So did Bill Devaney tip his hand to us?

I sure hope so.

Just a quick followup to my last blog.  I just read a piece on the St. Louis Rams website which portends well in some ways.  You can see it here.  Some note worth points to ponder:

1. The Rams have conducted personal interviews in St. Louis with 23 specific players.  I sure would like to know who those young men are.
2. The first name mentioned would be that of my favorite guy: Eugene Monroe, Left Tackle of UVA.  Nothing against Jason Smith, but I sure hope Eugene is the guy.  I will be happy with Smith if we take him, but Eugene looks more flexible and faster to my eye.
3. The Rams top needs are enumerated as follows: offensive tackle, wide receiver, linebacker, defensive tackle.  I concur with this list, as long as we acknowledge that the last two positions are much further down the list.
4. Odd prospects like Jeremy Maclin and Mark Sanchez are listed as young men who spent 2 days visiting with the Rams.  I hope that is a form of military and strategic deception.  I hope we were punking the Denver Broncos when we borough Sanchez in.  Surely we can't be serious about burning our top pick on a Junior QB this year?  I am sure Sanchez would go along with the game as he would rather be the #2 pick by the Broncos than the #12 pick by the Broncos.  It means money.  I cannot fathom why Maclin would be in the list, unless we intend to do a deal with the Broncos.  He is not the #2 pick.  He is not really a top 10 pick.
5. On the NFL network, Devaney clearly stated that Steven Jackson is our best man, and we are going build around him.  In the article I mentioned, Pat Shurmur, our new offensive coordinator, is paraphrased as advocating a "Power Up" for muscle football.  Translation:  He wants bad-ass offensive linemen to knock 'em loose in every direction.
6. An interesting quote from Devaney in this piece goes as follows.  "There may be a point when you get down into the third round, things are kind of falling apart at that point and probably three or four picks before your turn comes up, you’ll have a group of names pulled out on the side. There may be four or five guys pulled out and we’ll talk about it one more time. We’ll say okay we haven’t taken a receiver at this point. This is the last chance to get the receiver, the next receiver we have now is not until the fifth or sixth round."

The final point is the most by far the most interesting and perhaps telling.  Devaney has a rep for being shut-mouthed, but he slips.  I hope this indicates that we are not intending to draft a receiver until the 3rd round.  I hope we can take this statement seriously, but I seriously doubt it

Let me tell you why.  If I had to project who the Rams are going to take, I would only be willing to predict 3 players right now.  This list presumes we are not doing a deal with the Broncos and we draft where we are.  These men are:

• #2 overall Jason Smith, LOT Baylor University
  
• #35 overall Brian Robiskie, WR, Ohio State University
  
• #66 Eric Wood, C/G Louisville.
  

So why do I say these three?

• Jason smith gets the nod over Eugene Monroe because Monroe has a small medical flag on his record.  He dinged up one of his knees last season.  No big deal, says the scouts, but enough separate #1 from #2.  Also, Smith is known for being mean on the battlefield.  He has a streak of nastiness according to Mike Mayock.  He finishes hard. These two factors add up to a the best "Power Up" candidate, from the Rams' point of view.
  
• Brian Robiskie was expected to slide into the second round.  He may not.  The Giants may take him in the first.  If he falls to the second round, as originally projected, we would be stupid not to take him.  He would be the perfect continuation of our great 2nd round receiver tradition.  It should be noted that both Henry Ellard and Issac Bruce were both selected in the 2nd round, and they both wore #80.  Like these fine gentlemen, Robiskie is said to be a consume professional with all the right character traits.  He is a great replacement for Issac Bruce, but not Torry Holt.
• Perhaps it is wishful thinking, but I am hoping Eric Wood falls to us in the 3rd round.  He has a grade worthy of a late first rounder.  Nobody but nobody has even suggested that a center will go in the first round.  Nobody but nobody has suggest a guard will go before the 3rd round.  One thing is for sure:  Centers and Guards are going no place but down in this draft, and I don't know why.  Perhaps it is because they play the least sexy and least coveted positions in the NFL.  In any case, I am wondering if the best guard/center in the draft may fall to us at the #66 position.  If so, it is a gift from God.  I think this kid is a future Pro Bowl player, deprecated because of his position.
  

