Random Ramsdom, 8/10: New faces
by Ryan Van Bibber on Aug 10, 2010 8:00 AM CDT
in St. Louis Rams news
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PrintFour more days until the St. Louis Rams take on the Minnesota Vikings in their preseason opener. That's right real football, kind of....whistles blown in anger...the thud of pads smacking together...and hopefully no sign of injured players limping off the field. Let's jump right in.
It's a good bet that at least one of the DEs drafted by the Rams this year will make the final 53-man roster, at least as a situational pass rusher. Seventh-round pick George Selvie seems to be the lead horse right now, though Eugene Simms and Hall Davis are getting good reports too. It'll be interesting to compare Selvie to his former teammate and first-round pick Jason Pierre-Paul, who seems to be having a good camp with the Giants.
With Josh Brown dealing with a hip injury, the Rams may have to sign a kicker before this weekend's preseason game. Temper your expectations without Brown in the lineup.
Bryan Burwell weighs in on the decision to work Bradford into the starting job deliberately.
The Rams have some tough decisions to make among their receivers, and not even the undrafted guys can be counted out. Rams Gab has a look at MIssissippi State's Brandon McRae.
(3k addition) The Associated Press chipped in today with a piece that catches up with rookie TEs Mike Hoomanawanui and Fendi Onobun. Go Rams.
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Even though this may be a bit premature
.. I’m glad we drafted Bradford over Suh.. Until you see the piece in place, it’s hard to envision the difference it can make not only to the position, but to the team.
Everyone seems to have a zip to their step, physically and mentally. You can feel the excitement, and more importantly, the excitement is justified.. Bradford appears to be the real deal.
I honestly think this franchise is about to turn the corner in many different areas… not only wins, but in pure WILL to win.
GO RAMS
"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall." - Vince Lombardi
Indeed
You can certainly feel the excitement growing in STL and it is almost all thanks to Sam Bradford. If we passed on him then who would be leading our team? Feely, Null, Clausen, McCoy? I would not feel half as confident about any of those guys compared to Bradford. And if we did get Clausen or McCoy then who would protect him? We would probably still have Barron and no Saffold who is looking like an absolute stud.
by Buck Nasty87 on Aug 10, 2010 10:27 AM CDT up reply actions
to me
there was just no way this team could go forward without a QB
Turf Show Times
by Ryan Van Bibber on Aug 10, 2010 10:52 AM CDT up reply actions
especially when you consider the alternative
drafting a qb next year, who probably wont be in Bradford’s class, and starting from scratch then. Jesus.Or grabbing one in later rounds who may not be anything you can move forward with. This is looking like a very good decision.
If you love something, set it free. If it doesn't come back, find it and kill it.
Yea I definitely agree..
Getting very excited about Rams football
"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall." - Vince Lombardi
it's amazing what happens when you draft wisely, isn't it?
hopefully Saffold turns out to be stud….and he was a 2nd rounder (albeit at the beginning of the 2nd round, but 2nd rd is 2nd rd) !!!!
The draft is key in all sports, but with Football, where you only get 7 rounds, you have to make the most of it. These guys seem to understand how to evaluate and draft talented football players….it’s about time.
for real
The rams decay can be attributed to reaching in the 2nd round (most notably Brian Leonard and Joe Kloepenstein) and poor scouting and vision in the first round. 3-7 were not picnic during the zygmut era either.
If you love something, set it free. If it doesn't come back, find it and kill it.
Sorry that Josh Brown is hurt, and I hope he recovers quickly. But there may be a silver lining.
I’ve always thought these Rams relied way too much on Brown, i.e. quickly settle for FG’s. That’s the easiest way possible to lose a game; kick too many FG’s and not score touchdowns. I hope this year instead of settling for 10-20 yard FG’s, we go for more TD’s. Reserve Brown for those 45-55 yard attempts.
I've followed the other St. Louis SB sites (Viva El Birdos and STL Game Time) but haven't really gotten into TST until this season...
I wouldn’t consider myself a bandwagoner Rams fan; I’ve watched most games the last 5 years, but I certainly wasn’t tuning in every day to see what was happening at training camp. It’s exciting now. It’s amazing that one guy can change so much. I almost find it hard to believe.
I can’t stand Brian Burwell’s writing, but he said something in today’s article (mentioned above) that stuck out to me. The article was about Bradford, but one piece that i noticed in the article mentioned how James Laurinitis took over the spot for Chris Draft last season and stepped up…big time. When these types of changes happen on this team, it makes me excited about it. The old, boring Rams are slowly being replaced with legitimate football players. The Rams are slowly taking out the Alex Barrons and replacing them with Saffolds.
