The Rams Wrap Up Minicamp

The St. Louis Rams officially wrap up the offseason program yesterday with the end of minicamp. I was in attendance with many other club season ticket holders yesterday. Minicamp is all about installing the playbook for the Rams. It was a light practice even for June, so don't read too much into what happened. There are still 87 days until the Rams kick off the 2012 campaign.

First off, Michael Brockers is strong as hell. I cannot emphasize that enough. He is stupid strong. The defensive linemen were doing sled drills where each player hits each of 4 dummies in a row. Other players where making good hits, but Michael Brockers was the only player who moved the sled with each hit. Obviously there is much more to playing defensive tackle than raw strength, but it will be a huge asset for the Rams defense, particularly against the run.

More after the jump!

Now everyone hounded on me about the wide receivers on Twitter, so let's get to that. Brain Quick looks very good. He is fast, has good hands, and is bigger than you think. It's easy to tell that he is from a school like Appalachian St. because he is still very raw with his route running.

Austin Pettis and Greg Salas both are improved over last season. Pettis especially looked good and displayed good hands today, which of course was his biggest downfall last season.

Finally, Steve Smith looks ready to go. He had two serious knee injuries the last couple of years. He came out onto the field on Thursday without a brace and making sharp cuts. It will be a huge plus for the Rams if Smith can somewhat return to his 2009 form.

Next, let's talk quarterbacks. I don't even remember Sam Bradford doing anything. He didn't participate in seven on seven drills. This is the last day of OTAs, so it isn't surprising to see Bradford get pretty much a day off.

Tom Brandstater looks robotic in practice. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. He did what plays were designed to do, but in a game a quarterback has to play loose.

Austin Davis on the other hand looked wild, which is par for the course for many undrafted rookie quarterbacks. His pocket presence was lacking and his decision making was flat out awful. He only had one INT to Trumaine Johnson, but it could have been much worse.

To end the practice the Rams had a bit of fun. The offense faced the defense in a punt return battle, but only the big guys participated. Wind was forcing the ball to cut sharply to the right near the end of its flight and every player, every single one of them, misjudged it completely. The highlight had to be Harvey Dahl falling flat on his ass and the ball landing a good 15 feet away from him.

Would a Steve Spagnuolo-led team ever do something like this? I highly doubt it. Spags was a control freak, but Fisher is a lot more loose in practice than Spags, which is one of the major differences between them.

The real highlight is when Jeff Fisher addressed us, the fans in attendance. Jeff Fisher is a really cool guy. Hell, Jeff Fisher could be your neighbor that you have a beer with on the 4th of July. He's just a regular guy who happens to be one of the best coaches in the NFL. He has great people skills and a great sense of humor. A very genuine fellow.

Fisher answered some questions from the fans including one about the cornerbacks that received a great deal of attention. It is true that the Rams have received calls about possibly trading away one of their cornerbacks, but the team is in no way looking to do so. What happened is a fan asked a question about the cornerbacks and Fisher explained how he feels the Rams have one of the best, if not the best, groups of corners in the entire league. To emphasize this point he brought up the fact that other teams have called about trading for one the Rams' corners. This was a point that received more speculation than it really deserved. The Rams aren't looking to trade anybody right now, but that doesn't mean if the right offer comes around a deal can't happen.

Other than that, there isn't much to report. Cortland Finnegan and Lance Kendricks sat out practice. Michael Hoomanawanui was limited still recovering form a torn ACL. Jamie Childers, a rookie tight end from Costal Carolina, made a very impressive grab today, and is a guy to keep your eye on going into training camp.