The Rams needed a center, desperately, and they went out and got the best one they could. Good move. The PD is reporting that a deal with former Ravens C Jason Brown is "imminent."
After morning reports had the Rams as the favorite to sign Jason Brown, there were some whispers that the Raiders might be interested. Guess nothing ever materialized on that front though.
There might be another weird angle emerging in this story. According to this post at the Sporting News, which is acting as the surrogate blog for ProFootballTalk.com (whose servers have been unable to handle the traffic today; SBNation is up and running strong), one league source says that the Rams are willing to pay Brown $7 million per season, BUT Brown doesn't want to play for the Rams. He's supposedly hoping that someone else will step up and make him a similar offer. Nobody is though.
A league source tells ProFootballTalk.com that Brown doesn't want to play for the Rams, and thus wants someone/anyone to step up and match the offer St. Louis has made to him.
I'm dubious. I know players use interested teams as leverage, but it's been pretty clear for some time now that the Ravens weren't going to give Brown the kind of deal he wanted. I realize the Rams aren't exactly atop most players wish lists, but you'd have to think that with the changes made to the very structure of the organization players, especially young players like Brown, can see the writing on the wall that this Rams team has a renewed committment to winning. And should be easily competing for the division title come 2010. PFT's been wrong before, whiffing on news around Steven Jackson's holdout last August. Either way, I suspect he'll find it a little better destination than he thought come September.