Rams pre-draft invitees (updated)

Here's the list of players the Rams have invited in for pre-draft visits so far, according to Jim Thomas:

(latest additions to the list highlighted)

Connor Barwin, DE/LB, Cincinnati
William Beatty, T, Connecticut
Rhett Bomar, QB, Sam Houston State
Thomas Brandstater, QB, Fresno State
Darius Butler, CB, Connecticut
Demetrius Byrd, WR, LSU
Michael Crabtree, WR, Texas Tech
Aaron Curry, LB, Wake Forest
Larry English, DE, Northern Illinois
Josh Freeman, QB, Kansas State
Darrius Heyward-Bey, WR, Maryland
Evander Hood, DT, Missouri
Tyson Jackson, DL, LSU
Peria Jerry, DT, Ole Miss
Jeremy Maclin, WR, Missouri
Rey Maualuga, LB, USC
Mike Mickens, CB, Cincinnati
Eugene Monroe, T, Virginia
Hakeem Nicks, WR, North Carolina
Michael Oher, T, Mississippi
Mark Sanchez, QB, USC
Lawrence Sidbury, DE/LB, Richmond
Jason Smith, T, Baylor
Brandon Tate, WR, North Carolina

Schedule released

The Rams' schedule for 2009 is out, and as far as I'm concerned, it's a bunch of crap. For the second time in five years, the Rams play their first two games on the road, which is bullshit. There is no reason not to give every team its home opener in the first two weeks. There is certainly no reason to penalize the Rams with two road games to start the season twice in five years. Hey, Goodell, there's 30 other teams; how about screwing some of them over every now and then? These two road games to open the season are no tea party for anybody, let alone a 2-14 team; it's west coast the first week in Seattle, then all the way across the country for the Redskins week 2. Thanks, Goodell! Ass. The Vikings join the Rams as the two teams who won't get their first home game of the 2009 season until it's nearly OCTOBER.

Bias against dome teams? Nope. Atlanta opens the season with two at home. So does Green Bay, though I'll bet any Packer fan will tell you they don't want to start the season with two home games! They'd much rather end the season at home on the frozen tundra. In September, it's more of a friendly lawn. The Packers are the Rams' opponent, btw, when they FINALLY get a freaking home game on SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH. Bull shit.

More bull shit as the Rams wrap up the first half of the season as they will play the Colts coming off their bye week, and then go to Detroit the next week to play the Lions, ALSO coming off of their bye week. Two straight weeks against teams with an extra week to rest! Thanks, Goodell! ASS. Anybody not think the NFL is stacking the deck to get the Lions a win for that November 1st game? What a bunch of bullshit.

November is stacked much more in the Rams' favor; I doubt they could even wish for a more favorable setup. Three straight home games after the bye week. Maybe they make some hay there. Of course, that's counterbalanced by a December road trip of death to Chicago and Tennessee (thanks for putting those opponents Rams fans could travel fairly easily to see in DECEMBER, Goodell) before they close out with two home games in the last three, finishing 1/3/2010 against the Whiners.

The second half of the schedule doesn't make up for the first half, though. It's almost as if the NFL is trying to stick it to the Rams. Thanks, Goodell. Dick.

I've felt the coaching change alone would be enough to improve the Rams by 3 or 4 wins this year. Thanks to this crap storm of a schedule, I'm leaning toward the lower end of that range now. If Steve Spagnuolo can coax a 5-11 record out of this team with this schedule, I say he's right on track.

Rams acquire WR

...though he's hardly anyone to get excited about, other than the fact that he's not Plaxico Burress. The Rams swapped fifth- and sixth- round picks this year with the Falcons to acquire Laurent Robinson.

Robinson was drafted in the third round in 2007 and is apparently a Billy Devaney favorite. Devaney told Jim Thomas that Robinson "showed a lot of potential his rookie year," (37-437, 1 TD), has size, good ball skills and runs smooth routes. Falcons HC Mike Smith would likely tell you Robinson was useless last year, missing most of the season with hamstring problems and catching only five balls while also not being a willing blocker. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also mentions Robinson suffered a concussion last year.

The consensus from Falcon fans at profootballtalk is that the Rams got a good deal, IF Robinson can stay on the field. Here's a couple of interesting posts:

SaintsBucsPanthersSUKK says:
April 6th, 2009 at 10:47 pm

We got what for Laurent Robinson? A minor switch of two low draft picks? Why not instead just trade for a Hickory Farms meat and cheese basket and bottle of sparkling cider?

He’s a player in 2007 showed loads of promise, has fine size at 6′2″ and 200 lbs., and was even slated to start ahead of Michael Jenkins if not for an injury. A WR starved team would’ve given up a late round pick this year and next based on potential alone. I guess we were stuck between a rock and a hard place, teams know Roddy White will be getting a huge extension in the coming months....
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smfowler says:
April 6th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

That sucks. I thought he had a lot of potential.
Last year he sat out a lot of last year’s preseason because of a bruised tailbone. I guess if Anquan Boldin can have his face reconstructed and play two weeks later then Robinson could’ve sucked it up through his butt injury.

Either way, Rams got a good receiver.

