Waiting till next year

A few things we know about 2014 based on the Rams' finish in 2013:

* In the 2014 draft, the Rams are currently scheduled to select 2nd and 13th in the first round. Pick #13 is their own pick, #2 is the pick they stole from the Redskins in the RGIII trade. Everyone in the major media who said the Rams made a bad deal there, care to have a word? And of course, with Les Snead around, always best to say the Rams are "scheduled" to pick somewhere vs. saying they will pick there.

* Both the Manning brothers will visit St. Louis in 2014 as part of what should be a damn good slate of home games. The Rams' scheduled opponents for 2014:

Home: Arizona, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Minnesota, N.Y. Giants, Oakland
Away: Arizona, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Kansas City, San Diego, Tampa Bay, Washington

There's daunting aspects to this schedule. The NFC West is the NFL's Group of Death. The Rams haven't beaten the Giants since 2001 or the Chiefs since 1994. Eight games are against playoff teams, three others against teams that missed the playoffs by a game. It's still a friendlier schedule than last year's, though depending on what ways the scheduling people try to screw the Rams over.

When last April's schedule came out I commented that Rams fans should be damn impressed if Jeff Fisher could get an 8-8 season out of it. The Rams nearly got there, without Sam Bradford. They should be able to do some business in 2014.

-$-

Quinn, Hekker named to Pro Bowl

Congratulations to Robert Quinn and Johnny Hekker on being named to the Pro Bowl for the first time. They will be the first Rams to play in the Pro Bowl since the 2011 game (Steven Jackson). It's the first time the Rams will field two Pro Bowlers since the 2007 game (Jackson and Marc Bulger). RamView may actually have to watch the game this year!

CBS Tampa Bay

Quinn, a leading candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, leads the NFL in sacks with 18, also a St. Louis Rams team record. He also leads the league in forced fumbles, with 7, and has been brilliant against the run.

NFL.com

 

In his second season, Hekker leads the NFL in net punting with 43.8 ypa, which the Rams report is the third-best season ever. Equally not well-known to me, the Rams have allowed the second-fewest punt return yards in the league this season, 81 through 15 games.

Best of luck to Quinn and Hekker in Hawaii, and may many more of the Rams have a busy January in 2015.

-$-

Introducing... RamView?

Or to put it more accurately, where the hell has RamView been? You know you have the worst Rams blog of all time when you just let it die in the middle of a football season. And Ramview.com is close to the worst web site on the planet. (Thank goodness for healthcare.gov.)

2013 has been highly busy for me at work, (for which I can also "thank" healthcare "reform") which is great for me, but not good at all for the blog. And my company, as is its right, locked down its networks, killing my ability to blog at lunchtime. I never figured out a way to make up that time. The RamView recap itself takes me longer than ever to do every week, which didn't help me any. By the time I'd get one recap done, it was time to start working on the preview for the next recap. I hope my thoroughness (a/k/a slowness) there has made up for my shortcomings here.

So, all excuses aside, I'm "relaunching" the blog today. I have a few projects in the works for the coming days:

* Rams' 2013 player grades by position
* Rams' 2013 penalty log
* A mega ex-Rams update to make up for everything I missed this season

I'll also pick back up some of the traditional offseason activities of the blog, with "live" blogs of next weekend's playoff games and coverage of whatever college all-star games and practices I can find on TV.

Ramview.com itself is up-to-date for the first time since October (!). All of this year's recaps are up there. It's not very pretty at the moment, but beautification efforts are in progress.

Today also marks the kickoff of RamView's Twitter feed (@RamView1). Yes, I know, I can't keep a blog or a website up-to-date, so add something else, makes sense. It'll be used to post blog updates, website updates and one-line stuff it makes little sense to put here.


A lot of this is going to be done late at night, which may be reflected in its quality, so with that warning out there, let's see how this goes one more time.

-$-

Three Rams Hall of Fame semifinalists

The annual Pro Football Hall of Fame induction process has reached the semifinals. 25 modern-day players were named as semifinalists tonight. The list includes former Rams Aeneas Williams, Kevin Greene and Jerome Bettis, along with former St. Louis Cardinals head coach Don Coryell. Williams and Bettis finished in the final 10 last year, just short of induction. Greene made the top 15.

The three Rams will probably have tough sledding getting into the Hall in 2014, with first-time nominees Walter Jones, Derrick Brooks, Marvin Harrison and Tony Dungy likely to take three or four of the five slots available to modern-day players. They're likely competing with Charles Haley and Michael Strahan for one or two slots.

