Bleacher Report - Articles by Seth Doria

Worst of the Worst: Bad QBs Leading Their Teams To NFL Oblivion

Seth Doria — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:59:26 -0400

Six weeks into the NFL season, we’re starting to figure some things out. We don’t yet have fully clear pictures of who is who and what is what, but some valuable lessons have been learned.

We’ve learned that Josh McDaniels knew exactly what the hell he was doing, and that Jim Zorn has absolutely no clue.

We’ve learned that Kerry Collins couldn’t repeat his ageless renaissance, but Brett Favre has—for now.

We’ve learned that quarterbacks still make the NFL world go ‘round, with Peyton Manning and Drew Brees authors of the two best offenses on the two best teams—and both the favorites in their respective conferences to meet in Miami (with all due respect to the Broncos and Vikings).

And we’ve learned that the disparity between the top and bottom of the NFL is as wide as perhaps it’s ever been.

Going into week seven, there are three teams still winless—St. Louis, Tampa Bay, and Tennessee. There are three others with just one victory—Kansas City, Detroit, and Cleveland.

Add up the records for those six teams and you’re a combined 3-33.

And that’s not it as far as bad football goes:

Two of the one-win teams, Kansas City and Detroit, have their only victory over the 2-4 Redskins, whose only victories are over the winless Rams by two and winless Bucs by three. No wonder Zorn is checking out coaching vacancies in the Seattle high school ranks.

Carolina is 2-3 with wins over the Redskins and Bucs. Their quarterback play with Jake Delhomme is so putrid, he threw for just 65 yards against the winless Bucs in Week Six.

And then there’s Oakland and quarterback JaMarcus Russell, whose quarterback rating of 51.0 this season is actually worse than what Ryan Leaf put up his final two miserable years in the league (56.2 and 57.7) and is on pace for a 45-percent completion, five-touchdown, 16-interception deuce of a season.

Even the middle of the league, with teams like 2-3 Miami, 3-3 Jacksonville, 2-4 Buffalo, 2-3 San Diego, 3-2 Dallas, and 3-3 Jets, still seem worse than the middle of previous years.

So what is it? Why does it seem like the bottom of the league is so much worse than normal.

The answer: Bad offense. Horrrrrrrible offense.

When you’re watching football, nothing will ruin a game like bad offense. And when you look at the teams at the bottom of the NFL, you’re looking at some historically bad offenses.

I mentioned Russell’s downright Leafean stats. But how about a Rams team that’s on pace for 144 points, more than 120 less than the winless 2008 Lions. No team has scored fewer since the 2-14 Seahawks put up just 140 in 1992 behind quarterbacks Stan Gelbaugh and Kelly Stouffer.

Right now, there are six teams averaging fewer than 15 points per game. The average over the past five seasons is just 2.4.

And you don’t have to look much farther than the quarterbacks to find out why. The bottom 10 QBs right now in quarterback rating:

Trent Edwards (BUF): 73

Byron Leftwich (TAM): 71.2

Kyle Boller (STL): 66.1

Matthew Stafford (DET): 65.5

Kerry Collins (TEN): 62

Josh Johnson (TAM): 58.9

Jake Delhomme (CAR): 56.8

Mark Sanchez (NYJ): 56.7

JaMarcus Russell (OAK): 51

Derek Anderson (CLE): 41.7

Combined record of the nine teams (since Tampa is represented twice): 11-42 with only one team, the Jets, even at .500.

(For the record, Jason Campbell is at 84.3, Matt Cassel at 82.3, and Marc Bulger at 80.3.)

Now you can understand Sanchez and Stafford being on that list. They are both rookies and Sanchez in particular has fallen on some hard rookie times of late. You can forgive them for that.

Maybe Johnson turns into something, and Collins has been as much a victim of his terrible receivers as his own lack of play-making ability. But the other guys?

Edwards has peaked at J.P. Losman level, Leftwich can’t catch a break and would probably blow it if he did, Boller is over-matched, Delhomme is a human train wreck, Russell is a few outbursts away from being dubbed Black Leaf, and Anderson’s best trait is that he keeps Brady Quinn from completely killing his trade value this offseason.

The NFL is a passing league. And when you get historically bad quarterback play, you get historically bad offensive performances. And that will kill just about any defense along with it.

Don’t believe me? Check out the Colts-Rams and Bucs-Pats games this weekend. I’m putting the combined spread for Colts/Pats over Rams/Bucs at 60. Anybody want to take me on?

Rush Limbaugh Owning the Rams? Why Not?

Seth Doria — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:40:40 -0400

When news surfaced that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh was thinking about teaming about with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts to buy the St. Louis Rams, it apparently rubbed some folks the wrong way.

First it was a few players saying they wouldn’t want to play.

New York Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka told the New York Daily News, "I don't want anything to do with a team that he has any part of. He can do whatever he wants, it is a free country. But if it goes through, I can tell you where I am not going to play."

New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott said, "He could offer me whatever he wanted, I wouldn't play for him.”

More recently, NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith and moral vulturists Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson voiced their displeasure at the prospects of Limbaugh owning the NFL ownership club.

"I've spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages," Smith said. "But sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends. Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred."

And really, it’s not that surprising. The NFL is largely a league made up of African-American players (except punters, a club whiter than 1950s Augusta National) and Limbaugh is hardly a candidate for the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award.

There were Limbaugh’s comments about Donovan McNabb. There was his comparison of a football game to a fight between the Bloods and Crips street gangs. And there’s that whole thing about rooting for the first black president to fail, not exactly ways to endear yourself to black America.

So you can see how maybe some of the people associated with the game, especially African Americans, would be hesitant to sign off on Limbaugh’s ascendancy into the NFL ownership club.

(As for Jackson and Sharpton, they’re nothing but publicity-hungry media vultures looking for the next feed. Whether it’s Don Imus or the Duke Lacrosse team, all you need is a story with a touch of race and a television camera, and there they are. But I digress ...)

First realize that Limbaugh is a Missouri boy. He was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He went to college in Missouri. His uncle, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Sr. is a Ronald Reagan-appointed federal judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and his cousin, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., is currently a judge in the same court, appointed by George W. Bush after serving 16 years on the Missouri Supreme Court.

Considering the Rams are very much in play for Los Angeles or any other city looking to poach an NFL franchise in five years, a local buyer with deep pockets who would be less apt to ditch St. Louis for richer grounds holds a significant appeal.

The Rams may suck, but being a city with an NFL franchise, no matter how terrible, is and always will be better than being a city with no NFL franchise.

And now for the “yeah, but.”

Yeah, but Limbaugh is a pill-popping maniacal conservative who would probably rather the South had won the Civil War, that there was still such thing as “whites only” bathrooms, and the rest of the world still had a healthy dose of fear of the big bad US of A. (We ask for the Olympics, we get the Olympics, damn it! Don't you know who we are? Don't make us come over there.)

I personally don’t know how much I believe that Limbaugh believes everything that comes out of his mouth. I’m cynical in a way that makes me think it’s half-truth, half-shtick meant to draw in and hold a certain devoted section of the American political spectrum.

But whether he believes it or not, his brand of commentary is to glorify the one side and vilify the other. And people tend to take being vilified rather poorly.

So he’s a controversial borderline-racist trying to buy a piece of a league that relies largely on African Americans for its enormous success.

And to that I say: So freaking what?

Look, I’m not denying Limbaugh’s got his flaws. But, to me, those flaws aren’t bad enough to eliminate him from owning a team.

With the exception of some illegal pills, a marginal offense at worst, Limbaugh is not a criminal. He’s not a Holocaust denier. He’s not same David Duke neo-Nazi in church clothing. He doesn’t get involved in sex scandals, beat up gay people, or bomb abortion clinics.

He’s just a fat guy with a sharp opinion, loud mouth, and a microphone. Whoop-de-doo.

If Limbaugh pairs up with Checketts to buy the Rams, it’ll be a media story because of who Limbaugh is and what he does, but it won’t impact the day-to-day running of the franchise any more than the Williams sisters or Jennifer Lopez buying into the Miami Dolphins.

And in a league that includes all sorts of wife beaters, drunk drivers, dog fighters, drug abusers, and at least one guy who killed somebody (two, once Donte Stallworth comes back), perhaps they shouldn’t go about trying to blackball a guy who talks for a living.

Rush Limbaugh owning the Rams? If it keeps them in St. Louis, I’m all for it.

Rams Find a Way To Lose, Even on Tuesday

Seth Doria — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:26:10 -0400

Coming off an 0-3 start with a road trip to San Francisco on Sunday, the Rams had to think they at least had a few days before anything else bad could happen.

Wrong.

On Tuesday, the NFL announced starting linebacker David Vobora would be suspended for four games for violating the league's policy on performance enhancing drugs.

According to one of Vobora’s agents, Marc Lillibridge, quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Vobora is the victim of shoddy work at the maker of a supplement he had cleared with the NFL supplement hot line.

According to Lillibridge, Vobora went so far as to read off the ingredients list to the league representative to make sure nothing would land him in trouble. But because the maker of his supplement somehow tainted the product with something that is banned, the Rams will be without Vobora’s services for the next four games.

“He is suspended under the NFL Anabolic Steroid policy but in no way has David ever used an illegal substance,” Lillibridge was quoted as saying in the P-D article. “He took a (workout) supplement that was tainted. A highly respected toxicologist has proven this to be the case. David did everything by the book in regards to investigating this supplement before he began using this product.”

In the article, Lillibridge said he was in the process of filing a lawsuit against the company that manufactures the product, but that will do no good for a St. Louis defense already woefully thin at linebacker. As of this writing, there are only five of them on the Rams roster: James Laurinaitis, Will Witherspoon, Larry Grant, Chris Chamberlain, and Paris Lenon.

Maybe St. Louis will make a move to bring back Quinton Culberson, who has already been released twice in the past month. Maybe they beg Chris Draft to come back. But the reality is that no matter what Billy Devaney comes up with in his woefully empty bag of tricks, the Rams will take the field totally unprepared to stop a 49ers team that will run it over and over again no matter what they do (witness Glen Coffee’s 25 carries for just 54 yards in a near-upset over the Vikings on Sunday).

So I guess instead of 0-3, the Rams are now 0-3 minus.

Super.

Spinning The St. Louis Rams' 0-3 Start

Seth Doria — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:37:21 -0400

One of my passions other than sports is politics. I love how politicians can spin almost anything to their advantage.

Cut popular programs? It’s only because you were committed to making the tough choices and being fiscally responsible for the good of the state.

Raise taxes? It was the only way to save programs that serve the neediest. Besides, rich people pay the most of it.

Caught cheating? It’s an opportunity to refocus on the things that really mean the most and come back a new and better man.

I’ve made the argument several times that following politics and following sports are really the same thing. It’s just the nuances of the game that change.

And so after the Rams’ 36-17 drubbing by Green Bay on Sunday, I decided to mix my two loves, sports and politics, and describe all the terrible things about the Rams through the lens of a political spin master.

Reality: After the Lions’ win over Washington, the Rams now have the longest active losing streak in the NFL at 13.

Spin: Even if the Rams do match the Lions’ streak at 19, they still wouldn’t go winless this year, so they’d still be better than the Lions.

Reality: Laurent Robinson is out for the season with a broken tibia.

Spin: Now Donnie Avery has a chance to prove he can actually adapt to the Rams’ new offense and be more than just a decoy for Keenan Burton.

Reality: At 0-3, Steve Spagnuolo joins Chiefs head coach Todd Haley and Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris as three of only 32 head coaches in NFL history without a career win.

Spin: In Tom Landry’s first year as a head coach as a 36-year-old with Dallas in 1960, the Cowboys went 0-11-1.

In Chuck Noll’s first year in Pittsburgh, the Steelers won their first game, then lost their next 16.

Bill Parcells went 3-12-1 his first year with the New York Giants.

I’m not saying Spagnuolo turns out to be any of these guys, but slow starts in year one with terrible franchises do not preclude long-term success.

Reality: The Rams lost starting quarterback Marc Bulger.

Spin: This is a great opportunity to see if Kyle Boller should be the “veteran playing ahead of the star rookie quarterback for a few games” next year.

Reality: The Rams have scored only 24 points all season, worst in the league. If they kept their current offensive pace, they would finish with 128 points scored, the lowest total ever in a full 16-game schedule and only three more than the famed 0-14 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Spin: With Kyle Boller in the game, the Rams scored 17 points in the final three quarters on Sunday. If he were to continue that pace for the remaining 52 quarters this season, they would end up with roughly 318 points, which would have ranked a somewhat less-reprehensible 24th last season.

(Sorry. Not a whole lot you can do with do with an offense that makes you go back to one of the worst teams in NFL history for a historical comparison. That’s the political equivalent of having a gay love affair with your chauffer and have your wife go on Oprah. You’re just screwed at that point.)

Reality: With a next four of at San Francisco, Minnesota, at Jacksonville, and Indianapolis, the Rams have a 99 percent chance of going 0-7. And now the Week Eight trip to Detroit doesn’t look so winnable any more.

Spin: Ummmm…The St. Louis Cardinals are in the playoffs?

St. Louis-Green Bay: Five Keys To The Rams Hanging With The Packers

Seth Doria — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:09:18 -0400

Can the Rams beat the Packers?

Just typing that sentence seems weird. The Rams have exactly seven points this season. They have exactly one sack. Their quarterback is averaging a miniscule 4.94 yards per pass attempt, worst in the league. Their supposed leading receiver has been terrible.

Kick-off returns – terrible. (16.2 yards per return, second worst in the league)

Clock management – terrible. (A Martzian waste of their final timeout on Sunday to avoid a delay of game which they ended up getting anyway on a punt that went into the end zone for a touchback)

Third downs – terrible. (8 of 26 on offense, 26th worst; 15 of 30 allowed on defense, 29th worst)

And then on the other side you have Green Bay, which remains a serious playoff contender despite losing at home to the Bengals on Sunday (knocking a million schlubs like yours truly out of their survival leagues).

The Packers have one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL with Aaron Rodgers, a great receiver duo in Greg Jennings and the ageless Donald Driver, a stud running back in Ryan Grant, and a defense that already has six interceptions in two games, one returned for a touchdown.

With all that said, what would you guess the line would be? Nine? Ten?

Six and a half.

Perhaps Vegas doesn’t like the fact the Packers allowed Cedric Benson of all people to run for 141 yards on 29 caries, or that Bengals DE Antwan Odom, with a career 15.5 sacks in 64 games entering this season, finished this past Sunday with five against the Packers’ sieve of an offensive line.

In any event, Vegas has faith that the Rams can make a go of this contest. I’m not sure I agree, but I can tell you that if the Rams don’t improve in these areas, they have no chance whatsoever:

Donnie Avery: Perhaps it’s a bit harsh to put the total blame for the Washington loss in Avery’s hands, but he fairly well deserves it:

* He had a drop that would have given them a first down on their first drive. The ball was a little bit behind Avery, but he got both hands on the ball and should have made the catch.

* He got called for a needless block in the back that cost the Rams 13 yards off Steven Jackson’s 61-yard run mid-way through the second quarter. Instead of the ball being placed at the Washington 23, it was at the Washington 36. (The Rams still went on to score their first touchdown of the season).

* And then there was the fumble. On third and four from the Washington nine and 13 minutes left in the game, Bulger hit Avery for five yards. But what should have been first and goal four yards from a 14-9 lead turned into Washington ball when Avery fumbled on a hit by Redskins safety Chris Horton. It was Avery’s second fumble of the season – the only two turnovers of the Rams’ season thus far.

Based strictly on performance on the field, Avery has been passed by up both leading receiver Laurent Robinson and fellow second-year receiver Keenan Burton. And if the Rams are going to get anywhere this season, Avery has to show up.

Pass rush: Against Washington, the defensive tackles were getting no push in the middle of the pocket. Even when the Rams were able to bring pressure from the corners, Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell was able to step into the pocket and make the throw or break out for a gain on the ground. Some of Clinton Portis’ best runs also came up the gut of the Rams’ d-line.

Considering the pathetic performance put up by the Packers line so far (NFL-high 10 sacks allowed, and now missing left tackle Chad Clifton), the Rams’ have to capitalize and force Rodgers to throw before he’s ready. Otherwise, he will pick apart the still-developing Rams secondary.

Time of Possession: The Rams offense has run a total of 107 plays this season. Opponents have run a combined 140. That’s an average of an extra 16 snaps for opposing offenses, which would explain the time of possession disadvantage: On Sunday, the Washington offense had the ball for nearly 10 minutes more than the St. Louis offense.

Considering the Rams defense is hardly what you could consider loaded with depth, that’s going to be more and more of a problem as the season rolls on if the Rams can’t string together some more frequent long drives.

Randy McMichael: Count me among those who thought McMichael would have a bounce-back year with the Rams, but he’s not showing anything close to that on the field. On the Rams’ third drive, he took a screen from Bulger, took a hit from Rocky McIntosh and gave the ball up to Washington on the Rams’ 17.

Now it just so happens the Redskins were called for a ticky tack roughing the passer penalty that gave St. Louis the ball back with a first down, but that play still happened.

On the game, McMichael, who also dropped a touchdowns pass late in the second quarter, finished with just two catches for 14 yards and zero impact.

Mental Toughness: There’s a cliché in sports that teams need to learn how to win. But as with most clichés, there’s an element of truth: Teams who win tough games know how to handle adversity.

The Rams don't.

When the Rams had a blocked FG return for a tying touchdown against Seattle called back due to a penalty, they instantly imploded and fell down 14-0 within a matter of minutes.

And after Avery’s fumble killed the potentially game-winning touchdown against Washington, the Rams got all of three yards on their final seven plays of the game.

Bad things happen in football games. The key for good teams is to take the bad things in stride, get past them and not let them impact the rest of the game.

