PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : RAMS : Everett: Don’t Get Too Excited

Jim Everett completes more than 80% of his passes against the San Francisco 49ers and everyone wants to know if he has regained the touch that helped him lead the NFL in touchdown passes in 1988 and ’89. But he says it’s an apples-and-oranges comparison.

“Everyone talks about the good old times, but this is a different ballclub,” Everett said. “People don’t realize that our whole interior passing guys are all new people. Flipper (Anderson) and Henry (Ellard) are still there, but our clutch guys on some third downs are all new, and that takes time to get going.

“And our running game? It’s all different. Our defensive scheme? Yeah, it’s all new. So we’ve got some new things and are just hopefully bringing it all together.”

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Everett says that Coach Chuck Knox brought something that might be more important than a new game plan to the Rams.

“I think it’s a belief in where we’re going,” Everett said. “Last year, no doubt, that, at some point in time, was lost.

“Now we have direction, we have a long-term goal and a belief, I think, that you have to have no matter what you do in life.”