Man in Motion : Greene Gets Another New Mission From the Rams

Even Kevin Greene couldn’t figure out what to do with Kevin Greene last year.

Everybody knew what he used to be: one of the most productive sack artists in the league. That was his identity and his role, the way he earned his money and his pride.

You wanted a quarterback sack, you could do a lot worse than sending Greene to get one. For a lot of years, he was the Rams’ pass rush.

Then last year hit hard, and suddenly nobody exactly knew what to do with him. He was a sack man who almost never got sacks, a pass rusher who had passed on.

“I always try to keep a positive attitude,” Greene said this week, “but when you only have three sacks in a year after having 46 sacks in three years, you doubt everything, right?”

Moved from his usual spot on the left side as a pure blitz linebacker in a four-linebacker set to a multi-dimensional and much more physically demanding role as a right defensive end in a four-man front, Greene all but vanished.

The Ram defense, long triggered by Greene’s upfield charge, disappeared right along with him.

He got those three sacks, a disastrous total for the man who had more sacks from 1988-1990 than anybody else in the league. Three sacks? That’s what he used to get in a good week, not a full season.

So what was he now, besides a failed defensive lineman? Greene didn’t know if he had a position in a 4-3 defense, and sometimes last year’s staff agreed.

Midway through the season, they admitted the mistake, and lined him up in a makeshift position, half-linebacker, half-lineman, satisfying nobody.

One thing everybody agreed upon was that Greene was not a normal linebacker. He was a pass rusher.

“I thought I was definitely out of position,” Greene said. “It was a rough situation for all of us, me individually, team-wise. . . . Last year, I definitely fell on my face. But I still feel I’m in the upper echelon as far as pass rushing linebackers.”

This year, with a new defensive staff and a new head coach, he gets his chance to show it. He’s a linebacker again, lining up on the left side again, rushing the quarterback often once again.

This year, he will get a shot to prove what nobody really thought he could do last year--play an all-around linebacker position in a 4-3 set.

Does Kevin Greene have a position in the 4-3? This year, we’ll see, and Greene’s probably just as curious as everybody else.

The Rams plan to use him as an end in pass downs, so Greene will get his chance to rush the quarterback. But on other downs he’ll also have to drop into coverage like he has never had to do before.

“They’re asking me to do everything this year,” Greene said. “Those days of just lining me up as an outside backer in ‘Eagle’ (their old, linebacker-filled defense) and just telling me to get the guy with the football, I think, are just about over.”

Said linebackers coach Dick Selcer: “I know that he sees himself as being a good rusher, and yet I think he’s starting to see himself as a complete player and play everything without saying, ‘Well, you have to get me way out there and rush me all of the time.’ I think he’s seeing it.”

Greene understands that the Ram defense is no longer built around him. The four-man front philosophy the new staff brought in was designed for No. 1 pick Sean Gilbert, the new trigger at defensive tackle.

Greene is probably still be the team’s best pass rusher, but he has to fit in now to what they’re doing, not the other way around. Those Greene-on-little running back matchups will have to be manufactured against offenses that know better now; they will no longer come naturally.

“I think what’s happened in the past,” Selcer said, “is everybody said, ‘Well, Geez, he rushes so good, let’s make him a rusher.’ You look at that matchup, the physical thing. Well, is he an end? No, he’s not at end. Then what do we do with him?

“In talking to him, he’s accepted the challenge of it, the role of it, and yet he knows when he gets into the third-down situations he’s not going to be a cover guy, he’s going to be a rush guy.”

Said Coach Chuck Knox: “There will be occasions when he can (blitz) and hopefully be freed up to possibly come on a (running) back, instead of having to take on those big offensive linemen. There comes some times when we’re going to want to free a guy up. We’ll certainly try to create some situations like that.”

But if Greene can’t handle the coverage aspects of the linebacker spot, he knows he’ll become a part-time player, which is something he never wants to occur and believes never should.

So far, Selcer says Greene is taking to pass coverage well, working hard, studying fiercely. Greene says he still has work to do on acquiring the gut instinct to cover when he is so used to ignoring everybody in the pattern and steaming forward.

“It’s taking some time,” Greene said. “I’ve got to get better.

“There’s a sight, a sight you have to learn to see in pass coverage. and it’s a sight I’ve never had to deal with before. It’s a sight that you have to see, you have to see four or five different people at one time, and what they’re releases are and where you’re going. That just comes with repetition.”

He says this with smile, says he loves his new role. But he sounds like he knows the sweet days of 15 sacks a season are probably over, too.

“I’m going to try,” Greene said of matching his old sack totals. “What can I say? I can’t say, ‘No, no, no. . . .’ I’m going to try and be positive about it. I’m still going to be a rushman in nickel. And then I’m going to be coming on blitzes a lot.

“It’s a challenge. I’ve got a little more mobility now. But again, those old days were nice, weren’t they?

“Just line me up and let me come. Those were nice.”