Honoring Deacon Jones - Kind Of

The Rams are going to be retiring the number of former Rams great Deacon Jones this Sunday, and that’s all well and fine. As one of the most feared pass rushers in the history of the game, Jones deserves all the accolades he gets.

But retiring his number in a ceremony in St. Louis seems weird … because the only time he played in St. Louis, it was AGAINST the home team St. Louis Cardinals.

Jones played for the Los Angeles Rams from 1961 through 1971 before finishing up with two seasons with San Diego and one in Washington.

In his time with the then-LA Rams, Jones played played in St. Louis three times:

On December 5, 1965, the LA Rams beat the St. Louis Cardinals 27-3.

On September 16, 1968, the LA Rams beat the St. Louis Cardinals 24-13.

On September 18, 1970, the LA Rams beat the St. Louis Cardinals 34-13.

That’s it. That’s the history Deacon Jones has with the city of St. Louis. Was he a great Ram? Yes. But retiring his number with a ceremony at the St. Louis home opener just seems hallow.

It would be like the Arizona Cardinals holding a grand ceremony honoring Hall of Fame center Dan Dierdorf, who played his entire career with the franchise while they were still in St. Louis.

I mean, what are those fans going to be cheering for? A guy who played for another team 1,500 miles away 40 years ago? How passionate with their appreciation could they be?

Now again, this is in no way intended to devalue the career of Deacon Jones. An eight-time Pro Bowler and Hall of Fame inductee in 1980, he deserves to be recognized as one of the all-time greats.

I’m just not sure the Edward Jones Dome on Sunday is the right place.

Finding the Positive in the Rams' 0-2 Start

Seth Doria — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:58:19 -0400

In the bottom-line business that is professional sports, the most important thing that happened to the St. Louis Rams on Sunday was another loss.

In losing 9-7 to the Redskins in Washington, the Rams are now 0-2 and two games back of the 2-0 San Francisco 49ers heading into next week’s home opener against Green Bay.

And if the Rams were a team with high expectations, falling to 0-2 would be borderline catastrophic. Three teams last year made the playoffs from 0-2, but that was an anomaly. Most of the time, 0-2 is a precursor to disaster.

But the Rams aren’t a team with high expectations. Not even the most die-hard pie-in-the-sky Rams fan dared dream of better than 7-9 or maybe (if they were high or drunk) 8-8.

So yes, the Rams lost again on Sunday, 0-2 is 0-2, and you are what your record says you are. But when you’re the St. Louis Rams and you’re 5-29 over your last 34 games, you learn to find the hidden positives in the bottom-line failures.

And so it comes to pass that losing 9-7 to Washington can be considered a success in many ways.

Red zone defense: The Redskins’ lone scores came on Shaun Suisham field goals of 21, 28 and 23 yards. Washington came close to a touchdown on one other occasion. In the fourth quarter, David Vobora stopped Clinton Portis two yards behind the line of scrimmage on 4th-and-1 from the St. Louis two-yard line.

On each of those drives, the Rams defense held strong with their backs against their own goal-line, forcing the Redskins to settle for three rather than seven.

Steven Jackson: Not only did Jackson finish with 104 yards on just 17 carries for a 6.1 yard average, he also got involved in the pass game with four catches for 15 yards.

A week after not catching a single ball against Seattle, it was encouraging to see quarterback Marc Bulger take advantage of the best player on offense in more ways than one.

The run defense: Washington did gain 125 yards on the ground, but it took them 33 attempts to get there. Not counting the three kneel-downs at the end, the Redskins gained 121 on 30 carries.

For a team that gave up 4.9 yards per rush attempt last year and 117 yards on 19 carries to Julius Jones in Week One, it was heartening to see Clinton Portis held to just 76 yards on 19 carries.

The pass defense: Even though Chris Cooley had seven catches for 83 yards—continuing a trend of the Rams defense getting shredded by opposing tight ends—it’s worth noting four of Cooley’s seven catches came in the first eight minutes, and six came in the first half. In a tight game that was in doubt until the end, Cooley did not have a single reception during the last 24 minutes of the game.

Other than Cooley, no Redskins received had more than four catches or 41 yards receiving.

Laurent Robinson: The state of the Rams' passing attack is pathetic and Donnie Avery was a total non-factor (actually worse), but Robinson did his part with six catches for 54 yards. He also had his first Rams touchdown, a beautiful high grab on a 3rd-and-goal fade pass late in the first half.

The talk coming into this season was that Avery was the unquestioned leader and maybe Robinson could beat out Keenan Burton for the second WR position. Right now it’s Robinson leading the team in catches with 11 for 141 yards and the touchdown. He’s also been targeted a team-high 19 times, with Avery at 14.

Now he just needs a quarterback who can throw the deep ball.

(Consider that a tease for a column I’ll be running later this season; working title: “The Rams Should Have Taken Mark Sanchez.”)

To go along with the pass attack, there’s a whole lot of other things the Rams need to work on. From clock management to covering the opposing tight end to evening out the time of possession, the Rams’ gotta-get-better-at list is a long one.

But for going to 0-2, there was enough positive in this game to at least feel like there’s progress being made.

St. Louis-Seattle: Rams Set New Low in Shutout Loss

Seth Doria — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:39:19 -0400

If Rams fans came into this season thinking to themselves, “Well, at least it can’t get any worse than last year,” they were wrong.

It did.

In getting beat down 28-0 on Sunday afternoon in Seattle, the Rams fell to a low not even last year’s 2-14 debacle accomplished—getting shut out.

Even when the 2008 Rams got pasted 47-3 by the Jets last year, they still got the three to avoid the goose egg.

But not Sunday.

28-0.

Damn.

St. Louis could have avoided their first shutout since Week 11 of the 2006 season and their first Week One shutout loss since 1965 when Quincy “Big Play” Butler returned a blocked field goal that would've tied the score 7-7 with under a minute left to play in the first half.

It just wasn’t mean to be. The Rams had 12 men on defense for the play, so instead of a game-tying touchdown, the five yards gave the Seahawks a first down.

Seattle scored a touchdown three plays later, and the route was on.

While that was the most glaring and damaging mistake of the game, it was by no means a one-time miscue.

Far from it.

The Rams committed 10 penalties (including two straight moron personal foul calls on Richie Incognito that resulted in a brief benching), fumbled the opening kick-off, and generally got gashed left and right to the tune of 446 yards of Seahawks offense (279 passing, 167 rushing).

The St. Louis defense did continue its preseason trend of wining the turnover battle, picking off Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck twice and recovering a fumble forced by rookie linebacker James Laurinaitis. When you don’t capitalize on turnovers, all you’re really doing is delaying the inevitable.

Unfortunately, the Rams' defense continued another preseason trend I like to call “let’s always bite on the play fake so the tight end can have a great day.”

Anybody watching the Rams the past month has seen the likes of Dustin Keller and Tony Gonzalez shred the Rams' first unit, so it was no surprise to see Seattle TE John Carlson put up a huge day, with six catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns.

(So if you have Chris Cooley in your fantasy league, next week would probably be a good time to start him.)

Some other lowlights on a day chalk full of them:

* The defensive line was there, but not really. Despite missing all-world left tackle Walter Jones and starting center Chris Spencer, there was no pressure on Hasselbeck, who had plenty of time to sit back and pick apart the Rams secondary.

* The Seattle run game also had open holes all day: Of their 34 run plays, only three went for negative yardage. They averaged 4.9 yards per rush, including a 62-yard touchdown run by Julius Jones late in the third quarter.

* The Rams’ best drive of the day took place at the end of the first quarter into the second quarter, moving from their own 33 to the Seattle nine with a third and one. Randy McMichael was then called for a false start, then there was a delay of game when center Jason Brown couldn’t hear Bulger scream for the snap, followed by an incompletion. Then a missed field goal.

(You have to give the Seattle fans their due—everybody knows about the crowd noise and how it causes false starts, but I love the fact that they boo the opposing kicker who used to be their kicker. That’s just awesome.)

* Clock management was a problem in the first half. The Rams used two timeouts within minutes of each other mid-way through the first half. They had to know it was going to be loud, right?

* Third down was an issue on both sides of the ball. On offense, St. Louis only converted two of 12 third downs. Meanwhile, the Rams D allowed Seattle to convert on eight of 15 third downs.

* Oddly lacking from the receptions column was running back Steven Jackson. The expectation coming into the game was that the Rams offense under new coordinator Pat Shurmur would involve a heavy dose of Jackson in the pass game, but that wasn’t the case.

Considering the amount of pressure Bulger was under, it seems an outlet to the back would have come in handy at least once along the way. I’ll be interested to see if they can incorporate Jackson into the passing game a bit better next weekend at Washington.

Now this might sound weird after a 28-0 drubbing, but there were some slight signs of positive momentum from the Rams:

* The three turnovers were indicative of effort and the potential for game-breaking defensive disruption. The first interception in the end zone was caused by some really good coverage by corner Jonathan Wade on Seattle WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

* The receiving duo of Donnie Avery and Laurent Robinson looked good. Avery had six catches for 46 yards, while Robinson had five catches for 87 yards, including a 45-yarder as part of a fourth-quarter drive when Seattle had lost their intensity.

Robinson could have had another huge play for a touchdown, but Bulger couldn’t get the ball deep enough.

* Punter Donnie Jones is the man. His 59-yard beauty in the third quarter that settled at the Seattle one was one of the greatest punts I’ve ever seen. Of course Seattle then put on a 99-yard drive for a touchdown, but that’s not Brown’s fault. If you had to name a team MVP after just this week, it’s Jones.

* I also liked the Rams’ decision to not go for a field goal at the end. With 2:48 left in the game, the Rams were faced with fourth and goal from the seven.

This was head coach Steve Spagnuolo’s first game as a head coach, and I’m sure getting shut out was the last way he wanted to start his tenure. They could have kicked the field goal to at least avoid the goose egg, but that would have been a show move, and Spagnuolo isn’t a show coach.

So he tried to get the touchdown, it didn’t work out and the Rams got the bagel. But I have more respect for 28-0 and going balls out until the end than 28-3 just for show.

So the Rams limp home, the only team in the league without a point on the board. (Hell, even Kansas City managed 24 at Baltimore.)

And it doesn’t get any easier next week. The Redskins lost a tough division game to the Giants on Sunday and will be playing their home opener desperate not to fall into an 0-2 hole in one of the toughest divisions in football.

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Let’s hope.

Grading The 2009 St. Louis Rams Defense

Seth Doria — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:50:51 -0400

With just days to play before the season opener at Seattle, you would like to have your roster and depth chart settled out and ready to roll.

But it seems 2009 year is the Year of The Crazy in the NFL. Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and Buffalo all fired their offensive coordinators with less than two weeks to go before the regular season.

New England traded a five-time Pro Bowl defensive end to Oakland, but he won't report. Buffalo cut its starting left tackle this week. Minnesota cut its leading receiver Bobby Wade (who the Rams should seriously look at). Cleveland is playing hide and seek with its starting quarterback and starting center.

Is this the NFL or a pack of teen girls shopping for makeup?

St. Louis got into the act on Thursday, cutting starting linebacker Chris Draft just 72 hours before kicking off against the Seahawks.

Others have already written about the reasoning behind the move, including Bleacher Report’s Ron Clements, so there’s no point in re-hashing it here. I’ll just say I think it’s a dirty way to treat a veteran leader and an active guy in a community that already barely cares about the franchise.

On the other hand, I completely understand the move. The simple fact is that Draft doesn’t belong starting on an NFL defense. He’s a C-player at a position that needs at least a B in order to survive.

And if the Rams are going to graduate to defensive respectability under Steve Spagnuolo, guys like Draft, no matter how kind or nice, are going to be left behind.

We’ll get to where this leaves the linebacker corps in just a minute, but first we continue the grading of the Rams with the guys who will hopefully be keeping opposing offensive linemen occupied while the linebackers run around making plays.

Defensive Line: C+

I vacillated between a B- and a C+ here, but ended up on the lower side because I just don’t know that the little bit of spark we saw from Chris Long in the preseason will translate to the real thing.

Spagnuolo comes into his first head job as a D-line guru. The performance of his New York Giants lines over the past two years has been the envy of the league, and their performance in Super Bowl XXLI over New England will go down as one of the most dominant defensive line performances in Super Bowl history.

And it’s that history that should provide Rams fans some hope that Spagnuolo can get the most out of a group that has a couple of pieces, but is far from a finished product.

The DE rotation of Leonard Little, Long (especially when moved over to the left side), and James Hall, with Victor Adeyanju and C.J. Ah You in reserve, is going to be absolutely critical in creating the kind of pressure that will relieve the burden on the under-manned linebacker and secondary groups.

The tackle rotation took a hit with the loss of Adam Carriker, but Carriker was gone all preseason, so at least the group has experience playing with what they have.

Gary Gibson was the primary beneficiary of Carriker’s absence and showed well in preseason action, but his next start on Sunday will also be the first of his career. Clifton Ryan, a fifth round pick in 2007 who was one of the few bright spots of the 2008 Rams defense, is listed as the other starter.

In reserve are Hollis Thomas, a 12-year veteran signed on the eve of camp, LaJuan Ramsey, picked up off waivers this week, and Darell Scott, a rookie fourth-round pick out of Clemson.

There’s some talent there, but overall this is still a very thin group, especially considering the burden of performance being laid on their shoulders.

Linebackers: C

I’m all fine and good with letting go of Draft as a football decision. The problem is the guy you brought back to replace him is Quinton Culberson, who was not only cut last Saturday, but cleared waivers, meaning no other team wanted him.

I’m a big believer in James Laurinaitis, even going so far as to predict he’ll win the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year Award in my recent 100 Predictions for the 2009 NFL Season column. But a stud rookie MLB does not a competent linebackers corps make.

Last year’s Mr. Irrelevant, David Vobora, steps into Draft’s spot, starting at strong-side linebacker, though I think Larry Grant will end up starting once he comes back from a knee sprain that will keep him out for at least the Seattle game. Neither guy is an experienced starter, so there’s some definite uncertainty there.

Will Witherspoon, reunited with his former Carolina Panthers position coach in Ken Flajole, now the Rams defensive coordinator, looks primed for a good season and should be a rock for the defense. His primary back-up will be Chris Chamberlain, a seventh-round pick in 2008 who played in all 16 games last year as a rookie for St. Louis.

I’d like to go through the rest of the depth chart at LB, but there isn’t any. There are only six linebackers on the roster, and one of them, Grant, has already been ruled out for Seattle.

That's not good.

Cornerbacks: D

I hate to be the one to break bad news, but I suppose I’m not breaking it to anybody who’s watched St. Louis this preseason: The cornerbacks on this team are a huge liability.

Ron Bartell is a solid guy, but he’s a solid number two guy. You put him on an island with Larry Fitzgerald, or even T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and you’re going to have some issues.

After the Rams ditched out on Tye Hill (traded to Atlanta for a seventh-round pick), Jonathan Wade moves up to a starting corner position, a position he earns because, well, there aren’t any other options. Wade has shown signs of improvement over the past month, especially in run support, but he’s still going to get beat a lot.

The rest of the corners all bring some upside, but with question marks.

Justin King has blazing speed, but is inconsistent with his technique; Quincy Butler (I love the fact he made this team) is a ball hawk who makes plays, but also guesses a lot and pays a steep price when he’s wrong; and rookie Bradley Fletcher has good size and speed, but looks lost right now.

Safety: B-

If I was going strictly on the preseason, this grade would be lower, but we know starting free safety Oshiomogho Atogwe is a great player, and we know starting strong safety James Butler can quarterback this defense, having played in it at a very high level under Spagnuolo in New York.

The backups, however, leave a whole lot to be desired.

If you put together a tape of all the opposing team’s big plays this preseason, you would see a whole lot of David Roach looking bad. He just seems to make critical mistakes at just the wrong times, leading to huge plays for the opposing offense.

Craig Dahl…well, let’s just say I watched all four Rams preseason games pretty closely and I don’t really remember anything about Craig Dahl. That should tell you something right there.

Still, Dahl spent some time in New York under Spagnuolo, so there must have been something that Spagnuolo saw in him that made him want him on the Rams.

The Rams did pick up SS Anthony Smith off waivers from Green Bay. Smith is a physical hitter best known for guaranteeing the Steelers would beat the Patriots in New England while Smith was still in Pittsburgh, then getting burned for several touchdowns and taunted by Tom Brady as the Pats ran away with the game.

On the overall, this is a defense with several very strong players, but a whole lot of inexperience at every level. As these guys go through the gauntlet early in the season, things might get a little ugly for a while.

Blackouts Lifted—Kind Of

In a sign theNFL recognizes the economic pressures working against some teams, the league announced on Thursday that fans whose local teams' games are blacked out will be able to watch replays online for free, though not until after midnight.

Several teams have reported difficulties selling out their home games. Cincinnati and Arizona received extensions from the league in an attempt to keep their home openers on Sunday from being blacked out

Given the competitive state of the Rams and the fact neither home preseason game was sold out or shown live in St. Louis, there’s a fairly good chance some home games of lower interest (read: not Minnesota or Green Bay), will not sell out. Fans who would otherwise be left in the dark will now be able to check out the team online.

Then again, they could probably just go scalp a ticket for $10.

Grading The 2009 St. Louis Rams Offense

Seth Doria — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:02:50 -0400

One of the silly things sports writers do is give out grades. So and so gets an A for drafting who I thought they would. So and so gets a D for doing something I didn’t expect.

It’s really all just a matter of what happens and how it relates to what the writer thought should have happened.

It’s dumb really.

So with that said, here my preseason grades for the Rams by position grouping, because they might be dumb, but I love reading them.

Quarterbacks: C

Leave it to the Rams to dole out the biggest free agent contract ever awarded to a center, only to have their starting quarterback break his pinkie on a snap from that center in practice.