 

Three reasons why my Rams suck

It may suprise some people to know this, but I am old enough to remember when the Rams played in the Los Angeles Colesium.  I've been a Ram fan for just about 30 years now, since 1979.  The 2009 seasons has not yet begun, so it is difficult to say 30 just yet.  Many people are shocked when I tell them that I am a Ram fan.  None of them doubt it is true.  Who would claim to be that, if you aren't?  I would qualify that by saying "these days".

As you know, my team has officially been the 2nd worst team in professional footbal the last two years running.  We have been #31 out of 32 teams. We are about to draft #2 overall for the second straight year.  With just 5 days left to go before the NFL Draft, I think it is a good time to run down the short list of reasons why my team sucks.  We need to bear this in mind during our draft.  Accuracy of perspective is terribly important as we invest these megar draft picks next Saturday & Sunday in New York.

#1 Reason:  Scott Linehan.

Folks, lets be perfectly honest:  Scott Linehan was an abject failure as a head coach.  He took over a team that was pretty well loaded and had recently had good quality years.  It took him just 1 years to run us into the ground completely.  I bear the man no personal malice, but then again I didn't know him.  Many of the players despised him fearcely.  Torry Holt, generally considered a good citizen and a non-diva, utterly detested the man.  There were serious confligrations with Steven Jackson and Marc Bulger.  Many thought he was a back-biting worm.  He wasn't 2 faced, he was 5 faced... or so they said of him.  Linehan never motivated anybody.  Linehan, never got the men to buy into his system.  Speaking of system, Linehan never implemented his system.  When Linehan came in, he promised to implement a 49er style, Bill Walsh style West Coast Offense.  I can only remember 1 game during his tenure when we manifested that style of offense.  Ironically, it was against the 49ers in 2006.  The game was in St. Louis.  In the final 2 minutes of the game, we were trailing by a point or two.  On 5 consecutive pass plays, we ran go routes.  Issac Bruce and Torry Holt sprinted for the end zone.  On 5 consecutive plays, Bulger checked down to Steven Jackson.  These passes hardly covered 8 yards of distance from Buldger's throwing arm to Jackson's hands.  Jackson ran for 10 or 15 yards each time.  We kicked a field goal and won the game.  I have bitter memories of Joe Montana and Roger Craig doing this to my Rams many times during the 1980s.  It was bitter revenge.  I never saw this happen again during Linehan's tenure.  This was the first and the last we saw of the West Coast offense in Ram country.

As we draft on Saturday and Sunday, we need to be mindful of the fact that the players quit on Linehan because he was regarded as incompetent and two-faced.  This means we had a bad coach, and it means we have quitters on the team.  Be mindful of this, and think about how best to repair it.  Character is a huge issue.  Spagnolo knows this, and he said it is going to be priority #1 in his tenure as coach.

#2 Reason:  Jim Hasslet

Speaking of Linehan never implementing his system, how about this?  When Linehan first came to Rams, he said we were going to run a minimum-risk, conservative, flexible, multiple-front defense.  That never happen.  We hired Jim Hasslet.  This is going to be difficult to write, because I liked Jim Haslet a lot.  I like his gambler style.  I liked his high risk defense.  I now realize that this is a form of gambling addiction, and I need a 12 step program.  The first step on the road to life recovery is to recognize that I have a problem with defensive gambling.  In retrospect, Jim Hasslet's defense was a catastrophy in St. Louis.  As Boomer Eisaison said several times last season, speaking of my Ram's getting wasted 42-0 in the first half, "DISASTER! IT'S A DISASTER!"  The Eagles, the Giants, and several others read Jim Hasslet like a book, and burned us like a holocost special.

As we draft on Saturday and Sunday, we need to be mindful of the fact that Steve Spagnolo is now our head coach.  He is not Jim Hasslet.  His defensive mindset is nothing like Jim Hasslet's mindset.  Philosophically, these are two radically different coaches.  Spagnolo is a very careful and thoughtful Chess player.  He likes to blitz, but he almost never gambles.  We can expect the defense to get a lot better without major additions or subtractions.  A simple change in philosophy will be enough to make a big difference in St. Louis.  Defense should not be a priority in this year's draft.

