FA preview: wrap-up

Quick updates to account for recent player moves that occurred after position recaps:

RB changed a lot: 1) Brian Westbrook 2) Darren Sproles 3) Thomas Jones 4) LaDainian Tomlinson 5) Willie Parker

Sadly, though he was recently cut by the Bears, I'm not sure Orlando Pace would crack my top 5 OTs available.

So what would I do if I were Rams GM?

1) On the d-line, I'm hoping to talk Leonard Little back for one last season, and it sounds like he's at least leaning toward playing vs. retiring. Might have to sweeten the pot to keep him from talking to Haslett, though. I'm checking out Fred Robbins for the DT rotation and definitely burning the phone lines to New York to see what they'd want for Osi Umenyiora, whom they're not trying very hard not to piss off these days. Aaron Kampman should be Plan B; nobody seems to think his last season-ending knee injury will be a big concern. Defensive line is the area of the team the Rams have to be the most active in this offseason, in free agency, and the draft, where I'm still selecting Ndamukong Suh with the first pick overall, a notion that once would have been called a no-brainer.

2) Offensive priority number one in free agency is tight end. I'd pretty much have the Rammobile parked outside Ben Watson's house with a trunkful of cash. Should that fail, hopefully Randy McMichael would act like nothing happened. He could actually be the 2nd-best FA TE available.

3) I'm still not enthralled with the LB situation, and yes, I'm looking to the Giants yet again (and I'm not even Spagnuolo!). I strongly expect the Rams to end up with Antonio Pierce if he's healthy, and I'd also take a look at Danny Clark. Bryan Scott would have starting potential here as well, as would a lot of mid-round draft picks. Got to improve on at least one of the starting OLB positions.

4) I'm probably drafting a QB in the second round. I highly doubt Mr. Khan is going to want to pay Marc Bulger $8.5 mil based on his recent output. David Carr's a high-character player who obviously has experience being a very-highly-drafted QB. I'd try to bring him in to mentor the new kid, wherever I draft one, and be the stopgap starter. He'd be a lot cheaper than Bulger. Sounds like Chad Pennington's willing to give Miami the hometown discount, and he's still very uncertain medically.

5) On the o-line, quit teasing me, Rams! They're trying to put Alex Barron on the market by only tendering him for a second-round pick. Quit giving us hope; we all know we're going to get stuck with him. At least bench him heading into camp and make him (try to) win the (RT) job from Goldberg. I would try to sneak Kevin Boothe away from the G-Men (again with the Giants?!?!) to boost the interior depth.

6) My WR strategy has fallen completely apart. The Giants backup receivers I was going to go after were NOT unrestricted free agents (thanx, Rotoworld), so my sleeper options are gone. Burleson and Chambers seem pretty determined to stay with their current teams. Kevin Walter's going to have a lot of teams bidding. Sounds like some #2-quality WRs are about to get overpaid, and I'm going to be stuck holding a bag full of mediocre Rams WRs, though I'd at least try to make Burleson a decent offer.

7) I'm not anticipating a big move in the secondary. As I have said, I am (perhaps irrationally) intrigued with Bryan Scott of the Bills and would be looking at him for safety and linebacker depth.

8) The Rams are going to have difficulty signing any RB who actually wants playing time. Fortunately, there's been a lot of shakeout at the position in free agency. I will not be surprised at all to see the Rams pick their #2 RB for 2010 off the waiver wire. No need to rush into anything here.

Valuable resources for this year's free agent preview capsules:
(a/k/a who I'm blaming when I get something badly wrong)

Rotoworld
SBNation
StLouisRams.com
KFFL
FootballsFuture.com
NFL.com
NFLLabor.com
Pro Football Reference