But that’s what happened and so we haven’t seen Marc Bulger in a game since he completed four of four pass attempts for 77 yards against the Jets in the first preseason game.

On the plus side, he was perfect. Can't do better than that.

On the down side, Bulger has all of four pass attempts in a brand new offense going into a killer back-to-back road double of Seattle and Washington.

As for the back-ups, Kyle Boller came on just enough at the end of the preseason to give Rams fans a glimmer of hope that he might be up to the task of leading the team should Bulger go down.

And give the coaches credit for keeping Keith Null over Brock Berlin as the third quarterback. Null certainly has some growing to do, but the rookie sixth-round-pick out of West Texas A&M (and former pupil of Ryan Leaf!) showed flashes of being a really good quarterback playing garbage time the past few weeks. The old Rams regime would have kept Berlin and lost Null through waivers.

Running Backs: B

St. Louis rightfully limited the amount of work Steven Jackson received in preseason games (10 carries for 37 yards), but they didn’t take it easy on him in practice, which is good. Last year, Jackson held out for a new contract and never really got his legs under him. I do not expect that to be an issue this season.

Samkon Gado and Kenneth Darby are the two back-up backs, as the coaches elected to jettison both Antonio Pittman and Chris Ogbonnaya, though Ogbonnaya, with a team-high 32 carries for 94 yards this preseason, was signed to the practice squad.

With 29 carries for 148 yards and two TD, Gado showed a lot of toughness and some surprising shiftiness through the preseason, while Darby (20 for 66) is a special teams contributor who still shows some potential for carries should the need arise.

Free agent addition FB Mike Karney was hurt much of the preseason and didn’t get to do much on the field, but he’s not a guy who needs it. The dude knows how to bang heads with the best of them and Rams fans should expect to see him get the ball in space for some nice tough after-the-catch runs down the sideline.

Wide Receivers: C+

I really think this is a B+ group in the making behind the starting duo of Donnie Avery and Laurent Robinson (I told you!), with Keenan Burton and Derek Stanley rounding the top four.

Actually, that’s the only four, which is somewhat of a surprise. The Rams had Ronald Curry in camp and he showed some ability to be a playmaker, but the coaches must have felt the roster slot was better used elsewhere.

Nate Jones was released along with LB Quinton Culberson to make room for waiver wire acquisitions S Anthony Smith and DT LaJuan Ramsey, so now instead of a kind-of-fab five, it’s a kind-of-fab four.

Like I said, I do have high hopes for Avery and Robinson, but the lack of depth, coupled with the lack of experience, forces me to hold back for now.

Tight Ends: B-

To be honest, I expected more out of Randy McMichael this preseason. He’s in an offense that should be perfect for him, he's healthy, and he’s the clear number one guy on the depth chart. But all he put up was four catches for 47 yards.

Now maybe that’s the Rams taking it easy on him and his 30-year-old, legs, but I was personally looking to see more.

The plus is that while McMichael wasn’t making plays, Daniel Fells and Billy Bajema were. Both made some nice catches (Fells had a TD), and, probably more importantly in the eyes of new head coach Steve Spagnuolo, both are excellent blockers on the line of scrimmage.

Don’t be surprised to see a lot of two-TE sets with McMichael and either Fells or Bajema, and all three on the goal line.

Overall, this is a position of strength on the roster.

Offensive Line: B+

The Rams’ offensive line was an absolute catastrophe last season, and the Rams front office did what it had to do by dolling out just shy of $100 million on center Jason Brown ($37.5 million) and tackle Jason Smith ($61.775 million), the second overall pick in April’s NFL Draft.

Spagnuolo announced this week that Smith will indeed start at right tackle in Week 1 at Seattle, finishing a line that will have former right tackle Alex Barron slide over to replace Orlando Pace at left tackle, Jacob Bell at left guard, Brown at center, and Richie Incognito at right guard.

Factor in some decent back-ups in Adam Goldberg, Mark Setterstrom and John Greco, and you have a group that was one of the worst in the league in 2008 transformed into possibly a major strength in 2009.

That’s it for the offense. Check back Friday for the defensive grades.

100 Predictions for the 2009 NFL Season

Seth Doria — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:40:47 -0400

Normally, I’m not one for preseason prediction columns. Oh, I always do them, but I usually restricted them to my old blog. There’s just something about the “Hey guys, look what I think!” column that always seemed...I don’t know, kind of lame.

At the same time, there’s nothing like making a bold prediction, having the balls to put it in print to get ridiculed (as all bold predictions invariably do), and then actually having it come true.

Over the past few years, I’ve had some luck in that department. In a 2007 preseason column for sports-central.org, I called a complete collapse for a Baltimore Ravens team that had gone 13-3 the year prior and was being billed as a top AFC contender. And though I was one off on the final record (I called 4-12, they went 5-11), I still considered it a good pick.

Same thing with the Cleveland Browns last year. Everybody thought they had finally arrived, but I called a collapse, and I was right.

But of course, predictions are like golf shots. You remember the great ones, all the while conveniently forgetting all the crap shots that ended up at the bottom of the lake.

So what if I predicted the Falcons to go 5-11 last year and they went 11-5? At least I called Matt Ryan the Offensive Rookie of the Year!

So take these for what they’re worth: one educated man’s opinion on how this season will play out.

Feel free to disagree.

The Fantasy Files

Dustin Keller will finish with more fantasy points than Antonio Gates. Mark Sanchez will be looking for Keller on damn near every play.

Beanie Wells will rush for fewer than 700 yards. He’s got great talent, but the dude is injury prone. Meanwhile, Tim Hightower is no chump. A 50-50 split is Wells’ best-case scenario.

Maurice Jones-Drew will not rush for more than 1,000 yards. He’s never had more than 200 carries in a season—college or pro. Now he’s going to last for 250-300?

Brett Favre will start fewer than 10 games. Signing Favre was the single worst thing the Vikings could have done for their Super Bowl hopes—and Brad Childress will pay for it with his job.

Chris Johnson will finish with more touchdowns than LenDale White. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the Steelers found a way to put White out for a few games on opening night.

Chad Henne will start at least four games. In his nine-season career, Chad Pennington has never started double-digit games in two consecutive seasons. He started all 16 last season. Henne is the Dolphins’ future.

Wes Welker will catch fewer than 85 passes. The 5'9" Welker has 223 catches over the past two seasons and missed most of the preseason with some mysterious injuries. I just have a weird feeling that he’s going to miss some games this year.

Donnie Avery will have more receptions than Terrell Owens. The Bills are a franchise on the verge of hitting rock bottom. T.O. does not handle adversity well. Meanwhile, Avery is a rising star on a franchise that will struggle mightily early but start to emerge in the second half.

Shaun Hill will have more passing yards than Matt Cassel. Two reasons: 1. Hill is a very underrated quarterback who threw for over 2,000 yards last season in just eight starts, and 2. Cassel is going to tank behind the worst offensive line in football.

Jamal Lewis will run for more yards and more touchdowns than Larry Johnson. I mentioned the Chiefs’ offensive line, plus Cleveland has a decent O-line, Thomas Jones scored 13 touchdowns under Eric Mangini last year, and I don’t think Jerome Harrison is the man to take Lewis’ carries away.

Carson Palmer will start fewer than 12 games. I mentioned the Chiefs have football's worst offensive line. The Bengals have the second worst.

Chris Simms will score more fantasy points than Michael Vick. I was excited for Simms as a sleeper to take the Broncos’ job before it became clear Josh McDaniels wanted to give it to Kyle Orton. I still think Simms is the best quarterback on that team.

Along the Road

In Week Two, a ton of people will take Minnesota over Detroit in their Survivor Leagues—and lose. I might be the only guy in America who is down on the Vikings, but I am. And this has nothing to do with off-the-field BS. This is all about on-field mediocrity.

After the Lions win their second game in a row in Week Three, Chris Berman will use the phrase “Break up the Lions” and think he’s being funny.

The Lions won’t win again until Week 11.

The Jets will lead the league in penalties. Rex Ryan’s overdeveloped sense of machismo + Bart Scott = Total breakdown of discipline at least once per game.

Last undefeated team: Indianapolis; First loss will be in Week 11 at Baltimore. For some reason, people are sleeping on the Colts this year. Losing Marvin Harrison is not that big of a deal. I also think Donald Brown, the rookie from Connecticut, will be a huge lift to a sagging run game.

Last team to win: Tampa Bay, which finally beats Carolina in Week Six at home. I don’t think new head coach Raheem Morris has any idea what he’s doing. Their first five games run the full gamut of the NFC East, plus a road trip to Buffalo. Maybe they beat the Bills, but they’re not beating Dallas, Philadelphia (road), Washington (road), or the Giants.

Coaches to get fired during or after this season: Dick Jauron (Buffalo), Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati), Jack Del Rio (Jacksonville), Brad Childress (Minnesota), John Fox (Carolina—franchise on the verge of collapse), Jim Zorn (Washington), Wade Phillips (Dallas).

The Final Standings

I went through the entire schedule, picking every game. This is how it ended up.

AFC East

New England: 12-4

New York Jets: 9-7

Miami: 8-8

Buffalo: 5-11

AFC South

Indianapolis: 13-3

Tennessee: 7-9

Houston: 7-9

Jacksonville: 5-11

AFC North

Pittsburgh: 13-3

Baltimore: 9-7

Cleveland: 7-9

Cincinnati: 6-10

AFC West

San Diego: 11-5

Oakland: 7-9

Denver: 5-11

Kansas City: 4-12

NFC East

Dallas: 11-5

New York Giants: 10-6

Philadelphia: 7-9

Washington: 7- 9

NFC South

New Orleans: 12-4

Atlanta: 10-6

Carolina: 4-12

Tampa Bay: 4-12

NFC North

Green Bay: 13-3

Chicago: 10-6

Minnesota: 8-8

Detroit: 4-12

NFC West

San Francisco: 9-7

Seattle: 8-8

St. Louis: 6-10

Arizona: 5-11 (Super Bowl Loser Curse lives! Kurt Warner’s hip is going to prove his final undoing.)

The Awards Show

AP Offensive Rookie of the Year: Mark Sanchez, New York Jets

AP Defensive Rookie of the Year: James Laurinaitis, St. Louis Rams

Rookie Rushing Leader: Donald Brown, Indianapolis

Rookie Passing Leader: Sanchez

Rookie Receptions Leader: Hakeem Nicks, New York Giants

NFL Rushing Champion: Michael Turner, Atlanta Falcons

Most Receptions: Eddie Royal, Denver Broncos

Most Passing Touchdowns: Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers

NFL Sacks Champion: Mario Williams, Houston Texans

AP Offensive Player of the Year: Rodgers

AP Defensive Player of the Year: Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh Steelers

MVP: Rodgers

Coach of the Year: Mike McCarthy, Packers

(So yeah, I’m fairly high on the Packers this year.)

The Playoffs

AFC Playoff Seed: 1. Pittsburgh, 2. Indianapolis, 3. New England, 4. San Diego, 5. Baltimore, 6. New York Jets

* Pittsburgh takes home field by virtue of better conference record than Indianapolis (10-2 vs. 9-3)

* Baltimore takes fifth seed due to better record in common games than Jets (3-2 vs. 1-4).

AFC Wild Card Round: New England over New York Jets, San Diego over Baltimore

AFC Divisional Round: New England over Pittsburgh, Indianapolis over San Diego (the Colts finally beat the Chargers in a playoff game)

AFC Championship Game: Indianapolis over New England

NFC playoff seeds: 1. Green Bay, 2. New Orleans, 3. Dallas, 4. San Francisco, 5. Atlanta, 6. New York Giants

* At 10-6, Bears lose out on the Wild Card due to worse conference records than the Giants and Falcons; Falcons have 8-4 record in NFC, Giants 7-5, and Bears 6-6

* Falcons’ conference record also gives them fifth seed over Giants.

NFC Wild Card Round: New York Giants over Dallas (followed by Wade Phillips getting immediately canned and replaced by Bill Cowher), Atlanta over San Francisco

NFC Divisional Round: Green Bay over the Giants, New Orleans over Atlanta

NFC Championship Game: Green Bay over New Orleans

Super Bowl: Green Bay over Indianapolis

Super Bowl MVP: Aaron Rodgers

Basically, 2009 is football’s way of telling Favre to eff off. He gets hurt, breaking the coolest streak he could have held on to in retirement, the team that sold their soul to bring him back goes down in flames, causing a second coach to get fired as a result of trusting him, and the team he came back to screw over ends up winning it all.

Now that’s a football season worth watching.

Rams Vs. Chiefs Preview: Time For Adam Carriker To Stand Up

Seth Doria — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:24:05 -0400

On Tuesday, the St. Louis Rams finally gave up on two of the remaining disappointments from their failed 2006 NFL draft—first-round pick Tye Hill and second-round pick Joe Klopfenstein.

Hill was shipped to the Atlanta Falcons for a bag of donuts, otherwise known as a seventh-round pick. Klopfenstein couldn’t even bring that much in return.

But this isn’t about how Hill fell flat on his face after famously declaring as a rookie that he was bound for numerous Pro Bowls.

Nope. That story's been told and, to tell the truth, it wasn’t all that interesting the first time.

No, this story is about the first-round pick the year after Hill.

This story is about Adam Carriker who, with Hill’s departure, takes over the title of biggest draft bust on the roster.

Chosen out of Nebraska with the 13th overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, Carriker had the resume:

As a senior defensive end, he finished with seven sacks and 16 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, was named Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year, First-Team All-Big 12, and Third-Team All-America.

The year prior, Carriker had 9.5 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, and was voted the 2005 Nebraska Defensive MVP.

His career with the Rams: Two seasons. Thirty-one games. Two sacks.

Two.

Now not all of this is Carriker’s fault. The plain and simple fact is that he’s a defensive end playing the role of defensive tackle. Forget what the scale says. He’s not a middle-of-the-line plugger like Clifton Ryan or even Gary Gibson, who has shined in Carriker’s absence this summer.

He needs to get away from guards diving at his ankles. He needs to get on the edge against a tackle or even a tight end. He needs space.

He needs to be a defensive end.

When Steve Spagnuolo got the head coaching job, I thought it might provide Carriker with new life. Spagnuolo is known for moving guys around the line to fit their strengths (witness Long rushing from the left side against the Bengals last week).

I thought, “Finally, somebody is going to figure out how to use this guy.”

But all that went to crap when Carriker hurt his ankle in camp practices, missing the entire preseason so far.

I mean, Spagnuolo is inventive, but there’s not much even he can do with a guy who doesn’t put on the pads and get on the field. I’m not saying Carriker dogged it, but you can’t be a player if you don’t play. That’s just how it is.

The good news is that Carriker will finally step on the field Thursday night at the Edward Jones Dome against the Kansas City Chiefs. It might still be on the inside rather than on the end in space, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the sideline.

The fourth preseason games are usually most important for the final roster battles, with the starters watching and joking around, but not this game for the Rams, and certainly not this game for Carriker.

This game counts.

Against one of the worst offensive lines in football, Carriker needs to accomplish what Long accomplished against the Bengals last week: disruption.

Whether that’s stopping the run, getting his freakishly long arms up to bat down a pass, or collapsing the pocket and sacking the quarterback, he has to do something—anything—to show his coaches, teammates, and fans that he’s going to be a factor this season.

Otherwise, the countdown begins until Carriker becomes just another first-round bust along the path of roster carnage left by Shaw and Zygmunt.

The time is now, friend. Show us what you can do.

Examining the Greatness of the NFL Draft Class of 1996

Seth Doria — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:09:47 -0400

When you think about all-time drafts, the year 1996 rarely comes up. You might hear about the 1983 QB class or the 2004 QB class. You might hear about how the Steelers selected four future Hall of Famers in 1974, or even how the Chicago Bears selected Dick Butkus and Gayle Sayers with the greatest back-to-back picks in NFL history in 1965 (a draft that also featured Fred Biletnikoff and Joe Namath, by the way). But 1996? Not so much. But with the retirement Monday of Patriots great Tedy Bruschi, I decided to head back to that 1996 draft to see how it measured up. The answer: Pretty damn well. Now I would love to see a full tournament bracket of rosters made up from each year, but this isn’t the time for that. For now, let’s just take a look at the Class of 1996 and appreciate the vast contributions its members made to the last 13 years of the National Football League.

Begin Slideshow

Rams-Bengals: St. Louis Shows Signs of Life in 24-21 Victory

Seth Doria — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:27:45 -0400

Rams fans had justifiable cause to be worried about their team after the first two preseason games. The offense couldn’t score. The defense couldn't cover. It just wasn’t good.

But in Thursday night’s 24-21 preseason victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, we got a small glimpse at just what these guys have been working on the past few months.

Now we’re not fitting these guys for Super Bowl rings by any means. But there was enough positive from this game to give fans some hope the first few weeks of the season won’t be a complete catastrophe.

Here were some of the things that stood out:

* James Hall blew up Cedric Benson in the backfield for a four-yard loss on Cincinnati's first offensive play after the Rams' second touchdown. Hall was playing the right defensive end position with Chris Long moving over to the left side. Moving parts on the D-line is a hallmark of the Steve Spagnuolo defense, and it paid off handsomely on that play.

* Again playing on the left side late in the first quarter, Long was able to get past tight end Daniel Coats to bat down a ball and force a third and long. Then in the second quarter he was able to beat the right tackle on an inside move and force the quarterback to rush a throw that could have gone for big yardage.

Disruption—that’s what has been missing from Long’s game, and that’s what he provided in this contest.

* Another guy fans were looking to see some spark from was O.J. Atogwe, and they got that in the second quarter in the form of a strip of running back Bernard Scott that James Butler picked up for an 73-yard touchdown that put the Rams ahead 21-7.

