Rams Current News & Events!

[Retroram52]

That is true Shopson but the Rams have been avoiding the issue since the Superbowl O-line and they have done little to nothing to remedy an aging O-line and attempting to get buy with FAs and also-rans while they built the defense primarily with Snisher. Before Snisher, there was such dysfunction in the FO and coaches that not much got done.

So, yes, we will have to go through this because we are terrible at attracting and keeping the right FA vets. I'd much rather take this course anyways. When you have five relatively young guys and you get a bunch of good ones like we now have, you're going to be set for the next 10 years once they gel.

 

[bluepigpen]

 

[shopson67]

That is true Shopson but the Rams have been avoiding the issue since the Superbowl O-line and they have done little to nothing to remedy an aging O-line and attempting to get buy with FAs and also-rans while they built the defense primarily with Snisher. Before Snisher, there was such dysfunction in the FO and coaches that not much got done.

So, yes, we will have to go through this because we are terrible at attracting and keeping the right FA vets. I'd much rather take this course anyways. When you have five relatively young guys and you get a bunch of good ones like we now have, you're going to be set for the next 10 years once they gel.

I agree, the Rams haven't done enough in past years, and what the moves they did make were either band-aids or blown picks for the most part (other than Saffold and Robinson). It's just going to take some time to see what we have with this new crop. 2 are already immediate starters, and hopefully they hold up well. I am glad to see Saffold back on the right side; two rookies on one side would be dangerous.

 

[Battlelyon]

ENLARGE
The Rams stop Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch on an overtime fourth down to seal their Week 1 victory. PHOTO: TOM GANNAM/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By
KEVIN CLARK
Updated Sept. 14, 2015 6:35 p.m. ET
13 COMMENTS
The St. Louis Rams conquered the defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in the early surprise of the season. Their spectacular special teams and run defense, which stuffed Seattle star Marshawn Lynch on a fourth down in overtime, had something to do with it.

So did their innovative plan for teaching millennials.

The Rams have the youngest team in the NFL. Like most workplaces, the Rams were inundated with employees whose habits were vastly different from those of their the bosses. As coach Jeff Fisher put it: “Our players learn better with two phones and music going and with an iPad on the side,” he said. “ That’s new.”

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Fisher, along with general manager Les Snead, knew something had to be done. The average age of the Rams roster is 24.1, according to Pro Football Reference. “Some of our key players can’t even rent a car. The insurance companies probably have a lot of data that shows it’s a bad idea to rent a car to a kid under 25,” said Snead.

Snead’s conundrum was obvious: You are, he said, taking young people who in most fields would be entering an entry-level job with little pressure and putting them in a job where they have to perform at a high level under often intense public scrutiny.

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“The next frontier in football is understanding the mind and figuring out how you can test and teach,” he said.

The first step? Like most workplaces that seek company-wide change, they needed consultants. The Rams brought in a group of academics who run a research firm to evaluate the Rams’ football teaching methods. (The Rams did not identify the firm for competitive reasons with other NFL teams.) Those consultants observed portions of off-season training and training camp. They also put rookies through a standardized test, Snead said, aimed to determine how their players absorbed information. The test is supposed to mirror exams like the GRE or LSAT—which are trying to gauge future performance, not how much you’ve already learned. It also, Snead suggests, gauges some intangibles such as “grit, perseverance and mental toughness.”

The Rams learned a few things that anyone who has spent time around a bunch of 20-somethings already knows: Attention spans are shorter but they are savvier than ever, because of their exposure to technology. They also need to know “why” to everything: If you explain a concept to them on the field, they need to know the reason behind it. Millennial players questioning everything is something that’s helped the Rams, the team says, because it forces coaches and executives to examine their own methods (Why are we doing this?). Lastly, they learned that younger players like to share everything, whether that’s directly or through social-media outlets like Instagram.

ENLARGE
St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher, right, talks with Rams general manager Les Snead during training camp. PHOTO: JEFF ROBERSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Rams have already instituted a number of sweeping changes based on the early results of their research. Instead of having team meetings that last hours, followed by on-field practicing, the team now has 10 to 15 minutes worth of informational meetings and then hurries to the practice field to execute what they’ve just learned without pads.

