Rams Gab

Since none of these guys are potential cuts, we can run this one after the first cutdown day.  It is your favorite group, the specialists!

Josh Brown – Josh Brown is a solid, if high priced kicker for the Rams.  His only real downside is that the Rams too often settle for his services rather than go for the touchdown.  Hopefully, that will less and less be the case as Sam Bradford develops.

Chris Massey – As one of the longest tenured Rams, Massey is as solid as a long snapper can be.  The Rams never have any trouble with punt or field goal snaps.  He’s a valuable player and the Rams will never sign another long snapper unless he gets hurt.

Donnie Jones – The Rams are blessed to have a great group of specialists and Donnie Jones in no slouch. If the Rams coverage units help get his net punting average up in 2010, he could make the Pro Bowl.

Coming off a very disappointing 2009 season I’d like to say that a lot of obvious improvements have been made over the off season.  I’d like to, but I’m not sure I can.  One obvious improvement (although still unproven at the professional level) is Sam Bradford.  What I like most about the man is not his athleticism, not his supposed passing accuracy, or his ability to quickly find open receivers.  What I like is that the man is clearly a winner.  He was a winning smile and conveys a winning attitude which is something his predecessor Marc Bulger lost somewhere along the way.

Outside of that I see a team very similar to last year’s team.  A great running back in Steven Jackson, but little or no depth or running talent behind him, a gazillion WR’s of zero notoriety and average talent, and young and often injury prone offensive and defensive lines.  Lending to my previous sentence, the Rams have an uncanny ability at picking up players that have been average players on other teams.  The type of players the Rams seem to pick up are usually athletes who played well in college, come into the pros for a couple years, and once that team is able to upgrade the position with a better player, they are traded to the Rams.  A perfect example of this is Billy Bajema.

In college Bajema was a four-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree and as a senior, he won ESPN Academic All-American honors.  He was drafted by the SF 49ers in 2005 where he started a third of the games he played in (45).  In 2008 he was forced to sign a 1 year deal to stay with the Niners who then released him immediately after the season ended.  The Rams signed him in March of 2009.  He made two catches last year and helped contribute to the 2009 Ram’s very poor offense.

If you were to look up and down the line and on both sides of the field you will find many Billy Bajemas playing for the Rams.  Don’t believe me?  Ok, how about WR Jordan Kent?  He was a WR out of Oregon who was signed by the Seattle Seahawks in 2007 and spent that year on the practice squad.  In 2008 he played special teams and then was cut in 2009 just before the beginning of the regular season.  Shortly afterwards, he was signed to the Rams where he has done very little.  How about RCB Kevin Dockery  or even QB AJ Feeley? I could go on and on and on… Now, I have nothing against men of quality and substance (which all of these men probably are), but in professional sports you must have star talent.  The Rams have Sam Bradford, Steven Jackson, and bunch of Billy Bajemas.  Are Rams coaches and recruiters softies who only recruit the “I think I cans”?  As I look at the roster I’d have to say yes.

* Strategery: Hello, I’m agent Mulder, this is agent Scully. I understand your offensive coordinator was unusually creative tonight, is that right? Played a surprising amount of 4-receiver formations? Once with the tight ends split outside? Wow, that is strange. Lots of shotgun? Had a wide receiver run a clearout for a TE/fullback on 4^th-and-2 and got 33 yards out of it? Lined up 304-pounder Eric Young as an H-back to spring Jackson for an easy 10 on the 3^rd play of the game with a nasty block? Threw down the field instead of running dozens of 4-yard hitches? Is this aberrant behavior? OK, that definitely sounds like an abduction, he could have been replaced by an alien hybrid… you’d rather keep the alien? Yeah, I saw the game, too, you should probably keep the alien. Hey, did you know that Sam Bradford is… never mind, let’s go, Scully.

The alien claiming to be Rams offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur was brilliant tonight. He was creative but not gadgety. He mixed run and pass deftly. He used all parts of the field. THE RAMS THREW DOWNFIELD. The tight end is an actual part of a Ram offense. The Rams scored 4 TDs in the red zone! Even with a short week and a QB they weren’t expecting to start a few days ago, this team was expertly prepared tonight. Could scripting the first 15 plays have had anything to do with it? I don’t recall the staff scripting plays before. On behalf of Rams Nation, I welcome our new alien offensive overlord, and hope that “Pat Shurmur” will continue to share his alien football technology for our common good.

