Rams’ Gilbert Is Making Progress Slowly but Surely : Football: With experience, rookie defensive tackle says he will become the dominate lineman everyone expects him to be.

The Rams aren’t sure of much these days, but there are a couple of things they can count on this season: Rookie defensive tackle Sean Gilbert will be drawing a lot of attention on the field, and he’ll be trying to avoid even more between Sundays.

Gilbert, the No. 3 overall draft pick, isn’t particularly shy, and he certainly has no trouble getting his point across, but he appears to have no desire to see his name anywhere outside of the NFL sack leaders list. He works almost as hard at slipping interview requests as double-team blocks.

After playing in his first exhibition game, he answered a few questions, then turned to a Rams’ publicist and said, “You got a watch on this? How much longer until 10 minutes is up?”

Gilbert, who received a $3.2-million signing bonus as part of his five-year, $7.5-million contract, figures he owes the Rams his best effort, and no one is questioning his work ethic. But he seems to regard the media as an often-negative nuisance and can’t really understand the fuss.

He sees himself as just another working stiff, a 6-foot-4 1/2, 305-pound Everyman.

Interestingly, he’s not the least bit surly when he does decide to talk, offering thoughtful, if concise responses to questions, even the ones he is undoubtedly tired of answering.

So, what sort of pressures burden a highly paid, first-round draft pick who is tabbed as the savior of a defensive line that was clearly among the league’s worst last season?

“That is the outside’s expectations,” Gilbert said. “I’m on the inside. This is my life, you know. People get put in positions that sometimes they don’t like, but they just have to work with it. Only God knows if it’s a positive or a negative. As long as I believe I’m working with Him, then, hey.

“I’m not a Superman. I’m a human being. I make mistakes and I do the best that I can, just like every other individual does in their daily life.”

Radio talk-show host: “Sean, what kind of potential do you see for yourself as a player?”

Gilbert: “What kind of potential do you see for yourself as a broadcaster?”

The Rams saw more than potential in Gilbert, who came from the University of Pittsburgh as a junior with only 17 games of college experience and only 11 as a starter. They had him penciled--make that inked--in as the starting right tackle minutes after the draft began. Coach Chuck Knox called him the “first step in the rebuilding of this Rams’ defense.”

And this is no small-scale remodeling job. Last year, opponents scored almost twice as many touchdowns as the Rams, who ranked 25th in pass defense. The defensive line was devastated by injury. Twelve defensive linemen saw action in 1991.

The new Ram regime needed a building block to stabilize the line and they knew firsthand the impact of defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy in a similar role with the Seahawks. Kennedy had been a holdout through most of his first training camp, however, and Knox was determined to avoid a similar setback. Gilbert agreed to terms the same day he was drafted.

“Sean has all the tools in the world to become a great one,” said George Dyer, defensive coordinator/defensive line coach. “We’re very much impressed with him. But people have to remember to be patient with him because he hadn’t played a lot of football coming out. I think you expect him to come out and just dominate every time he lines up. He hasn’t done that, but I believe experience will change that.”

Gilbert had yet to play a down of pro football when the Packers decided to double-team him on passing situations--so he’s already getting his due from opponents--but it was not the kind of preseason that has elicited rave reviews from the media and fans.

He sprained his ankle in the first scrimmage of training camp and missed three weeks of practice and the first two exhibition games. In the two games he did play, he had only two tackles.

Still, everyone in blue and gold seems convinced that Gilbert soon will be a dominant force.

“He’s been handicapped by the ankle sprain, but he’s come a long way in training camp,” Knox said. “He’ll be a fine football player, no question.”

Gilbert has three physical assets that go a long way on the football field. He’s big, he’s strong and he’s fast. He can bench press 400 pounds and his 4.8-second 40-yard dash time is uncommonly quick for a player his size.

“He’s such a physically imposing player, he makes offensive linemen move,” defensive end Bill Hawkins said. “They have to set up and bow up to take him on. And when they stop moving their feet, that’s when us crafty defensive linemen have the advantage.”

Hawkins, who is nursing a muscle tear in his calf and impatiently awaiting the chance to play next to Gilbert, is just one of a number of players who figure to get better this year just because Gilbert is on the field.

“All up and down the line, you’re dependent on who you’re with,” Dyer said. “If there’s a strong guy with you, it tends to make you more efficient.

“They can’t double everybody.”

Dyer says Gilbert is “a real big space guy, a guy who can jump around,” but Gilbert doesn’t plan on having much room to dance in the NFL.

“I could, anybody could, do great with space,” he said, smiling. “Give me some land and I can work with it. But that’s not the case very often. Down in there with the tanks, you’ve got to be loaded for bear every time.”

And, when it comes to using that 40-yard sprint speed . . .

“I try to use it to get off the ball, but it’s going to be a big wad in there three out of three downs. With me, it’s just a matter of getting my hands together to work with my feet, so everything goes in concert.

“It’s like a puppet, so every move is in concert with the next.”

So, while those around him rant about potential, Gilbert slowly and surely works at improving, patiently waiting for his ankle and inexperience to become non-factors.

“I’m just trying to get better every day, trying to stay healthy and take it slow,” he said. “It’s going to be a long season and I don’t want to peak too fast.

“Every day you wake up, you make progress. Even if you wake up to something you messed up yesterday, you’re making progress if you don’t make the same mistake.

“I just try to do my best each day and thank God I can walk on two feet.”

Just a reminder to those who are predicting he’ll walk on water.