How Jason Smith spent his summer vacation: Random Ramsdom, 7/8

by Ryan Van Bibber on Jul 8, 2009 1:59 PM CDT in St. Louis Rams news

Yum, some randomness to keep you occupied during the afternoon.

Fox Sports.com's Pete Schrager takes a look at the NFC West today, with five questions for the division. Naturally, he asks about the Rams wide receivers. Yada, yada, yada. This has officially become the storyline for a team all but forgotten by the national media. Making this version of the tired old tale even better is the insinuation that the Rams will miss Drew Bennett and Dante Hall at receiver. Um, did anyone else see how those guys played since coming to the Rams? Sure, we'll all miss Holt and Bruce, but I'll take young and hungry over decreptid and declining any day. Yes, teh receivers are young and unknown, we get it. There's nothing left to beat on this dead horse.

If you're in Waco next week, you might head over to the Chamber of Commerce which is throwing a send-off party for Baylor OT and Rams first round draft pick Jason Smith.

Speaking of Smith, Mike Tomlin's talk at the rookie symposium about winning the Super Bowl had more of an effect on Smith the rest of the scared straight talk...and he won't be strung out on cocaine anytime soon. That's good news for Rams fans.

More Smith...Ross Tucker at SI.com speculates that part of the reason for the Rams starting Jason Smith on the right side is to ease him into facing off against powerful, experienced pass rushers, thus keeping him from losing his confidence. I think it's more about maximizing potential for both Barron and Smith. There's reason to believe the experienced Barron can play LT, and there's confidence that the new coaches can clean up his game, i.e. penalties. With Smith, they have a guy that has skills in both pass and run blocking sandwiched between the top guard, Incognito, and a blocking TE in Billy Bajema. Of course, you'll also remember that head coach Steve Spagnuolo has said that he wants both players to be able to play both OT positions, noting that nothing was set in stone this far out from the start of the season.

Check out the all-decade NFC West team from Mike Sando. A number of former Rams on the list, including the usual suspects: Holt, Bruce, Warner and Pace, along with Adam Timmerman at G (it's little wonder that the last season the Rams offense was decent was Timmerman's last season, 2006), Leonard Little DE, and K Josh Brown.

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And Adam

Interesting the emphasis Tucker puts on how hard it is to change from left OT to right OT. I’d say it’s even harder to change from outside line to interior line, and of course I’m talking about Carriker going from DE to DT.

I’m not big on excuses, but the reality is asking him to make that change was huge. I still don’t know that he’ll be able to play inside at a level that justifies his high draft spot, but then again it’s also questionable whether he has the mobility to project as a great fit as a DE, other than as a situational run stopper.

He was a “need pick”, the Rams were just desperate for D line help and he was one of the more talented college guys in his draft year. But what exactly do you do with him? Run stopping DE who isn’t elite fast or a serious pass rushing threat, versus out of position and learning DT for the first years in hopes of getting the most help on the weakest part of the team. The Rams chose the latter, with the chances of bust probably being fairly equal.

Carriker needs to get it done this year. But if he doesn’t, the whole question of position change will be as legitimate as his ability to play. If he bombs this year, then goes to another team and plays well at DE, I’m gonna be sick.

Lived in LA during the Rams and Raiders days. Now based in NorCal, I am still a die hard Rams fan and Raiders season ticket holder.

by CoachConnors on Jul 9, 2009 1:25 PM CDT reply actions