A receiver device for use in a wireless communication system (20) includes a rake receiver (32) and an equalizer receiver (34). A controller (36) selects one of the rake receiver (32) or the equalizer receiver (34) for processing a received signal. In some situations, the rake receiver (32) will provide better performance. In other situations, the equalizer receiver (34) will provide better performance. One embodiment includes a plurality of equalizers (34A, 34B). One of the equalizers processes a data packet from a received signal while another one of the equalizers trains for processing a signal from a subsequent scheduled user. Another example embodiment includes controlling an equalizer length based on a delay span or another selected channel metric.