Confidence? Bailey Has Market Cornered : Rams: Second-year cornerback is happy to be starting in place of Lyght. But he knows the job is not his to keep.

Todd Lyght was on the bench with an injured shoulder and Robert Bailey was on the field, staring into the eyes of Mark Duper. Duper, who has almost 500 catches and more than 8,000 receiving yards in his career, already had scored a touchdown on a long pass and the second quarter had just started.

Bailey, a second-year player who had one--count ‘em one--tackle and one pass defensed in his NFL career before this season, had practiced all week to play bump-and-run in the Rams’ nickel package. Now, he was going man-to-man with one of the game’s premier receivers.

Was he nauseous? Even nervous? Nope.

In fact, it was all Bailey could do to keep from screaming, “Home at last.”

A fourth-round draft choice from Miami, Bailey is No. 4 on the cornerback totem pole at Rams Park. Above him loom starters Lyght (the No. 1 selection in ‘91) and Darryl Henley (a four-year veteran who was a second-round pick in ‘89). Even Steve Israel, this year’s second-round choice who held out through most of training camp and is still learning the defense, figures more prominently in the Rams’ future.

And they all sure as heck make a lot more money.

But it takes more than millionaires in shoulder pads to shake Bailey’s confidence, whether they’re across the line of scrimmage or on the same team.

“I think I’m just as good as the starters we have,” Bailey said. “I think Todd’s a great player. I think Darryl’s a great player and I think I’m a great player and Steve is, too. I think we have the best secondary in the country.

“Of the 28 teams in this league, I think I could start anywhere. But this is a business and the higher you’re picked, the more your value is and the more they’ve got to use you to get their money’s worth. Todd and Darryl are great players and we can win with them. But we can win with me, too.

“I wasn’t drafted as high as the other three corners, and, obviously, if I had been drafted higher or as high as them, I would be starting.”

So nobody has ever suggested Bailey has a problem with low self-esteem.

However, he did have a very strong training camp and picked off a Hugh Millen pass against the Patriots two weeks ago, so he has proved to be a secure safety net for the Rams’ secondary.

And Lyght, who suffered a separated shoulder, was placed on injured reserve Tuesday and will miss at least a month.

“Obviously, it will hurt not to have Todd Lyght because he was having a heck of a year for us,” Coach Chuck Knox said. “But I think Robert Bailey can play on the corner. He can make a big contribution to what we’re trying to do.”

And that’s all Bailey has ever wanted. He’s a starter for now, but doesn’t see Lyght’s injury as an opportunity to prove anything or make a dramatic point.

“I did that in training camp,” Bailey said. “I was very consistent. I led the team in (practice-session) interceptions. I don’t know if it surprised them, or what. Maybe I put a monkey wrench in their program.

“But Todd didn’t lose his job to me because he got hurt. If I go out there and do the best, get five interceptions in two games or whatever, I think it would still be the same. Todd would start when he came back. It wouldn’t be fair for them to (make a change).

“I’m just very excited about getting the chance to play. All I want to do is go out there and help the team win.”

Bailey played sparingly last season because of two separate hand injuries. Clearly, it was a season of discontent for both the Rams and the rookie.

Bailey began the 1991 season on injured reserve after breaking a bone in his right hand during the Rams’ first exhibition game. He returned for five weeks of primarily special teams play before a freak injury on Nov. 17 in Detroit ended his season.

The tip of his left ring finger was severed when it was crushed between an opponent’s face mask and his helmet. Bailey was in excruciating pain until he was moved into a room with Mike Utley--the Lion player who was paralyzed in the same game--while both were awaiting X-rays.

“I didn’t say much to him, but an injury of that sort and my injury, well, let’s just say I was thinking a lot more about him than my problems,” Bailey said.

It was the beginning of a sad year for Bailey, who lost two of his friends and former Miami teammates, Shane Curry and Jerome Brown. Curry, who was with the Colts at the time, was shot to death. Brown, a Pro Bowl defensive tackle with Philadelphia, was killed in a car accident.

Then the homes of his aunt and grandmother were destroyed in Hurricane Andrew. Bailey got a first-hand look at the devastation last week before the Rams’ game against the Dolphins.

“It was pretty bad, worse than I thought it would be,” Bailey said. “But no one (in his family) was hurt. They’re all well and recovering.”

Bailey hopes the next 12 months will provide a happier story. For the moment, anyway, he is the starting left cornerback for the Rams and he says that makes his job much easier.

“When you know from the beginning of the week that you’re going to start, there’s an extra edge of confidence you get that allows you to play much better,” he said. “Second-teamers who come in after someone is hurt and do a great job, that’s exceptional, because to come in cold, after not getting the full benefit of practice, your whole mode has to change.

“I came in and did what I was supposed to do. They had one catch on me. I think that says a lot about your flexibility, your talent and your character.”

If everyone were as high on Bailey as Bailey is, Knox would be trying to decide how to choose between all the No. 1 draft picks being offered in trade right now. But Bailey says it’s not that easy to establish yourself when you’re trying to come up through the ranks.

“You have to do almost twice as good as a starter to beat him out,” he said. “The starter can be very, very average. You can do better than him but you still won’t start. It has to get to the point where the starter is really screwing up or you have to come in and make a bunch of big plays and look like a Pro Bowler.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Bailey is willing to bide his time. Impatience, he believes, does nothing to further your career. Jumping on opportunities and in front of receivers, on the other hand, are ways to get ahead.

“I’ve learned to accept the fact that I can’t let it bother me that I don’t start or that I’m the least paid or that there is leniency toward other people,” he said. “I have no control over that.

“I don’t go out there trying to show anything. I want to do well to help us win and to satisfy me. If someone sees it and it promotes my career, that’s an extra.

“There are 56 corners in this league and I know there aren’t 56 better than me. So, when it’s time for me to start, whether it be here or another place, then I’ll be a great player. That’s how I feel.”