The list was cut down to 25 players from an original list of 126. Former Rams on that list included Trent Green (first-time nominee), Stephen Davis, Henry Ellard, Sean Landeta, Chuck Knox and Dick Vermeil. Ellard used to make the final 25 but now seems to have fallen off the HoF radar, which is pretty criminal when they're still considering criminal dirtbags like Eddie DeBartolo or pencil-pushing lightweight Paul Tagliabue, who actively sought to keep the NFL out of St. Louis.

Kurt Warner, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce AND Torry Holt will be first-time eligibles for the 2015 class.

-$-

Rams report, 10/3

Wednesday injury report:
Out: Cortland Finnegan (hamstring), William Hayes (knee), Trumaine Johnson (sick), Rodger Saffold (knee).
Limited: Brandon McGee (thigh), Will Witherspoon (hamstring).



Recent transactions:
- The Rams re-signed linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar, who will start Sunday against the Jagwires. Dunbar, of course, is coming off a 4-week PED suspension.
- Tackle Max Starks was waived to make room for Dunbar on the roster. Starks was originally signed after Rodger Saffold's injury in week 2.
- Quinton Pointer cleared waivers and was placed on the practice squad at the time Starks was signed.
- Offensive lineman Mike Person was also signed after week 2. Person was on Seattle's roster for the second half of last season but only saw a few plays' worth of action in a jumbo tight end role. He's 6'4" 299 and was a 2011 7th-round pick of the 49ers. He was a NCAA Division II All-America LT for the University of Montana. Assistant secondary coach / Jeff Fisher's son Brandon played at Montana. Weird coincidence, huh? Note to Stan Kroenke: next head coach you hire, make sure he has a kid who went to Alabama.
- Person took the main roster spot that opened up when safety Matt Daniels went on season-long IR. Daniels suffered a broken ankle on a kickoff return against the Falcons.
- T.J. McDonald was placed on the injured reserve/return list after breaking his leg in the 49ers game.
- Cody Davis was promoted from the practice squad to replace McDonald. 
- Emory Blake and Eric Stevens have been bouncing on and off the practice squad back and forth all season. After Davis was promoted, Blake replaced Stevens and Darren Woodard was added back on.
- Former Ram UDFA tackle Braden Brown was suspended by the league Monday. Brown started training camp on injured reserve due to a back injury and was waived injured two weeks ago. There's no indication what the suspension is for or if his release was related to it.

The current practice squad: Blake, Mason Brodine, Sammy Brown, Sean Hooey, Pointer, Jonathan Stewart, Justin Veltung and Woodard. Stewart started the regular season on the main roster and went to the practice squad when Isaiah Pead was activated after week 1.

That should catch us up on Rams' transactions so far this season.

Seriously?
The Rams are 12-point favorites Sunday over the Jagwires. I don't know how anyone could watch the Rams these past two games and favor them by 12 points over anybody. I wouldn't favor them by 12 over half the SEC, let alone any NFL team. Maybe even a couple of Big 10 teams. I'm aware that the Jagwires have been even more brutal all season than the Rams have been the past two games. I'm also aware they'll have by far the best RB (Jones-Drew) on the field Sunday and the two best WRs, though Cecil Shorts has been limited in practice and Justin Blackmon will be playing his first game of the season.Vegas has much more confidence in the Rams' ability to close the deal than I do.

-$-

Rams-49ers recap

The Rams' 2013 season swirled down the toilet bowl with an awful 35-11 home loss to a 49ers team they thought they could compete with. The RamView recap is finally up.

Negatives: 19 total yards rushing. Sam Bradford heard footsteps, missed open receivers poorly the few times he had one and was sacked another five times. Both offensive and defensive lines were miserable failures. The 49ers ran for over 200 yards. Cortland Finnegan continued to play like complete garbage. T.J. McDonald broke his leg and will be out eight weeks. Tavon Austin could do nothing on offense or special teams.

Positives: Only 12 more games before the season is over! And I started Frank Gore in my fantasy league.

Possibly more catch-up on the way today; we'll see how it goes. Enjoying watching some ball without having to suffer through the Rams' incompetence for a change.

-$-

Rams injury report

Three players did not participate in practice Monday due to knee injuries: William Hayes, Chris Givens and Rodger Saffold. Hayes was injured during Sunday's 31-7 loss in Dallas and was on crutches after the game, so he sounds very doubtful for Thursday night. Saffold sprained an MCL in the loss at Atlanta, and has was originally described as "week-to-week", but the Rams can't have added two offensive linemen to the roster since his injury thinking he'd be back very quickly. I'd imagine Rodger will be out another 3-4 weeks. Another guess is that Max Starks will be at right tackle Thursday night.