It’s beginning to be fun again. And no, i don’t expect the Rams to go 13-3 and win the SuperBowl, alla 1999 again. But this team is clearly trending upward. It’s going to be fun again, guys. I’m really excited to just watch the whole process happen right before our eyes.
Former UCLA kicker?
I cannot remember the name of the former UCLA kicker we brought to camp last year or 2 years ago. He made every FG attempted and each one went clean down the middle. Was it Medford? Shouldn’t he get another chance?
I've been a Rams fan for the past 16 yrs...
still a pup compared to some of the old timers. I know theres a lot of hype over Bradford and Saffold, but everyone needs to have cautious optimism. Bradfords doing the best thing we wanted to see right now, which is not getting lost in the shuffle and actually excelling at the challenges being presented. But the critical things he needs to excel at are running the offense against another team thats hell bent on killing him (that comes this Saturday) and showing that text book accuracy when the games on the line. The preseason games will determine if he’s really ready to take over the reigns quickly rather than later. The scrimmage is nice, but even Null looked good with McRae during scrimmage. Lets all be patient with the kid and put things in proper perspective.
Only in the bizarro world.
I predict Nully will be cut ans serve as a classic example of another wasted draft pick.
Chop, cmon
Null was the 196th pick in the draft. How many picks from the 4th round on pan out?
You don't seem to want to accept the fact you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In *St. Louis* his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition. Well, *Steven Jackson* was the best.
by 3k on Aug 10, 2010 4:34 PM CDT up reply actions
Not very many! That's why we're in the sh*ts trying to play with a bunch of 6-7th rounders.
Again, it’s what I call the 80% factor. That’s the approximate percentage of our roster that’s either 6-7th rounders (Nully, Vobora, Payne, etc.), castoffs, underperformers or too old. The other 20% of our players range from excellent to halfway decent. Anyway, it’s hard to create many wins with the percentage of talent that askew.
I can't imagine they will cut Null
unless they plan to go with just two QBs this year. The new rookie QB is great practice squad fodder and has basically no chance to beat out Null this year.
I agree on that point completely
I’m just saying to call a 6th round pick a “waste” because you cut him and then argue that you can’t fill a roster with 6th and 7th round picks are conflicting arguments.
You don't seem to want to accept the fact you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In *St. Louis* his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition. Well, *Steven Jackson* was the best.
by 3k on Aug 11, 2010 1:26 AM CDT up reply actions
You are 100% correct. I mis-spoke. Most 5th round or above picks are a waste. So using a 6th or 7th and getting anybody good is like a lightning strike.
Even so, Null is a waste on the roster. We’d have been better off sticking with Brock Berlin.
love the optimism....
but all the love for Bradford and this kid hasn’t even played in a preseason game. All it takes is a Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith or another shoulder injury and we will be wishing we would have taken Suh. I love Bradford and the Rams, but the drooling should cease until the kid actually gets some real game snaps. With that being said, we do have something to get excited about, this team is heading in the right direction despite what some of the nay sayers are saying (ramchop). It’s really irritating when I continue to hear people criticizie the current FO for bad decision from years a go. So far I think this FO has done a really nice job. Have they been perfect, no of course not, but they have been good.
A perfect 1-15 so far and have not begun to address problems (holes) on D-Line, b/u RB and maybe even WR.
Plus, the O-line is still a crapshoot. Highly paid number 1 pick from 2009, Jason Smith, has yet to show anything but a propensity for injury. The number of washed up, castoff, and 6-7th round players onboard is still staggering. Fully 80% of the team is questionable as to whether they have NFL talent or not. In his 1st year, Pat Shurmur proved to be the worst offensive play caller in the NFL and idiotic coaching decisions cost us the Washington, Jax and probably Houston games last year. So keep on looking at the Rams with rose-colored glasses. Meanwhile, I’ll be a realist. And don’t read anything into the pre-season. We’re giants when the games don’t mean anything. Last year we were 3-1.
Going to pick on you a bit here - Take it like a man...
Ramchops, I am going to pick on you a bit here, but I think you can probably take it. Anyone who makes comments like the ones you are making typically means that you (i) didn’t play football yourself and (ii) you don’t have stellar business sense.
