St. Louis Rams practice notes, 8/16: Back to the receivers

It would be crazy for them to cut this guy, he is a good receiver and by far the best deep threat we have. I would be blown away if he leaves

the last couple of spots are going to come down to who can play the most roles in the offense. Instead of who is the fastest or the tallest.

I’ve said this a couple of times already but to be honest Pettis could earn a starting job and these are the reasons……
1. Gibson might look great in camp but in actual season he’s not so impressice.
2. It’s already been said that Mchoody likes Pettis’s hands and size.
3. Some might say Alexander on the other side of Sky Walker but we just don’t know how good his knees will hold up, I say he’s a situational wr ( like in redzone and 3rd down ) for the year and see if he can stay healthy.
4. Say those was just jitters his first game and he comes out tearing it up these next 3 weeks the coaches will take notice
5. Last but not least I just don’t trust that avery can stay healthy
Feel free to argue any of these even though I know which one will be argued the most…..

but its a shame DX might not make it to the final roster….he showed promise last year..he has height, speed, hands but that knee is just to unstable. damn.

DX has far more upside than Avery and it’s a 50/50 toss up as to which one gets injured first. Keep DX, free Avery.

I love Mardy’s earnest personality, but I’m not sure he has the maturity to be an NFL player. He seems to be the kind of guy who is destined to hit rock bottom every now and then. He also doesn’t have the big play potential of DX. He’s got good speed (but not as good as you’d hope for), but he seems to be lacking some athleticism and hands.

I’ll take 4-5 games a season of DX over 16 Games of Gilyard right now.

We fixed gaping holes all over the team. But I’m not happy with our crew of WR’s. A choice between DX and Avery is like sitting in the electric chair and being given the option of AC or DC. Either way ya know your gonna get it.

I keep hoping that when all the cuts are decided and we get under the cap, the FO will bring in another quality receiver similar to the way they did Clayton last year. It’ll probably cost us a couple draft picks. But we’re obviously in “win now” mode anyway.

but if I’ve GOT TO choose a bad set of knees, I’m going with Avery

If that’s what this comment thread is focused on debating.

It’s in the XYZ’s
An exert from the Cardinals Coach. It gives a fair explanation of why Spags passes on some "Big Name’’ TE’s and WR’s:
an example:

"Lee Evans is a good player and I like Lee Evans, but Lee Evans is an ‘X’ [split end]. Lee Evans is not a ‘Z’. When you talk about a Z, his responsibility is blocking and being able to do some things that play off of the X receiver. Now, he has been in the league a long time, but when you talk about a receiver at that position being able to come inside and block inside the line or be able to do some of the things that we ask of our Zs, it’s not necessarily always a good fit.

"I’m not saying Lee Evans wouldn’t have been a good fit, but when you talk about that position, you know it’s great to say that this guy is a good receiver, but if you have two of the same kind of receivers, then you’re going to be struggling to find ways to get them the ball because they are the same positional guy. And what I mean by that is, Xs are more geared toward running some of the outside routes, the big ins, the gos, the posts, those kind of things, where the Zs are more into the crossing routes, the curls, the inside stuff where they have to make the tight catches.

So when you are assessing your team and you talk about a No. 1 or a No. 2, we don’t really talk about No. 1 or No. 2. We talk about the role that these guys are going to play and what we’re trying to get done. Can the guy play the slot? Can he block? Can he do all these other things? Because that all has to integrate.

Coaches don’t seem to have hang-up’s about the mythical #1, Only us fans do. And that good I guess-we like to have hero’s.

My OPINION, which leaves me unbiased as Donnie Avery isn’t ‘my boy from way back’ is that we drafted Avery essentially in the first round 3 years ago, and even when our passing game was in the shitter, he seemed to be a bright spot. Had he not had ONE knee injury, this wouldn’t even be a conversation, because sadly (and again I’ll point out that I like him), DX hasn’t proven anything

is if we had 5 stud WR’s and a slew of guys we just knew weren’t going to make it. Unfortunately, we’re looking forward to a combo of rooks, slightly tested young guys, and a damaged crew of ‘veterans’

Had we only got VJAX, Sidney Rice, and Julio Jones (like I wanted), we’d be in much better shape

…..i hope no one took that seriously (mainly the first part). Again….kidding

If I was going to choose the wideouts, I would keep Sims Walker, Amendola, Gibson, Danario X, Pettis and either keep Gilyard or Salas. Cut Avery as a salary cap move since he can’t stay healthy and see if Clayton can come back and contribute. If DX can’t stay healthy either and were in the mix for a playoff spot, have Josh McD get a hold of Randy Moss and pull him out of retirement.

Normally a torn ligament in the knee should be healed a year later. But this is obviously something much more serious. I would love to have Avery’s speed but what the hell is going on? On top of that, there is virtually no news of what is going on with him. To be honest with you, I’m getting very frustrated with Donnie. Is he milking his injury? Or is he seriously injured? I just don’t know anymore. You’d think Avery would be killing himself in rehab trying to get out there on the field, and how is it that just a month or so ago he’s running a 4.25 and now he can’t even get on the practice field?

I’m almost to the point of saying the Rams should just cut him and move on so we don’t have to deal with the questions and regret of that pick.

I’m not worried (yet).

….it might open up some holes for the recievers to do their thing. Opposing defenses will have to respect the two tight end threat with Uh-Oh and Lance Kendricks and with our expensive offensive line blowing holes open for S-Jax, Cadillac and Jerius Norwoood, the receivers will be in more one on one matchups. If they can’t beat the opposing corners with pure speed (which they probably can’t anyway) it will be their knowledge of route running and finding the open spots in the defense that will carry them through. From what I hear, Mike Sims Walker, Austin Pettis, Lance Kendricks and Greg Salas are all adept at those skills. We may not be any faster or any healthier with the body of work we have at wide reciever but we may be smarter.

It’s been poor route running skills mixed with the inability to shake coverage. Combine that with an offensive line that doesn’t give you much time the throw the ball and what you get are 9 men in the box which leads to 3 and outs. MSW and DX would make a good tandem. They’re both good at working coverage to get to the ball. MSW does have a reputation for giving up on some plays, but sometimes thats pure speculation more than it is fact. Its ultimately going to be the threat at wideout that opens holes for Jackson or Williams to blow throw. As long as opposing D’s can stack their linebackers and strong safeties at or near the line of scrimmage instead of worrying about coverage its gonna be tough for any RB to get good yardage. TE’s will help a little through the middle with the LBs, but a couple of decent wideouts will get the safeties away front the line too.