Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Site updates: best/worst players

There will be some movement on this year's RamView all-time worst roster. And believe me, I'm showing some restraint in the moves I did make.

At tight end, Joe Klopfenstein has been promoted to starter and therefore worst TE in St. Louis Rams history. Randy McMichael also joins the roster at this position, replacing Brandon Manumaleuna.

Alex Barron and Richie Incognito join the all-worst offensive line, largely thanks to their penalty-prone ways. They replace center Dave Wohlabaugh and LB Brian Allen, neither of whom will be remembered much around here, certainly not as much as the two flag magnets who replace them. In these cases, notoriety, though deserved, makes some players look worse than others who are actually worse.

A lot of other guys are worthy of the all-worst team. Can we ever really say Kyle Boller or Keith Null last year outplayed Scott Covington in 2002? No. Covington's failure is just too funny to keep him off, though. Samkon Gado's easily worse than several RBs on my list. But June Henley's always going to be there for weirdly leading the team in 1998 with a whopping 313 rushing yards. And for all his talent, Trung Canidate's always going to be there for being the first of many dumb Mike Martz draft picks. Many positions have become a matter of, Who do you drop off? Some of these guys were just too craptastic to think they'll ever be off such a team as this.

James Butler was close to replacing Kim Herring, but I'm holding off that one for now. Herring's coming off the page soon; though he may not have been great here, he wasn't epically bad like so many others on the page.

My other near-transaction was to make Pat Shurmur the OC, but as a rookie coordinator last year, he gets a pass (though probably a two-yard smoke pass on 3rd-and-8) for now in favor of incumbent Jerry Rhome, who'd been around a lot longer and just should have known better. But it's damn close, Shurmur, so pull it up out of the ditch this season.

Still have to relive fond memories by going over the best-players page. The only change I foresee is James Laurinaitis bumping Ron Bartell off the practice squad.

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