Niners Bolster Defense Again
April 20, 2002
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) – With no dire needs to fill in the NFL draft forthe first time in years, the San Francisco 49ers added the luxury of two strongdefensive players.
San Francisco selected Miami cornerback Mike Rumph with its first-roundpick, the 27th overall. After trading its late second-round pick to move backeight spots and gain another fourth-round choice, the 49ers grabbed Alabamalinebacker Saleem Rasheed with the 69th selection.
After focusing heavily on defense the past several seasons, the 49ersthought they might go for an offensive player, but circumstances dictatedotherwise. That’s a luxury the rapidly maturing young team has, with nostarting spots waiting to be filled by rookies.
“I love having a great defense,” coach Steve Mariucci said. “A couple ofyears ago, we set out to rebuild our defense, and we’re doing that. We’ll havea chance to be in the elite defenses as we go on.
“We’ve added a couple of defensive players that should participate in ourfirst game, and we also positioned ourselves to add to our club on the secondday.”
San Francisco has eight picks in the draft’s final four rounds on Sunday.
The 49ers expect immediate contributions from Rumph, a key member of theHurricanes’ dominating defense on their national championship team. At6-foot-2, Rumph is a good-sized, hard-nosed cornerback who excels inbump-and-run coverage.
He’ll enter training camp as a top backup to Ahmed Plummer and JasonWebster, and he’s the top candidate to be the 49ers’ fifth defensive back innickel and dime defenses – one of their biggest weaknesses last season.
“I don’t think there could have been a better fit for me,” Rumph said. “Iknow a lot about the Niners, and it’s going to be a great place.”
The 49ers had their eye on Rumph all along, Mariucci said. Secondary coachBrett Maxie rattled off details of Rumph’s work ethic and personal life,echoing the organization’s strong feelings about his ability and mentalaptitude for coordinator Jim Mora’s defense.
Maxie was impressed when Rumph passed a tough test during his pre-draftinterview. After Maxie explained certain principles of the Niners’ defensivescheme and then asked Rumph to teach them back to him, the 22-year-old rattledoff an outstanding description.
“I think that impressed them,” Rumph said. “If I wasn’t paying attention,that definitely would have hurt me.”
Rumph didn’t have gaudy statistics in his senior season – 31 tackles andeight passes defensed – but the Hurricanes’ opponents respected him so muchthat they generally stayed away from his side of the field. Rumph held opposingreceivers without a catch seven times last season.
“He doesn’t worry about personal glory or statistics,” said Mark Stoops,who was Rumph’s defensive backs coach at Miami. “He just went out there andshut his guy down every snap.”
The Niners later traded their second-round pick, the 61st overall, toBuffalo for the 69th and 102nd selections to get into that “big talentedpool” of players seen by general manager Terry Donahue between the first andfifth rounds. San Francisco forfeited its original third-round pick because ofsalary cap violations.
With its new pick, San Francisco chose Alabama linebacker Saleem Rasheed,who will be expected to make immediate contributions on special teams in placeof Terry Killens, who signed with Denver earlier in the offseason.
Rasheed left Alabama after his junior season. An All-SEC academicAll-American, he played three linebacker positions and made 114 tackles lastseason.
Rasheed joins a deep, young corps of linebackers that includes Derek Smith,Julian Peterson, Jamie Winborn and Jeff Ulbrich.
“I’ll be trying to make sure San Francisco has the best third-round pick inthe draft,” Rasheed said. “With a lot of young guys, you can build togetherand you can grow together.”
