Rams sign Giordano

National Football Post

As mentioned briefly in the ongoing rookie free agent post, the Rams signed veteran safety Matt Giordano on the 16th. (UDFA Don Unamba was cut to make room for Giordano.) He's a 5'11", 210-lb 30-year-old entering his ninth NFL season. His first four seasons were in Indianapolis, the past two with Oakland, where he played free safety last year and started 13 games. He missed some time due to a concussion.

Pro Football Focus ranks Giordano barely as an upgrade over Craig Dahl. Giordano was PFF's 69th-ranked safety in 2012. Dahl, though, was 78th. Similar to Dahl, though, scouting reports on Giordano say he was "victimized on a regular basis." He had 51 tackles and 2 INTs for the Raiders last year but had a career-high 5 INTs in 2011. A scouting report at National Football Post calls him one of the fastest safeties in the league (he ran a 4.54 at his pro day in 2005) and a proven run defender. It also mentions he forced a key fumble that helped the Colts win Super Bowl XLI. Giordano was also one of the Colts' top special teams players. He's known as a big hitter and his great-grandfather was once the world welterweight boxing champion.

Giordano's signing appears to put an end to any idea of the Rams bringing Quintin Mikell back, though Giordano doesn't initially look any improvement over Mikell besides age (30 vs. 32). He does add size and experience to a safety corps that can use both.

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