Random Ramsdom, 8/17: Mardy agrees

First off this mooring I'm doing a interview with FottballNewsNow.com's NFC West writer Ed Cole, twitter @thesmoothone1, on his radio show The Beat on the E.Y.E.S. Radio Network.  I will be talking with him about the Rams of course and I will put the link up on TST whenever I get it.  Now let's get to the links.

Mardy agrees he isn't playing well

Even though Spags said he though Mardy took a step in the right direction in the game against the Colts, Bill Coats of the St. Louis Post Dispatch is reporting that Gilyard is only focused on what he did bad.  Mardy said he muffed a kick, made a unwise decision in not calling for a fair catch, and he missed some blocking assignments on offense.  He says that he is just that type of guy who concentrates on things to improve.  Gilyard even admitted to not spending enough time with his playbook last year and expressed disappointment in playing poorly.  He felt that he should have contributed more.  Mardy will need this attitude to make this team, because right now he's on the outside looking in.

Mike Sando's thoughts on our receivers

ESPN.com's NFC West writer, Mike Sando, was at Rams camp this week, and in this bit he offers up his first impressions of the Ram's WRs.  He said the Rams were confident enough in McDaniel's system that they didn't think they needed to get a big name receiver like Sydney Rice.  He also mention that McDaniel's liking of the word "stress" in his offense means that the Rams don't need a guy with blazing speed.   Sando list Amendola, MSW, Gibson, Petits, and Salas as guys who are likely to earn roster spots.  This leaves one or maybe two spots open for 7 receivers.  He mentions the DX seems like a guy to keep around, but there are concerns if his knee holds up.  Sando also mentioned concerns with Avery's health.  He mentioned Mardy's strong camp, but he doesn't believe we will have a spot for him.  Basically in this piece, Sando said what we all have said.  The WR competition is still in its infancy.

Eli thinks he as good as Brady

Eli Manning said in a interview with ESPN radio that he think he's in the same class of QB as Tom Brady.

"I consider myself in that class and Tom Brady is a great quarterback, he's a great player and what you've seen with him is he's gotten better every year and he started off winning championships and I think he's a better quarterback now than what he was, in all honesty, when he was winning those championships," Manning said. "I think he's ... gotten better every year and that's what I'm trying to do. I kind of hope these next seven years of my quarterback days are my best." 

Now I don't think there are many people who think Eli is even close to Brady, but if I was a Giant's fan, I would be thrilled with his confidence.

The U is in trouble

The University of Miami is under investigation from the NCAA.  A former booster, who is now in jail for his role in a ponzi scheme, Nevin Shapiro, told Yahoo Sports that he gave benefits to current NFL players while they were playing football at the University of Miami.  The players include: Devin Hester, Vince WIlfork, Jonathan Vilma, the late Sean Taylor, Frank Gore, Antrel Role, Willis McGahee, and Tavares Gooden.  They among with other former Hurricanes, were allegedly given things ranging from paid prostitutes, money, jewelry, game bounties, and on one case Shapiro said he paid for an abortion when one of the players got a prostitute pregnant.  Now these reports seems to be damning, but we should still wait and see what the NCAA investigation finds.  Also I don't want to sound like I think the U is evil, because I'm not naive.  Almost all of the big time NCAA football teams do this.  Maybe not to this level, but in my mind, I feel absolutely certain that they all do this to some extent.

That's all for today.....GO RAMS!!