Rams news, 8/25

* Injury list: Training camp may have picked up stakes for 2010, but the parade of injuries will not go away so easily, as backup tackle Phil Trautwein was carted off with a knee injury last night. MRI pending. A cart ride out of a game is usually a bad, bad thing, but it seems a more precautionary move in training camp. Ron Bartell was carted off earlier in camp and was back on the field in a couple of weeks. Hopefully Trautwein has just a minor sprain.

Going to be harder and harder to confirm injuries now that camp is over, but here's what I've got for the list: Victor Adeyanju (knee); James Butler (knee); A.J. Feeley (elbow, thumb); Daniel Fells (hyperextended knee); Mardy Gilyard (sick); John Greco (pectoreal); Marquis Johnson (shoulder); Kevin Payne (lih, knee); George Selvie (leg); Phil Trautwein (knee); David Vobora (hamstring).

Keenan Burton is back in camp and practiced yesterday. Jerome Murphy's confirmed back in practice; he picked off Sam Bradford yesterday. Gilyard has been out sick two straight days and is the other addition besides Trautwein. Victor Adeyanju remains out with a knee issue.

Update: Brandon McRae participated in practice yesterday, confirmed by a fan report.

I get the bad feeling I won't know to take players off the list any more until they actually appear in a game, which is going to render this list kind of useless.

* Roster move: Dominic Douglas was waived injured and replaced on the roster by linebacker Devin Bishop. Yet another Cal defensive player? He goes 6'1", 239 and had 2 tackles in Denver's first preseason game against Cincinnati. He was cut prior to their second game so the Broncos could sign D.J. Williams' brother.

A less than charitable scouting report from NBCSports.com:
"Bishop started 9-of-25 games at Cal and finished his college career with a measly 2.5 sacks and 69 tackles. He never belonged in an NFL camp."

You also know you don't have a good chance at the pros out of college when you're not even named in the PFW Draft Guide, which lists 41 ILBs, or CDSDraft's player database, and they had a scouting report on Jermelle Cudjo.

Quick comparison: Bishop's Pro Day numbers vs. Josh Hull's Combine numbers:
40-yard dash: Bishop 4.81, Hull 4.91.
Bench press: Bishop 20, Hull 25.
Vertical jump: Bishop 30.5, Hull 32.5.
3-cone: Bishop 7.16, Hull 6.86.
20-yard shuttle: Bishop 4.26, Hull 4.07.

Besides his other unfavorable stats, Bishop also failed to force a turnover or even recover a fumble in his time at Cal. He failed to win the starting job at WLB there but had nine starts at MLB, at least, that's where I assume he played. He won the team's Most Courageous Player award, though, which says something for him. His brother Desmond is currently a Packers LB; their father played in the USFL. Devin is an American studies major who doesn't shape up to be much more than 4th-string MLB for the Rams. He'll probably spend about a week on the roster and be one of the five cuts the Rams have to make by next Tuesday to get down to 75.

* NFL owners all vote on Stan Kroenke's ownership bid for the Rams today. There's still a mishmash of reports out there on how this is going to go. Some say he's just becoming majority owner at 60% or 70% of the team; others say he's acquiring the full-blown 100%. All indicate his Denver teams will be transferred to family members.

"Hey, Josh. Look what Santa left behind for you."

"Aww, Dad! You shouldn't have! The Denver Nuggets!"

The NFL finance committee's recommendation was unanimous; I am eager to see if the full league vote is the same. I am eager to see how a certain string-tied owner of a team that failed miserably on the field here previously votes (though it's probably his son exercising the team's vote anyway). Said owner has voted NO on all St. Louis' football efforts since taking his team out of town with the promise he would do everything he could to help the city get another team.

No, I haven't forgotten.

* Around the league: Happened to see that David Roach was picked up by Detroit. They do love to grab up the Rams' waived players quickly. Update: And Brooks Foster may be appearing soon on an HBO channel near you; he was claimed by the Jets. Also, the owners vote today on whether to extend the regular season to 18 games, eliminating 2 preseason games, a proposal that'll have to be agreed to by the players if there ever is another CBA. I'm in the apparently 1% of fans against an 18-game season. The NFL's going to join the other major sports in having a season that just drags on too long. I assume training camp would start in mid-August and the Super Bowl would probably be played, when, President's Day weekend? An 18-game season also makes division play less and less relevant.

photos - StLouisRams.com, Cal athletics site