Limited participation for: James Laurinaitis (foot), Jake Long (foot), T.J. McDonald (knee), Mike McNeill (chest), Daryl Richardson (foot), Chris Williams (foot). Richardson was actually on the field for a couple of plays Sunday but had to leave the game after getting his already-injured foot stepped on. Long was pulled from the game late Sunday as a precautionary measure after his injury. Should be fair to expect him to play Thursday, hopefully a lot better.

-$-

Rams-Dallas recap

The RamView recap of a most forgettable weekend for the Rams in Dallas is up now. Sure, I get that one up within two weeks. Go figure.

Negatives: No running game. No open receivers. The sackless streak not only ended, it went up in flames, with the Rams allowing Sam Bradford to get smeared SIX times and Jake Long looking like he didn't even belong at LT in a rec league. Demarco Murray gouged the Ram defense again, for 175 yards, with Chris Long and Robert Quinn getting blocked by tight ends with ease most of the game. A veteran coaching staff showed little ability to game-plan, make adjustments, motivate players or call timely timeouts on either side of the ball.

Positives: Greg Zuerlein put two kickoffs through the back of the end zone. I started Murray in my fantasy league.

Adding more insult to injury, the 49ers lost 27-7 at home yesterday and have opened as 3-point favorites to win here Thursday night.

RamView's still very much in catchup mode; I'll get injury reports and roster moves up when I get them assimilated.

-$-

Game notes, weeks 1-2

Ramview.com is FINALLY up-to-date for the first two weeks of the season. Long recaps of the Rams' 27-24 home win over the Big Dead and their 31-27 road loss to Atlanta are up there. Quicker recaps right here...

Week 1 positives: Robert Quinn's three sacks made him NFC Defensive Player of the Week... Jared Cook had a massive 7-catch, 141-yard, 2-TD game in his Rams debut... Sam Bradford led a 4th-quarter rally to get the Rams out of a 24-13 hole... Third straight game Bradford wasn't sacked... Greg Zuerlein was a flawless 4-for-4 on FGs, with a 48-yarder to win the game in the final minute.

Week 1 negatives: Cortland Finnegan was by far the worst Ram on the field. Couldn't cover, couldn't tackle and committed stupid penalties... Speaking of which, seven penalties, 4 of them 15-yard personal fouls, all by veterans... Pass rush was almost non-existent outside of Quinn... That the Rams ever fell behind 24-13 in the first place to a team that went 1-7 on the road last season.

Week 2 positives: Fourth straight game Bradford wasn't sacked... Productive receiving games for Tavon Austin (2 TDs) and Austin Pettis (8-78)... Another sack for Quinn... Bad refereeing led directly to Atlanta's first TD... Brian Schottenheimer's got all these shiny, new weapons and doesn't seem to want to use them.

Week 2 negatives: Rams dug a big hole again, falling behind 24-3... Cook went from all-Pro to invisible man (1 catch, 10 yards)... The passing game was checkdown after checkdown...  No running game... Janoris Jenkins' terrible coverage allowed an 81-yard Julio Jones TD bomb... Only two sacks... Special teams were penalty-crazy.

Week 2 irony: After nine years of battling for them without getting over the top, Steven Jackson scored a TD against his old team... and was injured on the play. He'll be out several weeks with a hamstring injury. Hey, didn't the same thing happen to Jackson two years ago? The Falcons might want to work him a little harder next summer so he gets that hamstring deal out of the way in training camp.

Rams of the Week: Week 1 - Quinn; Week 2 - Jake Long.

More catchup on the way.

-$-

Rams-Arizona game notes

The Rams remain 4.5-point favorites to beat Arizona in the Dome tomorrow. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. There are still tickets for sale at last word, but enough have sold to get the game on TV locally (KTVI).

 





Starting lineup:
- Chris Williams won the training camp battle at LG and will start Sunday.
- Rodney McLeod and T.J. McDonald will be the starting safeties. It's not completely clear if McLeod will continue to start if Darian Stewart is ever healthy ever again.
- Benny Cunningham will return kicks.