Nothing picks up a team like causing a turnover and returning it for a touchdown, and that play (Atogwe also had two nice blocks on the return) showed why he was the Rams’ franchise player this offseason.

* I’ve been giving Kyle Boller all kinds of hell this summer, but he played like a backup should play against the Bengals—smart, safe, manage the game, and move the offense down the field. He finished the game having completed 14 of 20 pass attempts for 96 yards and one touchdown (the two-yard flip to Samkon Gado to score the Rams’ second touchdown).

I still wouldn’t want Boller as my starting quarterback, but he wasn’t anywhere near the disaster Thursday as he was against the Falcons.

(That’s as big a compliment as I can give him right now. Work with me.)

* It looks like Gado is the man for the backup job behind Steven Jackson. The offensive line gave him huge holes, and he hit them hard in the Rams’ second drive. Even when there weren’t holes to run through, Gado put his nose in there and ground out the yards that were there to be gotten.

As long as Gado keeps a hold of the ball and doesn’t make mistakes in pass protection, he should be in good shape.

(That of course leaves Antonio Pittman, Kenneth Darby, and Chris Ogbonnaya fighting for probably just two spots. Right now, it looks like Darby on the outs. I don’t think Spagnuolo ever forgave him for those two blown blitz pickups against the Jets.)

* Rookie linebacker James Laurinaitis sure seems to have a knack for being around the ball when things happen. Against the Falcons, Laurinaitis was in perfect position to intercept a pass that had gotten knocked in the air. Against the Bengals, after J.T. O’Sullivan fumbled the snap, there was Laurinaitis to fall on it. He was also only about a yard off being in position for another interception.

Laurinaitis still has some growing to do. The TV crew had a good look at him getting swallowed up at the goal line on Brian Leonard’s second-quarter touchdown run. But from what we’ve seen so far, the Rams nailed the decision to select Laurinaitis over Rey Maualuga and others with the 35th overall pick last April.

* When I wrote my things to watch column for this game, I mentioned I’d like to see Larry Grant get some time with the first-unit defense. He did, and he came through, stopping Benson for a three-yard loss early in the second quarter.

I wrote it the other day and it bears repeating—Grant is a player, and the more time he spends on the field, the better off the Rams defense will be.

* Since we’re talking about things I wrote that are coming true, Quincy Butler needs to get some more action with the top unit. In back-to-back plays in the third quarter, Butler came up and made a beautiful open-field tackle, and then intercepted a Jordan Palmer pass and almost took it to the house.

Considering the lack of progress by Justin King, Jonathan Wade, and Bradley Fletcher, Butler has more than earned his shot at the nickel corner job. Here’s hoping he gets to play major minutes in next week’s preseason finale against the Chiefs to prove he deserves a roster spot.

* I hate to end on a down note, but god were the special teams bad, especially early.

On the first kickoff, backup safety David Roach got called for a push in the back to set the Rams up at their own 11-yard line. Then after the offense’s three-and-out, the special teams gave up a 49-yard punt return to Quan Cosby for a touchdown (bad punt, bad coverage).

Then there was the missed field goal at the end of the first half, and then the 44-yard punt return by Tom Nelson in the third quarter,

You can bet Spagnuolo and special teams coordinator Tom McMahon will be breaking down the tape on those plays, and the culprits will soon find their way to the waiver wire (assuming there's anybody better to replace them with).

Five Rams To Watch Against The Bengals

Seth Doria — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:54:10 -0400

Everybody knows the third preseason game is where it’s at when it comes to getting ready for the NFL season.

We’ve had the two-a-days. We’ve had the “get our feet wet” first preseason game. We’ve had the “time to start putting things together” second preseason game. And next week, it’s the “please don’t cut me” game.

This is the money game.

The third preseason game is the last chance for the starters to get their act in gear, before the team makes the turn toward the regular season. It’s also the last time a lot of guys will be on the active roster with cuts looming next Tuesday.

With that in mind, here are five guys I’ll be keeping a close eye on Thursday night:

Kyle Boller

Boller has done nothing to make fans, coaches, or players confident that should he can come in and direct the offense to 21 or more points should Marc Bulger not come back as quickly as expected, or gets injured again (since the defense doesn’t look like it’s winning many 13-10 games anytime soon).

So far, Boller has completed only 12 of 25 pass attempts for 116 yards. And if you were to take the names off the jerseys and asked a fan who didn’t know anybody from anybody to rank Keith Null, Brock Berlin, and Boller purely on their performance in the preseason thus far; Boller is ending up last in those rankings 100 out of 100 times.

He just hasn’t been very good.

With that said, cutting bait on Boller before the regular season and going with a cast-off from another franchise would be a reactionary fan move, not a smart football move.

Boller is making this team.

Rams General Manager Billy Devaney scouted the available options at back-up quarterback in the offseason, then picked Boller. They didn’t try to trade for Matt Cassel from the Patriots and they didn’t draft Mark Sanchez, who will start from the get-go for the New York Jets. They looked at the available options and Bulger—Boller—Berlin/Null is what they decided.

Sometimes you just have to live with your decisions and hope they turn out. Kyle Boller is one such decision.

And Thursday night against the Bengals, it would be real swell if he could provide at least a glimmer of hope that he was the right one.

Derek Stanley

Stanley continues to be hit and miss. One moment he’s catching a touchdown. The next, he’s dropping easy passes. Then, he’s providing a spark in the return game, or dropping passes.

Stanley needs to realize that occasional moments of excellence aren’t good enough. I would rather have a player with a lower ceiling who can sustain their performance, than a player who can touch greatness, but spends most of his time somewhere between “suck” and “maddeningly frustrating.”

Donnie Avery looks like he'll be fine for the regular season, but he won't be playing against a physical Bengals secondary on Thursday; Stanley will, and more than doing something spectacular, he just needs to show he can be a consistent contributor.

Larry Grant

The Rams’ starting defense was terrible against the Falcons. There’s no getting around that. And I wrote the other day, that fans should have a little patience as players get used to the system being installed by head coach Steve Spagnuolo and defensive coordinator Ken Flajole.

With that said, time might not be the only thing needed. Perhaps a roster shake-up is also in order.

Grant has consistently shown an ability to be a disruptive force. Whether it was at camp practice or in the preseason, he's been one of the few guys who stood out as difference makers.

Against Atlanta, Grant had a sack of Falcons QB DJ Shockley, forcing a fumble that Brock Berlin turned into the Rams’ first touchdown of the game. These are the plays the Rams will need as they scrap for wins against more talented teams in 2009.

And so I know that Chris Draft, entering his 12th season, has the veteran status and may picks things up a little bit faster, but I’d really like to see Grant run with those next to former college teammate James Laurinaitis.

After all, it can’t get much worse, right?

O.J. Atogwe

Assigning blame for mistakes in the secondary is one of the trickiest things, in that you don’t know exactly what defense was called, what reads the defenders were supposed to make, and who failed to cover their responsibility.

Did the corner release too early, incorrectly assuming he had safety help over the top? Did the safety miss his assignment and go to the wrong side of the field, leaving a corner to look like he got burnt when really he was doing his job covering the flat?

Did the linebacker not cover the tight end, forcing the safety to come up and make the tackle even though it wasn’t his coverage?

Sometimes, you just don’t know.

With that said, O.J. Atogwe, "Mr. Franchise Player," has been doing a mighty fine Adam Archuletta impression thus far this preseason: Always around the ball because he’s usually one step behind the guy catching it.

Atogwe is one of the top paid safeties in the league this year, and against a Bengals offense missing Carson Palmer, he needs to do a better job of making a play before the other team picks up 15 yards.

Chris Long

I’ve been on Long’s case all preseason because I just don’t think he provides much to the defense. He’s not getting around the corner and hitting the quarterback. He’s not collapsing the line in the run game (in fact, he got moved out like yesterday’s trash when Atlanta was on the goal line).

He just isn’t doing near enough to justify his starting spot; not to mention the ungodly salary as the second overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.

But Cincinnati has a bad offensive line. They drafted Andre Smith with the sixth overall pick, but his crazy insistence that he get paid more than the guy picked after him has left the two sides somehow unable to reach a contract.

So if there’s any line the Rams should be able to create pressure against, it’s these guys. And Long needs to show something other than his amazing chase speed when the play is 10 yards in front of him.

The time to learn and figure things out is over. It's time to show you can play. Because in just about two weeks, wins and losses will start to mean something.

St. Louis Rams Fans, Take Heart: The Defense Will Improve

Seth Doria — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:50:53 -0400

One of the more interesting things about sports fans is the psychology of the loser.

The highlights and commemorative DVDs are all filled with cheering throngs elated with their team’s victory, but that’s just a small minority of the hundreds of millions of sports fans across the globe.

Most of us just end up dejected, working our way through the stages of grief until we can finally focus on the hope of next year.

This is the life of a St. Louis Rams fan.

Sure there were a couple years at the turn of the century when things went well. The Rams went a combined 56-24 from 1999 through 2003, with four playoff appearances and the 1999 Super Bowl victory over Tennessee.

But take out those five seasons, and the Rams are 49-95 since they moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis for the 1995 season, and 19-45 since last making the playoffs as an 8-8 Wild Card in 2004.

And coming off the worst two-year stretch in franchise history—5-27 overall and 1-11 in the NFC West—you can forgive Rams fans for watching the dismal start to Friday’s preseason loss to Atlanta and thinking, “Here we go again.”

In case you missed it, which would have been easy to do since the game wasn’t even shown live in St. Louis, here’s what went down:

Falcons receive. Run for no gain. Run for 43. Pass for seven. Run for nine. Pass for five. Run for seven. Run for four. Run for one. Run for one. Touchdown.

Rams take over on their own 16 thanks to a weak kick return, pick up 13 yards on five plays and punt the ball back to Atlanta.

Falcons take over at their own 30. Incomplete pass. Run for one. Pass for 11. Pass for 15. Pass for 18. Run for no gain. Pass for 11. Pass for 14. Touchdown.

That’s two drives with two touchdowns, 15 of 17 plays resulting in positive yardage, and an astronomical 8.65 yards per play for the Falcons starting offense in the first quarter.

And this is where the Rams’ “Here we go again” train would typically start picking up some steam.

But here’s a message to Rams fans who might feel like packing it in and focusing on which of the top quarterbacks to select with the top pick in the 2010 NFL Draft:

It’s ok. Don’t panic. This is all just part of the process.

Some perspective:

The last time head coach Steve Spagnuolo installed his defensive system, in 2007 with the New York Giants, it did not produce immediate success.

In the preseason that year, the Giants went 1-3, giving up more than 20 points in all three losses. Then in the first two weeks of the 2007 season, the Giants gave up a combined 80 points in losses to Dallas and Green Bay to fall to 0-2.

In the Cowboys game, Tony Romo threw for 345 yards and four touchdowns, the running back duo of Julius Jones and Marion Barber combined for 131 yards on 27 carries, and Jason Witten caught six passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.

In the Packers game, New York allowed three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to turn a 14-13 nail-biter into a 35-13 washout.

Needless to say, things worked out alright for the Giants that season, finishing the year ranked seventh in total defense, first in sacks and won the Super Bowl, putting the “1” in the Patriots’ infamous 18-1.

Now the Rams don’t have the same talent as that 2007 Giants team. Leonard Little isn’t Michael Strahan, James Hall isn’t Justin Tuck, and Chris Long sure as hell isn’t Osi Umemyiora.

But defensive systems have a way of making stars out of their participants. And the Spagnuolo defense, adopted from the late Jim Johnson and others, has proven to have success once it takes hold.

So take heart, Rams fans. Things might look ugly now. And frankly, they might look ugly for a while to come. With road trips to Seattle and Washington in the first two weeks of the regular season, an 0-2 start seems eminently possible.

But there will be brighter days ahead for the defense.

The system is proven. It just needs time to take hold.

(And maybe a few more players.)

Rams Preview: St. Louis Has Something To Prove Against Atlanta

Seth Doria — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:37:59 -0400

When the St. Louis Rams and Atlanta Falcons kick off Friday night at the Edward Jones Dome, it will be the first chance many Rams fans will have had to see in person the product rebuilt by GM Billy Devaney.

From the last time the Rams took the Dome turf, a gut-wrenching 17-16 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, gone are Jim Haslett, Al Saunders and Rick Venturi.

In their place is a trio of first-timers: Head coach Steve Spagnuolo, defensive coordinator Ken Flajole, and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.

All three of those coaches are tasked with learning a new level of responsibility while at the same time trying to transform the Rams from a 2-14 laughingstock into some semblance of a respectable football team.

And then there are the changes on the field:

Gone are franchise faces Orlando Pace, Torry Holt, and Pisa Tinoisamoa.

Fakhir Brown, La'Roi Glover, Anthony Becht, Jason Craft, Brett Romberg, Dante Hall, Drew Bennett, Trent Green, and Brandon Gorin: All gone.

Many Rams fans would say not a moment too soon.

In their place are new faces of the franchise, guys like center Jason Brown, tackle Jason Smith, safety James Butler, and middle linebacker James Laurinaitis.

Though we have familiarized ourselves with the new names and their impressive profiles, that doesn’t mean we know yet what kind of team this is going to be.

We know what kind of team we think this is going to be. We know what kind of team we hope this is going to be.

But until we see the team develop on the field against the competition, we won’t really know.

In that vein, here are some things to watch as the 2009 Rams take the second of their preseason steps on the journey to the real thing:

* The Michael Vick signing got a whole lot of play nationally for the dog fighting and prison sentence, but the ramifications could be felt all the way to St. Louis:

The Eagles now need to trim a quarterback from their roster, and that QB may very well be A.J. Feeley, who had none other than new Rams OC Shurmur as his position coach for his entire career.

With starter Marc Bulger likely sitting out the rest of the preseason with a fractured pinkie, it’s time for Kyle Boller to prove he can step into the fray and lead this team should the situation arise during the regular season.

Boller only completed three of nine pass attempts for 25 yards against the Jets, and shows no sign of being anything more than the disappointment he was when Baltimore let him walk at the end of his rookie contract.

The Rams are only on the hook for $1.5 million on Boller, so if Feeley becomes available and Boller hasn’t shown anything, you could see a late switch at the back-up quarterback position.

* The Falcons' main addition over the offseason, tight end Tony Gonzalez, caught just one pass in limited action last week against the Lions, but should see increased action Friday as teams build toward the regular season.

Word out of Falcons camp is that Gonzalez and second-year quarterback Matt Ryan have developed a great rapport already, and that will provide a stiff test for a Rams team that couldn’t cover the Jets' tight ends in their preseason opener in New York last week. Jets starting TE Dustin Keller had three catches for 52 yards, while defensive tackle-turned-tight end Kareem Brown had two catches for 20 yards.

With John Carlson (Seattle) and Chris Cooley (Washington) coming up over the first two weeks of the regular season, the Rams don’t have much time to get this right. It needs to start against Gonzalez.

* Sticking with the Falcons offense vs. the Rams defense, the St. Louis secondary did a horrible job against the Jets receivers last week, allowing Jets quarterbacks to complete 17 passes out of 25 attempts for 238 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

The Falcons feature Pro Bowl receiver Roddy White, who has more than 2,500 yards receiving and 13 touchdowns over the past two seasons. Rams corners will have to do a much better job on him than they did on the Jets' receivers.

* Rams running backs were the primary culprits in just about all of the pass protection breakdowns against the Jets, with Kenneth Darby whiffing on two safety blitzes and Antonio Pittman missing on another.

Samkon Gado’s 77-yard touchdown run late last week may have caught the eyes of TV producers, but the ability to protect the quarterback has to be a critical factor in determining who among the Rams stable of back-ups get the snaps behind starter Steven Jackson.

* With new left tackle Alex Barron likely to miss the game due to a knee injury, first-team right tackle Adam Goldberg will slide over to the let side and the rookie Smith will make his first start on the right side.

Smith had no problem with Vernon Gholston last week, but that’s not saying much considering Gholston is well on his way to bust status with the Jets.

This week, Smith gets another top-ten bust in Falcons LDE Jamaal Anderson, the eighth overall pick out of Arkansas in 2007 who has just two sacks in 31 career games. Anderson is in a dog fight with Chauncey Davis for the starting spot opposite John Abraham, so Smith could be facing the best from both.

* Finally, this is an opportunity for revenge for Rams receiver Laurent Robinson, a third-round pick out of Illinois State by Atlanta in 2007 who fell out of favor last year and was traded to St. Louis in exchange for swapping positions in the fifth and sixth rounds of the 2009 NFL Draft.

As a rookie, Robinson finished fourth in receptions by a rookie in 2007 with 37, behind only Dwayne Bowe, Calvin Johnson, and James Jones. Now a presumptive starter for St. Louis, Robinson has a chance to show the Falcons they made a mistake by giving up on him so early in his career.

The Ups And Downs of Rams 23, NY Jets 20

Seth Doria — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:36:33 -0400

They say the games don’t count this time of year. It’s just the pre-season, where the starters play a few snaps, then it’s a parade of scrubs versus scrubs.

That’s what they say.

But they’re wrong.

The final score in the pre-season doesn’t count. This is true. Rams 23, Jets 20 was nice for a few minutes at the end, but it means absolutely nothing in terms of predicting how the 2009 regular season will play out.

But just because the final score is inconsequential does not make the process by which that score was achieved also inconsequential.

This was Steve Spagnuolo’s first game as a head coach, Pat Shurmur’s first game as an offensive coordinator, Ken Flajole’s first game as a defensive coordinator, and the first game for 80 or so Rams players under entirely new offensive and defensive schemes.

All in all, this was a good first test. They got out of the game fairly injury free, got some good tape on which to base corrections, and they won, which though meaningless in the long run, is still nice for a team that went 2-14 last year.

Watching the game, I kept some notes on guys who came through and performed well, and others who left some doubt. Call it the Ups and Downs of Rams 23, Jets 20.

