Rams de Saint Louis

"Rolland Williams entered training camp as the club's starting tight end. "

Although Manumaleuna still lines up at tight end in some formations, for the most part he's lining up in the backfield in a fullback-type role.

"Brandon will factor in our offense in a very major way," coach Mike Martz said. "In essence, you can call him a fullback if you like. But he's going to play a great deal."

In fact, Manumaleuna has been meeting with the running backs and working with them on the practice field so far in training camp.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/trainingcamp05/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=2121480

ST. LOUIS -- The swagger is back with the St. Louis Rams. Much like a couple of years ago, Rams offensive downs aren't just plays. They are shows. The pace is quick. The routes are imaginative. Overall, the old confidence has returned.

"You need three or four receivers [for this offense] and we have four solid receivers now," quarterback Marc Bulger said. "We brought back [tight end] Roland Williams, and he was with the team when we were the greatest show on turf. He still thinks it's that way. We had to go through a couple of rough years, and you hate to let that persona down."

Training camp practices opened with that old flair the Rams had in their Super Bowl years (1999, 2001 seasons). Practice passes never hit the turf. Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Kevin Curtis and Shaun McDonald snatch passes out of the air and try to zip past corners. Running back Steven Jackson explodes through the line of scrimmage and then uses his 230-pound body to "shake-and-bake" a linebacker. A thin Marshall Faulk runs routes with renewed quickness.

Coach Mike Martz says the Rams' swagger is just confidence. Fans love it. Opponents view it as arrogance and hate it. Rams players say their confidence is a byproduct of having fun, and the fun is back because the Rams' offense has reloaded.

I was just saying it this morning that it was like it was when I came in during my first year," Holt said. "Then, we had a great mix of veterans with some young guys coming in to help. It's the same way now. As long as the guys up front on the offensive line hold, we have that swagger. The coaches have the swagger. Practices are fun. We are going out there and we are seeing the ability to click and jell at a high pace."

Returning to the 500-point-a-year level of 1999-2001 might be tough, but the Rams make a case they are ready to make a run. Curtis and McDonald have evolved into significant role players who augment the 90-catch skills of Holt and Bruce. Each has three years of experience in the offense. Curtis offers blistering speed that inside corners can't match. McDonald isn't Az-Zahir Hakim, but he offers a little bit of the shiftiness and run-after-the catch ability.

But the single most exciting addition to the offense this year is Jackson. This isn't the dreadlocked rookie who looked lost in 2004. Jackson dropped five pounds and added quickness. His body fat is a mere 5 percent. His impact as the featured back -- often sharing the backfield with Faulk -- could be one of the most watched changes in the NFC this fall.

....

"According to Adam Schefter comments made during the NFL Total Access show on the NFL Network tonight the Rams contacted Carl Poston about meeting and seeing if they could make a deal happen.

But the only way that would happen was if Carl Poston didn't get a deal done with the Jets tonight at dinner. Seems the Rams are concerned about their corners with Fisher and Butler both banged up. Could Travis Fisher's "groin" injury be more serious than we know?"

New starting Strong Safety Jerome Carter wishing Steven "Big Train" Jackson wasn't wearing that yellow jersey.

Il me semble bien qu'il s'agisse de la relève...

Snapshots From Camp - August 4 2005 :

http://www.realramsfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=3343

Sympa d'avoir des news de cette façon.

In middle linebacker Chris Claiborne, the St. Louis believe that they've found the kind of run-stuffing dynamo that their defense has been lacking since London Fletcher defected for the Buffalo Bills after the 2001 season.


"We've put all of our marbles in his pocket," Martz said. "He's our guy. He has responded every bit as well as we hoped he would. I am very pleased with him."


Claiborne is happy to be back manning the middle after playing outside linebacker during much of his previous six NFL seasons.


"I played one year in the middle in Detroit, which was one of my best years, before moving outside," Claiborne said.

"I hated playing outside. I like being in the middle hitting. On the outside, you have to be a little more cautious at times."

Claiborne racked up 167 tackles and four sacks after an injury to Stephen Boyd forced the Lions to move him to middle linebacker for the final 12 games of the 2001 season.

J'ai vraiment hate à la pré-saison pour voir les nouveaux joueurs.

J'ai un peu peur par contre pour la position de RT. Barron n'a pas encore signé et il avait de la difficulté dans les mini-camps. Présentement sur la premiere ligne c'est Grant Williams qui a cette position et il n'avait vraiment pas bien joué l'an dernier (il avait par contre joué blessé dans plusieurs match).

minimoi a écrit:

In middle linebacker Chris Claiborne, the St. Louis believe that they've found the kind of run-stuffing dynamo that their defense has been lacking since London Fletcher defected for the Buffalo Bills after the 2001 season.


