Rams announce training camp schedule

The Rams have set the practice schedule for this year's training camp. 15 practices will be open to the public. The team will hold this year's scrimmage in the Edward Jones Dome, which should have a far nicer climate than last year's fanbake at Lindenwood University.

Sun July 29: 3:30 p.m.

Mon July 30: 3:30 p.m.

Tue July 31: 3:30 p.m.

Fri Aug. 3:  3:30 p.m.

Sat Aug. 4: 12:30 p.m.  open scrimmage at Edward Jones Dome

Mon Aug. 6:  3:30 p.m.

Tue Aug. 7:  3:30 p.m.

Wed Aug. 8:  5:30 p.m.

Thu Aug. 9:  3:30 p.m.

Fri Aug. 10: 5:30 p.m.

Tue Aug. 14: 3:30 p.m.

Wed Aug. 15: 5:30 p.m.

Thu Aug. 16: 3:30 p.m.

Mon Aug. 20: 3:30 p.m.

Tue Aug. 21: 5:30 p.m.

Wed Aug. 22: 3:30 p.m.

Rookies report on August 24th and have daily practices the 25th thru 27th, but those are not open to the public. Vets report on the 28th.

I anticipate I'll have coverage of the July 29th practice and the scrimmage at RamView. The 10th is the next likeliest if I can fit it in.

-$-

RamView, 6/25: Might the Rams be healthy for a change in 2012?

* For the last several years, one thing the Rams have excelled at is racking up a number of injuries approaching a comical level, culminating in last year's epic "13 cornerbacks on injured reserve" stat. Every year recently, one of Rams Nation's best reasons for hope for the new season has been that the team can't be as banged up as it was the year before. Yet last year's Rams seemed to have more injuries than Iraq did during the Gulf War.

Dare we hope this is the year the injury plague leaves the Rams at least less scathed than usual? Reports out of last week's minicamp give some reasons for hope:

- Head coach Jeff Fisher says 89 players on the current 90-man roster will be good to go for the start of training camp. The only question mark is tight end Michael Hoomanawanui (ACL), who will be getting cleared right around the time training camp starts.

- That means good news for several players. Bradley Fletcher is well ahead of schedule on his ACL rehab and will be 100% by training camp. He wasn't full-speed for OTAs, but participated in all workouts, working at nickel and getting occasional starter reps. (Cortland Finnegan and Janoris Jenkins are the current starting corners.) If Fletcher recovers fully, Finnegan lives up to his big contract and Jenkins stays the hell out of trouble and lives up to his draft hype, the Rams will have gone from the most-injured secondary in their history to one of the more dynamic secondaries in their history.

- Rodger Saffold has bounced back from his torn pectoral and then some. Reports are he's really hit the weights and has packed on a good 10-15 pounds of muscle to his upper body. That plus Paul Boudreau's coaching are already expected to improve his ability to withstand a bull rush by leaps and bounds.

- For crying out loud, Danario Alexander has even managed to stay intact for several days in a row, and was making impressive plays by the end of minicamp.

- Not that the Rams are fully out of the woods. One big concern is that the projected starting offensive line has yet to take a snap together. Saffold and Jason Smith have been limited all offseason, and free-agent center acquisition Scott Wells hasn't even been to Rams Park to my knowledge. He had his knee scoped in the offseason and is also attending to family issues.

- Then there's Sam Bradford's apparently-permanently sprained ankle. Though camp reports say he's looking and throwing great, Bradford is telling reporters his ankle STILL is not 100%. He "hopes" it will be a non-factor by training camp.

Yeah, you and several million fans.

- There were also assorted minor injuries during minicamp that reportedly won't amount to much. Finnegan sat out the last couple of days with a hand or wrist injury. Lance Kendricks missed practices with hand/wrist/ankle injuries. Jermelle Cudjo sat out for unspecified reasons.

Get used to seeing "unspecified reasons" a LOT on this summer's camp reports, assuming I can get much of anything out. (My current workload's making that a lot less likely than the past couple of seasons.) Fisher regimes have been tight-lipped in the past with injury information.

* In former Rams news, Oshiomogho Atogwe was signed by the Eagles last week. Yes, the same Eagles who spent $tens of millions on their secondary last season. Funny thing, though: don't rule out Atogwe as their opening-day starter. Their safety play was bad enough last year that a lot of draft analysts were expecting them to draft Mark Barron or try to trade up for him.

-$-

RamView, 6/22: Bradford in top 100

* No, not the NFL top 100 players, though I wouldn't complain about being on this list in Sam Bradford's shoes, either. According to Forbes Magazine's latest listing, Bradford was the 27th-highest-paid athlete in the world last year, and the 8th-highest-paid NFL player. He took in $26.8 million from the Rams and another $1 million in endorsements. The highest-paid NFL player last year didn't take a snap; that would be Peyton Manning, to the tune of $42.4 million.

The highest-paid athletes in the world last year: Floyd Mayweather ($85 million); Manny Pacquiao ($62 million); Tiger Woods ($59.4 million); Lebron James ($53 million); Roger Federer ($52.7 million).

* Former Rams watch: If you missed Mardy Gilyard's  compelling life story after the Rams drafted him, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a good article about him last week. The Eagles picked him up back in January.

* Nick Wagoner solved the mystery of the Rams' roster limit in his last chat session. They've been able to sign several players lately without cutting anyone because they've been below the 90-man roster limit this whole time. Rocky McIntosh officially became player #90 last week. So the next time they sign a player, someone else has to get cut. Draft picks Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson remain unsigned but are included in the 90-man limit, best as I can tell.

