NFL DRAFT : Bengals Get Carter, 49ers Get Stoked : Pro football: San Francisco pulls off deal. Sapp falls to Buccaneers in 12th spot after reports of positive drug tests.

The Cincinnati Bengals soared, Warren Sapp sank, but the best action at the 60th NFL draft Saturday involved a team that sneaked around the back.

Again.

The San Francisco 49ers were buried with the 30th pick.

UCLA receiver J.J. Stokes was destined to be buried with a bad team at the top.

Guess who got engaged while everyone else was looking the other way?

For a second consecutive year, the 49ers stole the draft, this time by trading up for the 10th overall pick to steal Stokes, considered the best big-play receiver available.

“I’m definitely surprised,” Stokes said. “I don’t know much about their offense . . . other than that they put the ball in the end zone.”

The trade and selection overshadowed an earlier deal by the Bengals, who traded from fifth to first and made Penn State running back Ki-Jana Carter their second No. 1 overall pick in two years.

It wasn’t until three hours later that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used the 12th overall pick to select Sapp, a Miami defensive tackle stung by late reports from NFL security that he had flunked more than the drug test administered at February’s combine. One report even claimed he had flunked seven similar tests during college.

As recently as three months ago, Sapp was being discussed as the No. 1 overall pick. He is certainly still considered the top defensive talent in this draft.

But you wouldn’t have guessed that Saturday.

His recent background developments were so worrisome that even his former college coach, Dennis Erickson, now with the Seahawks, refused to take him with the eighth overall pick even though Erickson had openly supported him.

Then the Minnesota Vikings, desperately in need of a defensive tackle to replace Henry Thomas, passed on Sapp with the 11th overall pick. Instead they reached down for defensive end Derrick Alexander of Florida State.

“Certainly, all that talk was affecting what happened to him,” said Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills.

Tampa Bay Coach Sam Wyche phoned Sapp immediately after the Vikings made their selection for assurances that he was clean.

“I said, ‘We have a lot of faith in you, we can’t afford to have you let us down,’ ” Wyche recalled, later adding, “Warren knows exactly what has happened to him, he is not in denial.”

He’s not?

“It is a total fabrication that I flunked seven tests, that’s a ludicrous number,” Sapp said. “I don’t understand how they can talk about investigating me and yet no one has ever even talked to me. Doesn’t there have to be a piece of paper or something to prove it? It’s been real difficult.”

He did, however, admit to failing the test at the combine.

“Marijuana is in the system for a very long time and I guess that’s what happened,” he said.

Oddly, his agent Drew Rosenhaus concluded, “Anybody who thinks Warren Sapp is a 12th pick is on drugs.”

Three rounds were concluded and 98 players selected in New York’s Paramount Theater in the draft’s first day. The remaining four rounds will take place at the Paramount today.

It will probably not get any crazier.

With teams seeking immediate help in these days of free agency, there were four major trades in the top half of the first round.

The Bengals used one to boldly find a long-needed running back.

The Philadelphia Eagles, strangely, traded up from No. 12 to No. 7 to select undersized defensive end Mike Mamula of Boston College.

The New York Jets, in a trade consummated late Friday, traded receiver Rob Moore to the Arizona Cardinals for the right to the 16th overall pick and defensive end Hugh Douglas of Central State (Ohio).

But it was another move by the Jets that led to the most stunning deal.

With the ninth overall pick, with Stokes and Sapp still untouched, the Jets selected Penn State tight end Kyle Brady.

Which, with Johnny Mitchell, gives them two starting tight ends.

The New York crowd booed. The Cleveland Browns, drafting next, cringed.

They had already decided upon Brady. They figured there was no way that the Jets, or anybody with the first nine picks, would take him.

After all, the Browns actually needed a tight end.

They were so flustered, it took them less than 15 minutes to trade the pick--and perhaps a second consecutive Super Bowl championship--to the 49ers.

“I think that there’s no question that they were zeroing in on the tight end,” 49er President Carmen Policy said, “and I think they were very disappointed and probably a little surprised, the same way we were, that the Jets picked the tight end as opposed to the wide receiver.

The crowd gasped. Back in San Francisco, the 49ers chuckled and remembered.

Last season, a draft-day trade helped them acquire two first-round picks who helped them win the Super Bowl--defensive tackle Bryant Young and fullback William Floyd.

Ten years ago, a draft-day trade helped them acquire another fine receiver. Perhaps you’ve heard of Jerry Rice.

Getting Stokes cost the 49ers two first-round picks and two other picks. But in return, they received a man who will replace aging John Taylor and has the potential of Rice.

“I’m sure there will be some questions about the price that was paid,” 49er Coach George Seifert said. “But at the same time, we have a good football team. If there’s a player who can help us do again what we did this last year, which we think he can, helping us win another championship, then you’ve got to pay the price. We’re willing to do that.”

Said new Jet Coach Rich Kotite: “Having two great tight ends will give us a lot of flexibility.”

Most scouts had recently rated Stokes behind receivers Michael Westbrook of Colorado and Joey Galloway of Ohio State because his 40-yard dash time of 4.7 seconds was as much as three-tenths of a second slower than their times.

But the 49ers believe that during games, Stokes is more than fast enough.

“All I have to do is run past the defenders,” Stokes said. “I am always criticized, but as long as I get the ball in the end zone, you will get no complaints from me.”

Most of the rest of the first round went as expected Saturday.

Al Davis found his speed, bypassing running back Rashaan Salaam, the Heisman Trophy winner from Colorado, for smaller but faster Napoleon Kaufman of Washington.

The expansion teams found their cornerstones: Jacksonville used USC tackle Tony Boselli with the second overall pick as expected, and Carolina used the Bengals’ pick to select Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins fifth overall, also as expected.

The Houston Oilers may have found their quarterback of the future, when management overruled the coaching staff and selected Steve McNair, the small-college phenom from Alcorn State whose ability to adjust to the pros has been questioned, with the third pick overall.

And for a second consecutive draft, the Dallas Cowboys missed the smarts and savvy of Jimmy Johnson. They not only traded out of the first round, but they also traded an early second-round pick.

When they finally made their first pick, the 46th overall choice, the team with Emmitt Smith took Alabama’s Sherman Williams.

He is, you guessed it, a running back.

Deputy Sports Editor John Cherwa and staff writer Bob Oates contributed to this story.