"We've put all of our marbles in his pocket," Martz said. "He's our guy. He has responded every bit as well as we hoped he would. I am very pleased with him."


Claiborne is happy to be back manning the middle after playing outside linebacker during much of his previous six NFL seasons.


"I played one year in the middle in Detroit, which was one of my best years, before moving outside," Claiborne said.

"I hated playing outside. I like being in the middle hitting. On the outside, you have to be a little more cautious at times."

Claiborne racked up 167 tackles and four sacks after an injury to Stephen Boyd forced the Lions to move him to middle linebacker for the final 12 games of the 2001 season.

Il me tarde vraiment de voir la défense jouer avec les changements qu'il y a eu, par contre on ne parle pas trop de Dexter Coakley, fait il de bons camps?

Liste des signés :

1 - ALEX BARRON - OT - unsigned

2 - RONALD BARTELL - DB - ( July 28 )

3 - OSHIOMOGHO ATOGWE - DB - ( July 27 )

3 - RICHIE INCOGNITO - C/T - ( July 27 )

4 - JEROME CARTER - DB -( April 28 )

4 - CLAUDE TERRELL - OG - ( July 16 3yr/$1.21M )

5 - JEROME COLLINS - TE - ( July 22 3yr/$1.05M )

6 - DANTE RIDGEWAY - WR - ( July 27 )

6 - REGGIE HODGES - P - ( July 27 )

7 - RYAN FITZPATRICK - QB - ( July 17 3yr/$953,250 )

7 - MADISON HEDGECOCK - FB - ( July 14 3yr/$952,900 )

DE HOLT (le faux pas le vrai) : "Il me tarde vraiment de voir la défense jouer avec les changements qu'il y a eu, par contre on ne parle pas trop de Dexter Coakley, fait il de bons camps?"

aucune news de coakley pourtant j'ai bien entedu parler de tout le monde. Qqn sait ou il se cache ?

Pour Coakley, j'ai entendu dire qu'il faisait un bon camp, sauf qu'il se fait souvent bouffer par les blocks. J'espere que sa grosseur et son age ne l'empechera pas de bien jouer. Il a quand meme l'air d'avoir sa place de starter assuré.

Citation :

Two Rams unknowns catch plenty of passes, attention
By Jim Thomas
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/04/2005


Every offseason, when the Rams flesh out their 80-man roster for training camp, one of the hardest positions to fill is wide receiver.

With the likes of Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Kevin Curtis and Shaun McDonald on the depth chart, there are easier rosters to make. Before that, it was Ricky Proehl and Az-Zahir Hakim. Certainly, there are easier offenses in which to assimilate.

But as Brandon Middleton sees it, the glass is half full for wide receivers at Rams Park. If you're a young receiver trying to make it in the NFL, why not learn from the best?

"For a receiver, this is the offense," Middleton said. "This is where I want to be if I'm going to play receiver in the NFL and make my presence felt.

"You've got to bring your A-game every day. . . .You can't back down. The competition just elevates your game. Believe in yourself, believe in your skills, and everything will work out."

Who knows if things will work out? Middleton and another no-name receiver in training camp, Jeremy Carter, are doing their best to get noticed. Both have been catching the ball well in the first week of camp, and Carter's 4.3 speed has allowed him to get under deep passes that most receivers can't reach.

"They're both good enough to play in this league," Rams general manager Charley Armey said.

Middleton and Carter have taken divergent paths to get this far. At the University of Houston, Middleton was one of the most prolific pass-catchers in school history. As a senior in 2003, he caught 55 passes for what was then a Conference USA-record 1,250 yards. (The record since has been broken by Alabama-Birmingham's Roddy White, a first-round draft pick this spring by Atlanta.)

But Middleton's not the biggest wide receiver around at 5 feet 10 and 190 pounds, or the fastest. He went undrafted. "For me to come to draft day and not be drafted was a blow," Middleton said. "But it also motivated me to work harder and to prove all those people wrong."

The Rams were interested in signing Middleton as a rookie free agent after the 2004 draft, but he opted for the Dallas Cowboys. That proved to be a big mistake.

"I really wasn't given an opportunity," Middleton said. "I sat there for two preseason games. They released me."