For starting rookie offensive lineman Rob Havenstein, this is invaluable. Havenstein is part of the parade of rookies playing a crucial role on the Rams this season. He said that regular meetings can be slightly too comfortable. “If a coach asks you ‘what’s the call’ in a meeting you have a second to think about it, then you answer,” he said. On the field, Havenstein said “you have a snap and you make the call immediately or else you are just sitting there going ‘uhhhhh.””

Rookie quarterback Sean Mannion said that in a league where players are now studying video on multiple screens at all hours, the Rams use walkthroughs “so you don’t lose that 3-D spacing aspect. You can’t get that from a screenshot, you can’t emulate the spacing.”

Fisher has relaxed wake-up times. “Nobody wants to get up at 5:30, have a big breakfast and go into a classroom and fall asleep,” he said. He’s stacked the coaching staff with two types of people: older, veteran coaches who are “changing their ways” to adapt and young coaches who already know what the Rams are trying to accomplish.

Fisher said he’s put an emphasis on getting players to focus and listen. “It sounds a little goofy but it’s not,” he said, adding that most of his young players are visual learners who can best be reached by citing “a hundred different examples” of football scenarios. “You show them play A vs play B when B got your quarterback hit, B got you beat for a touchdown,” Fisher said.

‘ The next frontier in football is understanding the mind and figuring out how you can test and teach. ’

—Rams’ general manager Les Snead
The Rams younger players welcome the focus on visual learning. Linebacker Bryce Hager said teammates can communicate through apps like Instagram and Snapchat. (Many players spent the off-season scouting their new teammates’ Snapchat accounts.)

Snead is so committed to developing young players that he has a photo in his office of Simba from the beginning of “The Lion King” to symbolize they are growing their players into lions. Yet he admits the experiments are still in the “research phase.” Armed with studies, consultants, and player feedback, he’s confident the team will implement even more changes. “Every company is trying to train new employees differently, football players aren’t the only millennials. My thought is, let’s create a little bit of a lab here and see where it goes.”

 

[Red_Chaos]

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher said defensive end Eugene Sims and special teams ace Chase Reynolds have knee injuries that could sideline them for a few weeks.

Fisher said Monday the news was better than expected on both players, who were injured in the opening 34-31 overtime win against the Seattle Seahawks. The team had feared season-ending knee injuries.

Fisher said running back Tre Mason, who was among the game-day inactives with a hamstring injury, was a close call. Fisher said on his radio show Monday night that Mason had a “very good chance” of playing this week at Washington.

The coach added that cornerback Trumaine Johnson (concussion) was feeling better.



bummer but it could be worse i guess


Rams Injury Report For Week Two

 

[jacobarch]

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher said defensive end Eugene Sims and special teams ace Chase Reynolds have knee injuries that could sideline them for a few weeks.

Fisher said Monday the news was better than expected on both players, who were injured in the opening 34-31 overtime win against the Seattle Seahawks. The team had feared season-ending knee injuries.

Fisher said running back Tre Mason, who was among the game-day inactives with a hamstring injury, was a close call. Fisher said on his radio show Monday night that Mason had a “very good chance” of playing this week at Washington.

The coach added that cornerback Trumaine Johnson (concussion) was feeling better.



bummer but it could be worse i guess


Rams Injury Report For Week Two

I think it's to be expected week in week out. There's always going to be injuries. Hopefully Tru can remain healthy the rest of the season.

 

[Battlelyon]

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Rams defensive end Robert Quinn made this point two days before his team took down the Seattle Seahawks in overtime in both teams' season-opener: "None of our last names is Kroenke. All we are doing is playing football and waiting until we hear something. We don't think about it."

"It" is the potential that Sunday's contest could have been the Rams' final home opener in St. Louis.

Team owner Stan Kroenke plans to build a stadium in Inglewood, California, just southwest of downtown Los Angeles. His team could move there as soon as next season, pending his fellow owners' approval.

