Posts from the St Louis Rams Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

The Rams featured one of the worst offenses in the NFL last season, and, apparently, a new offensive coordinator and an old tight end will fix things. Huh. According to SI.com's Bucky Brooks, Randy McMichael, who caught just 39 passes last season (his worst effort in his six-year career), will be the impetus for change, courtesy of Al Saunders' delectable schemes. In theory, anyway.

Saunders was the OC in St. Louis under Dick Vermeil, so he's had some success here, but after a forgettable two-year stint in Washington, his reputation as an offensive mastermind has taken a hit.

"He has the ability to put up big numbers in that offense," said a NFC scout. "I'm not saying that he is a better player than Chris Cooley, but he is a better athlete and he'll get enough opportunities to be a problem for the defense." ...

Under Saunders' direction, the starting tight end has averaged 72 receptions for 900 yards and six touchdowns. Saunders, who undoubtedly learned how to utilize the tight end while as working as an offensive assistant on Don Coryell's staff with the Chargers during the Kellen Winslow era, builds his attack from inside-out, using the running back and tight end in prominent roles.

Think how much better it is to get picked 252nd in the NFL draft than 251st. The 251st player is just some guy struggling to make a roster. But the 252nd -- and last -- player chosen in the draft is Mr. Irrelevant.

This year's Mr. Irrelevant, former Idaho linebacker David Vobora, will try to make the St. Louis Rams' roster in a few weeks, but right now he's enjoying perks like a visit to the Playboy Mansion. He talks about it in an interview with the Idaho Statesman:

Q: Can you describe what your trip to the Playboy Mansion was like for those of us who probably won't ever get the chance to experience it for ourselves?

A: In the simplest terms - it was a slice of heaven. The mansion was awesome. We got to go for Hef's movie night. He likes on Friday nights to watch old black and white movies. The playmates toured us around. We got to see the famous grotto and spend some time at the mansion, which was beautiful. Everyone wants to go to the mansion for the girls, and we got to meet "The Girls Next Door" and take pictures with them. It was great to spend time with them and Hef.

Somewhere, 251st overall pick Kennard Cox is cursing the Bills for drafting him.

It looks like Dan Kreider's days as a Steeler are officially done.

The writing had been on the wall ever since the Steelers didn't make him a contract offer of any sort when he became an unrestricted free agent. But now the Lancaster New Era is reporting that Kreider is going to sign a contract with the St. Louis Rams, even if his chances of making the Rams roster are pretty remote.

By saying goodbye to Kreider, Pittsburgh appears ready to go into next season with only Carey Davis on the roster as a true fullback. New offensive coordinator Bruce Arians has de-emphasized fullbacks in general, and he seems to prefer guys like Davis--a runner and a blocker, instead of Kreider's pulling guard in a fullback's body approach.

Bruce Gradkowski's NFL career began well enough; as a rookie, he replace injured Chris Simms and started 11 games. His numbers weren't all that impressive, but if nothing else, he gained valuable experience and worst case, he'd be a solid backup for the foreseeable future.

Apparently, "foreseeable" equals "one season" because the Bucs released Gradkowski last week after he had fallen to eighth on the depth chart.

He wasn't out of work long. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Rams obtained the rights to Gradkowski by claiming him off waivers, but the Raiders and Bears had put in claims as well. (The Rams "won" because they had the worst record last season. Surely, Gradkowski will go a long way in changing that for '08.)

The Rams make sense: Gradkowski will likely replace Brock Berlin as the No. 3 receiver. Hashmarks' Bill Williamson writes that it's interesting the Raiders are showing interest in a backup with Andrew Walter and Marques Tuiasosopo on the roster.

More intriguing, I think, is that the Bears made a play for Gradkowski. The team is currently without a third-string quarterback behind the two second-stringers, Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton, and Gradkowski is a logical choice for the role. But if Chicago realizes they have some pretty big questions at the position, why not, I don't know, draft a guy and groom him for the future?

Terrence Holt, Torry Holt's brother, insists Torry wasn't joking when he said he'd like to finish his career with his brother in Carolina when his contract with the Rams is up in two years. Yeah, no kidding.

I think more than joking, I think he was just realistic about where he's at in his contract and in his career," he said. "He has two years left on his deal, and I don't think he said anything out of the realm of what could happen.

Terrence goes on to defend Torry's talk of returning home -- both Holt brothers grew up in North Carolina and played at N.C. State -- by bringing up the brutal honesty and lack of loyalty that teams display. That's all well and good, when Torry's contract is up he's free to go anywhere he wants or say anything he wants about the Rams.

That isn't the issue. The issue is that Holt has a commitment to the Rams right now. And for all of the work he's put in for them, they've rewarded him handsomely. It's not right of him to continue to daydream about something two years down the line (who knows what can happen in that time?) when he's got a season to prepare for. Terrence especially notes that "He's actually been up here a few times and is beginning to fall in love with the area."

This all seems like far more than just cursory preparation. And I still think that if the Rams, and Holt in particular, are not successful this year, he's setting himself up for some hostility both in the locker room and the city itself.

Last offseason, the Rams let slot receiver Kevin Curtis sign with Philadelphia but thought that they had covered their tracks by signing Drew Bennett (because, as we all know, white receivers are all exactly the same). That turned out to be, uh, not so smart -- Curtis had 1,110 yards and six touchdowns, Bennett had 375 and three.