The Rams, however, kept Middleton on their radar screen. They added him to the practice squad for the final four games of the 2004 regular season and re-signed him to the offseason roster within two weeks of their playoff loss to Atlanta.

Middleton has discovered fewer egos in St. Louis than he did in Dallas. Two of his top supporters here have been Bruce and Holt.

"Those are my two biggest guys who actually come to me and talk to me," Middleton said. "This offseason, I worked a lot with Isaac Bruce . . . before training camp."

Carter's path to Earth City was much more unconventional. Except for a stint with a semipro team in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., in 2004, Carter hasn't played in a football game since the 1999 college season at Western Carolina.

After transferring to East Carolina, Carter wanted to play football and run track. He was there on a track scholarship, but according to Carter, the track coach threatened to pull the scholarship if Carter went out for football. So Carter stuck with track and dropped football.

"I thought that was the end of the story," said Rams scout Tom Marino, who lives in North Carolina and had followed Carter's football career in high school and at Western Carolina.

But Carter couldn't get football out of his system. Last spring, he persuaded his next-door neighbor in Raleigh, Armand Denuzzio, to ask Marino for a tryout. Marino and Denuzzio are longtime friends.

Carter got his tryout and ran a sizzling 4.34 in the 40 for Marino. That was enough to get an invitation to training camp. So far, so good for Carter, who obviously is rough around the edges but has made some dazzling catches on deep passes.

"Once you see it in the air, that adrenaline starts pumping, and you just go get it," Carter said. "I'm not surprising myself. I knew I could do it. But I've got to keep on going, just keep on making plays."

Whether either Carter or Middleton is good enough to make the Rams' final roster remains to be seen. But coach Mike Martz says young players shouldn't be psyched out by what's ahead of them on the depth chart, even at the wide receiver position.

"What they don't understand is there's always room for a good player," Martz said. "We'll make room."

Les 5ieme et 6ieme place de WR sont ouverte chez les rams. Un gars comme Carter qui court vite sa peut toujours aider dans une offense comme celle des rams

rams_fan a écrit:

Pour Coakley, j'ai entendu dire qu'il faisait un bon camp, sauf qu'il se fait souvent bouffer par les blocks. J'espere que sa grosseur et son age ne l'empechera pas de bien jouer. Il a quand meme l'air d'avoir sa place de starter assuré.

Je sais pas s'il va être titulaire parcequ'un weakside LB il y a Pisa donc qui va être titulaire?

Citation :

Rams | Willing to Pay for Law
Sat, 6 Aug 2005 08:31:51 -0700

Ken Berger, of Newsday, reports the St. Louis Rams have floated the notion to free agent CB Ty Law's (Patriots) representatives that they are willing to go as high as three years and $19 million for Law, including about $8 million in guarantees. Law is said to be seeking a four-year deal. As recently as last week, Rams officials insisted they were not interested in Law, primarily because of concerns about the foot injury, known as a Lisfranc fracture.

Les rams viennent de signer John Parella- DT qui a joué a SD et Oakland et Matt Willig OT qui à joué pour plusieurs équipe dont SF et Carolina.

Parella est un bon vétéran qui va surment aider notre ligne. D'apres moi il fera une rotation avec Picket et kennedy. Damion Lewis sera utilisé surtout dans les situations de passe d'apres moi.

Willig pour l'instant c'est meme pas sur qu'il fera l'équipe. Les rams l'ont prix pour avoir un peu plus de depth durant le camp car ils ont des problemes avec le RT.

Mike Martz’s frustration over the continued absence of first-round draft pick Alex Barron bubbled over in a big way Saturday.

Martz accused Barron’s agent, Roosevelt Barnes, of placing his interests ahead of Barron’s. Martz said the difference between the Rams’ offer and Barnes’ proposal is insignificant. And Martz also said that Barron has missed so much training camp that he won’t be ready to play in the Rams’ regular-season opener Sept. 11 in San Francisco.

Barron n'a Toujours pas signé son contrat, ça commence à être embêtant là.

Citation :

Barron, Rams Agree to Terms on Five-Year Deal
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

After a strenuous beginning to his unofficial NFL career, first-round choice Alex Barron made it official by agreeing to a five-year deal with the Rams on Wednesday.

Barron’s agreement comes with the team’s first preseason game about 48 hours away. Financial terms of the contract were not immediately available.

Head coach Mike Martz received a call from President of Football Operations Jay Zygmunt moments before the team’s Wednesday afternoon workout that an agreement had been reached. Martz wasn’t sure of the details, either, but expressed his relief that Barron’s deal was done, but also disappointment that it took as long as it did.

