Surging forward is supposed to be Reinard Wilson's forte. The Bengals believe he can take them with him.
Stressing Wilson's pass-rushing skills and downplaying his
pass-coverage inexperience, the Bengals selected Wilson, a senior defensive end from Florida State, in Saturday's first round of the NFL draft with the intention of converting him to outside linebacker.
''He is an intense,
100-percent, 60-minute player,'' Bengals assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said of Wilson, 23.
Given their proposed shift from a 4-3 defensive alignment to a 3-4, which employs an additional linebacker, the Bengals were expected to select a player at that position with their 14th overall pick.
As their turn arrived, two highly rated outside linebackers remained available: Alabama's Dwayne Rudd, viewed as a top-10 pick in many circles, and Virginia's Jamie Sharper, widely considered the third-best prospect at his spot and universally projected to be the Bengals' selection. Virginia's James Farrior, who went to the New York Jets with the draft's eighth pick, was the only linebacker who had been taken.
Cincinnati ignored the obvious options of Rudd and Sharper, citing Wilson's success at rushing opposing quarterbacks. Less than three of the Bengals' allotted 15 minutes to make their choice had elapsed when President and General Manager Mike Brown strode into a news conference at Spinney Field to declare Wilson the man.
''Those other guys (Rudd and Sharper) are both fine players, more experienced at playing linebacker, but we thought (Wilson) fit us better,'' Bengals coach Bruce Coslet said. ''It comes down to splitting hairs when they're that close together.''
Ultimately, Wilson's disruptive tendencies made the difference. He had 13ï sacks last season, increasing his school-record total to 35ï. By comparison, Rudd had four sacks in 1996, and Sharper had 6ï.
''The other guys didn't rush the passer,'' Coslet said, mindful that only seven teams recorded fewer sacks last year than Cincinnati's 32. ''We'll probably rush (Wilson) 80, 90 percent of the time Š In today's game, you have to put pressure on the passer. If you don't, all the passers in the league will dice you up.''
Wilson conveyed his passion via a conference call from a public party his father helped organize in Lake City, Fla. Approximately 2,000 friends, neighbors and fans attended to fete Wilson and Miami wide receiver Yatil Green, another Lake City native.
''You would give away 10 tackles to get one sack,'' Wilson said. ''You have to beat a couple of (blockers) or three people sometimes. It's something you have to have a lot of determination and fight to get.''
Marc Pollack, who represents Wilson with David Levine, said that this combative nature won't carry over to contract talks.
''We think they'll go smoothly,'' said Pollack. ''The new coaching staff is really excited to get Reinard.''
Wilson (6-foot-2, 259 pounds) occasionally will have to shadow opposing receivers, a completely new task. Coslet was relatively unconcerned about this: ''We thought (his) other abilities overshadowed not having done that.''
If Wilson fulfills his advance billing, he'll quickly learn his new duties through industriousness.
''I'm one of those guys who loves hard work Š I'm really coachable,'' said Wilson. ''What little (pass) coverage you do is really simple, I think. I think I can adapt to that really well. I'm not a heavy guy who can't move.''
LeBeau, who guided a wondrous corps of linebackers for the past two seasons as the Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive coordinator, has seen other defensive linemen switch to linebacker. He cited Kevin Greene, now with Carolina, and the Steelers' Jason Gildon.
''I'm not going to say it'll be an overnight transition,'' LeBeau said. " Š The good thing is, we won't have to spend any time teaching him anything about going the other way (rushing). We can focus in on the part of the game that's going to be a little foreign to him for a while.''
LeBeau said that Wilson reminded him of Steelers linebacker Greg Lloyd, a five-time Pro Bowl selection.
''If (Wilson) can come anywhere close to being that type of player for us, we indeed have made a very, very wise decision,'' LeBeau said.
DILLON
PAYNE
SULLIVAN COLUMN
ANALYSIS
BENGALS DRAFT PAGE