Of course, the situations they were in played a part in that discrepancy -- it's naive to think Curtis would have had such a great season if he stayed in St. Louis -- but Bennett just isn't a very good player. He's still living off the reputation the briefly-prolific Billy Volek-Bennett connection produced, when the duo caught fire towards the end of the 2004 season, but you don't see anyone arguing for Volek as a legitimate starting quarterback. Other than that aberration, Bennett is an average third option who routinely sits near the bottom of the league in catch percentage.

Which is why it makes perfect sense that the Rams handed him a starting job this season. Actually, it's a promotion borne out of necessity, as the team doesn't have any other viable option opposite of Torry Holt. Bennett is saying all the right things about bouncing back, but I'm dubious. Sure, I expect the offense to be better, but with Holt's knee deteriorating the team doesn't have a receiver to draw attention from Bennett.

Maybe he doubles his numbers from last year, which is a step in the right direction, but falling in line with his career thus far -- serviceable, yet wholly overrated.

Chip Rosenbloom disputed a report by Michael Silver that the Rams are up for sale and maybe headed out of St. Louis, saying, "We are not shopping the team." It's in Rosenbloom's best interest currently to say that, but I believe him. Sort of.

Forgive me while I mince words. I don't believe Rosenbloom literally -- Silver is better than to pull a Tomase on this scoop. The new owners have at least looked for interested buyers. I just think they haven't found any.

First, there's all of this CBA uncertainty (you may not've heard about it, it's sort of flying under the radar). Forbes estimated the value of the Rams' franchise at $908 million. Though I'm sure peace will be brokered before all hell breaks loose, I'm also not willing to bet $908 million on it, and I don't think any potential buyers are either. That investment doesn't make sense when the league's fiscal forecast can be much different in a couple of years.

And besides a roster, coaching, and front office overturn that can happen as soon as '09, the team can opt out of its lease with the Edward Jones Dome in 2015 (not 2012) if it is not considered one of the top eight stadiums in the league (which it will not be). By that time, Los Angeles will probably be occupied, leaving upgrades to the Dome (at hundreds of millions of dollars) or a new stadium in St. Louis as the only viable options. That's a choice I'm not sure many owners are going to want for a team whose local support is already dwindling, especially if the economy hasn't turned itself around by then.

So no, I don't see the Rams being sold -- until these uncertainties crystallize, anyway. 'Til then, Rosenbloom's words are merely spin control.

Despite what we may have been led to believe, new St. Louis Rams owners Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez have put the team they inherited from Georgia Frontiere up for sale. The duo indicated that they were dedicated to keeping the team in the family, yet we're still months from their first training camp as owners and the sign is already up on the lawn.

A few parties have expressed interest in buying the team, including Eddie DeBartolo, who used to own the division rival 49ers. But there's an interesting "B" plot to all of this -- Los Angeles.

It's natural for relocation to be at least a passing issue whenever new ownership is up in the air, but with the development plans for a new stadium, a history between the team and city (it was Frontiere who moved the Rams from L.A. in the first place), and a team lease with the Edward Jones Dome that lasts only until 2012, any potential suitor is going to have to address his/her long term plans for the team.

This is actually good news for the team and its current owners -- by all accounts it was clear that Rosenbloom and Rodriguez were ill-prepared to run a team; having a proven owner like DeBartolo would be a great add. It's the fans in St. Louis, as is always the case, who are dealt the short straw, having to sit through this entire process wondering whether the expiration date on their team is 2012.

Of course, the league will probably collapse on itself like a dying star before then, anyway.

Other than Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter's quest for the truth, most everybody else is done with Spygate. Even Mike Martz, the recipient of the Super Bowl XXXVI beatdown, courtesy of the then-upstart New England Patriots.

Today Martz released a statement through his current employer, the San Francisco 49ers, and offered this:

"I had the opportunity to talk to Commissioner [Roger] Goodell yesterday and I was very satisfied with the NFL's efforts to investigate the situation with Matt Walsh as it related to Super Bowl XXXVI. I'm very confident that there was no impropriety. I believed Bill Belichick when he said there wasn't and I took that at face value."

Martz added, perhaps to emphasize his point to certain single-minded individuals, that the Rams lost to the Patriots because they "turned the ball over three times." So that's that -- or at least it should be if not for that meddling busybody, Specter.

And while Martz is ready to move on from Spygate, he had some very pointed remarks for Walsh:

Torry Holt took a hardline stance when asked his impressions of Rams' rookie receiver Donnie Avery yesterday, which is fine -- this "prove it" stuff happens between veterans and rookies every year, and Holt has the career and locker room respect to be brash. But how much longer will Holt have that respect?

This is merely an opinion, but if Holt continues down the path he's on, I'm not sure his reputation in St. Louis is going to be regarded as lovingly as it currently is.

It seems unlikely that Holt will ever be the bad guy in St. Louis as it stands, considering his production and seemingly benevolent demeanor. But the same was thought of Tiki Barber years ago, and that didn't stop him from embarking on a degradation campaign.

The seeds were planted last year, when Holt blew up on Scott Linehan in an incident that seems to go far deeper than either side portrayed. This offseason, Holt has publicly daydreamed about a future playing in Carolina.

Hmmm, a team trying to rebound from a bad year dealing with distractions because one player couldn't get along with his coach and was playing with one foot out the door. Where have we heard that one before? I'm not saying anything definitive, and of course I can be proven very wrong this season. But the parallels are there, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see hostility continue to rise.