It's for real this time: per Bernie Miklasz, the Rosenblooms are working with Goldman Sachs to find a buyer for the team. And having waited a year for somebody, anybody in St. Louis to step up and commit to a local effort to keep the team in town, the Rosenblooms are no longer restricting their search to buyers who will make that commitment. In other words, out-of-town buyers are invited.
So step right up, all you rich L.A. financiers.
As for St. Louis, time to start thinking about saying our goodbyes. This thing's really out of our control as fans now.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tinoisamoa to the Bears
Lovie Smith signed another former Rams leader this offseason, bringing Pisa Tinoisamoa aboard on a 1-year contract. Tinoisamoa, cut by the Rams last month as a result of Will Witherspoon's move to weakside linebacker, joins Orlando Pace for the 2009 season at Soldier Field.
Tinoisamoa looked like a character risk when the Rams drafted him in 2002, but he turned out to be nothing of the sort, instead setting a Rams record for tackles by a rookie his initial season. He would lead the defense in tackles four times in six years with the Rams. Early in his career he was one of the best hitters the Ram D had, and last year overall was his best season since his rookie year.
Pisa's big hitting came with a price, though. Even as willing to play through injuries as he was - one season he stayed on the field and played one-armed, that is, until he hurt the good arm - he spent a lot of time on the injury report in his career. And despite his high tackle totals, he was frequently out of position on running plays and has been a key reason for big plays the woeful Ram run defense has allowed the last few seasons. The decision to move Witherspoon outside and the draft of James Laurinaitis to take the Mike LB role made Pisa the odd man out. And Pisa was never known as a great special teams contributor or the kind of versatile LB like Chris Draft who could back up multiple positions, so his value to the new-look Rams became very limited.
Given his liabilities in the run game, it's surprising to hear that Pisa's going to start in Chicago, but RamView wishes him the best. Reuniting with Lovie Smith can't be a bad thing for him at this point in his career. He's jumping from a 2-14 rebuilding project to a team whose aspirations for 2009 start with making the playoffs. He's the type of player-warrior who should fit in well in Chicago and who Bears fans should take to right away.
Meanwhile, the offseason scorecard for the Rams? Best wide receiver last year, maybe in team history, gone. Best offensive lineman last year, maybe in team history, gone. And now leading tackler on defense, gone.
I trust Steve Spagnuolo will be smart enough this season not to blame losses on account of not having enough players.
Tinoisamoa looked like a character risk when the Rams drafted him in 2002, but he turned out to be nothing of the sort, instead setting a Rams record for tackles by a rookie his initial season. He would lead the defense in tackles four times in six years with the Rams. Early in his career he was one of the best hitters the Ram D had, and last year overall was his best season since his rookie year.
Pisa's big hitting came with a price, though. Even as willing to play through injuries as he was - one season he stayed on the field and played one-armed, that is, until he hurt the good arm - he spent a lot of time on the injury report in his career. And despite his high tackle totals, he was frequently out of position on running plays and has been a key reason for big plays the woeful Ram run defense has allowed the last few seasons. The decision to move Witherspoon outside and the draft of James Laurinaitis to take the Mike LB role made Pisa the odd man out. And Pisa was never known as a great special teams contributor or the kind of versatile LB like Chris Draft who could back up multiple positions, so his value to the new-look Rams became very limited.
Given his liabilities in the run game, it's surprising to hear that Pisa's going to start in Chicago, but RamView wishes him the best. Reuniting with Lovie Smith can't be a bad thing for him at this point in his career. He's jumping from a 2-14 rebuilding project to a team whose aspirations for 2009 start with making the playoffs. He's the type of player-warrior who should fit in well in Chicago and who Bears fans should take to right away.
Meanwhile, the offseason scorecard for the Rams? Best wide receiver last year, maybe in team history, gone. Best offensive lineman last year, maybe in team history, gone. And now leading tackler on defense, gone.
I trust Steve Spagnuolo will be smart enough this season not to blame losses on account of not having enough players.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Site updates...
...inasmuch as I'm finally updating this puppy for the first time since before the draft, that is. Thank a very busy work schedule and a dying (now dead) home computer for that. But 2008, which should be buried, now has an archive page, and I did get some time to update the Rams' all-best and all-worst pages.
Obviously there was no need to update the best games page after 2008, but certainly last year saw a couple of the worst efforts in team history, led by the 47-3 (40-0 at halftime) debacle against the Jets that takes over at #1 on the list of worst games the Rams have played in St. Louis. The 38-3 season-opening loss takes a spot as well, as does the 2006 embarrassment in the Dome where the Bears had more fans present than the Rams did. It's hard to get worked up any more about the Rams losing to Kurt Warner, so one of those losses fell off the list, along with a dreadful Bears game in '97 and the divisional playoff loss to Atlanta in '05, which WAS the Rams' last playoff appearance, after all.