#3 Reason:  We have the worst offensive line in the NFL

There are many sayings about football.  It is a game of inches.  It is a game of bounces.  It's all boils down to blocking & tackling.  Nothing is more important that this saying:  The game is won and lost in the trenches.  You must control the line of scrimage.  If you win the battle at the line of scrimage, you win the game.  For two straight years now, our offensive line has utterly lost the battle at the line of scrimage.  For two straight years we have been 2-14.  Without Pace in 2007, we had the worst line in football.  With Pace in 2008, we had the worst line in football.  With him or without him, the results were similar.  This is why he got the pink slip from HQ.  

We have only two starters as I write this blog entry:  Jason Brown who will snap center, and Alex Barron who is our right tackle.  Alex Barron was declared a disapointment by the NFL Network in a recent Draft show.  Let's qualify that.  Alex Barron has not become a dominant all-pro, and a fixture at the right tackle in the NFC's Pro-Bowl roster.  For this reason, he has not become the successor to Jackie Slater we had hoped he would be.  On the other hand, he is the only man to start and play 32 out 32 games during the past 2 seasons.  There have been pretty stupid penalties all the way along the line, but he has blocked pretty well.  I would have cut Richie Icognito after the Washington game.  He would have cleaned out his locker if I had been GM.  Go back and watch the final two minutes of the game and see what I mean.  The other bumbs are rotating and failing at various positions.  Cut 'em all.

As we draft on Saturday and Sunday, we need to be mindful of the fact that our offensive line is our first, second and third priority in the 2009 draft.  We have only two solid starters now.  We have three holes.  You might argue we are in a worse state now than ever before.  If we don't get a lot better on draft day, we are in for one hell of a bad 2009 season.  You might say we have lost the battle at the line of scrimage on defense.  Let's leave that aside for the moment.  It is not as bad as some say on defense.  We must obtain two starting linemen on draft weekend.  You can do it in the draft.  You can do it by trade, but you have to do it.  I suppose Icognito is going to stay at right guard.  The team seems to like him for some reason I cannot understand.

#4 Reason:  The legacy of Georgia

I recently caught the Raider's 1980 championship film on the NFL network.  About 20 minutes into the show, I saw something that brought bitter tears to my eyes.  I wept over the ruins of Jerusalem.  The Raiders were boasting of how they were the winningest team in NFL history.  They showed a chart which indicated that there winning percentage was better than both the Cowboys and Rams, who were the two closest teams to the Raiders in winning percentage in the year 1980.  Yep, that's right, the Rams were #3 winningest team in NFL history as of the year 1980.  Don't take my word for it.  Take the Raider's word for it.  They have no love for us, and no vested interest in our team.  The Rams are also a much older football team than the Raiders and Cowboys.  We were founded in 1937.  The Raiders and Cowboys started life in the 1960s. We had been excelent over a much longer period of time than they.

The same cannot be said today.  29 years later, our winning percentage is nothing like what it was in 1980.

What happened?  It should be noted that 1980 was the first full year of the Georgia administration.  We went 11-5.  It was good.  It got real bad real soon.  There were brief moments of excellence.  We even won a Super Bowl.  Nevertheless, the legacy of Georgia is terrible, and cannot be over-stated.  She turned us into a Beer-league organization.  We had several loosing season in the 1980s.   We couldn't keep our team together in an era when most people did.  We had 9 years of horror between 1990 and 1999.  We had a brief moment in the sun, then it all fell appart.  Now we have had 5 more years of horror.  

In 28 years as owner of the Rams,  Georgia had many more loosing seasons than winning seasons.  Let's be frank and lets not mince words:  She was the joke owner of the league. Much more so then Bill Bidwell or Al Davis.  This wasn't entirely, or even primarily, because she was a woman.  It was because she was one of the bad owners.  There are tales of Georgia casting astrology charts on potential draft picks to determine who would be emotionally compadible with her, and ergo, a good player for the team.  I apologize to Skip for talking about his mother this way, but I think Skip knows his mother should not have been running an NFL franchise.

As we draft on Saturday and Sunday, we need to be mindful of the fact that astrology charts have no bearing on football merits and demerits.  We need great college football players.  We need men with a proven track record of success in college.  We don't need developmental projects.  We don't need home-town heroes to fill the stands.  Skip needs to be an owner like his Dad, not like his mom.

Draft well.  Fill holes.  Get better.  Win.  Live proud.  Restore the traditions of old.

Denver is the new Wallstreet. The Broncos the new AIG.

