Rookie Roller Coaster : Linebacker Fredrickson’s First Season With Raiders Has Been Up and Down, but Lately He’s on the Rise

News flash to the Kansas City Chiefs: Raider outside linebacker Rob Fredrickson no longer plays like a rookie. For verification, consult the Seattle Seahawks.

“One thing about Rob is that he’s very intelligent and he learns from his mistakes,” Raider linebacker coach Jim Haslett said Tuesday. “He can obviously run and can hit, but he also can smell plays out, once he’s seen them.”

The Seahawks learned that Sunday night when they tried to test the first-round draft choice from Michigan State.

Two months ago, Fredrickson was burned on a key fourth-quarter touchdown pass by Miami’s Dan Marino to running back Keith Byars in the Raiders’ 20-17 overtime loss.

When Seattle tried the same play, however, Fredrickson knocked down Dan McGwire’s sideline pass to Mack Strong.

“That’s a good example of how he’s grown,” Haslett said. “That was the same exact play that he got beat on for a touchdown early in the season, but he recognized it and made the play this time.”

With one regular-season game remaining, Saturday’s against Kansas City, Fredrickson acknowledges that he has had a roller-coaster type of season. But he also points out that he has made great strides lately, just as the Raiders have done as a team.

“Going from college to the NFL, mentally, is like going from playing checkers to chess,” Fredrickson said. “Physically, the level of play on the field has been like I expected. But off the field is a different story. The studying and preparation is a lot harder.”

After missing the first nine days of training camp before signing a five-year, $4.875-million contract, Fredrickson joined the Raiders with great expectations.

As the team’s first linebacker to have been drafted in the first round, he began the season at middle linebacker and was penciled in to challenge second-year veteran Greg Biekert for the starting job.

Fredrickson’s problem, however, was that he had never played inside linebacker, which made his transition from the Big Ten to the AFC West that much tougher.

“In training camp, I opened at middle linebacker, which was totally new to me,” he said. “I don’t think that I performed up to mine or the coaches’ expectations at the beginning of the season. My reaction time and inconsistent play was really a problem in that I always wanted to make sure that I did the right thing before going full thrust.”

And with Biekert playing well at middle linebacker, it did not take long for the Raiders to realize that they were playing Fredrickson out of position. So they moved him back outside.

It was a move that could not have gone better.

Since replacing Aaron Wallace in the starting lineup before the fifth game of the season at New England, Fredrickson has played well enough to become a favorite for AFC rookie defensive player of the year.

“With more practice and reps in games, I’ve gotten better,” Fredrickson said. “ ‘Practice makes perfect’ has worked with me. It’s been a roller-coaster year for me, but things have gotten better lately.”

At 6 feet 4, 240 pounds, Fredrickson is third on the team in tackles with 75, including 53 solo stops. He is tied for fourth in sacks with three and is second among linebackers with three pass defenses.

“We just put him in there and he’s had to play,” Haslett said. “Some people around the league have said that they’re surprised that he was starting this early because they thought that it might take a year or two. But I felt that he had that kind of talent to step right in there and play right from the first game.”

On Saturday, Fredrickson will be challenged by Kansas City quarterback Joe Montana and the Chiefs’ mobile passing attack.

“They really like to run a lot of bootlegs and rollouts with Montana,” Raider Coach Art Shell said. “They like to move the ball around and get it to a variety of receivers.”

Which means the play of Fredrickson, who had four tackles in their first meeting, will be a key.

“I’ll be going up against Derrick Walker, who is a good solid tight end, and Marcus Allen coming out of the backfield,” he said. “Joe is very mobile and they run a lot of play-action passes. It’s going to be a good test again.”