The Julius Jones TD run in Seattle last year joins the list of worst plays in St. Louis Rams history, replacing one of those plays where seven or eight Ram defenders missed tackles and allowed a TD. Those kind of plays are getting too hard to distinguish any more, they happen so often.
The All-St.Louis roster got just a minor tweak, with Ron Bartell replacing Mark Setterstrom on the practice squad, a place where I like to recognize players who are fan favorites or young up-and-comers, Bartell being the latter.
The all-worst team was just a little busier. Joe Klopfenstein claims a spot at tight end. Linehan cements his spot as worst coach in Rams history. And Drew Bennett ascends to the summit as the worst wide receiver and the worst free agent signing in team history.
Drew Bennett actually comes across as a really nice guy. Even though he was on injured reserve almost all of last season, he was still in town visiting sick kids in the hospital around the holidays. And he was a good teammate by all accounts. He stayed out of trouble off the field. A lot of NFL receivers could stand to be a lot more like Drew Bennett.
Too bad he was so awful on the field here. When he could even suit up.
Obviously there was no need to update the best games page after 2008, but certainly last year saw a couple of the worst efforts in team history, led by the 47-3 (40-0 at halftime) debacle against the Jets that takes over at #1 on the list of worst games the Rams have played in St. Louis. The 38-3 season-opening loss takes a spot as well, as does the 2006 embarrassment in the Dome where the Bears had more fans present than the Rams did. It's hard to get worked up any more about the Rams losing to Kurt Warner, so one of those losses fell off the list, along with a dreadful Bears game in '97 and the divisional playoff loss to Atlanta in '05, which WAS the Rams' last playoff appearance, after all.
The Julius Jones TD run in Seattle last year joins the list of worst plays in St. Louis Rams history, replacing one of those plays where seven or eight Ram defenders missed tackles and allowed a TD. Those kind of plays are getting too hard to distinguish any more, they happen so often.
The All-St.Louis roster got just a minor tweak, with Ron Bartell replacing Mark Setterstrom on the practice squad, a place where I like to recognize players who are fan favorites or young up-and-comers, Bartell being the latter.
The all-worst team was just a little busier. Joe Klopfenstein claims a spot at tight end. Linehan cements his spot as worst coach in Rams history. And Drew Bennett ascends to the summit as the worst wide receiver and the worst free agent signing in team history.
Drew Bennett actually comes across as a really nice guy. Even though he was on injured reserve almost all of last season, he was still in town visiting sick kids in the hospital around the holidays. And he was a good teammate by all accounts. He stayed out of trouble off the field. A lot of NFL receivers could stand to be a lot more like Drew Bennett.
Too bad he was so awful on the field here. When he could even suit up.
Rules changes will improve Rams special teams
...relative to the rest of the league, at least. The league took a step to improve player safety in the offseason by outlawing the wedge on kickoff returns. That move eliminates some of the most violent collisions in the game, and indirectly, helps the Rams out on special teams.
That's because the Rams here in St. Louis have rarely, if ever, utilized the wedge effectively on returns or attacked it well on coverage. You can blame that on several things. The Rams have preferred smaller, faster players at the LB and DB positions, which populate a lot of kickoff units. The only big guy on Rams special teams I ever saw as a decent blocker (very good, actually), was Jeff Zgonina during the GSOE heyday. Otherwise, no slugger in the middle for the Rams to spearpoint a return. And if we saw a small DB try to run around the wedge only to give up a great big lane for a long return once, we saw it a thousand times. Mike Martz supposedly wouldn't allow certain players to be used on special teams, further cutting down the talent level, and after the late Frank Gansz, the Rams have had mediocre special teams coaching at best. Usually worse.
Despite the carousel of head and special teams coaches in and out of Rams Park the last decade, the Rams have always been a finesse team on kickoff returns. The NFL rule change favors the Rams' longtime approach.
The Rams may not improve a lot on kickoff returns in the near future, but the rest of the league is going to start coming back to them.
That's because the Rams here in St. Louis have rarely, if ever, utilized the wedge effectively on returns or attacked it well on coverage. You can blame that on several things. The Rams have preferred smaller, faster players at the LB and DB positions, which populate a lot of kickoff units. The only big guy on Rams special teams I ever saw as a decent blocker (very good, actually), was Jeff Zgonina during the GSOE heyday. Otherwise, no slugger in the middle for the Rams to spearpoint a return. And if we saw a small DB try to run around the wedge only to give up a great big lane for a long return once, we saw it a thousand times. Mike Martz supposedly wouldn't allow certain players to be used on special teams, further cutting down the talent level, and after the late Frank Gansz, the Rams have had mediocre special teams coaching at best. Usually worse.
Despite the carousel of head and special teams coaches in and out of Rams Park the last decade, the Rams have always been a finesse team on kickoff returns. The NFL rule change favors the Rams' longtime approach.
The Rams may not improve a lot on kickoff returns in the near future, but the rest of the league is going to start coming back to them.
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