DE Leonard Little: Showed his trademark burst off the edge of the line, sacking Jets QB Kellen Clemens, forcing a fumble that was recovered by James Hall, leading to the Rams’ first points. These type of impact plays on defense that lead to easy points were sorely lacking last year.

WR Laurent Robinson: Huge 50-yard catch down the right side with Dwight Lowery all over him (Lowery actually got called for pass interference on the play). With Donnie Avery out for another four or five weeks, it’s critical for Robinson to own the top receiver role.

The Offensive Line: Marc Bulger certainly faced some pressure, but it was mostly from free rushers on the blitz not picked up by the backs. The starting offensive line of Alex Barron (no false starts), Jacob Bell (who went out early and was replaced by Roy Schuening), Jason Brown, Richie Incognito and Adam Goldberg stayed on their blocks and opened up holes for the backs. The Jets were missing mammoth nose tackle Kris Jenkins, but the Rams front line did a great job with the bodies they had in front of them.

RB Samkon Gado: Stuck in fourth position behind Steven Jackson, Kenneth Darby and Antonio Pittman on the RB depth chart, Gado made sure to get himself noticed early in the third quarter with a nifty 77-yard touchdown run for the Rams’ first touchdown of the preseason.

Gado burst through a gaping hole in the middle of the line (more great work by the second-team offensive line), then juked corner James Ihedigbo out of his shoes and accelerated down the sideline all the way to the house.

With Gado’s presence on special teams, those kind of plays on offense are going to make it awfully hard to let him go.

DE C.J. Ay You: Playing deep in the fourth quarter, Ah You did a good job of crashing off the edge of the line and pulling down the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage.

Ay You also had a heads-up play that went unnoticed on the telecast when Eric Moore forced an Erik Ainge fumble. Ah You wasn’t in position to recover the ball so he batted it into the backfield and chased after it. He still wasn’t able to recover the loose ball, but the move to bat the ball cost the Jets 18 yards (from the 24 to the 42) and took them out of field goal range in a three-point game with less than 3:30 to play.

And this is why you watch the fourth quarter of pre-season games.

Down

QB Marc Bulger: He had some nice throws, but he still looked jittery when the rush got into his face. There’s no doubt he can make the throws with a clean pocket, but I’m not at all convinced he retains the ability to stand in the pocket that’s breaking down around him and keep focus long enough to hit a streaking receiver down field.

Bulger just did too many turtle imitations in this game for me to feel comfortable with his mental state.

The Secondary: Jets receivers were wide open pretty much the whole game. Justin King was beaten deep by a Mark Sanchez-to-David Clowney bomb from inside the Jets’ 10 yard line, and OJ Atogwe had trouble with Jets TE Dustin Keller (fantasy alert on Keller, especially once Sanchez takes the starting QB job).

Also, back-up safeties Todd Johnson and David Roach both missed several tackles in the open field that led to extra yardage for the offense, and Johnson bit hard on an Ainge play fake that led to a wide open Clowney for a 50-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

The secondary was the biggest concern going into the game and it remains so a day after. Expect the Rams to go cruising the waiver wire once other teams start making cuts.

DE Chris Long: I saw his big No. 72 out there, but he had no impact on the Jets offense. Watching him play, there’s nothing that screams, “Thank God we took him over Matt Ryan in the 2008 NFL Draft!”

RB Kenneth Darby: Had some nice runs and a good kick-off return, but missed critical blocks on two sacks of Marc Bulger. No matter what else you do as a running back on this team, you absolutely have to come through on your protection assignments or you just can’t be trusted to be on the field.

Fortunately for Darby, his primary competition for carries behind Steven Jackson, Antonio Pittman, wasn’t much better, missing a block on a blitzing safety that stalled the Rams’ two-minute drive at the end of the first half. Pittman did force a fumble on special teams, though.

Of course these are just snapshots of a few plays in the first preseason game. This is the time to make mistakes so you can get back into the film room and make corrections before the errors start costing you games that count.

Now it’s time to get some work done so that when the Atlanta Falcons come to the Edward Jones Dome next Friday, St. Louis can show they learned some lessons.

Previewing Rams-Jets from a St. Louis Perspective

Seth Doria — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:47:57 -0400

When the Rams line up against the Jets in the first preseason action for both teams on Friday night, most eyes nationally will be on the Jets.

New York has the loquacious new coach in Rex Ryan, the new superstar-QB-in-the-making with Mark Sanchez, a huge media market obsessed with everything they do, and a fan base that’s as rabid as any in the league.

The Rams, on the other hand, are coming off a horrible 2-14 season, are expected to once again be one of the worst teams in the league, and sports fans in St. Louis will be far more interested in Cardinals-Padres than Rams-Jets on Friday night.

But even though the Rams' side of the story isn’t what most people will tune in to see, the St. Louis players and coaches have the power to make themselves the story by the time the night is over.

Everybody knows the final score of the game doesn’t matter. You’d always rather win than lose, but the Lions went undefeated last preseason and look what that got them.

In the preseason, process is what counts, not results.

So as you’re watching the sideline cameras focus in on the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets, here are five things to look for from a Rams perspective.

1. The Rams defensive line has to be able to get some push on whoever is back in the pocket for the Jets. Center Nick Mangold, left guard Alan Faneca and right tackle Damien Woody will all be missing from the Jets’ starting front line, so the Rams first-team defensive line will largely be going up against the Jets’ second line. They need to dominate that matchup.

2. This will be the first chance for the Rams offense to work against a live defense in the offense being installed by new coordinator Pat Shurmur. Quarterback Marc Bulger has said he plans on playing at least two, possibly three quarters in this game in order to get the feel of the offense against an opposing defense.

With Ryan known for an attacking scheme from his days as the Baltimore defensive coordinator, this should be a good stiff test for the Rams protection schemes and offensive play execution.

3. One thing the Rams absolutely have to accomplish is keeping Bulger off his back. Alex Barron at left tackle and the combination of Adam Goldberg and rookie Jason Smith at right tackle have to be able to hold the corners and pick up edge rushes from the Jets’ outside linebackers.

Just to make sure Bulger stays healthy, Shurmur may want to consider using more max protect packages with the running backs and tight ends to make sure they have enough blockers to handle the rush.

4. Word out of Jets camp is that Ryan wants to make much better use out of running back Leon Washington, a really difficult match-up for opposing linebackers when he gets out into space. James Laurinaitis, who I expect to start at middle linebacker, is going to have to be on the ball with his reads in order to diagnose where Washington is going to be before he gets there. Once you’re a step behind Washington, you’re usually not catching up.

5. This will be both teams’ first chance to go live under the new wedge rules on kick-offs. It’s one thing to work on the techniques in practice, but it's a whole different matter entirely to be able to stop opposing return games when you have no game experience defending their blocking patters.

Washington was one of the best kick-off return men in the game last year, so this isn’t an easy way to start the learning curve. Rams fans shouldn’t be surprised to see some big returns from the Jets. Hopefully the Rams can counter with a few of their own, though they have nowhere near as established a return man as the Jets have in Washington.

Breaking Down The St. Louis Rams Depth Chart

Seth Doria — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:26:17 -0400

The Rams released the first depth chart of the Summer on Saturday, giving us our first look at how the new coaching regime led by head coach Steve Spagnuolo views the pieces that could potentially make up the 2009 Rams roster.

The one thing that has been clear all camp and remains so to this point is that Spagnuolo isn’t handing his rookies anything.

While some teams might view a tackle picked with the second overall pick in the draft and signed to a monster contract as a starter from day one, the Rams still list rookie Jason Smith as the second-team right tackle behind journeyman Adam Goldberg, a former undrafted free agent out of Wyoming.

Likewise, middle linebacker James Laurinaitis, selected in the second round after an All-America career at Ohio State, and has only recently seen time with the first team. Instead he has spent the majority of camp slotted behind Chris Draft in the middle.

The other rookies are all buried as well: Corner Bradley Fletcher, defensive tackle Darell Scott, receiver Brooks Foster, quarterback Keith Null and running back Chris Ogbonnaya are all entrenched in the crowded “third team” column.

Chances are they won’t stay there, especially Smith and Laurinaitis, but for now Spagnuolo is going experience over youth.

Some other observations from the first depth chart:

Judging from what I saw in practice, Derek Stanley wasn’t somebody I had pegged as a second-team guy. But there he is being paired with second-year wideout Keenan Burton behind starters Donnie Avery and Laurent Robinson.

"Derek is becoming a detailed guy, which we felt he had to do. And I think the details are paying off." Spagnuolo was quoted as saying in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He’s catching the ball well. He’s holding it a lot better now. I think he’s a talent. We've just got to get him out there in games and see what happens.”

Another surprise was the second-team status of defensive tackle Gary Gibson, a 27-year-old who has all of six solo tackles in the NFL since being signed as an undrafted free agent out of Rutgers in 2005.

Gibson, who played the past two years with Carolina while new defensive coordinator Ken Flajole was the Panthers linebackers coach, is listed behind starter Adam Carriker. He has had an oppurtunity to play with the first team as Carriker has sat out the past few practices since injuring his ankle in an intra-team scrimmage last Friday night.

“Gary is a workhorse,” Spagnuolo told stlouisrams.com. “He hasn't missed a thing. He's one of those guys that is going to try not to miss anything. He's a pretty intelligent defensive lineman, so we'll see how that works out there.”

Things aren’t looking good for 2006 second-round pick Joe Klopfenstein. Randy McMichael is the clear-cut top dog of the tight end group with Daniel Fells and Billy Bajema having strong showings in camp so far.

That leaves Klopfenstein, a member of the grossly disappointing draft class of 2006, on the verge of finding himself traded or released before the summer is done.

David Vobora is Mr. Irrelevant no more. The final selection of the 2008 draft out of Idaho has found himself frequently running with the first team at strong-side linebacker. Though he will likely find himself in a sub role as Chris Draft moves over to make room for Laurinaitis, it’s clear Spagnuolo sees a spot for Vobora on the 2009 Rams.

Of course, the first depth chart is by no means the finished product, but it does give us our first official indicator of who just might make the roster of 53.

If I had to guess:

QB (3): Marc Bulger, Kyle Boller, Keith Null

RB (4): Steven Jackson, Kenneth Darby, Antonio Pittman, Chris Ogbonnaya

FB (1): Mike Karney

TE (3): Randy McMichael, Daniel Fells, Billy Bajema

WR (6): Donnie Avery, Laurent Robinson, Keenan Burton, Derek Stanley, Ronald Curry, Brooks Foster

OL (9): Alex Barron, Jason Smith, Adam Goldberg, Jacob Bell, Richie Incognito, Roy Schuening, John Greco, Jason Brown, Mark Setterstrom

DL (9): Leonard Little, Chris Long, Victor Adeyanju, James Hall, Adam Carriker, Clifton Ryan, Gary Gibson, Hollis Thomas, Darell Scott

LB (6): Will Witherspoon, James Laurinaitis, Chris Draft, David Vobora, Larry Grant, Quentin Culbertson

CB (5): Ron Bartell, Tye Hill, Justin King, Quincy Butler, Bradley Fletcher

S (4): James Butler, OJ Atogwe, Todd Johnson, Craig Dahl

P (1): Donnie Jones

K (1): Josh Brown

LS (1): Chris Massey

Notable players left out of the mix: CB Jonathan Wade, QB Brock Berlin, WR Tim Carter, TE Joe Klopfenstein, RB Samkon Gado, LB Chris Chamberlain

Observations From St. Louis Rams Camp

Seth Doria — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:36:26 -0400

Heading toward the end of the first week at Rams camp, it’s time to empty out the notebook (as they say) with some thoughts and observations from Steve Spagnuolo’s first camp.

* Watching all four quarterbacks throw, Kyle Boller looked the worst. Marc Bulger looked great, Brock Berlin made some nice throws, and rookie sixth-rounder Keith Null showed some signs of promise, but Boller got few reps and didn’t do much with them.

Of course there’s a lot left to the evaluation process and the preseason games will play a more important role than a few week one reps, but it’s still not a great sign to see Boller off to the rough start.

* Regardless of how the depth chart shakes up behind starter Bulger, there is a significant talent gap between him and the rest of the QBs. If he goes down, they're screwed.

* Linebacker Larry Grant was a seventh-round choice out of Ohio State by the 49ers in 2008, and came over to St. Louis when the Rams signed him off the San Francisco practice squad. That’s not exactly a resume that pops “training camp star in the making,” but that’s exactly what Grant has been so far.

Grant has been all over the place, making big hits and seemingly always in the right place. The assumption has always been that once James Laurinaitis (Grant’s teammate at Ohio State) took the first-team MLB spot, Chris Draft would slide over to the SLB role.

But with Grant playing the way he is, that’s no foregone conclusion.

* Another guy most fans have never heard of who has made an immediate impact has been Quincy Butler, a former All-Mountain West Conference selection at Texas Christian who spent time on the practice squads for Dallas and New Orleans prior to joining the Rams.

An undrafted free agent in 2006, Butler has showed well in both the pass and run games.

* The addition of Hollis Thomas will prove to be a very good one for St. Louis. Adam Carriker and Clifton Ryan were the first-team DTs (with Leonard Little and Chris Long the book-ends), while Thomas and rookie Darell Scott were the second two in the middle of the D-Line.

Thomas and Scott together is a whole lot of dude. That should come in handy on the goal-line defense.

* On the negative side, I don’t see a very long tenure at Rams camp for DT Antwon Burton, a pick-up from the Kansas City practice squad in 2008.

Perhaps it was due to injury because both ankles were taped heavily, but Burton has the body language of a death row inmate on the way to the electric chair. He was always the last guy running from place to place and I didn’t see him talking with a single other player.

He looked like he would have rather been anywhere but at football practice. With at least four DTs ahead of him on the roster, Burton’s spot on the roster is precarious, at best.

* I love it when actually seeing something validates a conclusion you’ve only based on numbers and the reports of others, and that’s exactly what’s happened with receiver Laurent Robinson.

Robinson has already moved ahead of Keenan Burton opposite Donnie Avery in the two-WR set, and has shown no reason why he can’t stay there. He’s tall, fast and, for at least the times I’ve seen him, showed more than adequate hands.

* As for the rest of the receiving corps, there’s no question Avery is the top dog here. He’s got the look of an 80-reception, 1,100-yard season.

Behind Avery, it’s Robinson, Burton, Ronald Curry (who looked smooth, which is what you’d expect from the veteran), Brooks Foster (some nice flashes from the rookie fifth-rounder from North Carolina), and then a battle between Tim Carter and Derek Stanley for the final spot.

Nate Jones, Jarrett Byers, and Sean Walker will all likely see the waiver wire, with Byers the most likely to be signed to the practice squad.

* The battle for carries behind Steven Jackson is an interesting one. In RB pass catching drills, Antonio Pittman looked faster and smoother than Kenneth Darby. But when the team went into live 11-on-11, it was Darby getting the majority of the carries.

One name that should definitely not be forgotten about in the RB race is rookie seventh-rounder Chris Ogbonnaya, who showed nifty feet in the hole and a surprising burst to the outside.

* There’s also some good competition at corner, but I think that’s more for a lack of starter-caliber players than an over-abundance of talent.

Tye Hill is with the first team with Ron Bartell almost by default, with Jonathan Wade, Justin King, Butler, and Bradley Fletcher in the mix.

Both King and Wade got some extra technique lessons from Spagnuolo, and Wade was often on the losing end of battles with the WRs in one-on-one situations. King looks fast, but lacks confidence with his technique.

Right now, this has to be a major source of concern for Spagnuolo and GM Billy Devaney, especially considering the depth of receivers on the other NFC West teams: Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Steve Breaston, Nate Burleson, TJ Houshmandzadeh, Deion Branch, Isaac Bruce, and Michael Crabtree (if he ever signs).

* Jason Smith is the best tackle on the field. That includes Alex Barron, who’s being switched over from RT to LT to fill in for the departed Orlando Pace.

* There are some guys you just love to watch practice. New fullback Mike Karney is one of those guys. There’s just something about the way he runs into contact that’s fun to watch.

* I’ve written about it before, and I’m going to keep at it: Take tight end Randy McMichael in your fantasy drafts. He’s healthy, talented and will see a ton of balls in this offense. He’s also taken on a leadership role within the offense.

That’s it for now. The great thing for the Rams is that their first preseason game is at the New York Jets on Aug. 14. With head coach Rex Ryan and media-star-in-the-making Mark Sanchez the new faces of the franchise, this game is going to garner a lot of national attention.

The Rams will have an immediate opportunity to make a statement to the rest of the NFL that they need to be taken seriously.

Rams Camp Preview: Five Under-The-Radar Guys To Watch on Defense

Seth Doria — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:12:18 -0400

On Monday, we took a look at five players on offense to watch at Rams camp. Today, it’s the defense’s turn.

CB Tye Hill

Hill has been nothing short of a monumental bust in his first three years since being selected with the 15th overall pick out of Clemson in the 2006 NFL Draft. The fact the Rams traded back from the 11th pick in that draft with Denver, who used the Rams’ pick to select quarterback Jay Cutler, has only magnified the frustration with Hill’s lack of progress.

And if the Rams had their druthers, they probably wouldn’t put a whole lot of faith in Hill, who played just four games last year due to a knee injury and drew the ire of Jim Haslett for not getting healthy quickly enough.

But the Rams really don’t have a lot of options at corner. Ron Bartell signed an extension in the offseason and will start barring any unforeseen injury. But the other starting job is totally up in the air.

The 2007 third-round pick, Jonathan Wade, has showed some flashes and 2009 third-round pick Bradley Fletcher out of Iowa may be able to step in and contribute, but that’s about it as far as potential starting cornerbacks go.