The other thing that impressed me tonight was the mismatch in the two team’s intensities. This impressed me because the Rams have been caught on the wrong side of this trap since forever. But tonight, amazingly, the Rams looked ready to play and meant business, while Bill Belichick’s team was just going through the motions and really got caught off-guard. The Rams got a couple of huge moral victories out of this game. The team that went 1-15 last year went against the dynasty’s starters for a half and came out ahead 20-14. And Belichick felt like he needed to keep his starters on the field for the third quarter, against the Rams’ backups. These football programs are at much different points in their evolution. The Patriots can normally coast in preseason and not have to worry about the regular season. The Rams can’t, and there was no questioning their readiness tonight. This was the 3^rd preseason game, the closest thing we’ve had so far to showtime, and in team attitude, Steve Spagnuolo caught Bill Belichick’s team flat-footed. This game doesn’t matter, yet it does. It’s damn good to see the Rams have that gear to shift to for when they do need it. I’m gullible enough to think last night will be a building-block night for the franchise.

The Rams host the Baltimore Ravens and former Ram Marc Bulger looks to get the bulk of the work at quarterback against the Rams.

TV

The game is not on live in St. Louis or nationally, so the hardcore fans will have to search the internet for an internet stream from Baltimore.

• In St. Louis, the game will be on tape delay at 10:30pm Central on Fox channel 2.
  

• Nationally, the game is on tape delay on NFL Network at 9am Central on Friday morning.

What to Watch For

• Sam Bradford – Bradford has what amounts to a coming out party last week against the Patriots.  He was throwing darts and completed his first six passes leading the Rams to touchdowns.  The Rams were headline video on NFL.com due to Bradford’s performance.  It would be unwise to think that Bradford could continue on his ascendant path, but another good game should all but sew up the starting job for himself in Week 1.

• Play Calling – The playbook was opened in preseason week 3 and prayers were answered.  Pat Shurmur, you sly dog you!  Shurmur had us all faked out with the checkdowns and short routes in the first two preseason games and then suddenly the Rams offense was throwing the ball all over the field and doing it successfully.  The Rams may shut it down again and keep the offense vanilla for the 4th preseason game, but the glimmer of a dynamic Rams offense was too good to forget quickly.

• Wide Receivers – The Rams will now be without their top WR Donnie Avery for the entire year.  They decided not to trade for Vincent Jackson from San Diego.  Danny Amendola has already stepped up for the Rams.  Who else will step up amongst the rest of the wide receivers corps.

• Dennis Morris – Morris was acquired in a bizarre transaction this week.  This game may be Morris’s only opportunity to show the Rams coaches what he can do in a game situation.  Was Morris simply a small return for Hall Davis who was going to be cut or a player the Rams had their eye on for a specific roster spot.

Last Thursday evening was filled with hope and despair in equal measures for Rams fans. It was week 3 of the preseason schedule and the Rams put on a performance against New England that left us ravenous for more. The hope came in the form of Sam Bradford, who, in his first start, tore apart a Patriots defense with a maturity that staggered even the most optimistic of supporters. The despair though was the sight of speedy wideout Donnie Avery clutching his knee before being carted off the field. After the game it was confirmed that Avery had torn his ACL and would be out for the season and placed on IR. So… what does it mean for the Rams in 2010?

One of the most curious developments since his injury is that Avery has suddenly become the clear-cut #1 wide receiver for the Rams! In previewing the season ahead pundits were fast to cast aspersions over our receiving corps as one of the poorest in the league and name Laurent Robinson as the surest fantasy option for the Rams. Avery was classified as a straight-line burner who was tenuously hanging onto the #1 position over the breakout candidate, Laurent Robinson. As soon as Donnie was placed on IR though it was as if there had never been any question that he was our top receiver! Without question his injury is a big loss in a season where we start a rookie QB, but there are now opportunities for other roster members to step up and prove their worth.

