The St. Louis Rams open training camp tomorrow when rookies and QBs report. First overall draft pick Sam Bradford meets the criteria for both, so will he be at Rams Park tomorrow?
Maybe not tomorrow, but the Rams are pretty confident he'll be there by week's end. Here's what Spagnuolo told the press today:
Everything’s going good. It’s not done yet, but (Kevin Demoff) is very hopeful.
In other signing news, the coach was confident that second round pick Rodger Saffold will be signed in the next 24 hours. He might not be an offensive tackle, though. Huh? Brian Stull of ESPN 101 reminded fans that Saffold has been working at RG in spring practices and might start out there when camp begins with Goldberg and Trautwein at RT.
Some injured players have been cleared for camp, actually all of them have, including Steven Jackson, Bradley Fletcher, Daniel Fells, Jacob Bell, Jason Smith and Rodger Saffold.
Finally, here's a pretty interesting little tidbit from Mike Sando. Remember the controversy when the Rams fired their previous trainer? Well, Spagnuolo provided some context for their decision to hire Reggie Scott as head trainer. It's the rehab:
The new trainer, Reggie Scott, was hired from the Carolina Panthers in part to create an atmosphere and trust level that would more fully engage players to rehabilitate at the Rams' facility during the offseason. Panthers receiver Steve Smith and former Panthers defensive end Julius Jones recommended Scott highly as a trainer who made players feel comfortable. Spagnuolo alluded to that subject Tuesday when telling reporters he expected most of the team's injured -- notably running back Steven Jackson -- to participate in training camp from the beginning.
There was little public context for the move at the time. A plague of injuries have dogged the Rams for too long now, and part of that had to with an aging roster and just plain bad luck, lots and lots of bad luck. However, something had to change, and taking a new approach to rehabilitation of injuries was one of the few factors the team had control of.