-$-

Quote of the month

He’s the perfect middle linebacker for this defense. The ultimate linebacker for this defense when it starting evolving was Mike Singletary. I was with Mike for 11 years. The quarterback of the defense is the middle linebacker. In this system, he has to be so in tune and right in the defensive coach’s skin. He has to understand it and know it from a lot of different angles. We could not have asked for a more perfect middle linebacker to install this system than James Laurinaitis. He’s exactly what you need.

Rams assistant head coach Dave McGinnis, on James Laurinaitis

RamView, 6/14: Rams sign Quick, McIntosh

The Rams have wrapped up their 2012 minicamp, which means the next time we'll be hearing from most of the players will be the start of training camp, which opens Sunday, July 29 at 3:30. It's been a pretty busy week, including for yours truly, hence the lack of blog updates - so let's get caught up, huh?

* The Rams signed their first second-round draft pick, Brian Quick, to a four-year contract on Wednesday. It's a $5.4 million deal with $3.8 million guaranteed.

Is it coincidence that the Rams' two most controversial (and tasered) picks of the 2012 draft, Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson, are the last two rookies the team will sign? Eyebrow-raising, at least.

* In a rare example of the Rams taking advice from RamView, on Thursday they signed veteran linebacker Rocky McIntosh. He is 6'2", 242 and 29 years old. Pro Football Focus ranked McIntosh one of the worst inside LBs in the league in 2011; he had 65 tackles and a sack. Here's the deal, though; he got caught up in the Redskins' conversion to 3-4, and he's ideally a 4-3 weakside linebacker. In that role in 2010, he racked up 110 tackles, 2 sacks, 3 passed defensed and a forced fumble.

RamView believes McIntosh will be a heck of a good pickup for the Rams. (Then again, I liked the Zac Diles signing last summer.) He has a lot to prove. After that great 2010 season, instead of getting a big contract and star treatment, he got shoved into a position he's ill-suited for. Now he's back where he was best, where his career was peaking. He's durable, makes a lot of plays, has great range and is good in coverage. The Rams need all of that, so McIntosh hopefully brings it.

* The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission voted today to allow the Dome renovation negotiations with the Rams to go into arbitration. A panel of three arbitrators will be selected with the responsibility of either deciding between the Rams' plan and the CVC's plan - or, here's a good one - coming up with one of their own. If the CVC doesn't agree with the panel's decision, the Rams can terminate the Dome lease. The process is expected to take at least the rest of this year.

There haven't been any notable surprises in this process so far, and I don't expect one now. The Rams will be out of the lease, at least on a long-term basis, before Super Bowl XLVII kicks off.

* Steven Jackson has to settle for a whole 1-position upgrade in NFL Network's top 100 players countdown. #38 last year, #39 is now #37. I'd call that ranking close to right. I can say right now I'd have Steven no worse than #35 because I see little reason Frank Gore or Wes Welker should have jumped over him from last year's rankings. I'd also put him ahead of #35 Steve Smith. Then again, I would have had Cam Newton a lot higher than #40.

* Former Rams on the move:
- Tony Wragge signed with the Ravens this past Tuesday. A mauler like him ought to fit in pretty well there.
- This column wouldn't be complete without a Kris Adams update, so I have to note here that he's been picked up by the Colts.
- The Colts have also picked up... Justin King, who they signed last Friday. Supposedly, he's desirable to them for his experience and his speed. Rams fans already know without looking it up that he's the worst cornerback in football according to Pro Football Focus. I don't see how he fits any need of the Colts. He can't cover anybody, and he's not exactly going to break the ridiculous injury trend the Indy secondary has had in recent seasons, when he's had plenty of difficulty staying on the field in his brief career. The Rams play the Colts in preseason; if they can't toast Justin King with regularity, like the rest of the league, 2012 could be another very long season in River City.

-$-

Photo: STLToday

Rams sign Brockers, Pead

The Rams have signed two more of their 2012 draft picks:

First-round pick Michael Brockers signed a 4-year, $9.5 million deal today. It has a team option for a fifth year and pays Brockers a $5.36 million signing bonus.

Held up all this time by the NFL's ridiculous "quarters system" rule, second-round pick (#3) Isaiah Pead finally was allowed to come to Rams Park for OTAs yesterday and signed his rookie contract almost immediately.

Anybody else really not miss the days of rookies holding out and not arriving in time for the start of training camp? Yeah, me, either.

-$-

Rams sign Zuerlein

The Rams have signed sixth-round pick Greg Zuerlein to a four-year contract, running thru the 2015 season.

Now that they have taken care of day three of this year's draft, the Rams can focus on signing their first five picks.

-$-

Rams sign four draft choices

The Rams started getting their 2012 draft class under contract on Friday with the following signings:

4th-round pick Chris Givens
5th-round pick Rokevious Watkins
7th-round pick Aaron Brown
7th-round pick Daryl Richardson

All four players signed four-year deals and are under contract thru the 2015 season. It seems likely the Rams will get the rest of the draft class signed this week.

-$-

CVC: no to Rams' Dome plan

The St. Louis CVC announced this morning its official rejection of the Rams' proposal for improvements to the Edward Jones Dome, submitted last month.

Settlement of the lease goes into arbitration if the Rams and the city have not reached an agreement by June 15th. The CVC claims it's willing to open discussions with the Rams in the next two weeks.

No surprise here yet.

-$-