Training camp headlines 7/28

Morning and afternoon practices today.
Most of the reactions to yesterday's session made possible by Nick Wagoner's stlouisrams.com blog (which I can actually link to today).

* The Rams have just lost Victor Adeyanju for 2-4 weeks due to a broken finger. Better put out a casting call for defensive linemen, especially tackles, pronto. Can we thank Claude Wroten enough for being such a stupid fuck-up, btw?

* Jackson holdout, day 4. No new news. Bill Coats is humorously keeping a running total of Jackson's promised fine for failing to honor his contract, which today should go up to $60,000. According to the Census Bureau, the median household income in the United States in 2006 was $48,201. Just for perspective.

* The unqualified star of camp so far is Randy McMichael. He is being used a ton in the Saunders offense and they are getting him the ball downfield for big plays. This sounds like great news, after Linehan completely wasted McMichael last season. My impression, though, is that Rams TEs have always seemed to get the ball in practice a lot more than they do in reality. It's also worth noting the Ram defense has rarely excelled at covering the TE. I know it's something they struggled at early in last year's training camp.

At the same time, though, it looks like the "Saunders effect" is really being felt here and that McMichael will be a valuable contributor to the offense this year, as well as a nice sleeper pick among FFL TEs.

* Culberson makes a move on first string LB.
Quinton Culberson has moved up to the first unit in practice, though Scott Linehan emphasizes Chris Draft is still the starter. Sounds like everything is still on track, though, for Culberson to become the starter, with the versatile Draft backing up all three LB positions (likely playing a lot of WLB after Pisa Tinoisamoa inevitably gets hurt). We all know Culberson makes lots of plays, so here's hoping he capitalizes on his big chance here.

* James Hall continues to tear it up. Yeah, it's funny how your team using the #2 pick in the draft at your position lights a fire under your butt. Wagoner's enthusiasm that the Rams are suddenly deep at DE seems misplaced here. Hall has never been more than, in Mike Claiborne's immortal words, "just a guy". Maybe he will be more effective in a lesser role as part of a DE rotation, but he's also a guy who's having a career season if he tops 5 sacks, and I think he's played on one team with a winning record in 8 seasons. He's not a difference-maker.

* David Vobora and Chris Chamberlain continue to play impressively at LB.
Chamberlain already has two interceptions - I think that's more than I saw in three different days of practice last season. The Rams wouldn't dare hit on both seventh-round draft picks, would they? These two players' stories will be very interesting to watch.

* Bruce Gradkowski, otoh...
Gradkowski's signing seemed to be a good correction to what I thought was a big draft day mistake by the Rams in failing to pick up a QB to replace Brock Berlin. Well, maybe not so much. Gradkowski's inaccurate passing so far is keeping Berlin in the race.

Do you know how awful a QB has to be to have difficulty beating Brock Berlin out for a job? Linehan preferred having NO third-string QB last year to having Berlin! Berlin more than justified that assessment with his completely-overwhelmed performance in Cincinnati last December.

I haven't heard how some of the later-drafted rookie QBs are faring so far in this year's camps, but keep an eye out for a fiasco in the making here at third-string QB. Again.

How hard can it be to get this position right? Is Jamie Martin available?

* Sporting News Today plug.
I thought it was worth an update to give a full recommendation to Sporting News' online magazine, Sporting News Today. SNT has a lot of what I miss in the print magazine. Baseball box scores are back! Transactions are back! Reporting on minor sports is back! This may make up somewhat for the decision to grossly cut back the print mag to a biweekly publication; we'll see. Right now it looks like the magazine's online and offline presences will work very well together.

Use IE to access Sporting News Today, though; I only get error pages trying to access it in Firefox.