Rams Decide to Stray From Their Shopping List

Inquiring minds want to know: Did the Rams end up with missing puzzle pieces in this year’s draft or a Rubik’s Cube? As the draft dust settled Monday, more than a few items remained on the Rams’ shopping list. The team that needed help at inside linebacker, tight end and offensive line used four of its first five picks on two outside linebackers, a running back and a cornerback.

Go figure. The team’s first pick, Miami’s Bill Hawkins, made perfect sense. The Rams had been shopping for a tallish defensive end since Jack Youngblood hung up his legend in 1985.

After that, it gets a little weird. After considerable hemming and hawing over their second first-rounder, the Rams finally decided on Cleveland Gary over inside linebacker Keith DeLong, who was snatched two picks later by the 49ers. Robinson knew if he passed on Gary, the 49ers would grab him in a minute and perhaps make the Rams pay for years.

Robinson made the final decision on Gary, and is now the proud owner of a fine young runner, joining fine young runners Greg Bell, Robert Delpino, Gaston Green and Buford McGee.

In baseball, you can never have enough pitching. In football, it’s apparently running backs.

“I think it was a great pick,” Robinson said of Gary. “I think he’s a dynamic offensive player.”

Robinson explains that Gary could emerge as yet another pawn in his team’s multiplayer offense. The new strategy under coordinator Ernie Zampese is confusing opponents with a never-ending cavalcade of faces and formations.

“Yeah,” Robinson admitted, “we might have too many good players.”

But whose name goes first on the depth chart? Robinson insisted the drafting of Gary should not be construed as a threat to Bell, the NFL’s fourth-leading rusher in 1988, or Green, the Rams’ first-round choice last season.

“Now if we got (Florida State tailback) Sammie Smith, you’d say ‘Oh, wait a minute,’ ” Robinson said. “But there’s no comparison (to Gary). Gaston will be used a great deal in the initial plan. If he fails, he’ll fail on the field.”

So the finger points to Delpino, maybe the most talked-about Ram rookie last season since Eric Dickerson. Does Gary knock Delpino out of the lineup? No worries, the coach says. Just imagine the Rams as a hockey team with its backfield changing shifts on the fly.

Now, for those linebackers. In second-round choices Frank Stams and Brian Smith, the Rams have two more outside rushers to go with the talented trio of Kevin Greene, Mike Wilcher and Mel Owens.

But like their coach, the Rams remain a little soft in the middle, where newcomers Larry Kelm and Fred Strickland will be asked to hold down the fort at inside linebacker.

Disturbing? Again, think hockey. Robinson envisions rotating as many as 17 players on defense. He drew up one scheme on the chalkboard Monday that had seven linebackers on the defensive front. Alarming? Robinson sees modern defenses switching from power to finesse, with cat-like linebackers darting and stunting along the line of scrimmage.

The Rams used the scheme last season and led the NFL with 56 quarterback sacks.

“We’ll keep shaking the box up and they’ll all eventually fit in,” Robinson said of his numbers problem.

It also was believed that the Rams might use a high pick for an offensive tackle, but thoughts fizzled when Andy Heck was taken in the 15th spot by Seattle.

Instead, they waited until round three and took Michigan State’s Kevin Robbins, the beefy tackle-mate of Tony Mandarich last season.

“We didn’t solve it on the first round,” Robinson said of his tackle shortage. “We solved it on the third round.”

Which means Robbins has a few years of honing ahead.

The Rams didn’t solve their tight end problems at all. Robinson remains desperate for a blocking-type backup to Damone Johnson, and vows to find one before training camp.

Ram Notes

The team introduced first-round pick Bill Hawkins and second-rounders Frank Stams and Darryl Henley at a Monday press conference attended by owner Georgia Frontiere. Cleveland Gary missed a morning flight out of Florida. He and second-rounder Brian Smith were expected to arrive Monday afternoon. . . . Henley, the cornerback from UCLA, will wear uniform No. 20, Johnnie Johnson’s old number. Stams will wear No. 50, previously worn by Jim Collins. . . . The most interesting second-day pick might have been linebacker Mark Messner, who went in the sixth round. Messner could get a shot at Mark Jerue’s roving position in the Eagle defense. Jerue’s knee still is a question mark, having recently undergone yet another arthroscopic surgery. . . . The Rams traded their last three picks of the draft to Tampa Bay for the Buccaneers’ eighth-round pick next year. . . . In contrast to past years, the Rams went to the best football colleges in the land for this season’s crop. The top five picks and their colleges: Hawkins (Miami), Gary (Miami), Stams (Notre Dame), Smith (Auburn) and Henley (UCLA).

THE RAMS’ PICKS

The Rams’ selections in the 1989 NFL draft:

Rn. Player Pos. School 1 Bill Hawkins DE Miami (Fla.) 1 Cleveland Gary FB Miami (Fla.) 2 Frank Stams LB Notre Dame 2 Brian Smith LB Auburn 2 Darryl Henley DB UCLA 3 Kevin Robbins OT Michigan St. 4 Jeff Carlson QB Weber St. 5 Alfred Jackson WR San Diego St. 6 Thom Kaumeyer DB Oregon 6 Mark Messner LB Michigan 7 George Bethune LB Alabama 8 Warren Wheat OT BYU 9 Vernon Kirk TE Pittsburgh 10 Mike Williams WR Northeastern