And so though he really hasn’t shown a whole lot in years one, two or three, Hill will have every opportunity through camp to prove that he was worth the pick and deserves to remain a part of the future in St. Louis. Otherwise, that $1.4 million he’s due next year might prove too rich for the Rams’ blood.

DT Adam Carriker

Carriker was miscast as a defensive tackle under Jim Haslett. He’s big at 6’6” and 300 pounds, but 300 pounds on a 6’6” frame is much different than 300 pounds on a 6’-even frame. He just doesn’t have the right body type to last on the interior of the D-live 16 weeks a years.

But if you go back to Carriker’s days in the Big 12 with Nebraska, you find a dominant terror off the edge who finished his career with 41 career tackles for loss and 20.5 career sacks.

As a junior, Carriker had 9.5 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, and was voted the 2005 Nebraska Defensive MVP. Then as a senior, he finished with seven sacks and 16 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, was named Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year, first-team All-Big 12 and Third-team All-America.

This is who the Rams drafted with the 13th overall pick, and if there’s one player who will benefit more than any other from the transition from Scott Linehan and Jim Haslett to Steve Spagnuolo and new defensive coordinator Ken Flajole, it’s Carriker.

Here’s hoping for Carriker’s sake (and that of Rams fans) that Spagnuolo moves him into the rotation at end with Chris Long, James Hall, Victor Adeyanju, and the aging Leonard Little.

LB Quinton Culberson

With James Laurinaitis in the fold to take over the middle, Will Witherspoon can finally move back over to the weak side, where he should flourish playing the same position he played under Flajole when both were in Carolina.

Now they just need a solid strong-side linebacker to complete the trio. The departed Pisa Tinoisamoa always had a better reputation that he deserved with his play on the field, so the switch to a lesser-known player won’t necessarily result in a drop in play.

With that said, the list of prospects here won’t exactly make your jaw drop: 33-year-old Chris Draft is in his third year with his fifth franchise, 2008 seventh-round pick Larry Grant was signed over from the 49ers practice squad last season, 2008 Mr. Irrelevant David Vobora, and Culberson, an undrafted free agent out of Mississippi State in 2007 who has played in all but two games over his first two seasons with 11 starts.

At 6’1”, Culberson is stout at the point of attack, plus he’s fast enough to get to the hole in time. And at still just 23 years old (24 in October) he’s got perhaps the highest ceiling of any of the current crop of SLBs.

The addition of Flajole will be huge here. Flajole helped Jon Beason, Dan Morgan and Mark Fields to Pro Bowls during his tenure with the Panthers, and did wonders for Witherspoon when the two were together.

Dude knows linebackers.

Now I’m not saying Culberson will be on the same level as those guys, but he’s got the raw materials and now the coaching to turn into a viable starter.

CB Justin King

A fourth-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft out of Penn State, King is one of those guys who probably won’t contribute all that much in the base defense this season, but his raw physical ability on a roster that’s far from loaded with outstanding athletes makes him worth keeping an eye on.

A first-team All-Big Ten corner as a junior, Hill hurt his toe during the preseason last year and lost his rookie year. But that doesn’t change the fact that he was the second faster player at the 2008 NFL Draft Combine behind only East Carolina (and then Tennessee Titans) RB Chris Johnson. And the fact he hurt his toe so early last season makes it far less likely it will develop into a problem this summer.

As I said, King is going to need time to develop into a legitimate NFL cornerback. He’s got the raw skill, but it takes a lot more than raw skill to cover in the NFL.

While he’s learning, I’m betting he provides some electricity in the return game.

(You hear that, Derek Stanley?)

DT Hollis Thomas

So this is obviously a bit of a reach considering Thomas hasn’t signed with the Rams and is still reported to be mulling offers from three other teams (per agent Michael Bauer in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch), but the addition of the 12-year veteran would provide some much needed part-time muscle in the middle of the defensive line.

Watching the New York Giants lines of the past two years, and the Philadelphia Eagles lines before that, you see lots of bodies going in and out. You might have one or two guys who spend the majority of the game on the field (Chris Long), but to keep everybody else at optimal performance into the fourth quarter, you need to keep them fresh.

If you add Thomas, even at age 35, to an interior rotation already featuring Clifton Ryan, Carriker (on occasion) and fourth-round draft pick Darell Scott (6’3”, 315 pounds), then you have something opposing offensive lines have to think about.

Two factors that should play in the Rams’ favor: Thomas is a St. Louis native and he knows head coach Steve Spagnuolo from their time together in Philadelphia.

Rookie Contract Updates

On the eve of camp, the Rams have signed all but their first two picks, tackle Jason Smith and linebacker Laurinaitis.

On Monday, running back Chris Ogbonnaya, a seventh-round selection from the University of Texas, signed a four-year contract. Financial terms were not immediately available.

Also, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, league sources indicated the Rams have reached agreements with defensive tackle Darell Scott, their fourth-round choice out of Clemson, and quarterback Keith Null, their sixth-round pick out of West Texas A&M. No details on those deals yet.

Rams Camp Preview: Five Under-The-Radar Guys To Watch On Offense

Seth Doria — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:43:06 -0400

Entering camp this week, there are so many questions regarding the St. Louis Rams that it would be impossible to list them all in this space.

I mean, when you have a starting quarterback in a make-or-break season, a receiving corps with a second-year player as its leader, a rookie starting middle linebacker, a whole new coaching staff, and are coming off a two-year stretch with a combined record of 5-27, there are some issues on your plate.

And it’s likely those questions will dominate the media coverage of the team throughout camp.

But one of the great things about camp are the other players, the under-the-radar guys who might be removed from the headlines, but will prove crucial to determining the overall success or failure of the team during the upcoming season.

Over the next few days, I’ll examine 10 of these players, five from the offense and five from the defense.

Today, we start with the offense.

TE Randy McMichael

When McMichael left the Miami Dolphins after the 2006 season, it was as a guy who had caught 60 or more passes in three straight seasons and hadn’t missed a start in his entire five-year career since being a fourth-round draft pick out of Georgia in the 2002 NFL Draft.

Of course that record of success didn’t carry over to St. Louis. In 2007, McMichael caught only 39 passes, tying his career low set as a rookie. Then last year he caught only 11 passes in four games, missing the rest with a broken tibia.

But 2009 has the potential to be the comeback year for McMichael.

New offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur is installing an offense that has gotten 50 or more receptions and 600 or more receiving yards from the tight end position in five of the past six seasons.

Last season only eight guys were in the 50-600 club: Tony Gonzalez, Jason Witten, Owen Daniels, Chris Cooley, Dallas Clark, Zach Miller, Antonio Gates, and John Carlson.

With already favorable reviews from Shurmur during minicamps and apparently no lingering issues from the leg injury, it’s quite possible McMichael gets on that list this year.

QB Kyle Boller

Since being a first-round pick by the Baltimore Ravens in 2003, Boller has been largely a disappointment. He’s started all 16 games just once, carries a 20-22 career record (with a great defense no less) and a career 71.9 percent passer rating.

He’s been replaced as the starting QB twice (Steve McNair and Joe Flacco) and his inability to develop was one of the primary factors in the downfall of former Ravens head coach Brian Billick.

But with fragility of Rams incumbent starter Marc Bulger, Boller’s ability to fill in could well be an important story line for the 2009 Rams. It’s important that he come in, pick up the offense, and prove through the preseason that he can run the team in Bulger’s absence.

The alternative is the winner of the battle for the third quarterback spot, Brock Berlin or sixth-round pick Keith Null, and nobody wants that.

WR Laurent Robinson

Acquired from Atlanta in exchange for swapping positions in the fifth and sixth rounds of the 2009 NFL Draft, Robinson was a third-round pick by the Falcons out of Illinois State in 2007. He’s big at 6’2” and fast with a 4.38 40 time.

Robinson finished fourth in the NFL in receptions by a rookie in 2007 with 37, behind only Dwayne Bowe, Calvin Johnson, and James Jones, but then missed most of the Falcons’ 2008 revival with injuries, finishing with just five catches in six games.

Now in a position to challenge for the No. 2 WR spot opposite Donnie Avery, Robinson should certainly be in store for a career-best season, and could prove to be a major cog in the rebuilt Rams pass attack.

LG Jacob Bell

After signing as a free agent from Tennessee for $36 million prior to last season, Bell was expected to provide an immediate upgrade on the Rams offensive line.

And though you could argue Bell wasn’t the worst player on the line last year, he certainly didn’t play up to his contract in year one.

One advantage for Bell in 2009 is that he will have a much better center on his right with the off-season addition of Jason Brown from Baltimore. And depending on how things play out in camp, he might have second-overall pick Jason Smith at tackle to his left.

Another advantage for Bell is that he’s bulked back up to his Tennessee playing weight after playing at about 280 pounds last season. Now with an extra 15-20 pounds on his 6’4” frame, he should be able to better hold up at the point of attack.

If Bell doesn't step up this season, this could be his last with the Rams. Only the first two years of his contract were guaranteed, and his salary figure of $5 million in 2010 is a whole lot for a guard who spends his Sundays at the feet of his quarterback.

RB Kenneth Darby

Count me among those who think Steven Jackson is going to have a huge year in 2009. The combination of his speed, power, and ability to catch the ball out of the backfield are perfect fits for West Coast offense being installed by Shurmur.

But you can’t have an objective conversation on Jackson without noting he’s missed four games in each of the past two years.

And much like Philadelphia with the occasionally dinged-up Brian Westbrook, Shurmur needs somebody among the Rams stable of runners to step into the Correll Buckhalter role in St. Louis.

Darby is just one among the group of guys looking to fill that No. 2 role. Also competing for carries will be Antonio Pittman, Samkon Gado, and rookie Chris Ogbonnaya, selected in the seventh round out of Texas.

But Darby is my horse in this race.

Selected in the seventh round out of Alabama by Tampa Bay in the 2007 draft, Darby still has just 34 carries on his NFL resume. But he's big at 210 pounds on his 5’10” frame, and showed last year a knack for catching the ball out of the backfield with 19 in very limited playing time.

He also had very good averages per touch (4.4 yards per rush and 9.6 yards per reception), and returned seven kick-offs for 173 yards (24.7 yard average).

Granted those numbers are from a very small sample size, but Darby seems to me to be the best compliment to Jackson of the stable of backs.

Rookie Contract Updates

There isn’t any news on the remaining four unsigned Rams draft picks, but the full details on third-round pick Bradley Fletcher’s contract are now available.

An All-Big Ten Conference honorable mention at corner for Iowa in 2008, Fletcher signed a four-year, $2.642 million contract. He will have base salaries of $310,000 in 2009, $395,000 in 2010, $480,000 in 2011, and $565,000 in 2012. The deal included an $892,298 signing bonus.

Financial terms on fifth-round WR Brooks Foster’s four-year contract remain unavailable. LT Jason Smith (first round, Baylor), LB James Laurinaitis (second round, Ohio State), DT Dorell Scott (fourth round, Clemson) and QB Keith Null (sixth round, West Texas A&M) remain unsigned.

For St. Louis Rams, Signing Smith, Laurinaitis On Time a Top Priority

Seth Doria — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:25:27 -0400

While it’s obviously too early to tell how the Rams’ 2009 draft class will turn out, there’s little question that their first two picks, Baylor offensive tackle Jason Smith and Ohio State middle linebacker James Laurinaitis, will have to have hugely successful rookie seasons if the Rams have any hopes at turning around their dismal performance of 2008.

Now they just need contracts.

With just a week until the opening of camp (rookies, quarterbacks and selected veterans report on July 29), Smith and Laurinaitis are two of four remaining unsigned rookies from the Rams' 2009 NFL Draft class.

Rams lead negotiator Kevin Demoff doesn’t seem particularly concerned.

"I don't lose any sleep," Demoff told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "These things have a way of working themselves out...I would be shocked if there was a holdout.”

"I'm extremely confident that those guys will be here,” Demoff went on to say. “Unforeseen things happen, but I'd be very disappointed in both us and them if they weren't here on time."

And so would Rams fans.

New head coach Steve Spagnuolo is trying to set a new tone for the future, and Smith and Laurinaitis are two of the most important guys in rebuilding the talent level on the roster.

They need to be there from day one, and it’s not just for public relations or making a positive impression, though those are two important benefits. It’s because both guys need to be prepared to start in Week 1 at Seattle. That’s a little more than six weeks after camp opens, not exactly a lot of time to transform from college Big Man on Campus to NFL starter.

The two contracts to look at for Smith are those of 2008 first overall pick Jason Long, an offensive tackle like Smith, and 2008 second overall pick Chris Long, the defensive tackle selected out of Virginia by the Rams.

Jake Long signed with the Dolphins for $57.75 million over five years with $30 million guaranteed. Chris Long signed with St. Louis for five years and $48 million with $22.385 million guaranteed

It’s obviously not quite so simple as just splitting the difference, but you can expect Smith’s deal to end up right around $54 million over five years with $26 million guaranteed. (Those numbers go up if Smith signs a six-year deal instead of a five-year contract, though the per-year average would average out at just about the same.)

As for Laurinaitis, the 35th overall pick, neither the player chose immediately ahead of him (Oregon safety Patrick Chung by New England) or after (Ohio State teammate Brian Robiskie by the Browns) have inked deals.

Last year’s 35th overall pick, corner Brandon Flowers, signed with Kansas City for $3.215 million over four years with a $1.51 million signing bonus.

Here is the full run-down of the Rams draft picks and contracts:

OT Jason Smith, First Round (second overall) out of Baylor: Unsigned

LB James Laurinaitis, Second Round (35th overall) out of Ohio State: Unsigned

CB Bradley Fletcher, Third Round (66th overall) out of Iowa: Four-year deal including a signing bonus of $892,298 (total value undisclosed)

DT Dorell Scott, Fourth Round (103rd overall) out of Clemson: Unsigned

WR Brooks Foster, Fifth Round (160th overall) out of North Carolina: Four-year contract (terms undisclosed)

QB Keith Null, Sixth Round (196th overall) out of West Texas A&M: Unsigned

RB Chris Ogbonnaya, Seventh Round (211th overall) out of Texas: Four-year deal worth $1.816 million with a $66,000 signing bonus

Rams Open Up

With the Rams back in St. Louis after holding last year’s camp in Wisconsin, area fans will have ample opportunities to catch the rebuilding squad: A full 32 practice sessions and scrimmages during training camp are currently scheduled to be open to the public.

Considering most St. Louisans couldn’t go five deep on a list of current Rams, now is the time to get to know the new crop. Here’s the schedule released by the team. For up-to-date practice schedules please call the training camp hotline at 314-516-8852.

Thursday, July 30 (quarterbacks, rookies and selected veterans): Practices from 8:15 to 9:30 a.m. and 2:15 to 3:30 p.m.

Friday, July 31: Practice from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 1: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4:25 p.m.

Sunday, August 2: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4:25 p.m.

Monday, August 3: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4:25 p.m.

Tuesday, August 4: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4 p.m.

Wednesday, August 5: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:15 to 3:15 p.m.

Thursday, August 6: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4 p.m.

Friday, August 7: Practices from 8:15 to 9:55 a.m.; Scrimmage at 6:30 p.m. (Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo.)

Saturday, August 8: Practice from 2:45 to 4 p.m.

Sunday, August 9: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:15 to 3:15 p.m.

Monday, August 10: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4 p.m.

Tuesday, August 11: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:15 to 3:15 p.m.

Wednesday, August 12: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:45 to 4 p.m.

Sunday, August 16: Practice from 2:30 to 4:45 p.m.

Monday, August 17: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 1:25 to 2:45 p.m.

Tuesday, August 18: Practices from 8:15 to 10:30 a.m. and 1:25 to 2:45 p.m.

Wednesday, August 19: Practice from 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Sunday, August 23: Practice from 2:30 to 4:45 p.m.

Final Note

I know it’s a tough economy, and businesses everywhere are scrambling for dollars, but the Rams’ official training camp this year is called the “2009 St. Louis Rams Bud Light Training Camp presented by Russell Athletic.”

Seems a bit much, no?

Halladay Clearance: Toronto Might Let Ace Go, But at What Cost To St. Louis?

Seth Doria — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:42:25 -0400

As we kick off the second half of the season, more than half of the teams in the league can still see a plausible scenario under which they can make a push for the offseason.

There are ten teams currently within five or fewer games of the division lead. Add in the teams within at least five games of the wild cards and the division leaders themselves, and you’ve got 19 of the league’s 30 teams within one or two good weeks of October baseball.

Toronto is not one of them.

And so it comes to pass that Roy Halladay, a six-time All Star, winner of the 2003 Cy Young, winner of 141 games, and arguably the greatest pitcher in franchise history, is on the trading block.

The questions now become: who gets him, and what price?

Here in St. Louis, fans are salivating. We see the prospects of a Halladay-Chris Carpenter-Adam Wainwright-Kyle Lohse rotation down the stretch. And it’s not hard to imagine the Cardinals building on their division lead and heading back to the playoffs for the first time since their magical run to the 2006 World Series title.

But there’s that question of how much. How much do you give up for a great pitcher with a year and a half left on his deal?

2008 first-round draft pick Brett Wallace is a no brainer. He was already drafted once by Toronto in 2005, but then decided to head off to Arizona State, where he won two Pac-10 Triple Crowns.

In just his second year of pro ball, Wallace is already hitting over .300 at AAA Memphis. He’s a legitimate top level prospect, even if his future defensive positioning is still somewhat in the air.

(He’s a third baseman now, but should probably switch to 1B or even DH. The problem in St. Louis is there’s no DH, and there’s already a pretty first-baseman by the name of Albert Pujols.)

So Wallace is in. You hate to give him up, but it’s Roy Halladay we’re talking about. You got to give up to get.

Still, though, that’s not going to be enough. You don’t just get an All Star ace for a high-level prospect, no matter how high the ceiling.