The obvious candidates for increased playing time you would assume fall to Brandon Gibson, Mardy Gilyard, Danny Amendola and Keenan Burton. Gibson was in the starting line-up at the end of 2009 after Burton succumbed to injury. He registered 19 catches for 176 yards and one touchdown in the final five games for a season total of 34/348/1 in 10 games as a rookie. He was part of the trade that saw Will Witherspoon head to the Eagles last year and caught 4 balls for 50 yards including a 20yd TD last Thursday. He certainly isn’t a like-for-like replacement for Avery but does offer solid short and intermediate route running with decent hands.

Continue after the jump!

Continue reading Avery’s Injury And How It Affects The Rams

As soon as the rumors started to twirl about Vincent Jackson and the St. Louis Rams, the denials came swiftly after.

From ESPN’s Chris Mortensen:

…do not include Rams on Vincent Jackson watch.

The Rams must have heard the price for Jackson either in trade or contract and said a quick “No thank you”.

That was quick.

* Secondary: Tom Brady got plenty of time to throw on too many plays tonight, but had difficulty finding receivers on such plays in the first half, and that is indeed a tribute to the coverage of the Ram secondary. Bradley Fletcher was on Randy Moss tonight like scuzz on Russell Brand. He stopped Moss short on 3^rd-and-5 to force a 3-and-out and broke up another 3^rd-and-short pass to Moss later for another 3-and-out. Physical play by Rams corners? How many aliens have infected this team? A nice run stop by Oshiomogho Atogwe helped that 2^nd 3-and-out along. Weak point in the secondary tonight was probably Kevin Payne. The Patriots settled for another 3-and-out when Brady failed to hit Brandon Tate down the far sideline. He had beaten Fletcher by a step and Payne was way late in help. Even worse, Moss beat Payne by at least two yards for a 65-yard TD bomb in the 3^rd just by running in a straight line. Payne appears a serious speed liability. Rams linebackers did not impress in pass coverage against TEs. Rod Gronkowski ran through and made Laurinaitis look awful for a 14-yard TD, making him look like an unlucky rodeo clown the last 5. Gronkowski haunted the whole Ram LB unit. He beat Larry Grant for 32, and finished that drive off in the 4^th with a 20-yard TD, handily beating, unsurprisingly, Chris Chamberlain. Atogwe and Laurinaitis bit badly on a play fake to allow Wes Welker to roam the middle of the field freely for 32. I’d say the Ram LBs better step up their play, but only ask the corners to keep up theirs. They’ve had a good preseason.

* Special teams: Brandon Tate temporarily ran Tom McMahon’s resume through the shredder, shredding Rams kick coverage for a 97-yard TD to open the game and following it with a 45-yarder. Stay. In. Your. Lanes! On the TD, it looked like the whole left side was out of position, especially Burton and Ogbonnaya. Josh Hull got stopped at the 25, creating a lane that Jerome Murphy filled before Tate juked him from ten yards away and sped off for 6. On the 2^nd return, Hull slipped, Bobby Carpenter missed a tackle, and Burton got manhandled, leaving kicker Josh Brown to make the ankle tackle, AND WE DO NOT NEED OUR INJURED KICKER HAVING TO BRING GUYS DOWN. But Josh did it again later in the night, impressively rumbling down inside the 30 to stop Taylor Price on a return. Brown also hit 3 FG, from 25, from 45 at the halftime gun, and from 37 at the final gun FTW, and was one of the stars of the night. He’s 7-for-7 this preseason. Special teams and defense really helped the Rams win the battle for field position and time of possession (about a 3-to-1 advantage) all night. That includes Amendola, with 31- and 16-yard punt returns. And Quincy Butler, who made a couple of nice punt coverage plays, including a fine diving effort at the goal line to keep a punt in play at the 2. The unit recovered well from its early disaster.

In one of the most “duh” moves of all time, the Rams are reportedly going to make a call to the San Diego Chargers to kick the tires and see what it would take to get Vincent Jackson.  Jackson is currently holding out for a bigger contract from San Diego and is suspended for the first 3 games of the NFL season anyway.

He is reportedly asking for a 5 year $50 million dollar contract.  It would take at least what it took to get Brandon Marshall from Denver to acquire him.   Brandon Marshall was traded for two 2nd round picks.