Such a move could come a season after this current team finally hits its long-awaited stride. This dynamic has fan bases in two cities taking notice, even though we just completed Week 1 and so many things can change between now and when the season ends. Still, St. Louis could be losing a team that is finally competitive after more than a decade of futility. Los Angeles could be landing a team built for immediate and long-term success.

The short-sighted tease came Sunday. The Rams' defense looked so good against Seattle, especially defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who could ascend from good to great by season's end. The undermanned and under-experienced offense did enough, at the right times, to rally after blowing an 11-point lead. Quarterback Nick Foles made plays when he had to and made plays you didn't think he could make -- a rushing touchdown on a rollout being one.

The long-sighted reality also came Sunday. The master plan established when Jeff Fisher and Les Snead took over in 2012 -- and aided by the bounty of picks acquired in the trade with Washington for the draft slot used to select quarterback Robert Griffin III -- looks like it finally could be bearing fruit. The Rams might finally stop being just a trendy preseason playoff pick -- they could actually advance to the postseason.

And then move to L.A.

Rams fans -- some of whom have no personal experience of "The Greatest Show on Turf," following a franchise that hasn't posted a winning season since 2003 -- would feel jilted, to say the least.

Love a team that could leave you. NFL Tinder Roulette.

The Chargers and Raiders are bidding to jointly relocate to Carson, California, also a suburb of L.A. Owners will meet in October to once again evaluate the options when it comes to which team(s) will be moving. As of now, sources with knowledge of the developments say there are several things that have to be sorted out. There is no consensus, at this point. The Rams plan is said to be favored, but there are owners who feel the league could solve its two worst stadium problems -- in San Diego and Oakland -- with a move.

At least one team is moving. That is happening. Several owners have said there will be a team in Los Angles in 2016. That team (or those teams) would play in a temporary stadium, like the L.A. Coliseum, until new housing is completed. The only owner of the three up for relocation who hasn't shown any interest in remaining in his existing location is Kroenke. His stadium site in California is shovel-ready -- and several people involved have said he is just waiting to get the green light to dig. Rams fans in St. Louis, while hoping the city can find a way to keep the team there, also are fully aware the team could leave. Many of them are anticipating such a development. That was the feeling before and after the season opener.

The dynamic is complex because not only could the Rams be good and challenge Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona for a playoff spot in the NFC West now, but this is a roster that could do so for years to come. Defensive end Chris Long and linebacker James Laurinaitis are established. But players like Donald, defensive linemates Michael Brockers and Robert Quinn, linebacker Alec Ogletree, running back Tre Mason, wide receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey and tight end Jared Cook are just coming into their own. Trumaine Johnson and Janoris Jenkins comprise a young cornerback tandem to be reckoned with. First-rounder Todd Gurley, the gifted running back nearly every NFL GM had pegged for stardom before the 2015 NFL Draft, will debut as soon as Sunday at Washington, according to team sources, after rehabbing a torn ACL sustained last November at the University of Georgia.

Other than Long and fellow defensive end Williams Hayes, all are younger than 30, with the brunt of the nucleus 26 or under. That is puberty in NFL years.

And then there is Foles, who is solid and, according to teammates and coaches, trustworthy enough to be this team's quarterback for years. He is 26.

Quarterback play has been the Achilles' heel for the Rams in recent years. Foles is being viewed as the guy who solidifies the footing. Before Sunday, players said his off-field leadership was a strength. After the win over Seattle, when Foles answered Cary Williams' strip-sack return touchdown with a game-tying TD pass and a game-winning drive in overtime, Austin said the QB validated himself.

"It's Nick, he's our leader," said Austin, who scored two touchdowns in the game.

Initial success -- and more importantly, sustained success -- is what the NFL and its owners want in Los Angeles. Relocating a loser is not ideal. Sure, folks in L.A. like to be seen at the newest scene, and a state-of-the-art football stadium qualifies. But being forced to convince thousands to buy PSLs, suites and season tickets for a team that routinely misses the playoffs and is coming off a losing season isn't great for business.

