Rams' No. 1 pick thinks big

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Rams' first-round draft pick doesn't pattern himself after any established NFL player.

That would limit defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy, who aims to be better than all of them.

"I think it's good that people put me in that Warren Sapp company, but I'm a competitor," the 6-foot-4, 320-pound Kennedy said Sunday. "I'm not trying to be Warren Sapp, I'm trying to be better than Warren Sapp.

"I'm not trying to stop the run up the middle like Gilbert Brown, I want to be better than Gilbert Brown. I don't want to be fast to the ball like Sam Adams, but just a big guy. I want to be better than all those guys."

On Saturday in a conference call immediately after he went to the Rams on the 12th pick, Kennedy also was critical of La'Roi Glover, who "has a nonstop motor but he doesn't have the height."

Top Big Ten lineman

Kennedy was the Big Ten defensive lineman of the year as a senior at Penn State, where he had 5.5 sacks and 16 tackles for loss along with a career-high 87 tackles. He's not intimidated by the prospect of battling the Rams' other two first-round tackles taken in 2001 -- Damione Lewis and Ryan Pickett -- for playing time.

"I think it's good," Kennedy said. "I can come out and create some competition, and hopefully push them as hard as they're going to push me."

As Rams veteran defensive tackle Tyoka Jackson, also a Penn State product said: "I don't know him, but I know of him from breaking his records at Penn State."

Still, Kennedy is far from ego driven. Just ask his high school coach from Yonkers, N.Y., who accompanied him to his first news conference in St. Louis on Sunday, along with an assistant high school coach and his younger brother, Norman Darby.

"He's confident and sometimes it sounds like he's cocky, but he really isn't," said Tony DeMatteo, who molded Kennedy at Roosevelt High School. "He's very humble. He's just a wonderful kid and he's just trying to be honest."

DeMatteo is just as confident in Kennedy's chances, especially as a run stopper.

"His whole career he was double- and triple-teamed," DeMatteo said. "I've always said if he played for Miami they would have had to outlaw him from college football.

"Now he's going to be with a lot of great players and it's going to be very interesting to see how well he can play when they just can't pick on him all the time."

It wasn't always that way. Kennedy recalls a conversation with noted draft expert Joel Buschbaum after his junior season, when he was considering leaving school early to go pro.

"He told me I sucked and that I'd be a fifth-round pick," Buschbaum said. "He probably scared me away more than anyone else."

Rams complete draft

After taking linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa (Hawaii) in the second round and wide receiver Kevin Curtis (Utah State) in the third round to complete Saturday's selections, the Rams had eight picks Sunday as the draft ended.

Taken in the fourth round were wide receiver Shaun McDonald (Arizona State) and defensive back DeJuan Groce (Nebraska).

Fifth-round picks were tight end Dan Curley (Eastern Washington), defensive back Shane Walton (Notre Dame) and defensive back Kevin Garrett (SMU).

Offensive guard Scott Tercero (California) went in the sixth round, followed by linebacker Scott Shanle (Nebraska) and tight end Richard Abguelo (Western New Mexico) in the seventh round.