Top Rams so far in 2007

I was just thinking back to July when I put together a top-ten list of the Rams' most indispensable players. It went like this:

1-Jackson, 2-Bulger, 3-Holt, 4-Wilkins, 5-Little, 6-Witherspoon, 7-Carriker, 8-Tinoisamoa, 9-Pace, 10-Bennett.

Now that we're nearly at the halfway point, the question is, which Rams are having the best seasons? My choices:

1-Torry Holt. I know he's been off this season due to his knee injury, but he's almost the only Ram capable of finding the end zone this year. The brief burst of offensive play-calling competence in the 3rd quarter of last week's game shows what the Rams would be getting out of Torry if they used him correctly.

2-Will Witherspoon. Isn't always where he needs to be, but he's having a solid season. The Seattle game, in which he was all over the field and was credited with 16 tackles, showed Will at his best.

3-Donnie Jones. A big sign your team is terrible is when the punter is one of the best players. Jones is averaging over 50 yards a punt and has been one of the few pleasant surprises this year. He's the only Ram with a realistic chance to make the Pro Bowl. I'd rate him higher if his first punt every game wasn't a clunker, if he weren't outkicking his coverage, and if he'd punt fewer punts in the end zone.

4-Tye Hill. Subtract one long Steve Smith TD (where Smith illegally pushed off), and Hill would be having a fantastic season. The freak back injury also knocked him down a bit. He's not getting beaten by anybody, and opponents are throwing away from him. He's been a terrific pick.

5-Cliff Ryan. Another terrific pick. Ryan has played with a high motor, and his emergence as a force stuffing the run has improved the Ram run defense by a lot.

6-Adam Carriker. His game hasn't leaped off the page the way Ryan's has, but Adam has been strong against the run and is really coming on the last couple of weeks. He has definitely validated his first-round draft status.

7-James Hall. Like the rest of the defense, not much of a pass rusher, but he has been solid against the run and has quite a few tackles-for-loss. Opponents run at Leonard Little, not at Hall. James has delivered on his end of the defensive line. Ryan, Carriker and Hall are big factors in the run defense's noticeable improvement.

8.....Chris Massey. Yep, it really is this desperate at this point, that I have to list the long snapper as one of the Rams' best players. But once again this season, Massey hasn't messed up a snap, and that competence and consistency is an oasis in this wasteland of a season.

9. OJ Atogwe. Tackles better and stops the run better than last year. Biggest improvement seems to be in getting his coverage assignments down, which he was bad at last year. I can't come up with a long pass completed against the Rams because Atogwe screwed up and wasn't there to help, though Steve Smith's TD against Hill might have been an instance.

10. Dante Hall. Lost the 49er game with a boneheaded fumble, and has missed about half the season with an ankle injury, but has also shown the quickness and ability to make people miss that he was brought here for, and which has made him one of the Rams' few legitimate weapons this year.

And that top 10 goes a long way toward showing why the Rams are the pathetic 0-and-7 that they are. The QB's not there. No RB is there. No offensive lineman is there. (I'd put Alex Barron at 11.) The lead pass rusher's not there. And if Marc Bulger and Steven Jackson and Leonard Little and some of the others who are supposed to carry the team don't get to where they're outplaying the team's kick returner, punter or long snapper, it's going to continue to be a very, very long season.