Seeking Right Niche : Rams’ Greene Gets Another New Mission

Even Kevin Greene couldn’t figure out what to do with Kevin Greene last season.

Everybody knew what he used to be: one of the most productive sack artists in the NFL. That was his identity and his role, the way he earned his money and the source of his pride.

Suddenly, no one knew exactly what to do with him. He had only three sacks.

“I always try to keep a positive attitude,” Greene said the other day, “but when you only have three sacks in a year after having 46 sacks in three years, you doubt everything, right?”

Moved from his normal spot on the left side as a blitzing linebacker in a four-linebacker set to right defensive end in a four-man front, Greene all but vanished. And the Rams’ defense disappeared. too.

So what was he now, besides a failed defensive lineman? Greene didn’t know if he had a position in a 4-3 defense, and sometimes last season’s coaching staff agreed.

Midway through the season, they acknowledged the mistake and lined him up in a makeshift position, half-linebacker, half-lineman, satisfying no one.

One thing everybody agreed upon was that Greene was not a normal linebacker. He was a pass rusher.

“I thought I was definitely out of position,” Greene said. “It was a rough situation for all of us, me individually, team-wise. . . . Last year, I definitely fell on my face. But I still feel I’m in the upper echelon (of) pass-rushing linebackers.”

This season, with an entirely new defensive staff and a new head coach, he is getting his chance to show it. He is a linebacker again, lining up on the left side again, rushing the quarterback again.

He has a chance to prove what no one thought he could do last season--play an all-around linebacker position in a 4-3 set.

The Rams plan to use him as an end on passing downs, so he will get his chance to rush the quarterback. But on other downs, he will also have to drop into coverage as he has never had to do before.

“They’re asking me to do everything this year,” Greene said. “Those days of just lining me up as an outside backer in ‘Eagle’ (their old, linebacker-filled defense) and just telling me to get the guy with the football, I think, are just about over.”

Said linebackers coach Dick Selcer: “I know that he sees himself as being a good rusher, and yet I think he’s starting to see himself as a complete player and to play everything without saying, ‘Well, you have to get me way out there and rush me all of the time.’ I think he’s seeing it.”

The four-man front the new staff brought in was designed for No. 1 draft choice Sean Gilbert, a defensive tackle.

“I think what’s happened in the past,” Selcer said of Greene, “is everybody said, ‘Well, gee, he rushes so good, let’s make him a rusher.’ You look at that matchup, the physical thing. . . . Well, is he an end? No, he’s not an end. Then what do we do with him?

“In talking to him, he’s accepted the challenge of it, the role of it, and yet he knows when he gets into the third-down situations he’s not going to be a cover guy, he’s going to be a rush guy.”

Said Coach Chuck Knox: “There will be occasions when he can (blitz) and hopefully be freed up to possibly (take) on a (running) back, instead of having to take on those big offensive linemen. There come some times when we’re going to want to free a guy up. . . . We’ll certainly try to create some situations like that.”

So far, Selcer believes Greene is taking to pass coverage well, but he still has to acquire the instinct to cover when he is used to ignoring everyone in the pass pattern and going forward.

“It’s taking some time,” Greene said. “I’ve got to get better.

“There’s a sight, a sight you have to learn to see in pass coverage, and it’s a sight I’ve never had to deal with before.

“It’s a sight that you have to see. You have to see four or five different people at one time, and what their releases are and where you’re going. That just comes with repetition.”

Are his days of 15 sacks per season over?

“I’m going to try,” Greene said of matching his old sack totals. “What can I say? I can’t say, ‘No, no, no. . . . ‘ I’m going to try and be positive about it. I’m still going to be a rushman in (the) nickel (defense). And then I’m going to be coming on blitzes a lot.

“It’s a challenge. I’ve got a little more mobility now. But again, those old days were nice, weren’t they?”