Returns Are Not Complete : But Trend Is Toward a Bright Ram Future for Receiver Kinchen

The Rams have big plans for Todd Kinchen, but they apparently have decided to keep them secret. Kinchen lined up at wide receiver only four times during his rookie season last year and did not catch a pass.

And they hope no one was looking when they made the mistake of letting him return punts in the season finale. He became the sixth man in NFL history to return two punts for touchdowns in a single game.

“We liked him when we drafted and we still like him,” said Ernie Zampese, the Rams’ offensive coordinator. “That last game, he proved he’s got run ability and he can catch the ball, too. He has real fine hands. So we would sure like to get him involved.”

Coach Chuck Knox and Zampese have coached in more than 500 NFL games between them, but they weren’t yawning on Dec. 27 when Kinchen darted 61 yards through the Atlanta Falcons and into the Anaheim Stadium end zone, or when he repeated the feat in the second half by eluding an initial defender and racing 35 yards down the sideline.

“Two punt returns for touchdowns? That’s unheard of,” Zampese said. “It’s difficult enough to return two a season. Anybody who can run with the football like that is certainly a bonus.”

If the returns were Christmas gifts two days late for the Rams--who ended a 15-game NFC West losing streak with a 38-27 victory over Atlanta--they were even more welcome to Kinchen’s psyche.

“You can’t imagine the elation I was feeling in that game,” he said. “You have to remember, I was an All-Southeastern Conference receiver (at Louisiana State) who had a pretty good career (112 catches for 1,911 yards). Then I came to the Rams and only got to play four plays all year and never touched the ball.

“When they told me I was going to return punts that last week, I was just so happy to have the chance to get my hands on the ball. And then to get two touchdowns! I mean, here I was, wondering what the coaches were thinking about me, and then having a performance like that.

“It was very exciting to think about the next year and what I might be able to do for the team. I guess setting a record in your first attempt at returning punts in the NFL has to say something about what you can do.”

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So Kinchen went out of 1992 with a bang. The whimper was soon to follow.

He played in a pickup basketball game in April and afterward, his knee began to swell. Kinchen--whose collisions with San Diego Charger linebackers during last year’s training camp made the right impression on Knox--sometimes forgets it’s not such a good idea to attack every athletic endeavor at full speed.

“I have a tendency to a go a little too hard in basketball and I just thought I went a little too hard on it,” he said. “I didn’t do anything to it or collide with anyone or anything, so I didn’t think much of it. But a week later, it was still swollen and a month later, it was still hurting, so we had to get it looked at.”

Ram physician Clarence Shields discovered that the lower end of the femur--the thighbone--was cracked. He performed an arthroscopic laser procedure that fused the bone.

The recovery time is crucial to Kinchen’s immediate future. He missed mini-camp and was only able to jog during last week’s passing-camp drills at Rams Park.

“Right now, he can run fine in straight line, but he can’t really cut much yet,” Zampese said. “Like any young guy, he needs as many repetitions as he can get. Last year, it took him a while just to get into the rhythm of the offense. And, of course, we had other guys who were doing the playing at the time.

“But we just don’t know how long it’s going to go before he’s healthy, and that’s the thing.”

Kinchen is doing his best to remain optimistic. He says Shields predicts that he will be ready to go hard by the first week of August.

“I’m in the last stages of healing right now,” he said. “When I bend it to a certain angle, it hurts a little, but if I bend it farther, it doesn’t hurt anymore and they say it’s a good sign. I can sprint and do some cutting, so I’m in good shape for when I do get back.

“It’s not a setback quite yet. Once we go into the preseason games, then we’ll see how much of a setback it is. If I’m able to practice the week before the first preseason game (Aug. 7 at Phoenix), then I don’t see it as a setback. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”

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Last year, Kinchen got playing time only on special teams, when the Rams were down to throwing in everything, including Kinchen and the sink. But the changing of the guard at wide receiver can’t be far off.

Starting receivers Henry Ellard, who turns 32 today, and Flipper Anderson are in the final years of their contracts and possibly the final years of their careers with the Rams. Third receiver Jeff Chadwick, who caught 29 passes last season, is also 32.

Ellard had 50 or more receptions for five consecutive years and four 1,000-yard seasons in a row before last year, when he finished with 47 catches for 727 yards.

Anderson is only 28, but after glory years as one of the league’s premier deep threats during 1989 and ‘90, when he averaged almost 24 yards per catch, he was down to 17.3 in 1992.

“You love to have the mix of experienced guys who can still play and the young guys who are coming up on the horizon,” Zampese said. “We think Todd is one of those guys and we’d like to give him every opportunity to prove it, because we certainly believe he will.”

Kinchen wants to say the right things, but he doesn’t think stating the obvious goes too far.

“Henry and Flipper and Chadwick are very talented and they can still produce,” he said. “But they are getting older and no one can play forever. I think I’m in the top four now, so, when someone moves on, I should be moving up. I have a lot of confidence in what I can do as a receiver and feel I can fulfill a big role for this receiving corps. But right now, I just want to contribute more than I have so far . . . which won’t take much, considering I haven’t caught a pass yet.”

Kinchen, sore knee and all, can’t help but laugh at his own expense.

“Great credentials, huh? But I’m still very optimistic about this year,” he said. “I have a lot of expectations for my career and . . . I’m pretty far away from those. But right now, I just want to contribute, any way I can.”

If he’s sound, he will at least get the chance to return punts. When it comes to credentials, how could the Rams pass up a returner with an average of two touchdowns per game?