Football players realize that injuries happen and it doesn’t necessarily discredit their ability to be effective players in the future. Saying Jason Smith is soft because he’s had a couple injuries in a short amount of time is ridiculous. If you had played football, you would have a better idea of how a concussion can sideline you for weeks at a time (no matter how “tough” you are) and a broken toe is immobilizing for a 300 pound man. In some ways, we are fortunate that we had some injuries last year – We got a better draft slot and now our previously injured players are returning with additional building blocks for the future.
Regarding your business sense….Due to past FO decisions and commitments, the Rams had an incredible amount of “dead money”. This limited their ability to secure a meaningful amount of marquee players and upgrade their personnel from the 6-7th round players that you referenced. It takes time. There are no quick fixes. I’ve you’ve run a business with a budget you should be able to relate.
My two cents….And unless you can strap on the pads and add some value, lighten up! Our boys are bleeding on every Sunday and doing what they can to move the needle.
by Ms. Irrelevant on Aug 10, 2010 4:24 PM CDT up reply actions
Word
And just to add a point, the pool of available “marquee” players is incredibly small. 95% of could be complaining that their team didn’t bring in strong talents outside of the draft
You don't seem to want to accept the fact you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In *St. Louis* his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition. Well, *Steven Jackson* was the best.
by 3k on Aug 10, 2010 4:38 PM CDT up reply actions
I hope you can take the hits back Mrs. Vobora. :-)
In fact, I played some form of fb, except flag fb which I don’t count as real fb, from the time I was about 12 till I was 25. I clearly recall the last “pickup” game I ever played in Dec 1980. I had a concussion pretty early on, circa 1968, from banging heads together with another guy at full speed during PE fb. My Dad had to take me to the clinic due to severe headache, visual disturbances and nausea. I recovered in a few days.
As far as business experience, I own TWO successful stores. Both started from scratch. So, regarding your assumed assessment of me, you are wrong on both counts.
I’m still over 200 lbs, but at age 55, my strapping on pads wouldn’t benefit anybody very much. But I still stand 100% by the statements in my earlier post. It’s time for Ram fans to stop accepting excuses and demand this team start kickin’ some ass. When the Saints were almost as bad as we were in the 80s, their fans wore bags over their heads and referred to them as “the Ain’ts.”
Starting from scratch
That’s what the Rams did. I’m sure it took you some time. And the Rams have had limited assets. Year 1 it was money, because we had all those bad contracts that we had to get rid of, year 2 it was the lack of salary cap that got rid of all talent on the FA market. Next year should be our best building year. We should have a regular free agency period, and with an additional draft class, we should really start competing. Do you think signing Aaron Campman would’ve helped? Julius Peppers got way too much money and years. Bears have him signed to play until he’s 36, and you don’t like Leonard Little now because he’s that age. So as long as there’s no lockout next seasons we should be back in the thick of this division. This front office is doing what is best for the long haul. For some reason you want them to burn all their assets for a year or two of football, but then we’re back to where we started. Would you rather the Rams be competitive annually starting in a year or two or just this year and next and then suck for another 3-5 years?
Onubon > Gates
Not agreeing with Ramchop, but I can understand his frustration...
Three season with the worst or second worst record can make a scenic out of most fans. Not necessarily agreeing with Ramchop with his comments, but we all can share his frustrations with the way this organization has been run the past 7 yrs. The good news is I do believe we’ve finally turned the corner. I don’t see a playoff game for another 2 years, but I can see us no longer being considered ‘road-kill’ once the regular season progresses.
"Three season with the worst or second worst record can make a scenic out of most fans."
People that don’t agree with that point are living in Fantasy Land.
I don't think anyone here is screaming superbowl
But looking at the current situation, at how the kid has progressed, I think the drooling is justified thus far :-)
"The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall." - Vince Lombardi
for me...i was impressed by the S.I. article over the weekend on Bradford...
..sure, it mentioned his success on the football practice field last Friday, but what stuck out even more to me was the off the field stuff with Bradford. First, he refused to accept an invite from the baseball Cardinals to be introduced at a game, unless Feeley and Null were invited to be introduced as well. Second, he wouldn’t play in the NFL celebrity golf tournament because, he “hadn’t taken a snap in the NFL yet.” Later, he agreed to play in Joe Buck’s local golf tournament (different than the first one), but in order to do so, his agents would have to give him some clubs, because no way was he showing up at the airport carrying golf clubs, “it just wouldn’t look right” to him.
This kid either has a really good head on his shoulders, or he has an insanely good P.R. person working with him.
both
You don't seem to want to accept the fact you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In *St. Louis* his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition. Well, *Steven Jackson* was the best.
by 3k on Aug 10, 2010 4:39 PM CDT up reply actions
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