Would the Rams be able to part with two young solid starters through the draft for a dynamic, big, strong and fast wide receiver that is at or near his peak and only going to decline going forward?  Would the Rams be able to commit that amount of money with a substantial portion guaranteed for an older wide receiver?

Vincent Jackson is a great wide receiver no doubt about that.  He exists in the group of wide receivers that can do it all.  He can stretch the defense down the field and he can run quality routes across the middle.  The Rams are absolutely right in checking the price on Vincent Jackson before the Sept 4th roster cutdown day. He’ll have to be moved before September 4th or he will have to sit out six of his new team’s games.

What do you think?  If the price was two 2nd round picks and a big contract, would you trade for Vincent Jackson?

Over the next few articles I will be reviewing all of the Ram’s offensive positions.  My primary method will be a year to year comparative.  Since last year the Rams stumbled into a 1-15 record, I will look for player changes and the quality of those replacements (hopefully upgrades).  This article will focus on all running back positions (FB, HB).

1 Steven Jackson – no real need for review here… Jackson is one of the best running backs in the NFL.  The primary concern with Steven is the condition of his back.  Since he was such a work horse last year, I am assuming this will not be an issue and he will be ready to go once the regular season begins.

2 Chris Ogbonnaya – Last year was Chris’ rookie season and he played in 2 games.  He had very little impact in either game just as he has had very little impact during this year’s pre-season games.  Unless there is significant performance change, I don’t see Chris being much of a value-add for the Rams.

3 Kenneth Darby – Darby is entering his 4^th year in the NFL.  The last 2 have been with the Rams.  After 3 years in the NFL and playing in all 16 games last year, he has yet to score a touchdown (rushing, receiving, or kick return).   His career stats do not yet give indication that he will be a stand out player.

4 Keith Toston – Keith played at Oklahoma State for four years.  He entered the NFL draft in 2010, but went undrafted.  The Rams picked him up in April 2010.  His junior year he rushed for 686 yards and 8 touchdowns.  His senior year was even better as he rushed for over 1,000 yards, 10 touchdowns, and had receptions of 216 yards.  He has looked good in his pre-season playing time.  I think he will make a positive addition to the Rams.

5 Mike Karney (FB) – Mike has been in the NFL since 2004.  He played for the New Orleans Saints from 2004-2008.  While playing for the Saints he was named Second Team All Pro (2006) and selected as a Pro Bowl alternate in both 2006 and 2007.  The Rams really need for him to have another Pro Bowl quality season.  I consider Mike a continued value-add to the Rams.

6  Dennis Morris – this is Dennis’ rookie season.  He played as offensive TE for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.  He was a solid receiving TE for them in 2009 (623 yards and 12 touchdowns).  I am not sure why he is slotted as a fullback.  Realistically, it seems improbably he will have a lot of impact in 2010 (I hope I’m wrong).

Analysis?  Well, if Jackson and Karney do their jobs everything should be fine.  During the off season the Rams released Samkon Gado who I had hoped to make a real difference for them in 2009.  He did not and I’m not sure if it was a performance issue or if he was utilized incorrectly.  I am very disappointed the Rams didn’t pick up Brian Westbrook when he was recently available.  That moved would have strengthened the Rams running core and taken some pressure off of Steven Jackson.  This year the Rams running game should be very similar to last year.  There is not a lot of depth here so let’s hope we stay healthy.

The safeties are the last group to go before the specialists.   We are almost home!

OJ Atogwe – The Rams played the staredown game with OJ Atogwe all summer.  They called his bluff about other teams being interested in him and let him test free agency late in the summer.  Nothing materialized and both sides were happy to sign a long term deal in St. Louis.  Atogwe is the Rams best player in the secondary and a natural ball hawk.  As most ball hawks do, he gets better with better play around him.  He should benefit from better corner play and a healthy safety partner.

James Butler – James Butler will start across from Atogwe in the Rams safety lineup.  He will play closer to the line of scrimmage and focus more on stopping the run game.  Butler is a solid player but is slowing down from his salad days.  He missed a few too many tackles in 2009, but there were way too many open-field tackles Butler was required to make in 2009.

The rest of the safeties are after the jump!

Continue reading Training Camp Position Breakdown: S