Injuries: 
The Rams look pretty good from an injury standpoint, though I guess we can worry a little bit about their special teams depth. Out for Sunday:
- Cory Harkey (knee)
- Quinton Pointer (thigh)
- Darian Stewart AGAIN (hamstring)
- Jonathan Stewart (hip)

Chris Long missed the final week of training camp due to a "tweaked" knee, but says he feels good now, describing his health as both "fantastic" and "awesome".
Jermelle Cudjo and Lance Kendricks, who missed most and all of training camp respectively, are both reportedly full-go.
Matt Giordano, who also missed all of training camp, returned to practice Wednesday.
Matt Daniels has a cast on his arm, and recent practice reports have described him as limited, but he's not on the Rams' injury report at all.

Arizona is also in pretty good shape injury wise. They do list TE Rob Housler (ankle) as out, which takes away a target for the Rams' pass coverage to worry about, though he hadn't looked very good in preseason anyway. Calais Campbell (quad) is questionable; won't hurt any to have him slowed down. No one else is worse than probable, including Rashard Mendenhall, so the Rams better be ready for him.

Not so done:
Linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar may return to the Rams after his league suspension runs out. The move to release him earlier this week is now believed to have been a move to get the Rams under the salary cap by the league deadline. It saved the Rams $1 million against the cap. The Rams may try to bring Dunbar back with a cheaper deal.

Former Rams roundup:
Since the last mega-update:
- Quintin Mikell signed with the Panthers. The Panthers were the main team talking to Mikell all offseason. They finally had to make a move after losing Haruki Nakamura due to a concussion.
- Matt Mulligan was picked up, and released, by the Patriots;
- Andrew Hawkins (ankle injury, as seen on Hard Knocks) hit the IR/return list;
- Tampa Bay put Danny Gorrer (groin) on the IR/return list and re-signed Gary Gibson;
- "Thad" Lewis was signed to Buffalo's practice squad;
- Fendi Onobun was signed to Chicago's practice squad.

I'll do my best to have RamView out by Monday night. Sorry yet again for the lack of updates... I lost my lunchtime wireless connection earlier in the week. Not the worst Rams blog on the web for nothing...

 -$-

RamView, 9/4: Done-bar

KSDK TV

* The Rams' latest surprise roster move came Tuesday night when they cut LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar, their 2nd-leading tackler from last season. Dunbar entered training camp as an entrenched starting OLB but drew a 4-week suspension from the league for failing a PED test. Even though head coach Jeff Fisher claimed to "have known about [the failed test] for some time," and that the Rams hadn't signed free agent LB Will Witherspoon just before camp because of it, the suspension seemed to put Dunbar deep into Fisher's doghouse, and Fisher has now kicked him out of the doghouse.

Fisher seemed to hold Dunbar, as a veteran, to a higher standard than he did either of the young players, Isaiah Pead and Rokevious Watkins, who got suspended the first week of the season for "substances of abuse" violations. (The Rams cut Watkins, who is now on the Chiefs' practice squad, but because he reported to camp well out of shape for the second straight year.) Unlike the youngsters' transgressions, which he soft-peddled in the press, even defending Watkins, Fisher called Dunbar "selfish", said he "hurt the team", and immediately said he had no guarantee of getting his starting job back. Fisher held pretty hard to that word, huh.

Fisher's reaction to Dunbar's suspension just seems so out of proportion compared to the others that it's pretty natural to wonder what else Dunbar did to piss Fisher off, or if he has another failed test in the pipeline. Hopefully not, for his sake. Dunbar may already have blown the rest of his career as it is. He can't help any team till week 5 and won't get a lot of time to impress anyone before becoming an unrestricted free agent again at the end of the year. At 28, you wouldn't think he's done, but his future earning capacity has to have taken a major hit here.

Remains to be seen, of course, how much Dunbar's departure will affect the Ram defense. He wasn't in the nickel package, replaced by Alec Ogletree, so if Will Witherspoon can hold his own in the base package, the impact could be minimal.

* DEep. Dunbar's release reportedly gains the Rams a half-million dollars against the salary cap, so maybe it's not such a coincidence that a contract extension for Eugene Sims was announced right around the same time. And congratulations to Eugene. He's outperformed expectations as an original 6th-round pick, has become a good rotational DE and looked better than ever in training camp this year. (This was the last year of his rookie contract.)

Sims' signing leads to a question, though: how many defensive ends do the Rams need? It's like they've become doomsday preppers at the position. Chris Long is locked up through 2016. Sims and Will Hayes are locked up through 2015. They have an option on Robert Quinn for 2015.

