FA wide receiver preview

UFA WRs as of 02/16/2009 (from kffl.com)
RamView's Top 5 WRs: 1 - T.J. Houshmandzadeh 2 - Antonio Bryant 3 - Bryant Johnson 4 - Amani Toomer 5 - Devery Henderson

Sleeper: Nate Washington

Gawd No: Jerry Porter

Rams FAs: Dante Hall and Dane Looker are unrestricted free agents.

Rams analysis: Though he still led the team, Torry Holt comes off a career-low year in 2008 (64 catches, 796 yards, just 3 TDs), isn't getting any faster, certainly isn't getting any younger (he'll be 33 when training camp opens), and is tying up $8 million in cap space for next season. All a fatal combination for fans of his who would prefer to see him in a Rams uniform all his career. Donnie Avery was 4th among rookie WRs in catches and showed explosive play-making ability, but also got lost and ran a lot of incorrect routes. He'll need to have a productive training camp. There wasn't a lot behind those two. Dane Looker is a gamer but will never be a guy who's going to draw attention away from the other wideouts. Keenan Burton made some spectacular plays, when anyone could find him, that is; he finished 2008 with just 13 catches. Derek Stanley had just 6 catches for 119, though one of those was an 80-yard TD, and he's got some ability as a kick returner. Dante Hall played bigger than his size as a WR (when he could stay healthy) but was a near total bust on special teams and shouldn't be back. Neither should Drew Bennett, though Jim Thomas insists he's too big a cap hit to cut this year. Are you sure? In the '08 preseason, Bennett literally depressed the Ram offense with his presence. He sprained a foot in Philadelphia in week 1 and missed the rest of the season. He had fewer catches than Quinton Ganther or Dan Klecko or Michael Bumpus. He had fewer catches than Madison Hedgecock. He had fewer catches than Aveion Cason. Want me to stop? He had fewer catches than Richard Angulo. Want me to stop? He had fewer catches than MARC BULGER! Drew Bennett has proven nothing but completely unreliable and the biggest bust in the history of Rams free agency. He has size but doesn't play with size. He has bad hands and bad concentration. He can't stay healthy; he hasn't his entire career. If Drew Bennett was a bank, even Congress wouldn't bail him out. Any of these guys you haven't heard of - Nate Jones, Joel Filani, Travis Brown or Matt Caddell - would be an improvement over the lamentable Bennett. And they're just the street free agents the Rams have on the roster as training camp fodder. Charlie Baggett's a good receivers coach, but the Rams shouldn't waste his time with Bennett. He's not a miracle worker!

Viewing the field: Houshmandzadeh has nearly 300 receptions since 2006 and is the leading receiver of this FA class. Even at 31, the Bengal figures to be a high-ticket item wherever he plays. A! B! behaved himself in Tampa last season and finally realized his potential, catching 83 balls after not even being in the league in 2007. Johnson looks like the premier big WR of this group, but even after getting away from Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin and fleeing to San Francisco, still managed only 45 receptions last year. Amani Toomer's a reliable possession receiver, but you'd never consider him a WR1 any more. Bobby Engram played like a WR1 in Seattle in 2007, but he's 36 now, 2 years older than Toomer, and has played one 16-game season since 2003. Henderson is just 26 and can get downfield. He has a crazy 21.6 career average per catch after averaging a sick 24.8 last year. He's really lost in the shuffle in New Orleans and could come quite cheap. Then again, he has yet to top 32 catches in a season. Washington's just 25, has a knack for the big play and can stretch a defense. The Steelers can't pay him a lot. His hands are his biggest question mark but from what I've seen, they're improving. The problem is that somebody's bound to overpay Washington, paying the dreaded "Super Bowl premium." Brandon Jones was my other sleeper candidate - 40 catches last year, can also get downfield and make big plays - but the Rams' experience signing away Titans has me reluctant to pull that particular trigger ever, ever again. WR is another position where it was hard to win the "Gawd No" award, with Ashley Lelie, Koren Robinson, Mike Williams, Reggie Williams and Darrell Jackson all in the mix, but brutal underachiever / locker room poison Jerry Porter is the big, um, winner. He got nearly $10 million last year to miss training camp with a hamstring injury, make 11 catches (10 more than Bennett!) in a regular season shortened by a groin injury, and according to teammates, foul the Jagwires' team chemistry in the process. So the Drew Bennett signing won't be the worst FA WR signing of the decade after all. (But it's close.)

RamView's moves: Holt's willingness to restructure his contract is one big influence on the future of the Rams WR corps; another is the 2009 draft. RamView's intent is to use the #2 overall draft pick on Texas Tech stud WR Michael Crabtree. He'll be the best player available at that pick because there's no way in hell the Lions take him at #1. (Although Crabtree's plan to hide from the stopwatch at the NFL Combine isn't helping his cause.) I'd try to make the best I can of the FA market and find a tackle to replace Alex Barron. Crabtree and Avery become the WR1/WR2 of the future, and Torry Holt would have to take a very big pay cut to justify keeping him around as a possession receiver / slot guy. So unless Detroit trades #1 to someone like Seattle, one year after the Rams let the best receiver in the history of the team go, I believe they'll need to let the (close) second-best receiver in the history of the team go. I am NOT paying the karmic debt incurred by cutting Bruce AND Holt while keeping Bennett, however. Drew's ass goes out the door first, and I don't care what the cap hit is. The one constant amongst all this WR chaos: Dane Looker surprises everyone AGAIN and makes the team again. RamView's projected 2009 WRs: Crabtree, Avery, Looker, Burton, Stanley, and a very cheap, low-risk veteran WR/special teams player. (Mike Furrey, anyone?) That's a ton of youth at WR, but if the Rams are going to be the run-heavy team they say they are, they'll have time for WRs coach Charlie Baggett to work his magic.

What the Rams could do: If the Rams don't believe the FA market for offensive linemen offers very much, given Spagnuolo's repeated mantra he'll emphasize the run, they're going OT with the #2 pick. That would improve the possibility of keeping Holt, though the Rams would certainly seek to re-structure his contract. If Holt turns that down, his $8 million cap figure will prove much too ripe for the team to resist moving him in some fashion; optimistically, by trading him for a draft pick. Thanks to Spagnuolo's Giants connections, Amani Toomer's name comes up a lot as a cheap alternative to Holt, should one be necessary.

Prediction: Holt will leave the Rams whether they go on to draft an OT or a WR. Sadly, it'll be with none of the outrage and angst that accompanied Isaac Bruce's inglorious exit, even though it should. Torry is no more than half a beat behind Isaac in his contributions to this franchise, as a Hall-of-Fame caliber WR, as a team leader and as a representative of the team and its city. People of Isaac's and Torry's character and work ethic are not ones to be simply set aside and forgotten when it's thought to be economically expedient. They leave gigantic holes on the field, in the locker room and in the hearts of Rams Nation. Torry's release hurts a little less; we're more prepared for it than we were for Isaac's, and Torry's openly talked about playing for other teams. But it's still going to hurt. I expect the Rams to get about a 4th-round pick for Holt and to attempt to replace his productivity with one of the veteran free agents, more than likely Amani Toomer. Spagnuolo will be the latest coach fooled by Bennett's size into thinking he'll actually play like a big WR. He won't. Again. Avery will beat him out and then struggle when he becomes the receiver defenses know they have to double-team, having no fear of the Rams' lack of speed outside of Avery. A recipe for another long year, except now filled with players Rams fans don't know yet, or don't like. Yecch.

Other FA WR previews: Nick Wagoner