A move won't be disqualified if a team stinks. The groundwork simply would be a tad more difficult and the change of scenery would be pushed as the impetus for optimism.

That won't make anyone from a fan base that could lose a team feel any better. In fact, it could be more of a punch in the gut.

Full disclosure: I am from St. Louis, still have family and friends there. Most love the Rams and don't want to see them leave. Most also have kissed them goodbye, sensing the inevitable, with a disdain for Kroenke and an affinity for a franchise that annually can occupy their emotions, tailgates and Monday morning conversations until Major League Baseball's Cardinals start Spring Training.

I have no ties to the Rams. They were in Los Angeles when I grew up in St. Louis. The woeful Big Red Cardinals were the NFL franchise of my youth, but they bolted to Arizona. It hurt having that void in the fall.

So when the Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995, football fans there were thrilled -- not thinking too much about the broken hearts left in the chests of those in Southern California who lost their team. STL folks were just happy to have football back, just like a lot of people in Southern California soon will be.

I currently live in Los Angeles. Having a football team here would be great for fans, especially a full generation of folks who've never had the chance to go to a home game. It doesn't matter to me whether a team is here or not. The NFL is doing just fine, and just because a team (or teams) could move here doesn't mean I won't continue being lucky enough to spend Sundays at Lambeau, Arrowhead or the Jones Mahal in Dallas.

As for Rams players and coaches, they might publicly say they don't concern themselves about relocating, but they do talk about it. I've personally talked to some of them about it. A relocation isn't front and center in their thinking. Experiencing what they experience on the field is. After a stirring win over Seattle, the joy in what they do was evident in how they celebrated on the field and in the locker room. The majority of folks in the non-sold-out stadium were right there with them, cheering for players they know have nothing to do with anything but doing their best on the field.

 

[jakedog56]

Hey Rams folks!

Congrats on the W.

Hope that they can work out a deal to keep you from moving. It sucks that the when the teams are ripped up and moved without regard for the fans.

Looking forward to the rematch in Seattle.

 

[Battlelyon]

Jim Thomas– Verified account ‏@jthom1
Rams add CBs Brandon McGee and Melvin White to practice squad; release CB Trovon Reed and S Jacob Hagen.

 

[Retroram52]

Hey Snake Eyes: Perhaps your post #347 would be better suited for the thread entitled "Looks like LA is a go". Since it is mostly concerned with the team moving and sech. Since we started this thread primarily to track injuries, it has morphed into many more topics as well which I suppose is O.K. The other thread is further down on the thread listing page. Perhaps you can post it there as well.

 

[Battlelyon]

Yeah, I don't know why I put it here.

 

[shopson67]

Hey Rams folks!

Congrats on the W.

Hope that they can work out a deal to keep you from moving. It sucks that the when the teams are ripped up and moved without regard for the fans.

Looking forward to the rematch in Seattle.

It sucks for the fans that do show up, but the Rams have been under-supported for far too long (since before Kroenke bought the team), as they are continually at or near the bottom in home attendance. Returning to where they were originally ripped away from makes too much sense not to happen IMO.

 

[Retroram52]

Yea, maybe Kroneke is taking the Rams back to their more historical roots and his as he has offices and a home in the LA area and has had them there since he became a part owner and now full owner of this franchise.

 

[Red_Chaos]

 

[Vitamike]

View attachment 31633

Good to see this for some perspective red. (Not sure your intent)

Here are the facts:

• 9 Teams are undefeated in the NFL, 5 in the NFC, 1 in the NFC West.
• 19 Teams are split at 1-1 in the NFL, 5 in the NFC, 2 in the NFC West.
• 9 Teams are winless in the NFL, 6 in the NFC, 1 in the NFC West.

• 1 team of the 15 undefeated teams won on the road yesterday.
• 1 team of the 15 winless teams won on the road yesterday.
• 5 teams with a better record in Conference
• 1 team with a better record in Division.

Yes, I'd rather be in the top 9 than the bottom 9 this morning, and we are in with neither. (Thank God it's not the bottom like the Seahags) We are in with majority of NFL teams sitting at 1-1.

