Rams cut a RB, and he's not Isaiah Pead?!?!?

Busy Thursday afternoon for the Rams, as they cut a rookie and three veteran players:

- Emmanuel McCray, an undrafted rookie free agent from Mississippi, was a Ram almost as long as Rodger Saffold was a Raider. He was signed Sunday, cut today. No idea why you sign a player and cut him before he ever takes the practice field for you. If he failed a physical, I'd think it would have been mentioned, but that's my guess for now.

AP

- Veteran defensive tackle Jermelle Cudjo was waived. The Rams ran out of roster room at DT pretty quickly after drafting Aaron Donald and acquiring Alex Carrington as a free agent. Cudjo doesn't get upfield as well as either one of those two, and wasn't on the field a lot last year anyway. About the only time Michael Brockers or Kendall Langford got a blow last year was when the Rams went to a 4-DE personnel group.

Matt Conrath, with his work very much cut out, is still on the roster. As far as production on the field, Cudjo vs. him is a coin-flip. Conrath's advantages: a) the Rams gain more cap room cutting Cudjo, who freed up about $1 million; and b) Conrath's a Snead/Fisher pickup; Cudjo's a Spagvaney pickup.

I would think Cudjo showed enough here to catch on with another team; good luck to him either way.

Washington Post

- Save the surprise for last: Daryl Richardson. Not surprising the Rams would cut a RB after drafting Tre Mason. After a solid rookie year, D-Rich had a dreadful 2013. He was hampered by a foot injury that put him out for most of the season, and trying to play with it, he showed none of the interior running ability he had as a rookie. He just seemed to run up his blockers' backs all the time. He was also a flop as a receiver, flubbing a screen pass into a defensive TD that helped turn the Atlanta game, which looked like a reasonable loss at the time but by the end of the season became an unforgivable one. I'm a little taken aback D-Rich didn't get to prove he was all the way back from the foot injury, but I shouldn't be. He's got three young backs ahead of him on the depth chart and the NFL is a cruel business.

Then again, how cruel can it be if useless Isaiah Pead is still on the team? My only explanation for now is that there's scuttlebutt that the Rams tried to trade Pead over draft weekend. Maybe they got a feeler or two.

- Graham Pocic might actually count as a rookie; I don't think he has any NFL games to his credit. He was also cut today after spending last year on injured reserve.

- Recent veteran signings by the Rams: long snapper Jorgen Hus, who's back after spending training camp here last year; T.J. Moe, a slot receiver from Mizzou, and last month, because this is an awesome Rams blog that's always up to date, punter Bobby Cowan, who I believe also place-kicks and will be this summer's camp leg.

Per Jim Thomas earlier this week, Hus' signing brought the Rams' roster size to the 90-man limit, so with today's four cuts, they're back down to 86. I'll try to do a better job of staying on top of things than I have been.

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