get them in the right direction.

“I feel like they’re looking toward me, and I’m going to get it done. Regardless of who’s here, who’s not here, I’m getting it done. That’s my mentality this year.”

Terrell and Newman realize that neither has exactly taken the fast lane to NFL glory at safety, despite talent that has tantalized three Ram defensive coordinators.

Star safeties have risen, others have fallen, but Terrell and Newman have both seemed sort of stuck in the middle.

This season, inheriting the mantle of leadership and playing for a coaching staff determined to key a defense on their abilities, Terrell and Newman understand that they have their best shots yet at fulfilling their promise. Through the early stages of training camp, they have been steady and athletically impressive, the coaches say.

“Both of those guys have all of the athletic qualities of greatness,” said Ram assistant Joe Vitt, who coaches the safeties. “They’ve got speed, they’ve got size, they’ve got strength, they’ve got quickness.

“I think what they’re doing now, they’re putting their God-given athletic ability together with some smarts--learning how to play the game, proper alignments, proper keys, proper checks.”

While the Rams have been shy of talent at many other defensive spots lately, with Terrell, Newman and Stewart they have seemed to have safeties in numbers.

Their play, however, hasn’t always reflected their ability, including last season, when those three combined for only four interceptions.

But the new Ram coaches say that once Terrell and Newman can settle into a system without the chaos of changing every camp, they will be major contributors.

“I know this,” Vitt said. “Pat Terrell, this is his third year in the National Football League, and this is the third defensive system he has had to learn. And that’s awful, awful tough. Anthony (Newman), he’s been in the league five years, and this is his third defensive system.

“I think they’re looking for some stability in their careers. I think that they’re both looking for a system that they can get into that they’re going to play for more than one year.”

Using a system much like the Seattle style of play last season, this year’s Ram defense is less frantic than last season’s and more basic, with a lot of the philosophy designed to funnel plays to the middle and to the safeties. The coaches are emphasizing speed and mental quickness--as opposed to last year’s attack-attack-attack thinking.

“I’ll tell you, on behalf of myself, I know that I have a lot of personal goals I want to reach,” Terrell said. “And this is as good a year as any to go ahead and step up and turn the volume up and try to become a great player that I think I can be.

“And I think Anthony Newman, he sees an opportunity right now. He’s been having a great camp, and he’s working hard and we’re all reaching for the same goal.”

Newman has waited a long time for a true shot at a starting job. In four seasons, he has started eight games, although he was drafted with the hope that he would work his way into the starting strong safety job fairly quickly.

Stewart, one of the league’s better run-stopping safeties, has always won the job because the coaches favored his enforcer abilities. Newman has also been quietly criticized for being tentative, words that have never been uttered about the reckless Stewart, the unofficial team leader in personal fouls.

But Newman, playing strictly on pass downs, probably was the most impressive safety at the end of last season, and the loss of Gray plus Newman’s marriage in the off-season seem to have nudged him toward maturity.

“Without a doubt,” Newman said. “I mean, I’m out there for that scrimmage last week. I wasn’t even nervous, I was eager to play. I was ready to get after it. In the past, I was nervous. I was kind of scared: ‘Oh, what’s going to happen?’

“Not this year. I’m the leader out there. I’m taking charge, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I feel good about it.”

Newman, who probably fits the new system better than Stewart if he can prove he can execute the every-down run tackling, said he understands that once Stewart signs, whenever it happens, there will be competition between them.

“Me and Mike have been going through this for years, anyway,” Newman said. “So there’s no change. When Mike comes back, we’re going to have to battle it out again.

“Whatever’s going on off the field with Stewart--me and Stewart are good friends--he has to take care of business and I have to take care of mine.”

Said Vitt: “You know, I learned a long time ago in this game, you can only coach the guys that are here. We obviously would love Michael Stewart to be here, but he’s not.

“We’ve got to go on and coach the two guys that are here, and the two guys, Anthony and Pat have done a tremendous job.”