St. Louis Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo gave a press conference yesterday, his first since the season ended, in which he said...not much really. As someone that's worked in PR for a decade now, I can say that Spagnuolo is a press conference genius. He can deliver a message with aplomb, focus in on the good news and skirt around the touchy issues with the kind of niceties that leave the press fulfilled but ultimately knowing nothing more than they did when the press conference began.
Take for instance Spags' statements on the Rams quarterback situation. Here's his statement on Bulger after the morning's news that the Rams incumbent starter had cleared out his locker:
I see all the scenarios. Marc has a contract. . . .I mean, Marc’s on this football team.
Well said. No matter what perspective you view the Rams QB situation from, this statement gives you something to work with. Wanna speculate on Bulger's release? Go ahead, after all, he meant as of this moment. Feeling a little more skeptical? Fine. Spags is right and there's nothing else besides whispers of a locker cleaning to hang a pretty big rumor on. He also threw in plenty of praise for Bulger.
And what about drafting a QB? Well, Spags had something for everyone in his statements about the first overall pick. You're in the Suh camp? Spags talked about building from the inside out. You prefer a QB with that pick? Spags made it perfectly clear that he was open to drafting a QB in that spot.
The internets will be buzzing with Rams rumors today, fueled by Spagnuolo's presser, and though some of the rumors will be awfully exciting, it's unlikely we'll know anymore today than we knew yesterday.
On the Antonio Pierce talk, who says the guy has to be signed as a starter? Talk in the wake of Spags' non-comment comment about Pierce yesterday has almost exclusively focused on the fact that the Rams have a (stud) starting at MLB in James Laurinaitis, followed quickly by whether or not Pierce can play on the weakside. The guy's 32-years-old and coming off a pretty serious neck injury. I understand that he may want to start and some teams might be willing to give him that chance; however, if the Rams were thinking about picking him up, he'd be a great fit for depth at MLB and mentorship to the youngsters on this team, especially since the seasoned vets among the Rams LBs will be entering their third season in 2010, assuming Paris Lenon is not retained. We've discussed this possibility before.
One interesting note from yesterday's presser is that the Rams have reportedly finished their evaluations for free agency. Hmm. We'll find out more about what those look like in just a little more than 2 weeks.