Out of the Pitt, Rams Draw a Gem

Strange but true:

On the first day of the 1992 NFL draft, Eric Dickerson was traded back to Los Angeles, Boomer Esiason’s team made David Klingler the sixth pick overall and John Elway’s team made Tommy Maddox the 25th pick overall.

Stranger but true:

On the first day of the 1992 NFL draft, the Rams used their top pick to select a 6-5, 315-pound pass-rushing demon, a University of Pittsburgh junior with “more potential than Emtman,” a legitimate blue-chip defensive lineman who understands that a quarterback sack, in this league, is not a piece of Joe Montana’s luggage.

And then they agreed on a contract.

What was the bigger news Sunday at Rams Park?

Which deserved the darker headline?

Rams Draft Sean Gilbert

Or . . .

Rams, No. 1 Pick Agree to Terms 132 Days Before Season Opener, Or 131 Days Ahead of Schedule.

Sean Gilbert is a Ram. For the next five years, guaranteed. For about $7.5 million. The paper work isn’t done, but it is in place and it awaits only a few strokes of the pen.

Barring a snag and a break-down once the two sides meet face-to-face--Gilbert flew into Orange County Sunday night--the Rams have their man and their man has a holdout-free summer in his near future.

So, how do you like Chuck Knox II so far?

Knox announced the selection of Gilbert inside the cafeteria at Rams Park, alongside a wall bearing framed black-and-white glossies of Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen, which is as close as the Rams have been to a pass rush since Jack Youngblood retired.

“This is the first step in rebuilding this Ram defense,” Knox declared, shortly before embossing and laminating Gilbert’s name into the team’s starting lineup. No pretense to pencil was even attempted.

“From Day 1, we’re going to line him up and plug him in there,” Knox said. “We’re going to put his hand down and let him play.”

Gilbert is going to play defensive tackle. Most likely, right defensive tackle, the same position Cortez Kennedy played for Knox in Seattle--and you know how Knox feels about Cortez Kennedy.

If you don’t, just listen.

“(Gilbert) gives our whole defense a whole new identity,” Knox said. “He’ll do for our defense what Cortez Kennedy did for our defense in Seattle.”

And from special defensive assistant Joe Vitt, who was with Knox in Seattle: “Like Cortez Kennedy, he raises the play of everyone around him. It takes two guys to block him on every play.”

And from defensive coordinator George Dyer, who was with Knox in Seattle: “Gilbert’s bigger than Cortez Kennedy, but their actual running speed is about the same. He and Cortez both have that big heart, the big motor that’s really hard to find in men that size and that quick.”

Kennedy this. Kennedy that. Who’s more Kennedy-obsessed--Knox and his coaches or Oliver Stone?

Knox and his coaches couldn’t take Kennedy with them, so they replayed the single draft choice theory down south and have seemingly fashioned their own incredible simulation.

Kennedy’s footsteps, of course, lead straight to the Pro Bowl, and Gilbert still needs to prove he can trace them. Suppose he does; the Rams could be back in the playoffs as early as December. Suppose he doesn’t; his selection still represents the Rams’ first serious commitment to the pass rush in more than a decade. This is a team, remember, that finished with the 21st-ranked defense in the NFL in 1989--and made Bern Brostek its first-round choice in the 1990 draft.

In the last 30 years, the Rams have drafted five defensive linemen in the first round:

1962: Olsen.

1971: Youngblood.

1975: Mike Fanning.

1989: Bill Hawkins.

1992: Gilbert.

Knox coached the first two and drafted Fanning and Gilbert. This is no coincidence. Knox built his first four playoff teams around Olsen and Youngblood, but he has been a lifetime proponent of fearsome foursomes.

Four bricks shy of a load upon his return to the Rams, Knox now has the deficit down to three.

Or maybe two.

Wasting no time, Knox drafted another defensive tackle in the third round, Marc Boutte of LSU. That was after Knox went two-for-two in Pittsburgh Panthers and made Gilbert’s college teammate, cornerback Steve Israel, his second-round pick. For the punsters, that made the Rams’ draft a barrel of fun for awhile.

The Rams’ defensive theme for 1992--from the pits to the Pitts.

The Rams’ starting cornerback tandem for 1992--Israel-Lyght.

For once, the Rams produced a draft to laugh with, not laugh at. Israel, according to Knox, is “the fastest man in the draft,” timed as low as 4.24 in the 40-yard dash, which should prove useful the next time the Rams line up against Jerry Rice and John Taylor. Boutte, according to Dyer, is “a tremendous down-rush player who also has some pass-rushing ability.”

It was a draft for the defense, where the Rams needed it the most, and where the Rams hope to benefit the most is at right defensive tackle.

“We had a lot of trade offers for Gilbert after we took him,” Knox said. “Some very substantial offers. We turned them all down. How often does a guy like this come along?”

A Ram who can harass the quarterback with something other than, “Hey, Joe, you look like Barry Manilow”?

A Ram who says yes to a contract barely hours after he’s drafted?

A Ram like that comes along once in a lifetime.