The Denver Broncos are experiencing a meltdown of epic proportions. If there were any chance of them being sold in pieces to the rest of league, I would say that the Denver Broncos rivals AIG as the most dysfunctional corporation in the nation. Since there is no chance of the Broncos folding or being dismembered, I just can't make the AIG comparison... as much as I would like too.

Jaygate: just what the fuck happened?

A few weeks ago, FAF (Free Agency Friday) hit, and the New England Patriots traded Matt Castle to the Kansas City Chiefs. Looked fine on paper. Then all of sudden there is all this gossip circulating around the league from sources inside the Vikings', Chiefs', and Lions' headquarters that the Broncos were shopping Jay Cutler around, trying to trade him out of the Conference and Division. Why? To acquire draft picks. Why? Some of these picks were to be used to acquire Matt Castle, formerly of New England. Some were to be used to rebuilt Denver's sagging defense.

The deal never happened. Why?

Rumor has it that the Broncos were demanding too much of the Lions, who would have loved to build around Culter. Both parties would have liked to do the trade. They just couldn't agree to terms. More specifically, the Broncos wanted both of the Lions' 1st round picks, but eventually fell back to the #1 pick overall, and the 2nd round pick. Neither package was acceptible to the Lions. They felt the first overall pick was more than sufficient gold to seal the deal. Denver did not feel the #1 pick in the draft was good enough for Cutler. Then the Patriots completed their trade with the Chiefs, terminating the affair.

When this deal fell through, the Broncos became increasingly desperate, contacting the Vikings first, and then the Chiefs. This is the first clear-cut sign that the organization knew it had fucked up, and the relationship with Cutler was compromised.

Then the leaks started to flow. Sources inside the Broncos organization--loyal to Cutler--told Jay that the organization had been shopping him around, and trying to acquire Matt Castle. Jay Cutler, known for his passionate temper, hit the fucking roof. Rumor has it that he and his agent had a number of red-hot phone conversations with Pat Bowlen & McDaniels.

This is where the fun begins. Bowlen & McDaniels denied everything. They claimed the Chiefs & Lions contacted them with offers, inquiring if Cutler would be available if the price is right. Bowlen & McDaniels insisted that they told all would-be-bidders to fuck off. Cutler was never on the market, period.

That would have been fine except for the fact that Vikings, Lions, Patriots and Chiefs all broke THE MAN CODE. They confirmed Denver's infidelity to Cutler. They each confirmed that they had been contacted by the Broncos FIRST. None of them ever expected Cutler to be on the block. The whole affair might have died with a well-placed lie. Alas, such was not to be. That was when Cutler really got pissed. First, Bowlen fires his coach and mentor Mike Shanahan, then McDaniels give him a vote of no-confidence by trying to deal him, then they both lie to his face and try to cover it up.

Jay is now declaring that his days in Denver are over. His relationship with the Broncos is irrepairably busted, and he wants to be traded.

So who is right in all this?

I think I speak for the majority of NFL fans--not Bronco fans--when I say that I am absolutely flabbergasted by what has happened in Denver lately. This is almost inconceivable. If a gypsy woman had stared into a Crystal Ball and prophesied this, I would have laughed like hell at her and declared her a fraud.

Let's start with the facts: The Broncos had Mike Shanahan a proven offensive genius who had led them to back-to-back Super Bowl victories. They had Jay Cutler, the man touted as the most promising young Quarterback in the league. He is already a Pro-Bowl QB. Just a little more proof, and everybody was prepared to accept Cutler as an elite NFL QB. The Broncos had the #2 ranked offense in the league by points. I can tell you that they had a smooth rhythm moving down the field which was a true pleasure to behold. They looked like an offensive Juggernaut coming to life last year. Cutler looked totally confident and in control almost all the time. Yes, he had a few bone headed plays, but didn't Bart Starr, Bradshaw and Montana have some stupid plays early in their careers also? Hell yes they did!

Then it kinda collapses. The Broncos don't make the playoffs. The next thing we know, Mike Shanahan has been fired. He has a teary news conference where he declares that Pat Bowlen is still his best friend. Jesus... Speaking as a Ram fan, I was utterly shocked. I wanted to sign Mike Shanahan immediately.