So who else?

Well, you can’t give up Wainwright. That’s a deal breaker.

Sure, Carpenter-Halladay might be an upgrade over Carpenter-Wainwright, but Wainwright is still only 27 and he’s signed through 2013 for very reasonable money ($4.65 million next year, $6.5 million in 2011, $9 million club option in 2012, and $12 million club option in 2013).

Halladay, on the other hand, is 32 and will make $15.75 million next year before commanding a huge deal on the open market after this season–right about the same time St. Louis is trying how to figure out how to pay Pujols $200 million or so.

So you can’t give up Wainwright. It wouldn’t provide near enough of an upgrade over the next year-plus to warrant the degradation of the staff over the next four years.

And if you’re not giving up Wainwright, chances are Toronto asks for center fielder Colby Rasmus in his place.

And to that I say no.

Anybody watching a sizeable number of Cardinals games this year knows that pitching really isn’t the issue. With a 3.76 team ERA entering the break, fourth best in the majors and second best in the National League, the staff and bullpen are doing just fine.

The problem is with the bats. The Cardinals are hitting only .255 as a team, good for just 23rd best in the league. They’re a bit more respectable in the home run department, ranking 14th with 92, but when you consider Pujols has 32 of those … well, it’s not so respectable.

Ryan Ludwick was getting going late in the first half, so that would be a big plus. Guys like Skip Schumaker, Brendan Ryan (can’t believe I’m including him here) and Yadier Molina are all serviceable hitters who do their part.

Those not doing their part are Rick Ankiel (.215 BA, 5 HR in 223 AB), Chris Duncan (.234, 5 HR in 252 AB), and Khalil Green (.200, 5 HR in 130 AB and now on his second DL stint for anxiety). Add on the pu-pu platter of fill-in third basemen who belong in Memphis—Joe Thurston (hitting .223) and Brian Barden (.233).

And that brings us back to Rasmus, who right now has to be considered the favorite for the National League Rookie of the Year.

After a rough start that saw him hit just .212 in May, Rasmus hit .333 in June and is off on the same clip so far in July. His on-base percentage in July is .417. His slugging percentage is .667.

Of course, July is far from over, so those numbers could very well go down. But there are some deeper numbers that indicate Rasmus is only getting started.

In June, Rasmus struck out 13 times in 85 plate appearances with no walks. So far in July (49 plate appearances), he has eight strikeouts with six walks. And despite starting just 66 of the team’s 91 first-half games, Rasmus trails only Pujols himself in number of extra-base hits, with 31 (to Pujols' 55).

And remember, he’s just 22.

So we’re not in the “maybe he’ll he be good someday” stage of prospect evaluation with Rasmus anymore. He’s already the second best hitter on the team, a smooth-as-silk center fielder, and he’s light-years away from free agency.

And as much as I like Halladay (and that’s a whole lot), I would not give up Rasmus to get him.

The Cardinals pitching is good enough to win as it’s currently constituted. The offense is not. So it just doesn’t make any sense to give up your second-best hitter to get a pitcher you really don’t need in order to compete.

So sorry, Cards fans. I know the prospect of landing Halladay would seem worth any price. But it’s not worth giving up Wainwright or Rasmus.

And without those two, there’s no Halladay in St. Louis.

Rick Ankiel's Feel-Good Story on the Verge of Turning Back to Tragedy

Seth Doria — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:25:06 -0400

When the baseball season starts back up tomorrow, there are going to be all kinds of storylines to follow.

Can Albert Pujols win the first Triple Crown since 1967?

Will the trading of Roy Halladay change the landscape of the National League pennant race?

Will the National League Wild Card really come from the NL West?

These are all great stories, and I can’t wait to see how they play out (especially if Halladay ends up on the Cardinals).

But there’s another story that’s weighing on my mind. It’s not about records, pennants, or the drama of October.

It’s about Rick Ankiel.

Most people know the basic outlines of the Ankiel story, but the basic outlines won’t do. To truly appreciate the tragedy of Rick Ankiel, you need the details.

A second-round pick by the Cardinals out of Port St. Lucie High School in Florida, Ankiel was as can’t miss as can’t miss got.

Combining a rocket fastball, heavy sinker, and devastating hook, Ankiel was the high school player of the year, drafted in the second round and signed for $2.5 million, fifth highest ever at the time.

He was a full-time big league starter at age 20.

He was second in the Rookie of the Year voting.

He had earned so much faith as a rookie that Cardinals manager Tony La Russa sent him, at 21 years old, to the mound to face the great Greg Maddux and the Atlanta Braves in Game One of the 2000 National League Division Series.

But what happened in the third inning of that game can only be categorized as a legendary meltdown.

Competing on the grandest stage short of the World Series itself, Ankiel imploded, throwing five wild pitches, walking four, and allowing four earned runs.

With another terrible start against the Mets in Game Two of the NLCS and an equally bad relief appearance in Game Five of that series, Ankiel finished the 2000 playoffs with nine wild pitches, 11 walks, and seven earned runs allowed in just four innings.

Ankiel was permanently damaged goods. The Cards tried to hide him by throwing bullpens off on hidden fields and limiting media access, but there was no use. Ankiel’s mind was broken, and not even legendary sports doctor James Andrews could fix that.

After fits and starts and losing the better part of two seasons to injury, including Tommy John surgery in 2003, Ankiel finally called it quits on his pitching career in 2005.

Normally, that would be the end. If it were, it would be a sad story, but not a terribly interesting one. Young phenoms flame out all the time. It’s a sad fact of the game. Just ask Mark Prior.

But here is where we get into the Hollywood part of the story.

Ankiel didn’t just quit and walk away like so many burnouts before him. Instead, he actually became a legitimate outfield prospect.

By August of 2007, Ankiel was leading the Pacific Coast League in homers with 32 in just 102 games. Once Cardinals outfielder Scott Spiezio was forced away from the game with a drug addiction, it was time for Ankiel’s triumphant return to the Major Leagues.

You couldn’t have scripted it any better: A packed Busch Stadium crowd gave Ankiel a standing ovation prior to his first at-bat. After he hit a three-run jack in the seventh, the place exploded like it was Mark McGwire’s 62nd.

This was love.

Newspaper columnists gushed, sports talk radio buzzed, and TV newscasts spliced together images of Ankiel’s homers and scenes of Robert Redford playing Roy Hobbs in one of the greatest sports hero movies of all time.

The Flameout was now The Natural.

If this was Hollywood, that’s where the story would have ended. That’s where he rides off into the sunset, a hero reborn with a pretty blonde on his arm.

Cue the music and roll the credits. There’s not a dry eye in the house.

But that’s not where it ended.

Really, those few weeks after his August 2007 call-up were as good as it got.

2008 in total wasn’t a bad year for Ankiel by any means: 120 games, 453 at-bats, .264 average, 25 homers, 71 RBI, .506 slugging percentage. There were also some incredible defensive plays along the way.

Not bad for a washed-up pitcher. Not bad at all.

But battling a sports hernia, Ankiel finished 2008 in a tailspin, hitting just .169 with three homers, 12 RBI, and 20 strikeouts in his final 27 games (only 16 of those starts).

His batting woes have only intensified this season.

Ask La Russa his opinion, and he’ll tell you it’s probably because of the shoulder damage Ankiel suffered when he crashed into the wall May 4 in a collision so violent it left the bill of his hat bent at a 90-degree angle.

But the truth is Ankiel was only hitting .247 with a .326 on-base percentage when he crashed into that wall.

This wasn’t a case of a guy going good and then losing it due to injury. This was a case of a guy going bad, then going worse.

On the season, Ankiel is only hitting .215 with a .278 on-base percentage, five homers, and 22 RBI in 223 AB. He has struck out 54 times, 22 of those coming with men in scoring position, a situation when he’s hitting just .203.

Walking with my buddy Z at the All-Star Fanfest here in St. Louis on Saturday, talking about who we would give up for Halladay and how we couldn’t give up Colby Rasmus because of Ankiel’s struggles, I had a terrible thought:

The same thing that happened on the mound in 2000 is happening in the batter’s box in 2009.

It’s a bit harder to notice because strikeouts aren’t nearly the same dramatic failure as wild pitches, but Ankiel looks just as lost now in the box as he did on the mound those fateful nights back in 2000.

Cardinals fans, known for their patience and loyalty and willingness to forgive, are starting to run low on those qualities. It’s not quite to Jason Isringhausen status yet, but there’s a distinct sense of discomfort in the crowd whenever No. 24 steps up to bat.

Even La Russa, ever loyal to his veterans (and he loves Ankiel like a son), has been forced to reduce Ankiel’s role in order to stay atop a highly competitive NL Central. Rasmus has taken over center field, and Ankiel has been relegated to platoon status with Chris Duncan (another object of scorn) in left field.

This isn’t how Ankiel’s story was supposed to end, not after that triumphant return in August of 2007. Not after all those comparison to Hobbs and The Natural. And not after St. Louis Cardinals fans invested nine years of their lives living and dying with the extreme ups and downs of his amazing story.

Maybe this won’t be how it ends. Maybe he comes back from the break refreshed, healthy, and blasting bombs.

He’s come back from hell once.

Maybe he can do it again.

I hope so. A story like this deserves a better ending.

Introducing the All-Athlete Fight Club

Seth Doria — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:11:12 -0400

With this weekend’s legendary UFC 100 card just days away, it’s time to let loose with an idea I’ve been tinkering with for a while now. It started with a tweet from Peter King some time back: “Hershel Walker told us on Sirius today that he’s going to do a real, live MMA fight in Vegas this year. He’s a big MMA fan.” My response: “Please say it’s against Jose Canseco.” Now it won’t be against Canseco. King wrote back that Walker didn’t want a cupcake and will actually fight somebody with some MMA credibility. But that disappointment quickly gave way to this new idea of mine: A fight league for current and former professional athletes. Criteria for fights have to fall into one of a few categories: Grudge Match: Athletes with some kind of bitter history putting things to rest in the ring Historical significance: Two athletes at the top of their respective sport settling things in another arena of competition Humor: Just because it would be funny to watch two particular individuals try to beat each other up Bloodfest: Because the two fighters involved are such bad-asses that a fight between the two would inevitably be a classic brawl Each card will have five fights. For four of those fights, the athletes will be come as you are. We’re talking about their current state, not how they used to be. The fifth fight on each card will be a historical match. An example would be Muhammad Ali vs. Mike Tyson. Of course if the two were to fight now, it wouldn’t be much of a fight. This kind of fight assumes both guys in their prime, so a 23-year-old Ali (age of his title defense against Floyd Patterson) against a 20-year-old Tyson (age he won his first title vs. Trevor Berbick). (For the record, I’d go Tyson. In the end, I think his power advantage would make up for Ali’s speed advantage. Also, we’re doing MMA rules here, and I think Tyson could easily take Ali down and control in the ground and pound.) (I spent 45 minutes deciding which way to go in the previous sentence. See how fun this can be?) So without further ado, the first card in The All Athlete Fight Club:

Begin Slideshow

Trading Headaches: Why Denver and Arizona Should Swap Boldin, Marshall

Seth Doria — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:04:47 -0400

Normally, talking about disgruntled NFL receivers goes right up there with a Bill Belichick press conference on the originality scale. There’s just been so much said and written and blathered about that it’s just not fun anymore.

But watching the latest news tidbit on Brandon Marshall on Tuesday (reportedly told a cop he hated Denver during a 2007 traffic stop), I had a thought:

Brandon Marshall for Anquan Boldin.

That could work.

Both are Pro Bowl receivers (Boldin three, Marshall one). Both have multiple 100-plus reception seasons. Both have multiple 1200-yard receiving seasons.

The trade would allow both teams to come out on the other side having ditched out on their own disgruntled player while not losing any on-field talent. That’s an incredibly difficult thing to accomplish (see the Broncos’ trade of Jay Cutler to Chicago), and the primary reason why both guys are still stuck in unhappy situations.

There are a few factors that could tilt the scales one way or the other, but they even out when considered in aggregate.

Boldin is 28 (29 in October) and Marshall turned 25 in March. Also, Boldin has only played the full schedule twice in his six seasons, missing a combined 16 games.

Marshall has only missed two games in his three-year career, and the one he missed over the last two seasons was due to a suspension, not injury.

Those are both factors in favor of Marshall.

But—and this is a biggie in today’s NFL—Boldin has a clean record.

Marshall, on the other hand, already has the aforementioned suspension on his record. He’s been arrested/cited somewhere between three and 300 times since entering the league and is just one small slip-up away from feeling the full wrath of Commissioner Goodell.

That’s a plus for Boldin.

Think about this from the teams’ perspective.

Denver gets rid of Marshall, a total pain in the ass who will likely ditch out after a year anyway. Instead, they get one of the toughest wide receivers in the league, a guy who still showed up and gave it everything he had despite a two-year-running conflict over his contract (no small thing).

And unlike replacing Cutler with Kyle Orton, the Broncos can actually sell this to their fans as an improvement in on-field talent. Boldin and Eddie Royal would still be one of the best WR duos in the AFC, and definitely the best in the AFC West.

Arizona, meanwhile, gets to end its ongoing drama regarding Boldin’s contract and replace him with Marshall, an absolute beast on the field with seven 100-plus receiving yard games over the past two seasons (Boldin has five).

And can you imagine being an NFC West defensive coordinator facing a trio of Larry Fitzgerald, Marshall and Steve Breaston? That’s arguably scarier than Fitzgerald-Boldin-Breaston, if only because Marshall is a little bit more flexible in stretching the field than is Boldin.

Would this trade ever happen? Probably not. Like so many “what-ifs” during the NFL offseason (or any other league’s offseason), chances are fairly high this goes nowhere. Why take a chance when you can do nothing instead?

So Marshall is likely destined to be a malcontent in Denver, waiting to get franchised next season, then hold out.

Then he'll get hurt (hamstring, quad or something like that), and finally hit free agency, get paid big by Al Davis, then get robbed, beat up and left unconscious in an alleyway after spraying champagne on unhappy patrons at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas (That was a Javon Walker reference if you didn’t recognize it).

And Boldin will likely finally get a new deal with Arizona, then get unceremoniously traded or released in three years after injuries slow him down just enough to no longer force the defense to respect his deep ability (think Torry Holt, except Boldin actually accepts contact rather than falling down like a soccer player).

But maybe working with Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner actually settles down Marshall, and instead of Javon Walker, he becomes a modern-day Cris Carter.

And maybe playing in Josh McDaniels’ system prolongs Boldin’s health (worked for 32-year-old Randy Moss) and he goes on to be the best Broncos receiver since Rod Smith.

Maybe.

We’ll see.

The 10 Best Late Picks in NBA Draft History

Seth Doria — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:58:03 -0400

With the NBA Draft, the headlines are about the first rounders. Blake Griffin. Ricky Rubio. Hasheem Thabeet. These are the stars of the show.

But the draft doesn’t end after the lottery—and it doesn’t end after the first round. There’s a whole second round after that, and it would be a mistake to dismiss those guys out of hand just due to their draft position. As you’ll see on the list below, there have been more than a few guys drafted after the first round who went on to have extremely successful NBA careers.

To clarify the headline, this isn’t really the best non-first-rounders of all time. The problem with just keeping it to rounds is the number of picks per round has obviously gone way up as the league has expanded. The lottery now is 14 teams. In 1950, pick 14 was the third pick in the second round.

So though I’d really like to pull in guys like Bill Sharman (Capitols, 1950) and Cliff Hagan (Celtics, 1953), I have to draw the line at the modern-day pick 30 and later to qualify.

Of course, you have to have some criteria for a list like this. I’m putting heavy emphasis on players who made their impact with the team that drafted them. I’m not giving teams credit for great drafting if the guy never suited up for them.

As an example, the Suns drafted future Hall of Famer George Gervin with pick 40 of the 1974 draft, but Gervin decided to play for Virginia of the ABA instead. The Suns don’t get credit for that.

Another example is Bill Laimbeer, who was drafted with the 65th overall pick out of Notre Dame by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1979. But Laimbeer only played a year and a half with Cleveland before they traded him to Detroit, where he made his name as an all-time bastard. Because the majority of his success was with another franchise, Cavs select Laimbeer isn’t on the list.

Also, I’m excluding Europeans who were selected but didn’t come over to the NBA for three or four years, like Manu Ginobili or Dino Radja. That kind of situation puts the draftee on a different level than a college kid coming in as a second-rounder.

First, some honorable mentions (in chronological order):

Happy Hairston

With the 33rd pick in the 1964 draft, the Cincinnati Royals selected Hairston, a forward out of New York University. Hairston finished with a career double-double with averages of 14.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game with the Royals, Pistons, and Lakers.

He was a member of the 1971-72 NBA championship Lakers team that won a record 33 games in a row. During that season, both Hairston and teammate Wilt Chamberlain pulled down more than 1,000 rebounds, the only time any two NBA teammates have grabbed more than 1,000 rebounds each in the same season.

Michael Cooper

The 60th pick of the 1978 NBA draft out of New Mexico played his entire 12-year career with the Lakers, winning five NBA Championships as a defensive force on the court. Cooper was named to eight NBA All-Defensive Teams, including five First Teams, and won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1987. When Larry Bird says you’re the best defender he ever played against, you’re the man.

Nick Van Exel

The 37th pick of the 1993 NBA draft out of the University of Cincinnati didn’t get along with a whole lot of people, but he did average 14.9 points per game and 7.3 assists per game in his five-year tenure in L.A. Nick played 14 years all told with the Lakers, Nuggets, Mavs, Warriors, Trail Blazers, and Spurs. He finished fifth all time in three-point attempts, eighth in three-pointers made, and had a career 6.6 assists per game average (35th best all time).

