Bradford, Saffold signings close; Saffold working at guard
by VanRam on Jul 27, 2010 4:50 PM CDT
in St. Louis Rams training camp
16 comments
The St. Louis Rams open training camp tomorrow when rookies and QBs report. First overall draft pick Sam Bradford meets the criteria for both, so will he be at Rams Park tomorrow?
Maybe not tomorrow, but the Rams are pretty confident he'll be there by week's end. Here's what Spagnuolo told the press today:
Everything’s going good. It’s not done yet, but (Kevin Demoff) is very hopeful.
In other signing news, the coach was confident that second round pick Rodger Saffold will be signed in the next 24 hours. He might not be an offensive tackle, though. Huh? Brian Stull of ESPN 101 reminded fans that Saffold has been working at RG in spring practices and might start out there when camp begins with Goldberg and Trautwein at RT.
Some injured players have been cleared for camp, actually all of them have, including Steven Jackson, Bradley Fletcher, Daniel Fells, Jacob Bell, Jason Smith and Rodger Saffold.
Finally, here's a pretty interesting little tidbit from Mike Sando. Remember the controversy when the Rams fired their previous trainer? Well, Spagnuolo provided some context for their decision to hire Reggie Scott as head trainer. It's the rehab:
The new trainer, Reggie Scott, was hired from the Carolina Panthers in part to create an atmosphere and trust level that would more fully engage players to rehabilitate at the Rams' facility during the offseason. Panthers receiver Steve Smith and former Panthers defensive end Julius Jones recommended Scott highly as a trainer who made players feel comfortable. Spagnuolo alluded to that subject Tuesday when telling reporters he expected most of the team's injured -- notably running back Steven Jackson -- to participate in training camp from the beginning.
There was little public context for the move at the time. A plague of injuries have dogged the Rams for too long now, and part of that had to with an aging roster and just plain bad luck, lots and lots of bad luck. However, something had to change, and taking a new approach to rehabilitation of injuries was one of the few factors the team had control of.
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RG? Huh?
Didn’t the Rams draft him to replace Alex “False Start” Barron? To pay him 2nd round cash and move him out of position to guard is ludicrous.
Yes kind of showing he is not the OT. they thought he was
Another thing maybe there was a better OG. available at #2 if a OG. is what we wanted
but I hope he works out and can play well at Tackle for us,they could just be trying him out to see how well he can play the other positions
I don't think it says he's a lesser player than they originally thought
I think they’re just trying to ease him into the speed of the game at a position that doesn’t have all the pressure of protecting the 50 million dollar man in Bradford. I think he’ll play RT soon enough if he doesn’t earn it by the end of camp.
Onubon > Gates
Well, I'll believe it when I see it!
We are neck deep in Guards. Screw ESPN, pardon my French, but there’s no way they are going to utilize him as a Guard. I’ve never liked ESPN. They treat all teams west of the east coast as second-class teams.
Go Rams!
"We can't run. We can't pass. We can't stop the run. We can't stop the pass. We can't kick. Other than that, we're just not a very good football team right now." --- Bruce Coslett, New York Jets Head Coach circa 1990s
Per Brian Stull
Saffold Update—according to sources, Rodger and his reps have arrived in STL. Will be meeting tonight and hoping to get something finalized
Onubon > Gates
Yeah Sam, I'm wondering who the he*l besides Brown and maybe Smith will be protecting you?
Bell? Overpaid. Saffold? Apparently overated as a 2nd round OT. Greco, Fraley, Goldberg? Not worthy of rating. She-it.
Looking at last year's stats, we shouldn't be in such bad shape.
Greco only allowed 1 sack and 2 hits in 280 snaps last year. He is a better pass blocker than run blocker. Bell allowed 2 sacks and 3 hits in 850 snaps, Smith allowed 2 sacks and 3 hits in 340 snaps, and if all goes well he should improve to have near those numbers over the entire season. Fraley allowed 1 sack and 0 hits in 340 snaps. Brown allowed 1 sack and 1 hit in over 1000 snaps. We got rid of Barron and he allowed 7 sacks and 15 hits in over 1000 snaps. I think Saffold needs to start at right tackle because Goldberg was just as bad as Barron, 8 sacks and 8 hits in over 900 snaps, including 4 sacks in one game while playing LG. So a line of Smith, Bell, Brown, Greco/Fraley, and Saffold, all with one year playing with each other (except for Fraley and Saffold), shouldn’t do too bad a job at protecting Sam. And hopefully Bradford will get rid of the ball sooner than our other QBs did too and/or our receivers will get some separation which will help a lot too. And most importantly, everyone needs to stay healthy. Most scouting reports like Saffold’s pass ranking ability, the worst I saw was “above average.” Some say he has LT potential. I think he will do fairly well right away in the NFL. Barron’s numbers at worst.
Onubon > Gates
by Carneros on Jul 27, 2010 9:12 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
I wish it was done...
I know…I know…Sam’s gonna sign soon…just wish I knew when soon was and that he wouldn’t have to miss any time at all. Bet he’s not exactly happy about missing even one day of training camp, (like tomorrow) but I guess everyone is doing the best they can. Go Rams!!!
I don't get why they have to wait until now to get it done.
They could have started a week or two earlier and have it done. I guess they are hoping to save a little money by pushing up against the wire if he really wants to get in on time.
Onubon > Gates
I heard that!
No telling what the rush is (haha). Seriously, I don’t mean to be critical…I’m not the one working on getting the deal done so have no idea what all is involved…it’s just hard to understand why it has to come down to the wire and beyond…perhaps for the reason you stated, Onubon. . Go Rams…go Sammy B…hope you’re in camp tomorrow!
its all good
The scouting report on Saffold was that he could play all positions across the line except center. Let’s get the best 5 out there and hope they can stay healthy. If the Rams can stay healthy they might actually surprise us.
Really? We’re already sounding the death knell for Saffold because he got snaps at guard? Feels pretty similar to what they did last year with Jason Smith, easing him in at a different position (RT as opposed to LT).
The situation will become a lot clearer over the course of training camp, but if they feel Trautwein (or whoever) can be a decent RT and Saffold is the team’s best option at RG, I wouldn’t be opposed to that for now.
Exactly
This doesn’t mean they already think can’t play OT. This isn’t directed at you, but for those who think that the coaches don’t think he can play OT anymore, that’s kind of stupid. They don’t know much more now than they did at the time of they draft. They haven’t even put pads on yet. So if they don’t think he could play OT now, they would have thought that at the time of the draft as well.
Onubon > Gates
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