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The good people at Pro Football Focus had an article yesterday looking called "Movers and Fallers" which put the four NFC West teams under the microscope assessing three players: one that stepped up from the previous year, one that slide and one that surprised. For the St. Louis Rams, Fred Robbins gets the nod for most improved. No surprise there. Robbins had 6 sacks, 6 hits and 22 pressures on opposing QBs along with giving the Rams a wall against the run in the middle.
Spagnuolo's short-lived right guard rotation rounds out the other two spots. Starter Adam Goldberg gets the booby prize for his play this year. And the author adds that "it'd be an upset" if the Rams re-signed the free agent. I don't know about that. Goldberg's value is his ability to play guard and tackle as a decent backup. His best work comes on the outside, and with questions about the Rams depth behind Rodger Saffold and Jason Smith, keeping Goldie makes some sense. I do not think he'd be a lock to make the final roster, unless they expand rosters with 2 games added to the schedule (though I wonder whether the 18-game season would take effect right away).
John Greco gets the "Give this guy more snaps" award. Here's what PFF said about Greco:
In the four games he played over 30 snaps, he had perfect games in pass pro, with his pass blocking grade only marred somewhat by the sack he allowed in just six snaps against Seattle. He proved dominant as a run blocker too, his +7.1 rating grading 7th amongst all guards. Look for Greco to be a starter in 2011.
I want to like Greco, but I feel like we haven't seen enough. Ideally, he'd get more reps in camp and in the preseason than he has in the past. Greco played well against the Chargers defensive fronr
More to the point, I wouldn't look for him to be the starter in 2011 considering the Rams were reluctant to even have him active on Sundays late in the season. Supposedly, they wanted a guy who could play center as well (which makes me wonder if Jason Brown wasn't dealing with some injury issues below the radar) which is why they didn't dress Greco. It's too bad because if the Rams did have more faith in Greco that would eliminate one big (no pun intended) offseason need.