Shaking All Over : Ram Rookie Gilbert Doesn’t Crave Attention, but First Sack Spurs Groundswell of Activity

Large, nimble and bright, drafted high and paid an enormous sum of money, Sean Gilbert settles into his 22nd year on this earth already experiencing more fame and fortune than he can sometimes stand.

Although his play has been erratic, like any talented rookie’s, the demands on him are far different from the normal young player’s.

He has said that he wants to be considered merely another player so he can slip silently into stardom, or whatever else his future holds.

But a quiet ride is not in the cards for Sean Gilbert. Not as long as the Rams plan every move they make around the assumption that their 315-pound rookie defensive tackle will eventually be a dominant player, worth his $1.5 million per season.

The Rams and their followers look at Gilbert and see the future of their team.

“He’s a franchise player,” says Gilbert’s best friend on the team, fellow rookie defensive tackle Marc Boutte. “I think he understands that.

“But you’ve got to realize, Sean is just 22 years old. He’s a young guy. Pretty soon, he’ll live up to it.”

And there is so much to live up to.

Although he played only 17 games in two seasons at the University of Pittsburgh, Gilbert had so much talent and demonstrated so strong a work ethic that the Rams did not hesitate using the third pick overall during last spring’s draft to select him. And they immediately signed him to a five-year, $7.5-million contract that included a $3.2-million signing bonus.

Then, even faster, Coach Chuck Knox compared him to Seattle Pro Bowl defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy and proclaimed Gilbert the first step to defensive redemption.

Responsibility? Gilbert, who under normal circumstances would be in his senior year of college, has the burden of an entire team on his shoulders.

“That’s why you’ve got to respect him,” Boutte says. “I think he’s handled it well. I think at times it gets to him, but I think he’s doing a great job of it.”

Gilbert has started every game of the regular season at right tackle. He had an explosive sack of the New York Giants’ Jeff Hostetler on Sunday, the first of his NFL career. His “earthquake” sack dance came next, the clearest public exhibition of the exuberance he has mostly kept under wraps.

“He’s an articulate guy and really he’s kind of smart, not letting his mouth overload himself a little bit,” defensive coordinator George Dyer said. “He’s just kind of holding back.”

Says Boutte: “I kind of get on him about that. But you know, I can understand where he’s coming from. Sometimes he just wants to get out of practice and be to himself. You can’t really blame him.

“But he has to realize that he’s in a position where he’s a rich man. People want to know what’s going on with him.”

Gilbert, for his part, says he has known all along that he wouldn’t be treated like every other Ram.

“That’s what you want,” Gilbert says. “You want to be someone that a team would like to make a foundation with. You want to be a steppingstone.

“I feel good that (Knox is) saying that he can depend on me to start something. That makes me feel good that he has that much confidence in me that he sees me in the near future being something I don’t quite see yet because of the inexperience.

“I can’t complain about it. There isn’t a guy on a team who wouldn’t want a coach to say, ‘This is where we’re going to start at.’

“I know, because I’m a team player, you need everybody. But it’s just when you draft, you don’t want to say, ‘I drafted a (clinker),’ you know, the worst guy in the world.

“You say, ‘I drafted a guy who’s going to turn this program around.’ Because first of all, you’re giving this guy all this money, and you don’t want it to be like you just threw the money away on somebody you thought was going to be a good player.”

Which brings the kind of intense scrutiny that Gilbert is undergoing.

“I’ve been dealing with it for a little while,” Gilbert says. “You know, I was the USA Today (defensive) player of the year out of high school. That was the first time. It seemed kind of weird then.

“But I’ve never really had a problem with people looking at you and saying, ‘I know who you are.’ I’m never the type of person who will change because good things happen, get cocky or anything like that.

“I try to be a human being. If I don’t want to be bothered. . . . Sometimes you don’t want to be bothered, you like to be alone. And a lot of times now you get people who want to know things about you that they didn’t want to know before because of who you are.

“So just be yourself, just try to be a good person and everything will take care of itself.”

Right now, the playing part of the equation is beginning to take care of itself, Dyer says. He says Gilbert has never lacked for hustle, but hasn’t been consistent in his pass rush.

“We’re going to have to be patient, because everything’s so new to him,” Dyer says. “And he seems to be growing a little bit every week, and then maybe you see a little setback. . . . I think we all want him to come along quicker and show more dominance more times, but he’s coming along fine.

“He chases the football like nobody’s business. He is playing all over the field, and that we knew he could do from what we saw of him in college.

“Now he’s just got to get used to rushing the passer and using his big body. . . . Usually once you break the ice, the next (sack) comes a little easier.”

The first one, though, was a moment Gilbert concedes he relished immensely. He said, though, that Knox told him after the shaking was over that next time he should behave more professionally.

“Of course, I’d like to get to a point where it’s just get up and go to the huddle, I’ve been there a thousand times, no problem, everybody knows I’m going to get there,” Gilbert says. “That’s where I’d like to be someday. But that all comes with hard work.

“I get double(-teamed) quite a lot, then when I get a single, it’s kind of shocking. . . . It’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a single . . . ‘ Then I get caught up, and I start looking and gawking at the backfield when I should be trying to rush back there.

“In anything, everything won’t always be great. You’ve got to suspect that sometimes it won’t be positive. You’ve got to expect some negative.”