Rams sign Jerious Norwood

The Rams also signed Jerious Norwood to a one-year deal this weekend. He represents the change-of-pace back the Rams have needed for about five years now but have never had. RamView wanted to draft Norwood for the Rams back in 2006, but the brilliant regime at that time used their two third-round picks on Claude Wroten and Jon Alston instead.

Norwood, whose middle name is Montreal, is 5'11, 208 and 28 years old. He's been with the Falcons since they drafted him in '06. When he's right, he has excellent speed and acceleration and is a threat to score from anywhere on the field. The Rams have experienced Norwood's explosiveness a couple of times in person already. In 2007, he whipped them for 94 yards on just 8 carries, with a couple of runs over 30 yards. In the 2008 season finale, he beat the Rams for a 46-yard TD and also returned a kickoff for 92 yards to set up another Falcon score. He's been deadly against the Rams on draw plays and has been deadly against anybody that lets him get to the open field. He'll also stretch a run defense - he's an excellent outside runner with excellent speed to the corner. Norwood's statistics back up his reputation for explosiveness; career averages of 5.3 yards per rush and 25.5 yards per kickoff return.

How could Atlanta let Jerious Norwood go? He's ALWAYS hurt. He makes Marc Bulger look like Brett Favre. He makes Mark Setterstrom look like Bruce Matthews. He makes - ok, enough of that. But the fact remains that Norwood, who's too undersized to be a load-carrying RB anyway, has played just 12 games the last two seasons. He missed almost all of last season after tearing an ACL during a kickoff return. He struggled all of 2010 with a hip flexor and also suffered a concussion. In fact, Norwood is such damaged goods he's already listed as questionable on CBSSports.com for the Rams' first preseason game.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the Norwood signing. The Rams sure are stocking their roster with a lot of balky knees. I'm not sure Norwood even makes it through training camp, especially if his knee isn't 100% even now.

If the Rams do get a healthy Norwood on the field, though, he's the perfect change-of-pace to Steven Jackson and an explosive element the Ram offense sorely lacks. He could be a jackpot signing, or he could just be a brief waste of time. With his absolutely tantalizing upside, though, he's a good gamble by the Rams front office.

Photo: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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