With all those DEs signed that far into the future, and no doubt knowing they were close to extending Sims, why is Gerald Rivers on the roster? Rivers is quickly emerging as a talented DE, and it's fair to call him one of the best 53 they had in camp, but when is he going to play the next three years? Heck, why is Sammy Brown on the practice squad? When will he ever play for this team?

A fifth defensive end, when you've got the four in front of him locked up for at least three seasons, just seems like a luxury to carry on a roster. If Rivers is being developed as trade bait for a future draft pick, fine. If Brown's main job is to do Aldon Smith imitations during practice weeks, that's fine, too. I would use that roster spot differently, whether on a third QB, a dedicated kick returner or safety depth, considering the Rams are already carrying two injured guys there.

Gerald Rivers looks like a good young player. I'm just not sure the Rams are ever going to need him.

* Bradford does, and doesn't, suck. Doesn't, actually, but here are two differing opinions.  Bill Barnwell at Grantland.com contends the Rams are going to slide back into the bottom eight of the league this season because Bradford's going to suck because he doesn't have Danny Amendola to lean on, backing his argument up with old statistics. Maybe too old. Bernie Miklasz's work here doesn't mention that article, but came out a day later and pretty much refutes it. I know I'm rooting for Bernie to come out right in this discussion.

-$-

Practice squad signings (updated)

QB Austin Davis is NOT on the Rams' practice squad, which they filled today:

Emory Blake
Mason Brodine
Sammy Brown
Cody Davis
Sean Hooey
Eric Stevens
Justin Veltung
Darren Woodard

So, you can't make the club from the tub, but in three cases, you can become a scrub. No word yet if Austin Davis was claimed by another team.


Al Lapuaho (Miami), Fendi Onobun (Chicago) and Greg Salas (Philadelphia) have been added to practice squads per Jim Thomas.

Rokevious Watkins has been signed to Kansas City's practice squad.

-$-

Former Ram roundup

It's time once again for RamView's annual effort to track down where former Rams are playing, or where they got cut, around the league. This is based entirely on team websites maintaining accurate rosters, NFL.com's transaction page, and my own recall of who's been with the Rams before, so if you use this information to settle a bar bet, make sure it's a small one...

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none. Well, we're not off to a very interesting start this year!

Most interesting cut: guard Chilo Rachal 

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: Steven Jackson, of course

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none

Most interesting cut: LB Brian Banks 

Ex-Rams cut: Billy Bajema, Chris Johnson

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: RBs coach Wilbert Montgomery; senior defensive assistant Steve Spagnuolo

Most interesting cut: LB Nigel Carr, who sure made a lot of plays Thursday night 

Ex-Rams cut: Thad Lewis, Don Unamba

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none

Most interesting cut: LB Bryan Scott 

Ex-Rams cut: Dominique Curry, who it sounds like they were trying to convert to tight end

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: WRs coach Rickey Proehl, OL coach John Matsko

Most interesting cut: QB Jimmy Clausen, who might have been the Rams' QB if they had drafted Ndamukong Suh in 2010

Ex-Rams cut: Brody Eldridge, Fendi Onobun

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none

Most interesting cut: OT J'Marcus Webb goes from starter one year to getting cut the next

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: Andrew Hawkins is going to go onto IR or PUP due to an ankle injury

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: QBs coach Ken Zampese

Most interesting cut: LB Dontay Moch

Ex-Rams cut: Justin Cole

Ex-Rams on roster: John Greco, Chris Ogbonnaya

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: ILBs coach Ken Flajole, OLBs coach Brian Baker

Most interesting cut: RB Miguel Maysonet 

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: George Selvie

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none

Most interesting cut: QB Alex Tanney

Ex-Rams cut: Lance Ball (BOO!), DeAngelo Peterson

Ex-Rams on roster: Paris Lenon

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: special teams assistant Derius Swinton

Most interesting cut: WR Tavarres King 

Ex-Rams cut: Ron Bartell, Jimmy Saddler-McQueen

Ex-Rams on roster: Justin Bannan, Rocky McIntosh

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: offensive coordinator Scott Linehan

Most interesting cut: Havard "Kickalicious" Rugland 

Ex-Rams cut: Kevin Hughes, Matthew Mulligan

Ex-Rams on roster: Ryan Pickett

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: OLBs coach Kevin Greene

Most interesting cut: RB Alex Green 

Ex-Rams cut: Daniel Muir

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: assistant head coach / DL coach Bill Kollar, special teams assistant Bob Ligashesky, defensive line assistant Jeff Zgonina

