RAM NOTEBOOK / TIM KAWAKAMI : Running Back Question Still Unanswered

Jim Everett, probably just as curious as everybody else, stuck his head in the Rams Park media room to pass on the latest joke:

“Hey, we were talking in the locker room,” the quarterback said smiling, “and we want you to tell us who the running back’s going to be.”

Nobody in the room had an answer, Everett laughed and moved on, and when the subject was brought up later to the man who will make that decision, Coach Chuck Knox sounded as undecided as everyone else.

After weeks of training camp, four exhibition games, and a long list of possibilities whittled away, no one has emerged to take the job.

“We’re really not in a position to make any decisions right now,” Knox said Friday of the Rams’ running back situation. “We’re going to wait a day or two and re-evaluate.”

Wait and evaluate, which is what the Rams have basically been doing from Day 1 of training camp. Waiting for somebody to emerge from the pack and evaluating what to do if someone does not.

The season opener is only eight days away, and the Rams wanted to have a clear decision on a tailback settled long ago. But because of injuries to their top two candidates, Cleveland Gary and Robert Delpino, and uncertainties about the other, Marcus Dupree, nothing is set.

So now the Ram offensive coaches must huddle to find a way out of the muddle and not look befuddled.

“We would like it to have been clarified, obviously,” Knox said. “But it doesn’t make any difference, it’s been this long, whether we clarify it today or tomorrow or Sunday. . .”

Or later, even. Knox said there were deals to be made for available running backs in the next few days, as other teams maneuver to trade players they might end up eventually cutting.

In comparison to the rumored big trades for runners like Chicago’s Neal Anderson and Kansas City’s Christian Okoye, whom the talent-poor Rams could not afford to consider, the kinds of deals Knox is referring to tend to have bargain-basement prices.

“There will be a lot of people calling over the weekend because there will be some running backs that are either going to be put on the waiver wire or will be available,” Knox said. “You go down the list, some teams have six, seven running backs. Some might (be) pretty good.

“Now it’s a question of whether or not they would fit, what direction we want to go, and what it would cost us to make a deal.”

Knox also left open the possibility that the Rams go through Monday’s final cutdown to a 47-man roster without making a firm decision, then scouring the waiver wire for a running back who can step in right away.

That could occur if the coaches decide over the weekend that their selection from the current crop of Ram runners is none of those below.

Gary started at tailback Thursday night, and gained 23 yards in eight carries, giving him a total of 39 yards in 15 carries in the preseason. Delpino started at fullback, saw lots of action in the Rams’ one-back set, and carried six times for 21 yards. His exhibition totals: nine carries, 24 yards.

Dupree, the most impressive runner in the preseason, ran the ball only three times for seven yards Thursday, bringing his final exhibition total to 148 yards in 34 carries. But Knox seems wary of Dupree, in the third year of his comeback from a five-year layoff, as a dependable, every-series back.

How did they all play Thursday? “I thought they all gave (a) good effort,” Knox said. “I’ll just let it go at that.”

Delpino is a lock to make the team. But what’s in store for Gary and Dupree, and the competitors for the tailback and fullback back-up spots--Derek Loville, Tim Lester, David Lang and Ernie Thompson? Who knows?

Right now, it is not clear whether the Rams will keep four running backs, as Knox suggested last week, or five on their 47-man list Monday. Keeping five might save a spot for Lang or Dupree, and cost a spot for a back-up receiver.

“What I’m thinking is we’re going to keep between the wide receivers and the running backs and the tight ends, our best football players,” Knox said. “If we had a fifth running back who was better than a sixth wide receiver, we would go with five running backs and five wide receivers. The same thing would be true at the tight end position.”

The Rams’ defense, which had held opponents to only 205 rushing yards through the first three exhibition games, surrendered 124 in 33 attempts to the Chargers.

The first-team defense, slowed by injuries to both starting defensive ends, was hit the hardest by Charger runner Marion Butts, who had 59 yards in nine carries, and Rod Bernstine, who gained 20 yards, including a two-yard score.

“No. 1, we had a lot of people out of there,” Knox said. “No. 2, we didn’t tackle well when we had chances to wrap people up. Those things, if you’re going to stop people, you have to do.

“(But) you have to realize, too, those are two of the best running backs around in the league. They’d be up there with most of them--that’s Butts and Bernstine, those guys can run. Big and strong and quick and good acceleration, and they broke a lot of tackles. Now whether it was great running on their part or poor tackling on our part, it depends on which ones you’re coaching.”