No excuses here, but it is tough to win on the road in the NFL. There is an awful lot of parity and we got beat bad in the trenches. (Especially on the O line)

 

[Red_Chaos]

Steelers and Rams Wed injury report

DID NOT PARTICIPATE
CB William Gay (Not Injury Related)
DT Daniel McCullers (Knee)
LB Ryan Shazier (Shoulder) DID NOT PARTICIPATE
RB Chase Reynolds (Knee)
DE Eugene Sims (Knee)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION
No players listed LIMITED PARTICIPATION
TBA
FULL PARTICIPATION
CB Cortez Allen (Knee) FULL PARTICIPATION
TBA

 

[jacobarch]

also Wheaton did not practice thursday due to chest pain.

 

[Battlelyon]

Steelers and Rams Wed injury report

DID NOT PARTICIPATE
CB William GayView attachment 32929 (Not Injury Related)
DT Daniel McCullersView attachment 32930 (Knee)
LB Ryan ShazierView attachment 32931 (Shoulder) DID NOT PARTICIPATE
RB Chase Reynolds (Knee)
DE Eugene Sims (Knee)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION
No players listed LIMITED PARTICIPATION
TBA
FULL PARTICIPATION
CB Cortez AllenView attachment 32932 (Knee) FULL PARTICIPATION
TBA

Notice no Gurley on the list, he is playing this weekend boys.

 

[Red_Chaos]

Proposed riverfront stadium gets a name: National Car Rental Field : News

ST. LOUIS • The proposed riverfront football stadium, though little more than dirt, derelict warehouse and architectural designs, now has a $158 million name:

National Car Rental Field.

Late Tuesday, Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force and Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of National Car Rental, revealed a 20-year deal worth an average of $7.9 million a year.

It is unclear exactly how the money will be used. The state of Missouri or city of St. Louis could pledge the annual proceeds to a bond measure, providing a large chunk of cash for stadium construction. Or it could go to team owners as a sort of guaranteed revenue.

The task force has long said that a stadium won’t be built without a team’s commitment. Naming rights proceeds would have to be negotiated with team owners.

Still, the agreement has arrived before many anticipated, and — regardless of who pockets the cash — it provides a significant revenue source for the $1 billion stadium. Regional leaders here expect it could be an enticing carrot for a team owner seeking to defray his own portion of stadium construction costs.


They also hope the timing of the news sends a message to the National Football League owners — gathered this week in New York — of consistent progress toward a finished stadium plan.

“It is one of the top naming rights deals in the league,” task force co-chairman and former Anheuser-Busch executive Dave Peacock told the Post-Dispatch. “It demonstrates just a portion of the business support for NFL football in St. Louis.”

It doesn’t mean the state or city will have to pay less for the stadium, Peacock emphasized. “It provides certainty around the project, more than anything,” he said.

The state has committed to paying $240 million toward the project. The city is expected to chip in $150 million. Bills outlining some details are expected to come before the city Board of Aldermen later this month.

Stadium attorneys have submitted draft bills, but city staff say they’re reworking them before sending them to the board.

Meanwhile, NFL owners have gathered in New York City this week to discuss moving a team to Los Angeles. St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke has proposed a $2 billion stadium in Inglewood, just outside of L.A., and though he has said nothing publicly, he is no longer hiding his interest in moving the Rams. The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have mounted a competing campaign to build a two-team stadium in Carson, Calif., about 15 miles from Kroenke’s site.

The league owners’ Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities met late Tuesday behind closed doors at NFL offices in Manhattan. They were scheduled to discuss relocation timelines, relocation fees and stadium progress; staff was prepared to brief them on the two proposals in Los Angeles, and hometown efforts in Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis.

The full ownership meets on Wednesday. Owners have been heavily lobbied in recent weeks by competing stadium efforts. They are hoping, this week, to solidify facts and further develop feelings on wise moves for the league.

In St. Louis, Peacock and Edward Jones Dome attorney Robert Blitz continue to plan the 64,000-seat open-air stadium along the Mississippi River just north of downtown. The public board that owns the Jones Dome, which is paying the bills for the new stadium effort, has already spent more than $11 million in architects, engineers, attorneys, financial planners, real estate brokers and other contracted services.

