Marshall Faulk says he has no hard feelings toward Indianapolis.

Faulk says he harbors no bitterness toward the Colts, who traded him to St. Louis on the eve of the draft, then took Edgerrin James as his replacement.

"I was a little disappointed. I wanted to see them win," the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year said. "There are guys on that team I still care for and love and have been to battle with.

"That's over with for me. There's no animosity. This is a business in the NFL, and you move on."

Faulk moved on to the kind of season players can merely dream of. He became just the second player with more than 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in a year, joining San Francisco's Roger Craig (1985). And he broke Barry Sanders' league mark for total yardage, rushing for a career-best 1,381 and catching 87 passes for 1,048, also a career high. His 2,429 yards surpassed Sanders' 1987 total of 2,358.

Such numbers also gave Faulk more than 10,000 yards for his career; he has 10,455.

And he's only 26.

"My friends on other teams tell me, 'That offense looks like fun. It's looking like you guys are having a blast out there,' " Faulk said. "It is fun to be part of this. It was up to me to fit in or be an outcast."

It's not hard to figure out what he did.

Faulk finally has found the perfect offense for his skills. Sure, he left Peyton Manning and what developed into a terrific three-pronged attack in Indianapolis. But he wound up with Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce, Orlando Pace and, with them, turned the Rams' attack into a whirling dynamo.

What has been Faulk's main contribution, other than the numbers?

"Marshall makes us all look smart every week with what he can do," coach Dick Vermeil said. "He's a boost, like having an eight-cylinder engine without a turbocharger and you put the turbocharger on it. And an 11-cylinder engine is what we have.

"Any time you put the ball in his hands, you've got a chance for a big play. Sometimes it's not a 40-yard run, but when you need seven yards and he catches it for a yard and then he makes the first down."

Another thing Vermeil has noticed is the way Faulk rallies the team.

"Marshall is a mistake-free football player. He brings a great degree of leadership on game day," the NFL Coach of the Year said. "If something happens during a game, he's getting the players together right there and then and discussing it."

That's because Faulk, the second overall pick in the 1994 draft, thinks he knows the game better now than in his previous five pro seasons.

"I think I'm a smarter player," he said. "With experience and time you become a smarter player. Whatever you knew, you learn from each year and from each game you played."

The NFL has learned again just what kind of a weapon Faulk is. He was the league's top offensive rookie in '94, and a 1,000-yard rusher in four of his five seasons in Indianapolis. In his final season as a Colt, he had 1,319 yards rushing and 86 receptions for 908 yards, great numbers by any standard.

But the team was losing, and when he was dealt to St. Louis for only a second-round and fifth-round pick, it didn't make huge waves throughout football. It was thought that Indianapolis feared being unable to re-sign him once his contract ended after the 2000 season.

The Rams had no such fears. They envisioned the fear of their offense that Faulk would bring. And they were right.

"If I had gone to another poor team, that might have been a different story," he said. "I did not want to go from bad to worse."