“I am disappointed he hasn’t been here, but we just need to get him in here and get him involved and see where he is on all this stuff,” Martz said.

Barron is expected to check in at Rams Park tonight so that he can be settled in and ready to go in time for Thursday afternoon’s practice. Martz was unsure of Barron’s whereabouts, but said he hoped that agent Roosevelt Barnes ensured Barron was close to St. Louis so that he could easily check in.

Barron will now begin a lengthy process of learning the nuances of the Rams’ offense as well as becoming accustomed to playing exclusively at right tackle instead of on the left side.

Martz said Barron’s progression is going to take some time, especially factoring in all of the time he missed in the first two weeks of training camp.

What we saw of him in mini-camp he had a long ways to go,” Martz said. “You don’t ever want to box a guy in and tell him he can’t do this or that. It’s going to take him some time just to learn what we do no matter how good he is.”

Martz doesn’t expect Barron to be ready to start in the opener, let alone play in Friday night’s game against Chicago, though. Barron has missed too much in terms of offense installation and technique work to catch up quickly.

Considering the Rams’ problems on the offensive line with injuries and the like, they certainly don’t have time to put the kid gloves on for Barron. With that said, he will be competing against the likes of Grant Williams, Blaine Saipaia, Matt Willig and Rex Tucker for the right tackle spot. While nobody has claimed that spot yet, it probably won’t be Barron.

“There’s too much stuff to learn that he’s missed which is really unfortunate and that’s been lost somehow in these things,” Martz said. “It’s just too bad really. But it’s done, what’s done is done, let’s move on.

“We don’t have time to nurse him along and give him special attention.”

Enfin

OUCH

Citation :

ST. LOUIS (Aug. 17, 2005) -- St. Louis Rams cornerback Jerametrius Butler will have knee surgery Aug. 22 and miss the season, coach Mike Martz said.

Butler tore a right knee ligament on the first day of training camp July 28. He went to New York City this week to see a specialist, who agreed with Rams' doctors that Butler should have an operation.

"He's going to have surgery on the knee, so obviously he's done for the year," Martz said. "It'll take about four months to recover and rehab from that thing."

Butler will have the operation at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

"It's tough news," Butler said. "All the doctors told me the same thing. I'm out for the year, but I'll rebound from this. It hurts, man."

Butler said the injury happened when he broke for the ball and felt his knee give out. He kept playing, but asked the trainers to look at it because it didn't feel right.

"He was just starting to realize his full potential," Martz said. "He's obviously a terrific corner. We'll move on. It just provides an opportunity for somebody else to fill in the ranks and be a good player."

Backup DeJuan Groce, drafted in the fourth round in 2003 out of Nebraska, will move into Butler's position. Groce started five of the 11 games he played last season and saw action in both postseason games.

Travis Fisher, the other starting corner, said he will miss Butler, but has confidence in Groce.

"The same bond I had with Butler, I can get with the next guy, too," Fisher said. "DeJuan is consistent. He makes plays on the field. He can get it done."

Butler, selected in fifth round of the 2001 draft out of Kansas State, was one of nine Rams to start all 16 regular-season games and started both postseason contests. He had career highs with 100 tackles (78 solo), one fumble recovery and led the Rams with five interceptions and 22 passes defended, which tied him for second in the NFL.

Rams veterans Corey Ivy, Terry Fair, Kevin Garrett and rookie Ron Bartell complete the secondary.

La défense des rams va dépendre des autres DBs et de la ligne défensive.

J'espere que les jeunes vont élever leur niveau de jeu.

Il faut que Dejuan Groce montre de quoi il est capable maintenant, c'est vrai que la blessure de Butler c'est dommage après la bonne saison qu'il a fait l'année dernière.

il a même fait deux très bonnes saisons terminant meilleur intercepteur de l'équipe si je ne me trompe pas (5 int).

c dommage pke c un joueurs ki parle pas bcp mais ki agit.

Fisher / Butler c un duo interressant je trouve

1er quart des rams contre les chargers :

les HB se régalent

ATT YDS TD LG
M. Turner 4 57 1 55
L. Tomlinson 1 55 1 55
D. Sproles 1 16 0 16

Dans le 2eme quart se sont les WR des rams qui se régallent, ils remontent la pente de belle maniere.

Point noir du match :

La ligne défensive des rams.

rams fan si tu as vu le match tu es le bienvenu pour laisser tes commentaires, notemment sur barron qui joue en 2eme période.