Cuttino Mobley

The 41st pick in 1998 out of the University of Rhode Island by the Houston Rockets played 11 seasons with the Rockets, Magic, Kings, and Clippers before retiring this past season due to a medical issue with his heart. He topped double digits in points in each of the past 10 years, with a high of 21.7 for the 2001-02 Rockets.

Monta Ellis

The 40th pick in 2005 out of Lanier High School is averaging 16 points per game through the first four seasons with the Golden State Warriors.

Now for the top 10:

10. Eddie Johnson, Atlanta Hawks—49th pick out of Auburn in 1977

Fast Eddie played 10 years in the league, the first seven and part of the eighth with Atlanta before finishing up his career with Cleveland and Seattle. A two-time All Star, Johnson finished with averages of 15.1 points and 5.1 assists per game, peaking at 19.1 points per game in 1980-81 and 7.8 assists per game in 1984-85.

Unfortunately, Johnson was plagued with legal troubles during his playing days, with the problems only getting worse since his forced retirement in 1987 due to his continuing cocaine addiction. Last October, Johnson was found guilty of sexual battery and sexual molestation on an eight-year-old girl and faces life without parole in a Florida prison.

9. Rashard Lewis, Seattle Supersonics—32nd pick out of Alief Elsik High School in 1998

The sight of Lewis in the green room in 1998 was the ultimate example of high school kids getting terrible advice from people who just don’t know. But despite the tears of that night, Lewis has had himself quite the career.

By year three in Seattle, Lewis was starting and averaging double figures, going from 14.8 points in 2000-01 to a high of 22.4 in his last season with the Sonics in 2006-07. A two-time All-Star, he’s a career 39 percent shooter from long range and 81 percent from the free throw line.

Though his scoring was down slightly the past year in Orlando, it looked as though he was finally reaching his full potential, averaging 19 points per game in the Magic’s 24-game playoff ride to the finals against the Lakers. Still two months shy of 30 years old, there’s a good chance Lewis might move up this list a decade or so from now.

8. Danny Ainge, Boston Celtics—31st pick out of BYU in 1981

Ainge may have annoyed the hell out of opposing players, coaches, and fans during his 14-year career, but he was an integral member of the '80s Celtics teams that won titles in 1984 and 1986 (and made the finals in 1985 and 1987). He was also on the 1992 Blazers team that lost to the Bulls.

Ainge made just one All-Star Game (1988), but his contributions went beyond just his 11.5 points and 4.0 assists per game averages. He was one of the first guys to make extensive use of the three-point line, shooting over 40 percent from three four times in his career, including 44 percent for the '86-87 Celtics.

In 1994, Ainge became the second man ever to hit 900 three-pointers in NBA history, finishing up with 1,002 for his career. To give you an indication of how the game has evolved, there are now 75 players on the 900 or more list. Ainge’s 1,002 is now just 52nd best.

7. Doc Rivers, Atlanta Hawks—31st pick out of Marquette in 1983

Like a lot of second-round picks who went on to great careers, their roles weren’t as primary scorers, but as key complementary guys to Hall of Fame-caliber stars. With Rivers, that star was Dominique Wilkins with the Hawks.

In 1985-86, Rivers averaged 8.4 assists per game while ‘Nique averaged 30.3 points per game. The next year, it was Rivers with 10 assists per game and Wilkins with 29 points per game. The next year, Rivers averaged 9.3 assists per game (plus a career-high 14.3 points per game) while Wilkins averaged 30.7 points per game.

Atlanta went to the playoffs all three of those years, plus the next, though Rivers’ assist total had dropped to 6.9 per game and would never again pass six. The period between 1985-86 and 1988-89 was the best four-year stretch in franchise history, and it was Rivers bringing the ball up the court for nearly every game.

In total, Rivers played 13 seasons for the Hawks, Clippers, Knicks, and Spurs. He made one All-Star Game (1988) and finished with averages of 10.9 points, 5.7 assists, and 1.8 steals per game.

6. Jeff Hornacek, Phoenix Suns—46th pick out of Iowa State in 1986

Hornacek is likely more known to younger fans for his exploits with the Utah Jazz, but he had quite the career going in Phoenix before being included in the Charles Barkley trade that sent him to Philadelphia (where he played a year and a half before moving to the Jazz).

Hornacek came into his own during his third year in the league, scoring in double figures for the first time at 13.5 in '88-89. The Suns made their first of 13 consecutive playoffs appearances that year, with Hornacek a primary cog in the first four (and the rest considering he helped bring in Barkley). He topped out at 20.1 points per game in 1991-92 (his only All-Star year) as the Suns went 53-29 and made the second round of the Western Conference playoffs before losing to Portland.

Hornacek finished his career with 12 consecutive seasons averaging double digits in points for a career average of 14.5 points per game. He finished as a 40 percent shooter from long range and 87.7 percent from the free throw line, 12th best of all time.

5. Michael Redd, Milwaukee Bucks—43rd pick out of Ohio State in 2000

Redd played exactly 35 minutes over six games as a rookie, but he has since blossomed into one of the most consistent scorers in the league, averaging 20 or more points for the past six consecutive seasons (this past season shortened to 32 games due to a knee injury).

It’s hard to believe Redd has only made one All-Star Game in his career so far considering he’s finished in the top 10 in scoring average in the league four times already. But if he can come back from his knee injury healthy and the Bucks are able to put some talent around him (debatable at this point), then Redd may go down as the highest-scoring non-first-round pick in the history of the NBA.

4. Randy Smith, Buffalo Braves—104th pick out of Buffalo State in 1971

A seventh-round pick out of an obscure D-III program, Smith was the ultimate long shot. But not only did he finish with career averages of 16.7 points and 4.6 assists per game over 12 seasons, he also had a then-record 906 consecutive-game streak from 1972 to 1982 (since broken by A. C. Green).

Playing alongside league scoring champion Bob McAdoo, Smith averaged 21.8 points per game in the 1975-76 season and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. Two years later, Smith averaged 24.6 points per game (in 40.4 minutes per game) and won the 1978 All-Star Game MVP award. You look at some of the guys who played in that game—Dr. J, Bill Walton, David Thompson—and you get the sense of what kind of accomplishment that was.

3. Jerome Kersey, Portland Trail Blazers—46th pick out of Longwood College in 1984

Kersey only spent a few years as a full-time starter and never made an All-Star team, but you know you’re doing something right when you close the book on your career and it’s got 1,153 games over 17 years.

Kersey had his best statistical season in 1987-88 with 19.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. He averaged 16 points and 8.4 rebounds per game as Portland made the 1990 finals (losing to Detroit), and 12.6/8.2 as they made it to the '91-92 finals (losing to Chicago).

More than just stats, Kersey was the ultimate team guy with the Trail Blazers. When he was transitioned from starter to bench to make way for Clifford Robinson* in the mid-'90s, he just went about being the best bench contributor he could be.

When it was all said and done, Kersey finished second in franchise history in games played, third in minutes, third in free throws, second in rebounds, eighth in assists, third in steals, fourth in blocks, and fourth in points.

Not bad for a second rounder.

(* With an 18-year career and nearly 20,000 points, Robinson certainly deserves to be on this list as the 36th pick out of Connecticut in 1989, but I’m leaving him off for Kersey. I didn’t even put him on the honorable mention list. I just never did like Clifford all that much.)

2. Bob Dandridge, Milwaukee Bucks—45th pick out of Norfolk State in 1969

A member of the NBA All-Rookie Team in 1970, Dandridge, playing third fiddle to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) and Oscar Robinson, averaged 18.4 points per game as the Bucks won the NBA championship in 1971.

Dandridge would win another title during his tenure with the Washington Bullets in 1978, averaging over 19 points per game while again playing third fiddle to a pair of future Hall of Famers, this time Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld.

In all, Dandridge played 13 years in the NBA, making four All-Star teams and finishing with career averages of 35.2 minutes, 18.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game.

1. Maurice Cheeks, Philadelphia 76ers—36th pick out of West Texas A&M in 1978

Playing at various times with guys like Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Andrew Toney, and Charles Barkley, Cheeks was never counted on to be the man on offense. The 76ers needed him to be an unselfish distributor and hard-nosed defender, and that’s exactly what he was.

Cheeks played 15 years, 11 with Philadelphia, leading the 76ers to the NBA finals in 1980, 1982, and 1983, when they won the NBA championship.

Cheeks was a four-time All Star and was named to four straight NBA all-defensive squads from 1983 to 1986. He currently ranks 10th all time in the NBA for assists and fourth in steals. He is one of only nine players in NBA history to average better than 2.0 steals per game.

Richard Jefferson Trade Another Sign of a Broken NBA

Seth Doria — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:37:50 -0400

When the Milwaukee Bucks traded Richard Jefferson to the San Antonio Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas, and Fabricio Oberto Tuesday, I had three thoughts:

First, good for Jefferson. I covered him as a freshman at the University of Arizona and he’s a good guy. After making the playoffs in his first six years in the league, he’s been on consecutive 34-48 teams the past two seasons (2007-08 with New Jersey, 08-09 with Milwaukee).

Now he’s going to a perennial contender to play for a great coach and one of the best post players of all time.

Second, good for San Antonio. The Spurs badly needed an infusion of size and athleticism on the wing. Jefferson puts them right back into the Western Conference conversation with the defending champion Lakers.

Third, the NBA is broken. Any system that allows the Bucks to so blatantly screw over its fans by giving away their leading scorer for pesos on the dollar is fatally flawed.

This is far from the first time we’ve seen something like this.

The Lakers won their title primarily because Memphis gave them Pau Gasol last year. And in 2007, the Suns sent Thomas and two first-round draft picks (2008 and 2010) to the then-Sonics for just a conditional second-rounder and a trade exception.

But just because this might be the latest example of a broken system shouldn’t make it any less revolting to NBA fans, especially those few left in Wisconsin.

Think about it. Jefferson has averaged 15 or more points per game in each of the seven years (of an eight-year career). Twice he’s topped 22 points per game in a season. Last year he was at 19.6 and shot a career-high 39.7 percent from three.

He hasn’t missed a game in two years. He just turned 29 three days ago (nice birthday present, eh?). He reads to children.

And all the Bucks could get was Bowen, Thomas, and Oberto?

Of course, the attractiveness of the deal for Milwaukee had nothing to do with the actual on-court talents of the trio they received in return. This was a money move, pure and simple.

Bowen is in the last year of his deal, and, according to reports, won’t even make it to camp with the Bucks. Milwaukee will save $4.35 million next season after releasing Bowen (only $2 million guaranteed), a source told ESPN.com.

Want to guess who might pick up Bowen once he hits the market? Let’s just say I don’t think he has to worry about selling his San Antonio home in a depressed housing market.

Thomas is also in the last year of his deal ($3.8 million). The Bucks could either release him or spin him off at the trade deadline. Either way, it’s a lock he doesn’t reach next April with the antlers on his chest.

Oh, and Oberto was then traded to Detroit for Amir Johnson, he of the 3.7 points-per-game scoring average.

So what exactly did Milwaukee get?

Let’s let Milwaukee GM John Hammond explain:

“The trade we made today provides us with much needed options in both the short and long-term planning for our franchise.”

Great. You just gave up a really good player so your franchise with a history of making dumb decisions has the flexibility to make more dumb decisions.

How could Milwaukee fans not rejoice?

And of course this is nothing new. Crappy NBA teams do this all the time. They find themselves at the crossroads of doing something to get better or blowing it all up for “flexibility,” and they choose the latter.

They choose the freedom to suck under the auspices of rebuilding because it gives them cover for being inept.

It allows them to go to the press with the “we’re young and learning” excuse for being 15 games under .500.

And it allows them to charge premium prices for a flawed and defective product put together on the cheap.

Tuesday was a really bad day to be a Bucks fan. And I’m guessing Thursday won’t be much better. They seem like the kind of club that would take bust-in-waiting Brandon Jennings over future star Jonny Flynn.

Then again, with an 88-154 cumulative record under three different coaches over the past three years, they’re probably used to it by now.

Meet the New Brian Westbrook: Steven Jackson

Seth Doria — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:16:59 -0400

Every year, fantasy football drafters make their assessments and draft decisions based primarily on the previous year’s performance.

They may grade up if there’s been a major personnel move, or grade down if there’s some sort of age or injury concern, but by and large they take the stats leaders from the year prior and project forward.

One way to go beyond the crowd is to assess the coaching changes, either the head coach if he has an offensive background, or the offensive coordinator if the head coach is a defensive guy.

This year, there are nine offensive coordinators new to their roles: Pete Carmichael Jr. in New Orleans, Clyde Christensen in Indianapolis, Brian Daboll in Cleveland, Jeff Jagodzinski in Tampa Bay, Greg Knapp in Seattle, Scott Linehan in Minnesota, Mike McCoy in Denver, Jimmy Raye in San Francisco, and Pat Shurmur in St. Louis.

Between now and the opening of training camps, we’ll be looking at some of the players whose fantasy stock has risen the most as a result of offseason coaching changes.

We start with Steven Jackson of the St. Louis Rams.

As a first-time offensive coordinator, Shurmur doesn’t have a history of play-calling on his own, so we have to look at what he learned servicing under Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg in Philadelphia.

And the lesson says watch out for Jackson.

For an indication of how Jackson might be used, here are the past three years for Philadelphia’s lead back, Brian Westbrook:

2006: 240 rush attempts for 1,217 yards (5.1 average); 77 receptions for 699 yards (9.1 average); 11 total touchdowns (7 rush, 4 catch)
2007: 278 rush attempts for 1,333 yards (4.8 average); 90 receptions for 771 yards (8.6 average); 12 total touchdowns (7 rush, 5 catch)
2008: 233 rush attempts for 936 yards (4.0 average); 54 receptions for 402 yards (7.4 average); 14 total touchdowns (9 rush, 5 catch)

Now the averages have certainly dipped year-over-year-over-year, especially in 2009, but something to realize is that Westbrook has always been an over-achiever in regard to his size.

He had 685 rush attempts and receptions combined in 2006 and 2007, so it’s no real wonder that he would slow down in 2008 (though 1,338 total yards and 14 total touchdowns is still an extremely respectable total).

But look at the size differential between Westbrook and Jackson:

Westbrook: 5'10", 203 lbs.

Jackson: 6'2", 235 lbs.

Also consider the fact Jackson doesn’t turn 26 until July 22, whereas Westbrook will be 30 before this season kicks off.

How many times have the Eagles wished they had a bigger, stronger version of Westbrook?

Well now plug Jackson in Westbrook’s place in the Eagles offense, and that’s exactly what you have.

Now the counter-argument looks something like this:

1. The Eagles have a way better offensive line. Until the Rams get real about the offensive line, there’s no point in even trying to compare Jackson to Westbrook.

2. The Rams' receiving corps is the worst in the league. Unless they sign somebody who can stretch the defense and prevent it from stacking the box, there’s no point in even trying to compare Jackson to Westbrook.

3. Donovan McNabb is a way better quarterback than Marc Bulger. Until they have a legitimate quarterback, there’s no point in even trying to compare Jackson to Westbrook.

4. You’re stupid.

Let’s take them one by one (except for “you’re stupid.” There’s no point arguing that one.).

The offensive line

Do the Eagles have a better offensive line? Absolutely. But the Rams are going to be much better this year with the addition of tackle Jason Smith, the second overall pick in the NFL Draft, and center Jason Brown, signed from Baltimore in free agency for $37.5 million over five years.

Add Brown’s deal with the deal Smith will eventually sign (using last year’s $58 million deal by Jake Long as a barometer), and that’s about a $95 million infusion of talent on the offensive line.

The real key here is Brown. I know the pay scales and draft positions would tell you the tackles are the most important players on the offensive line, but if the center is getting pushed back into the pocket, the whole offense is stuck.

Just like on an old Civil War battlefield, there’s no point having strong flanks if they’re getting through the middle of your lines. But if the center can get push on the heart of the defensive line, it opens up the whole offensive attack, especially the run game.

The wide receivers

With the exception of the one year of not-a-jerk Terrell Owens, the Eagles have never boasted a top receiving corps in the Reid era.

Since 1999, no wide receiver has topped 77 catches (TO in 2004, Kevin Curtis in 2007—the only two wide receivers to top 1,000 receiving yards).

The best of the rest from a wide receiver perspective are guys like Torrance Small, James Thrash, Todd Pinkston and 2008 rookie DeSean Jackson.

Are the Rams receivers on par with the Patriots or Colts? No. But it’s not some great stretch of the imagination to think Donnie Avery and the Rams' wide receivers can live up to the legacy of Thrash and Pinkston.

For a complete rundown of the Rams' receivers, check out this earlier article.

The Quarterback

It was only as far back as 2006 that Bulger completed 63 percent of his passes for 4,300 yards, 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions. But with the beating he’s taken over the past two years (75 sacks and untold hits beyond that), it’s legitimate to wonder whether the 32-year-old can regain the form that made him a Pro Bowler in 2003 and 2006.

The good thing for Jackson (remember that’s who we’re talking about here) is that Bulger is an extremely intelligent quarterback who is savvy enough to take the dump-off or short swing pass to avoid a negative play.

There’s a reason why Westbrook has 355 receptions over the past five years. It’s because the quarterback always has a short option if something long didn’t develop.

Of course the elephant in the room is whether Jackson can stay healthy long enough to take advantage of all the positive circumstances around him. Since coming into the league in 2004, Jackson has only played a full 16-game-season once: his Pro Bowl year of 2006.

Over the past two years, he’s missed four games each season (though he’s still gone over 1000 yards in each).

Will he be able to stay on the field for 300-plus carries this year?

Nobody knows.

But that goes for every other running back on your draft board, too.

So keep that in mind when you’re stacking your draft board. Fantasy championships aren’t won with high picks, they’re won with value—getting more than you paid for.

And if by chance you see Jackson on the board in the second round, know you’re getting yourself one hell of a value.