Most interesting cut: QB Stephen McGee 

Ex-Rams cut: Kellen Heard

Ex-Rams on roster: Josh Gordy

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: special teams coach Tom McMahon

Most interesting cut: OT Ben Ijalana 

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: defensive coordinator Bob Babich

Most interesting cut: Marcus Trufant

Ex-Rams cut: Rokevious Watkins, Mardy Gilyard

Ex-Rams on roster: Donnie Avery, Zac Diles

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: assistant secondary coach Al Harris

Most interesting cut: OT Matt Reynolds

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: Brandon Gibson, Richie Incognito

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none

Most interesting cut: fullback Jovorskie Lane, one of last year's stars of "Hard Knocks" 

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: DL coach Brendan Daly

Most interesting cut: CB Brandon Burton

Ex-Rams cut: Daniel Fells

Ex-Rams on roster: Danny Amendola, of course, and Michael Hoomanawanui

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels

Most interesting cut: oh, OK, Tebow

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: Chris Chamberlain (torn ACL, 2nd straight season on IR)

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: assistant head coach / LBs coach Joe Vitt, defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, assistant secondary coach Andre Curtis, WRs coach Henry Ellard, assistant LBs coach Brian Young

Most interesting cut: KR Courtney Roby. Go get him right now, Rams! 

Ex-Rams cut: Bryant Browning, Jamie Childers, BEN GUIDUGLI (you bastards!)

Ex-Rams on roster: Josh Brown, Gentleman Kris Adams (IR, broken leg)

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, CBs coach Peter Giunta

Most interesting cut: they cut Marvin Austin? You're kidding!

Ex-Rams cut: Jason Smith

Ex-Rams on roster: Leger "DOOZER" Douzable

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none

Most interesting cut: RB/KR Joe McKnight

Ex-Rams cut: Justin Medlock

Ex-Rams on roster: Alex Barron is still in the NFL? You're kidding!

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: special teams coach Bobby April, offensive coordinator Greg Olson, senior offensive assistant Al Saunders

Most interesting cut: WR Connor Vernon

Ex-Rams cut: Nick Miller, Greg Salas

Ex-Rams on roster: Bradley Fletcher, Donnie Jones

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur (really?), assistant DBs coach Todd Lyght

Most interesting cut: Kenny Phillips, has an injured quad, though 

Ex-Rams cut: Joe Long, Jamie McCoy

Ex-Rams on roster: Bruce Gradkoswski, Shaun Suisham

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none

Most interesting cut: Jonathan Dwyer 

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: secondary coach Ron Milus

Most interesting cut: WR Robert Meachem, one of the worst free-agent signings ever

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: Craig Dahl (snicker)

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: none

Most interesting cut: WR Lavelle Hawkins

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: none

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: special teams assistant Nick "Sunshine" Sorensen

Most interesting cut: FB Michael Robinson

Ex-Rams cut: Roger Allen, Gary Gibson

Ex-Rams on roster: Danny Gorrer and Brian Leonard are still in the NFL. Good grief.

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: senior offensive assistant Jimmy Raye, assistant OL coach Steve Loney (still in the NFL, too? Good grief again)

Most interesting cut: safety Cody Grimm

Ex-Rams cut: Barry Richardson, DeMarco Cosby

Ex-Rams on roster: Ryan Fitzpatrick and Rob Turner, who will start at center

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: defensive coordinator Jerry Gray, RBs coach Sylvester Croom, QBs coach Dave Ragone, senior defensive assistant Gregg Williams

Most interesting cut: LB Gary Guyton 
 

Ex-Rams cut: none

Ex-Rams on roster: The last member of the Super Bowl XXXIV champions still playing, London Fletcher, Bryan Kehl and Jerome Murphy. Adam Carriker starts the season on PUP, still recovering from surgery for a torn quadriceps suffered almost a year ago

Ex-Rams on coaching staff: defensive coordinator Jim Haslett

Most interesting cut: LB Gary Guyton

Ex-Rams who played in 2012 and are still unrestricted free agents:
o Larry Grant, who is suspended the first four weeks for a PED violation;
o Laurent Robinson, who is medically cleared for football even after suffering FIVE concussions in Jacksonville last season;
o Mike Sims-Walker is now a Winnipeg Blue Bomber;
o Randy McMichael last had a tryout in May, with the Colts

No known interest in Brit Miller, Brandon Lloyd, Ruvell Freaking Martin, Wayne Hunter or Quintin Mikell.