Then Bowlen announces that he has hired Josh McDaniels, OC of the Patriots. Jesus... You fired Mike Shanahan to sign this esquinkly little 32 year old shit with absolutely no credentials to his name? You want Josh McDaniels, not Mike Shanahan? SHIT! Speaking as a Ram fan, I was pretty fucking surprised. I was wondering what the hell was going on in Denver. I thought for sure Bowlen would select a defensive coordinator like Steve Spagnolo, now the chief of my team, to be their head coach. Maybe we screwed them. Maybe they screwed themselves. What ever the case, I was sure that the new administration would leave the offense alone and work exclusively on fixing the defense.

Now Pat Bowlen, one of the most respected owners in the league, nay one of the pillars of the league, allowed this no-name dude McDaniels to break the one working part of his football team? OMG WTF? Unbelievable...

The majority of Hall of Famers on the NFL Network are pretty horrified by these events. They can't believe Denver would give up on Cutler. They have no idea what the hell Bowlen & McDaniels were thinking. Everybody is scandalized.

What every happened to if ain't broke don't fix it?

I really feel bad for the people of Denver. The Broncos were on the rise. I was certain they would win the division and be a contender in 2009. I believe the Chargers are vulnerable, and there is nobody else in the West. Oh yeah... I forgot that the Raiders and Chiefs are there... but that is still nobody. Now McDaniels has done it. He has effectively wrecked the team. He has set them back 5 or 6 years. I think they are toast in 2009.

So how would I fix it?

There are only two courses of action if you are Bowlen:

1. Complete a trade with Detroit for the #1 pick.
2. Rollback all the changes made since the season ended.

If you take option #1, expect the Lions to hold you over a barrel. They know you are despirate now. By taking this option, you announce your only real hope is to acquire Matthew Stafford... and pray he is as good as Cutler... eventually. Detroit can stick a gun in your ribs and demand that you give them a sweetener. Maybe one of your two WR. That would hurt like hell.

How the hell can Bowlen execute option #2? It is very simple:

1. Fire McDaniels
2. Go on bended knee to Shanahan (who claims you and he are BFFLs) and ask him to return.
3. Make him responsible for smoothing things over with Cutler
4. Publicly announce that you fucked up, and are rolling back changes.

Speaking as a computer programmer, I can tell you that we do option #2. When we accidentally write bad stored procedure which garbles data and messes up the DB, we rollback. We put the old data back in place. We put the old code back in place. We clean up the mess. We have to publicly announce that we fucked up. We restore the system. It hurts. Nobody likes to fuck up. Nobody likes to eat crow. Nobody likes to clean up the mess. Yet this is the only way to keep the organization healthy and on track. We gotta fix it.

Both are very difficult paths to trek. I really pity Bowlen. Never give a young fucktard this much control again. That was a serious error. I think the people of Denver will cheer option #2. If you are headed in the wrong direction, turn around

So there are more rumors about the Rams #2 pick

So fresh rummors have surfaced about the Rams' #2 pick overall in the upcoming 2009 draft. What are these rummors?

1. The New York Giants are said to be interested in the #2 pick. Why? The Giants have an excellent roster. They were the finest team in the league during the regular season. Eli Manning is arguably more talented than his elder brother, but his brother has plenty of things Eli doesn't have: 3 game breaking receivers and the most effective tight end in the league. Worse Plaxico Burris is probably going to do 3 years in prison, and this will effectively terminate his career. This legal case will also remove the 1 game breaking receiver Eli has. For these reasons, the Giants are said to be very interested in Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech. He is a legit game changing receiver. Unfortunately, he is also a top 5 pick. The Giants need a very high pick to secure this receiver for Eli. God knows they have the talent. They can afford to sacrifice this year's entire draft in the name of acquiring a great receiver.
2. The Vikings are without a quarterback , and it is rumored that they have three options in mind (A) Sign Kurt Warner, who is a free agent, but this is considered unlikely, (2) Make a deal for Mark Bulger--which is highly questionable as an option, (3) Trade horses to get a high pick and draft a QB. The third option is considered the most realistic option.

So what do I think? Deal the pick to the Giants if they want it. Deal Bulger to the Vikings if they want him. With the rebuilding program we must undergo over the next 2-3 years, we should consider acquiring a fellow like David Carr and/or Chris Simms. I would acquire them both. Both would be effective stop-gaps as we build.