St. Louis Rams Depth Chart: Projecting The Secondary

The St. Louis Rams have one less cornerback after shipping Josh Gordy to the Indianapolis Colts for a future draft pick. That makes a notable change to the depth chart and the shape of the final 53-man roster. Jeff Fisher's team will likely enter the season with just five cornerbacks on the active roster, says Jim Thomas of the Post-Dispatch.

Trade of Josh Gordy to Indy almost certainly means Rams will keep only five corners. Trumaine Johnson worked as 3rd CB in nickel Weds.

— Jim Thomas (@jthom1) August 23, 2012

That differs from the previous administration at Rams Park, who regularly took six corners into the season. For Fisher, it is not unusual. In 2010, his last year as a head coach in Tennessee, he had just four corners to start the season, along with six safeties. The year before that, Fisher had five corners and four safeties.

You can guess the five corners pretty easily. That depth chart would look like this:

Cortland Finnegan

Janoris Jenkins

Bradley Fletcher

Trumaine Johnson

Jerome Murphy

One or more of Kendric Burney and Quintin Pointer would probably land on the eight-man practice squad.

With the corner picture clear, the safety outlook is muddled. The biggest question is how many safeties the Rams will keep. Based on the performances in camp and the preseason, four seems like the most likely number. That alignment would be:

Quintin Mikell

Craig Dahl

Darian Stewart

Rodeny McLeod

At this point, the fourth spot looks like McLeod's to lose, but that could change with two more preseason games on the calendar.

Given the injuries at corner last year, the thought of only five on the roster might give fans pause, but it should be a more manageable bunch as the drop off isn't as dramatic after the top two corners on the depth chart.

The first round of roster cuts happen Monday, and the final rosters are due on Aug. 31.