-$-

Rams-Baltimore recap

Backups ruled the day as the Rams won a 24-21 glorified scrimmage over the Ravens, many of whom were not even in St. Louis for the game, to finish their preseason 1-and-3. Yep, THAT was worth the sixty-seven bucks. Recap is finally up at ramview.com.

Positives: Possible breakout performance (8-76) by Benny Cunningham; Kellen Clemens looked sharper than he has all summer and won the QB2 job; Brian Quick stepped up; another breakout performance, by DE Gerald Rivers, who made the roster with a disruptive performance that included a sack and three tackles-for-loss; Chase Reynolds recovered an early fumble, scored a late TD and made the team; Matt Daniels picked off a pass, made a nice hit and also made the team; Drew Thomas saved the game late with a falling interception (but didn't make the team).

Negatives: THREE fumbles in the first five minutes by players the Rams are expected to rely on, Isaiah Pead, Brian Quick and Tavon Austin; SEVENTEEN freaking penalties for 123 yards; another lackluster rushing and returning performance from Pead; Greg Zuerlein missed a 53-yard FG attempt; ever having to pay full price for this ridiculous excuse for a National Football League game; Austin Davis failed to progress enough in his second training camp to make the final cut.

Out due to injury:
Sammy Brown, calf. Got cut after the game.
Matt Giordano, calf. Made the team despite not playing a snap in preseason. Supposedly close to returning. Nice timing.
Corey Harkey, leg fracture. Out another 2-3 weeks.
Sean Hooey, ankle. Status is currently up in the air; a waived/injured transaction is assumed.
Lance Kendricks, knee. Expected to be a go for week 1.
Chris Long, injury undisclosed, but he didn't practice all week and had his right leg wrapped.
Brandon McGee, injury undisclosed, believed to be minor leg injury.
Darian Stewart AGAIN, hamstring. Made the team anyway. Les Snead essentially called Rodney McLeod a starter during the TV broadcast of the game, so I don't think they're counting on Stewart any time soon.

Darren Woodard injured a hamstring late in the game. He has been cut, without an injury designation, and seems a good practice squad candidate if healthy. 

Jermelle Cudjo played and comes off the list.

The Rams open the regular season at home against the Big Dead next Sunday and are 4-1/2 point favorites. Wonder what the over/under for penalties will be.

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Cutdown to 55

Sigh... last night's RamView recap is still nowhere close to done, I haven't had time to even put up a quickie recap of last night's scrub-fest, and the Rams are already cutting people. You're going to have to trust me on who I say I predicted would get cut. It'll all be in a RamView that probably comes out after the Rams have made all of their cuts. This still isn't the worst Rams blog on the web for nothing.







Rams' cuts so far:
Note: the cutdown is only to 55 because Isaiah Pead and Jo-Lonn Dunbar are suspended. Somebody has to get cut after week 1 and after week 4 when each is eligible again.

Emory Blake
Mason Brodine
Sammy Brown
Austin Davis
Cody Davis
Garrett Goebel
Rashard Hall
Josh Hull
Nick Johnson
Philip Lutzenkirchen
Andre Martin
Ty Nsekhe
Zach Potter
Eric Stevens
Drew Thomas
Justin Veltung
R.J. Washington
Darren Woodard
D.J. Young

Eric Stevens is now being reported as having been released, so I'm going to assume the last move involves Sean Hooey in some way and claim a 15-for-20 mark. Reviewing what I got wrong:

At LB, the Rams went with youth over experience, cutting veteran middle linebacker Josh Hull and keeping undrafted rookie free agent Jonathan Stewart. Stewart's one of five UDFA's to make the final 55. Amazingly, three of them are linebackers, i.e. all the depth at that position. Much rawer than I'd ever have expected the Rams to go, even if it's just for a month till Jo-Lonn Dunbar gets back.

At safety, the Rams went with experience and a month-long calf injury over youth, apparently letting Matt Giordano make the club from the tub over Cody Davis. The move is fairly baffling to me; it's not like Giordano is this proven commodity who's respected league-wide and is going to be a major difference-maker the second he hits the field. We'll see, but I think they'll be lucky to get Davis through waivers and onto the practice squad. And I doubt he'll last real long there if he gets there.

At tight end, the Rams kept Mike McNeill, more of a receiver and playmaker, over Zach Potter, more of a blocking TE. I thought Potter the better blocker, and didn't really like McNeill's work on special teams, but I saw a lot less of the two than the coaches did.