The task force did not release the agreement with National. But it said the deal, a memorandum of understanding, includes interior and exterior signs featuring the National logo.

The new naming-rights agreement appears to be significantly more costly than the one at the Edward Jones Dome. The Edward Jones investment firm renewed its naming rights agreement at the Dome with the Rams a few years ago. That $42.3 million agreement for 11 years included the stadium name as well as indoor and outdoor advertising.

Before that, Edward Jones had an agreement for 12 years at a cost of $32.7 million. The company has said its deal, which runs until 2025, remained in effect only if the team is based at the Dome. Under terms originally set up with the now-defunct Trans World Airlines, the Rams get 75 percent of the naming-rights revenue at the Dome and the remaining 25 percent goes to the city’s Convention and Visitors Commission.

Patrick Farrell, Enterprise’s chief marketing officer, described the company’s decision as a no-brainer. Peacock came to the company a few months ago asking if it was interested in a less substantial sponsorship opportunity, Farrell said; the company called Peacock back asking about naming rights.

Farrell lauded the “high profile” visibility of such advertising and said NFL fans closely matched National’s target customer. Enterprise and Alamo, the company’s other brands, target different customers and were less appropriate for an NFL audience, he said.

Enterprise called National a “premium” brand that largely serves frequent airport travelers. The naming rights contract is just another investment Enterprise has made in the company, he said, since buying it in 2007. Enterprise has spent more than $200 million in five years on upgraded National facilities, cars and advertisements, he said, growing brand revenue by more than a third to $2 billion.

The naming rights deal is also another large local commitment from the family of Enterprise founder Jack Taylor.

In just the last few months, Taylor and his family have announced a $30 million donation to the nonprofit Forest Park Forever for upkeep and renovations of the city’s large central park, $10 million to the St. Louis Symphony’s endowment and $25 million to CityArchRiver, the foundation spearheading the $380 million renovation of the Gateway Arch grounds. In total, the Taylors have given more than $100 million to the Arch project alone.

The Arch grounds renovation and the stadium land, which is now largely vacant lots and empty warehouses, together bookend downtown’s north riverfront.

Farrell said Enterprise was approaching $20 billion in annual sales and wanted a vibrant city for its international headquarters.

“We need the city to be strong for us,” he said, “and us to be strong for the city.”

 

[Battlelyon]

Report: St. Louis stadium would cost taxpayers $215 million more than previously believed
Posted by Mike Florio on October 7, 2015, 10:16 AM EDT
AP
With NFL owners currently in New York and trying to figure out which team(s) will move to Los Angeles, a push-and-pull has emerged between the Rams and St. Louis.

St. Louis struck the first blow, with the well-timed announcement that National Car Rental has committed to buying the naming rights for the stadium that would allow Missouri to keep ownership of the Rams. The Rams have responded (or at least benefited from coincidence), with St. Louis Magazine (via Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal) reporting that the proposed stadium would cost taxpayers $215 million more than previously believed.

That’s the kind of thing that can get the attention of politicians, especially at a time when the national mood has changed dramatically regarding the concept of subsidizing stadiums for sports teams owned by billionaires. If (as the thinking goes) Rams owner Stan Kroenke, one of the richest men in the world, is going to pay for his own stadium in Los Angeles, why shouldn’t he pay for his own stadium in St. Louis?

The mentality actually helps Kroenke, because he doesn’t want taxpayer money to shackle him to St. Louis. He wants to pay for his own stadium — and he also wants to pick the location for it.

While the information came to St. Louis Magazine via an open records request, the timing suggests that someone specifically selected the two-day window of October 6-7 to drop the news, in the hopes of throwing a wrench into the plan by some owners to let the Chargers move to San Diego and to keep the Rams in St. Louis, with a new stadium partially funded by taxpayers.

If that extra $215 million keeps the St. Louis stadium from being built, it becomes a lot harder to keep the Rams in St. Louis. Which makes it easier for Kroenke to keep his L.A. plan on track.