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| Photo: Sacramento Bee |
* Roster moves. The Rams made three roster moves Wednesday, signing wide receivers Charles Gilbert and Brandyn Harvey, and cutting tight end Jamie Childers. The moves put them at the 90-man roster limit.
Gilbert was just waived by Jacksonville, where you have to be pretty bad not to make the team at wide receiver. He was, however, considered the fastest player on their roster. He's a rookie free agent out of Concordia University in St. Paul, MN, where he had 89 catches, 1,941 yards (18.5 ypc) and 25 TDs in two seasons. He was a Division II second-team All-American. PFW lists Gilbert as a teeny 5'11", 167-pounder who ran 4.46 at Minnesota's pro day. He also showed impressive jumping ability - 38.5" vertical, 9'11" broad jump. His 75" "wingspan" doesn't seem too shabby, either. There is YouTube out there of him, but no scouting material I could find quickly. NFLDraftScout doesn't even appear to have heard of him, and they rank nearly 2,000 players.
Don't expect more of a RFA profile than that on Gilbert any time soon, but I'll put it on my to-do list.
Harvey (6'3" 201) was signed as a RFA in 2010 by - guess who - the Falcons. It sounds like he was released in 2010 with an injury settlement but still spent time on Atlanta's practice squad late in the season. Atlanta released him in the cutdown to 53 last season. Arizona quickly signed him to their PS, but he didn't make it to the end of September there, and I don't see any pro activity for him since then. He was a double major in geography and sociology at Villanova, where they considered him a deep threat, a good receiver in traffic and a good blocker. DraftNasty credits him for leadership and fiery play. He set the tone for Nova's national championship win over Montana with a devastating block. NFLDraftScout ranked him the #106 WR in the 2010 draft. His 4.6 40 (ran at Temple's pro day) won't make many headlines, but look at his jumps: 40" vertical, 10'8" broad. He had 53 catches for 694 yards (13.1 ypc) and 5 TDs for Villanova in 2009 and averaged 7.3 yards over two years as a punt returner.
The new players are expected to join the team practice Thursday.
Childers was a capable, sure-handed receiver from what I saw of him, and I did not expect him to be such an early cut, but injuries at wide receiver appear to have forced the Rams' hand a little, and Childers was likely the last tight end on the depth chart, behind fellow RFAs Cory Harkey and DeAngelo Peterson. Seems like the timing's really bad for him to catch on somewhere now, but you'd think there'd be at least one team out there willing to take a flyer on a tight end prospect with high athletic ability.
* Injury report. DE Jamaar Jarrett joined this summer's usual injury suspects on the sidelines Wednesday. Everyone from yesterday's list remained out, including "chillin'" liar Darian Stewart. Jarrett's injury was not disclosed. Scott Wells has progressed to joining the line in walkthroughs, so there's progress there.
* Aaron Brown is improving by leaps and bounds judging from Nick Wagoner's reports, and is especially impressing on special teams. That is great, because that seemed to be the reason the Rams drafted him. Sammy Brown and Rodney McLeod also stood out at Wednesday's practice.
* Word is out from Jason LaCanfora that the Rams expect to have a new deal with James Laurinaitis before the start of the regular season.
* Where in the world is Gregg? - Remember Gregg Williams? Was going to be the Rams' defensive coordinator but got suspended indefinitely instead for running the Saints' bounty pool? Well, don't look for him around here anytime soon. He goes to Asia next week for a backpacking trip - a "mission of personal growth and discovery" - across Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. (Note to NFL.com: if you're going to call Myanmar "Burma", might as well give 110% and call Thailand "Siam".) NFL.com does humorously mention that Williams will spend time in Thailand's opium country.
When he gets back from that, Williams is going to enroll in a military boot camp, and then later travel to South Africa, and "work his way north through that continent".
Well, if that doesn't get him back in Roger Goodell's good graces, it should at least get him a gig at the Travel Channel. Happy travels.
-$-
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