RAMS / TIM KAWAKAMI : Defense Gets a Thorough Shakedown

Some have gone, some have stayed and some have simply disappeared, their names and numbers still on the Rams’ roster but their existence hardly detectable.

Seen much of Fred Strickland lately? Not if you’ve been watching Ram football games, you haven’t.

And hasn’t Mike Piel stepped into Bill Hawkins’ right defensive end spot nicely--whoops, that was twice-released Jim Skow playing the entire game there Sunday, wasn’t it?

Try thinking of this first year under Chuck Knox as a 16-stage pop quiz for a Ram defense that has flunked its SATs forever.

The offense, Knox chose only to tune up, and lately it has been purring. The defense? This is a two-, three- or maybe even four-year operation.

As the season started, Knox brought in two super-sized and sprightly youngsters--Sean Gilbert and Marc Boutte--rejiggered a few things, then stepped back to see who rose and who fell and who belongs somewhere in between.

Thirteen games later, the final grades are beginning to be delivered:

* Knox, as we have found out through the course of the season, has no special affinity for high-round, middle-aged, under-performing defensive players the Rams loved to acquire in those wild times of a few years ago.

Strickland, a revolutionary, ballcarrier-hunting “nose-linebacker” in his early Ram days, was given every chance to win the middle linebacker job but is strictly a special teams players now, locked behind Larry Kelm.

Even when Kelm is limping, as he was Sunday, Strickland, a 1988 second-round pick with all the athletic tools to play the position, stays on the sideline. Does that tell you something about 1993?

At least Strickland made it on the team: Knox pulled the trigger fast on 1989 second-rounder Frank Stams, who was bounced out of town for a middle-round pick in the preseason.

Meanwhile, Piel, a third-round pick in 1988, first was moved from tackle to end to make room for Gilbert and Boutte, then lost the end spots to Gerald Robinson and Bill Hawkins, then has split time since Hawkins’ serious knee injury last month.

What do Ram insiders concede are their two most pressing needs heading into the 1993 college draft? This is a no-brainer: Middle linebacker and defensive end.

* Despite the obvious depth problems, a few of those high Ram defensive draft choices actually have emerged as key players with good futures this season--specifically safety Anthony Newman, cornerbacks Darryl Henley and Todd Lyght.

Newman, in his fifth year after coming to the Rams as a No. 2 pick in 1988, leads the team with four interceptions, is always around the ball and seems to have matured into a real leadership role. A swing free-strong safety this year, look for his role to expand in 1993.

Henley, a second-rounder in 1989, and Lyght, the No. 1 pick last season, haven’t been dominating, but neither has fallen on his face and, especially against the Buccaneers, Lyght had flashes of play that were Pro Bowl-caliber.

* The Class of 1992--Gilbert, Boutte and cornerback Steve Israel--has more than held its own on Gilbert’s five-sack performance alone.

If Knox and defensive coordinator George Dyer ever doubted their decision to put Gilbert into the starting lineup right away, after his two-sack, chase-down-everything-in-sight outing Sunday night, they are not doing it now.

With Gilbert and Boutte seasoned veterans now, Knox can speed into 1993 with a luxury no Ram coach has had since Merlin Olsen walked away--he doesn’t have to worry about beef in the middle.

* There are still several young defensive players who remain blank slates, and it might take another year or so to resolve their NFL fates.

Israel, a summer-long holdout, is still an unknown quantity because he has remained a backup corner and hasn’t returned one kick. His future as a pro probably will be determined next year.

Free safety Pat Terrell, who had only one interception in 16 games last year and has none in the 12 games he has played this season, is a 1990 second-round pick who probably will get at least one more season to turn into the star his coaches have hoped he’d be.

Terrell has played under three defensive systems in his three years, which may be causing some of his tentative play.

Hawkins, a 1989 No. 1 pick, looked decent early this season, but blew out his knee again. The last time he did that, it took him two seasons to get back to full speed.

* They aren’t young, they’re not old, and strong safety Michael Stewart, Kelm and linebacker Kevin Greene sure aren’t the future of this defense. But the 13 games of 1992 have shown that the Rams need them, now and into the mid-’90s.

After Gilbert, Stewart might be the most important defensive player--he’s one of the few non-defensive linemen on the roster who can knock a ballcarrier backward, which is why the Rams have ranked last in the league in run defense all season.

Kelm is nobody’s idea of a perfect middle linebacker--at a skinny 240 pounds, he gets pushed around way too much and you don’t want him covering anybody man-to-man. But he can make plays, such as the forced fumble Sunday night, he knows where to go, and that young defensive unit would look more lost on the field if he wasn’t out there to guide it.

Greene, meanwhile, is a stickier issue. He has nine sacks when he is on the blitz on passing downs, and nobody other than Gilbert has much of a shot at getting that many.

But with the Rams committed to a four-man line scheme, is Greene really going to be comfortable and productive year after year at linebacker?

The Rams have tricked-up the system for him--half the time he plays next to Kelm as twin inside linebackers, another part of the time he’s a pure outside linebacker covering tight ends and running backs. And only when Greene’s not doing those things does he do the one thing he has always been able to do: rush the passer from the outside.

Sometimes he gets lost in all the movement--he has only one sack in the last five games.

He does not want to play inside, but what else can the Rams do to hide his coverage flaws? They can’t blitz him on every down, because that’s not how you play a linebacker in a 4-3 formation. You can’t make him an end because that was tried and he was an abject failure last season.

Kevin Greene was the signature player for the old Ram defense. If 1992 has shown us nothing else, it is that the Rams’ handwriting has changed completely.