Apparently happy enough with what they have on kick and punt returns without him, the Rams let Justin Veltung go in favor of Chase Reynolds. Though he hasn't stood out this preseason, Reynolds has been a solid contributor in special teams in the past, and there's even some suggestion that he'll return kicks opening day. I actually thought Veltung could have handled that role, but it looks like that'll be Benny Cunningham's job right now.

The Austin Davis era hit a significant speed bump when he was released Friday, with the seeming intent of getting him onto the practice squad. His spot seems to have been re-allocated toward keeping an extra offensive lineman. The Rams have 10 on the roster at the moment, including Brandon Washington, who rode the practice squad all last season.

New projected practice squad: Austin Davis, Cody Davis, Justin Veltung, Emory Blake, Mason Brodine, R.J. Washington, Eric Stevens and Woodard, depending on his hamstring injury

Undrafted rookie free agents projected to make the main roster: Benny Cunningham, Gerald Rivers, Ray Ray Armstrong, Daren Bates and Jonathan Stewart, an impressive haul the Rams didn't have to expend a single draft pick on. And for the second straight year, a player RamView originally gave a 5% chance of making the team made the final roster out of camp, so maybe I should quit doing that.

For the record, I put Cunningham's odds at 55%, Rivers' at 5% with an August 1st upgrade to 35%, Armstrong at 10% with an upgrade to 75%, Bates at 20% and Stewart at 40% with a downgrade to 20%. Sigh. My best pre-camp odds were on Cody Davis at 60%.

I believe coach Fisher would call my poor performance a learning opportunity.

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Rams-Ravens mini-preview

The final game of the preseason is here already! The Rams host the Super Bowl champ Baltimore Ravens in week 4 for the second straight year to close out the fake part of the 2013 schedule. Kickoff time is 7 p.m. The game will air locally on KTVI. NFL Network will replay it at noon Friday and 2 a.m. Monday morning, which will be the last replay of the preseason.

Jeff Fisher's original intent, and his usual preseason pattern, would be to get the starters in for about a half, but after the Denver game, he sounded more inclined to put the starters in bubble wrap. The Rams don't really need to expose any of their projected starters. Though it would be hell on me as a recapper, at QB, I would like to see Austin Davis and Kellen Clemens alternate possessions. Zac Stacy and Brian Quick are a couple of young players who could use a ton of extra reps. The Rams still have enough linemen in camp to play two different units without using any starters. That's true for the defense as well as the offense, and the way the d-line has half-assed through preseason anyway, what's the point of exposing them to even 1% of injury risk? And while I think the OLBs could use the extra reps, they're so thin at that position I'm not sure they should even suit up Alec Ogletree. There's more than enough DBs hanging around to rest the starters. Isaiah Pead and Bennie Cunningham can continue their kick returner "battle", and Justin Veltung can have all the punts as he draws an inside angle to a roster spot. Actually, Pead isn't returning kicks opening week anyway; maybe Cunningham should get all of those reps. I wouldn't have minded keeping Brett Baer around a week so the Rams didn't have to expose their kickers!

Injury information hasn't changed any from yesterday's report. Chris Long has been mysteriously held out of the last two days of practice. That doesn't affect tomorrow night's game but is starting to bear watching. I'm curious to see if Jermelle Cudjo will get any snaps, but I don't expect he will. And I do expect him to defy traditional logic and "make the club from the tub". The Rams will have to cut 22 players by the Saturday deadline.

Baltimore's 2-1 in preseason and coming off a 34-27 loss in Carolina. Joe Flacco, not that we'll see him, has been extremely sharp, completing 3/4 of his passes, but the Ravens running game has yet to get untracked. With QB2 Tyrod Taylor injured, expectations are we're going to see a ton of Caleb Hanie tomorrow night. Baltimore didn't play any starters in last year's game here, and they're especially not going to expose anyone when they're only seven days from kicking off their regular season in Denver. Besides the kickers, the only other opening day Raven starter we might see is at center, where there's still a position battle going on.

And it should go without saying what absolute shit it is to make season ticket holders pay full freight for this game. This game is going to be crap even as exhibition games go. In the soccer friendlies played here in St. Louis this summer, we at least got to see star players like Cristiano Ronaldo for the first half or more.

Yes, I just went there. I just said soccer is better at football at something. They put on more entertaining meaningless games.

RamView doesn't expect to have the recap up until Friday night, especially considering I just realized I have to write an Arizona preview for the end.

Enjoy the game as much as possible and everybody stay healthy.

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