Good people, I know that some of you are giving things up for forty bloody days, probably nothing of importance, but sacrifice is sacrifice, no matter how trivial consumer culture has made it. We here at TST acknowledge your sacrifice, good people, and we hope you're still a long way off from claiming your special corner of Valhalla. While you wait, we want to indulge you, cover the vanilla ice cream you'll be stuck with for the next six weeks in hot fudge, load it up with nuts and put sugar-spiked cherry on the top.
And what better way to indulge St. Louis Rams fans than with a long list of crap for you to skim and scan while you recover from an especially brutal Mardi Gras hangover. Some nuts to sprinkle on top of your already fine day after the jump.
Allen eager to fulfill pre-injuries potential - Remember Roger Allen? He was a talented guard out of Northwest Missouri that the Rams picked up as an undrafted free agent a couple years back. Like the other intriguing undrafted free agents and third-day draft picks, the internets dubbed him the last piece of the puzzle, the second coming of Steve Hutchinson. Then, as most Rams players do, he got injured and that was it. The Saints took a chance on him last year, but he got hurt again. Now, Carolina is giving him another shot ... and I hope he stays healthy for the sake of small schools everywhere and because I'm a nice fucking guy who generally cares about his fellow human person.
Tale of the Tape: Justin Blackmon vs Stanford - Pity Justin Blackmon. Everyone tells us he is not a top-five pick, not a Larry Fitzgerald or A.J. Green type of receiver. That may very well be accurate, but he still has some skeels that teams will find attractive from a first-round receiver. In this film breakdown of Blackmon's performance against Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (DIP, CRUNCH) Blackmon puts on a nice display of how well he separates and run routes ... something rare for Rams receivers not named Brandon Lloyd.
Kirwan's mock draft: Get ready for a Griffin trade near the top - Imagining a Rams trade in a mock draft has lost all of its shock value, not to mention predictive purposes. This one from Pat Kirwan makes for an interesting supposition in which the Rams trade with the Redskins and draft Morris Claiborne. The most improbable thing about that scenario is another team skipping over the LSU corner before the Rams get him at number six. Fisher has picked defensive backs in the first round before, Michael Griffin in 2007 and Pacman Jones in 2005.
Packers, Scott Wells likely will part ways - Carl Nicks is getting all the attention as the top interior lineman in free agency, but Packers center Scott Wells will undoubtedly earn a nice contract if he hits the market. Green Bay, not flush with cap space, is not offering Wells, 31, what he thinks he is worth. Wells was a backup until 2009, and made the Pro Bowl this season as part of a very solid Green Bay interior line.
Chiefs sign CB Stanford Routt - Kansas City got a really good deal yesterday when they signed former Raiders cornerback Stanford Routt to a three-year, $19.6 million deal. That probably means Brandon Carr is gone, off to chase something more akin to the six-year, $49.35 million deal teammate Brandon Flowers signed last September.