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Durability and toughness are a couple of my "pillars" for considering players. I'm not sure I would have made this deal. The cost, though, isn't terrible inasmuch as the Rams didn't give up any picks, so I'm content to trust Devaney's experience with Robinson for now (though the picture above doesn't exactly show me a receiver looking the ball into his hands).

Rams sign Kyle Boller

Funny how things change: in 2003, I threatened to tape Mike Martz to a goal post for the widely circulating rumor that the Rams were planning to draft Cal QB Kyle Boller in the first round. Today, I'm pretty happy to have Boller aboard as the Rams' backup QB. The Rams signed him to a one-year contract over the weekend.

Sure, the biggest reason I like the Boller signing is that he isn't Gus Frerotte, but there are some other reasons to like the move. Boller's career QB rating of 71.9 tops what Marc Bulger did in 2007 or 2008. He's six years younger than Bulger (10 or 11 younger than Frerotte). Even coming off of shoulder surgery that cost him all of last season, he'll probably be the strongest arm on the team. His youth, tools, preparation and good locker room reputation, plus Bulger's last two seasons, should be more than enough to give Bulger the push he appears to need to return to something resembling competence at QB. At 27, Boller's about the age Bulger was when he took over here as a starter (and Bulger's about the age Kurt Warner was when he lost that starting job). He's the kind of young player that often benefits from a change of scenery and there's reason to like his promise here.

But Boller's career to date also raises plenty of doubt that he'll succeed at much of anything here in the long run other than coming off the bench, if that. He's not terribly durable, having missed chunks of past seasons with quad and turf toe injuries, not to mention all of last year with a torn labrum. That's hardly an improvement over Bulger. Thrown into the line of fire immediately as a rookie in Baltimore, Boller shows a lot of the shell-shocked quality in his play that we've seen from Bulger the last couple of years. His poor decision-making under pressure actually isn't much of an improvement over 2007 Frerotte. He could still use decent coaching on not locking on receivers, on looking off defenders, and his throwing accuracy, though improving, is average at best. He's looked most comfortable in quick-tempo, short-drop passing games, so don't look for him to be a field-stretching QB off the bench, and though he's more mobile than Bulger, if Marc gets pummelled off the field in his deep drop, don't expect much of a difference if Boller comes in.

The main benefit to having Kyle Boller in a Ram uniform is the chance he can be polished into a threat to Marc Bulger's starting job. Any chance is better than none, which is the threat the likes of a Gus Frerotte poses. Bulger's play the last couple of years has merited a search for viable alternatives on the Rams' part. If Boller pans out, he could be that alternative, or the bridge to a QB the Rams draft high in 2010.

Reason #1 I wouldn't hire John Clayton for team G.M.

Normally I'm inclined to believe ESPN's John Clayton is a smart guy and that his reporting is generally informative and useful.

Then there's this column, where Clayton lazily suggests the Rams will have interest in the newly-unemployed Plaxico Burress because Steve Spagnuolo "knows him" and could convince management to bring him in.

Which of coach Spagnuolo's "four pillars" does Plaxico exemplify? The illegal gun possession pillar? The smuggle-a-gun-into-a-nightclub pillar? The shoot-myself-in-the-foot-like-an-idiot pillar? The drive-like-a-maniac-and-cuss-out-the-policeman-when-you-get-pulled-over pillar? The refuse-to-practice pillar? The drive-without-car-insurance pillar? The domestic disturbance pillar?

John... please think for a minute and don't be lazy with even speculative columns like this. Suggesting the Rams are interested in Plaxico Burress is as silly as suggesting they're interested in bringing in Frank Gifford to play WR.

Hey, he's a former Giant, Spagnuolo is a former Giant, right?

Bears sign Orlando Pace, trade for Jay Cutler

Orlando Pace is on his way to Chicago. He signed a three-year, $15 million contract to play for Lovie Smith and the Bears last night. This should turn out to be a very good move, and certainly a needed one, for Chicago, who have to replace both of their starting tackles from last season. (As if truth being stranger than fiction needs to be proved, Pace will replace... John St. Clair.) In signing Pace, they've gotten a high-caliber individual and a Hall-of-Fame-quality tackle who I feel still has plenty of game left in him.

That obviously wasn't the only news the Bears made yesterday, as they radically transformed their offense by acquiring Jay Cutler from the Broncos for Kyle Orton and a ton of draft picks, including this and next year's first-rounders. Getting Cutler and Pace the same day... pretty big step upward offensively for Chicago. The caveat (besides Cutler's mopiness) is that the Bears have NOTHING like the corps of young receivers Cutler had to throw to in Denver. They need a big move there to make this trade pay off quickly, and that's going to be hard to do when your draft day starts at pick #49.

For their part, the Broncos have turned their first- and third-round picks in 2006 (and a 5th-rounder this year) into Orton, first-rounders this year AND NEXT year, and a third-rounder this year. They've basically turned the #11 pick that year into a starting NFL QB in Orton and an additional first round pick.

Certainly worth noting that the end result of the Rams trading that very #11 pick to Denver in 2006 was that they turned it into... Tye Hill and Claude Wroten (left, practicing for future mug shots).

And that's why we have a whole new front office now at Rams Park.

(Tasteless ads courtesy of picapp.com while I evaluate their value as a blog picture source)