Rams Mini Camp and Links

I scoured the web to find the dates for the Rams upcoming mini-camp without much success. I finally found it, so I thought I'd post it here for the interested parties.

The Rams will have their mini camp from May 9 thru May 11. It will not be open to the public.

Although I linked to it in the post below, the Football Outsiders "Four Downs" series takes a look at the NFC West in the post-draft edition . Here's what they said about the Chris Long pick:

The need was obvious; St. Louis defensive ends combined for only 5 1/2 sacks in 2007. (That does not count the two sacks of Clifton Ryan whose position, according to ESPN.com, is “DL.”) Long had 14 sacks last season. He started 37 games at Virginia, and will likely be starting for the Rams by the end of the year, pairing with 2006’s first-round pick, Adam Carriker, as the cornerstones of the St. Louis defensive line.

Just because the experts say he's a good pick, doesn't make it so. Anyone remember Tony Mandarich ?

Jerametrius Butler, a former Rams malcontent benched in 2007 before being cut loose in the summer of 2007, still doesn't have a job for the season.

Don Banks sees improvements to the Rams and the other NFC West teams coming at the expense of the Seahawks 10 win season last year.

Whatever faults people may see with the Rams, the offseason shuffle in the coaching and front office ranks will likely have the biggest impact. Here's an interesting look at that from the suite side from Michael Lombardi at SI.