Bengals, 49ers Get Their Men: Carter, Stokes : Pro football: Offensive players go 1-2-3-4-5. Sapp falls to Buccaneers in 12th spot after reports of positive drug tests.

The NFL added two teams this year. In this case, addition led to the multiplication of wheeling and dealing during the annual draft.

It started at the top, with expansion Carolina dealing the No. 1 pick to Cincinnati just before Saturday’s session started. The Bengals used the pick on Penn State running back Ki-Jana Carter, allowing the Panthers to get Carter’s teammate, quarterback Kerry Collins, with the fifth choice.

It continued for the rest of the day, with Carolina and Jacksonville in the middle of it. There were a record eight trades in the first round, two more than ever before.

San Francisco traded up and got wide receiver J.J. Stokes, the heir apparent to Jerry Rice. Dallas and San Diego traded out of the first round and a half-dozen other teams moved up, down and around.

That included Tampa Bay, which dropped five picks and still was able to come up with defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who dropped from his position in the top three because of reports--which he partially confirmed--about positive drug tests.

Overall, it was a day for offensive players.

For the first time in 31 years, the first five taken were offensive players, headed by Carter.

Eight of the first 10 players chosen were on offense, and running backs went with the 17th, 18th, 19th and 21st picks of the first round, including Washington’s Napoleon Kaufman by the Raiders and Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam of Colorado, taken by Chicago. It came a year after the NFL had modified a number of rules to increase scoring.

It wasn’t only a surplus of offensive players that caused the run.

One of the top defenders, Sapp, plummeted all the way to No. 12, where he was taken by Tampa Bay. That came after reports he had tested positive six times for marijuana and once for cocaine.

Sapp confirmed Saturday that he had tested positive for marijuana in his freshman year and again this year during the league’s scouting combine. But he called the other reports “ridiculous, a fabrication,” and said he was “a little bitter” and “caught off balance by the reports.”

And his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said: “Anybody who thinks Warren Sapp is the 12th pick in the draft is on drugs.”

Sapp had once been considered a candidate for the top overall pick and until Saturday was considered a cinch to be taken in the top six. The fall could cost him $1.5 million to $2 million.

There were three defensive linemen taken ahead of him--Kevin Carter of Florida by St. Louis at No. 6, Boston College’s Mike Mamula by Philadelphia, No. 7, and Florida State’s Derrick Alexander by Minnesota, No. 11.

Sapp also was passed over at No. 8 by his college coach, Dennis Erickson, who now is at Seattle and used his pick on wide receiver Joey Galloway of Ohio State.

The New York Jets, at No. 9, also passed on Sapp, saying they wanted either Carter or Mamula if they were going to take a defensive player.

Erickson, who was desperate for a wide receiver with speed, staunchly defended Sapp.

“Those allegations are untrue,” he said. “I ought to know. I was there. To me, whoever put that out is harming somebody for some reason I don’t know. To me, it’s the most unfair thing I’ve ever seen.”

Sapp also had an impact on the 10th pick.

Cleveland, which needs to replace Michael Dean Perry, passed Sapp by, instead trading down with San Francisco for four draft picks.

That let the 49ers pick Stokes, the UCLA wide receiver who had the same pre-draft “negative”--a 4.6 second 40-yard dash time--as Jerry Rice. Rice, whom Stokes might eventually replace, has set a slew of NFL receiving records.

“There’s a great tradition of wide receivers with the San Francisco 49ers that goes way back to the Billy Wilson, R.C. Owens days and it’s something that we feel is incumbent upon us to maintain,” said San Francisco Coach George Seifert, who last year traded up and got standout defensive tackle Bryant Young.

Carter was one of three players in the first nine from Penn State’s powerful offensive unit. The others were Collins, taken by Carolina with the fifth pick, and tight end Kyle Brady, taken by the New York Jets with the ninth.

“It’s sweeter than winning the Heisman,” said Carter, who was runner-up for that trophy, just as Penn State (12-0) was second to Nebraska in the polls for the national collegiate championship.

“It just shows how good we were,” Brady said. “I’m biased, but I think we were the best ever.”

After Carter, Jacksonville used its first-ever pick on USC tackle Tony Boselli, who is being compared to likely Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz. Houston followed with Steve McNair of Alcorn State, the highest any black quarterback has been chosen.

Then Colorado receiver Michael Westbrook went to Washington and Carolina took Collins, a player it coveted all along. The Panthers felt that Carter would get banged up early playing behind the kind of offensive line an expansion team would put on the field.

Then came defense. Of the first eight defenders taken, seven were linemen, most of them pass rushers.

It started with Kevin Carter, who went to the newly transplanted Rams, and Mamula, taken by Philadelphia in a trade up with Tampa Bay. Then it was back to offense, with Galloway to Seattle, Brady to the Jets and Stokes to the 49ers.

Minnesota took Alexander, the Bucs chose Sapp and New Orleans went for linebacker Mark Fields of Washington State.

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The Indianapolis Colts have until midnight Wednesday to reach a contract agreement with quarterback Craig Erickson that would complete a trade with Tampa Bay.

Bill Tobin, vice president and director of football operations for the Colts, said rights to Erickson, a restricted free agent, will be returned to Tampa Bay if Indianapolis does not sign him by the deadline.

Tobin said no selections in the 1995 draft are involved in the deal and declined to confirm which 1996 draft selections are involved, although ESPN reported that the Colts would give Tampa Bay a first-round pick in 1996.

Erickson, who started 30 games in two seasons with Tampa Bay and completed 473 of 882 passes for 6,094 yards and 34 touchdowns, had one of his finest days in the NFL against the Colts last year. He completed 19 of 24 passes for 313 yards and three touchdowns without an interception or sack in a 24-10 victory by the Bucs.