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* 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.
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