- Joined
- Jul 31, 2010
- Messages
- 8,874
Burwell: Davis' new status isn't set in stone
• By BRYAN BURWELL
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_8a3a03a4-33d2-56fb-933c-5183399a51fd.html
On his second day as an official member of pro football’s most exclusive athletic fraternity, the Rams newest starting quarterback Austin Davis was all fun and games after a late-afternoon practice at Rams Park. Inside the locker room, he goofed for the TV cameras with tackle Joe Barksdale as they critiqued a new bobblehead of Robert Quinn.
Davis played the dutiful straight man to Barksdale’s comic routine, deadpanning answers with perfect timing, and of course the camera loved it all. Consider this one of those tiny hidden perks of his new status as one of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the National Football League. There are many others large and small that he will surely discover along the way. Yet every time he walks into that locker room, there are also constant reminders of his not-so-distant past as a member of the NFL transient class.
On the far wall of the room, next to the equipment room window is a small strip of high-end locker-room real estate where the Rams quarterbacks normally take up residence. Sam Bradford is over there. Shaun Hill is over there. Garrett Gilbert is over there. However, Davis’ locker stall is on the other side of the room where his No. 9 sticks out like a sore thumb between the big men with big numbers. Offensive linemen to his left, linebackers to his right.
They gave him that locker stall when he was the fourth-string QB on the depth chart. The world has changed in a whirlwind since then. With two starts under his belt, and enough evidence for Jeff Fisher to officially certify what his actions had been saying for nearly three weeks, the coach told the rest of us on Wednesday that Davis had shown him enough to officially leap over Hill on the depth chart (you know, sort of like what I’ve been telling you for weeks).
“Well Austin’s had a really solid couple of days,” Fisher told a handful of reporters after practice on Thursday. “He’s throwing the ball really well right now. He’s different. He’s got confidence. (I’m) looking forward to watching him play.”
Everything has changed so fast for Davis, but as he blazes forward on his meteoric rise up the Rams depth chart, let’s hope the symbolism of his locker-room real estate is a constant reminder of just how quickly a man’s fate can rise and fall in this demanding performance-related business. The NFL is a coldhearted business that measures your worth by what you put on tape.
Davis’s tape is a mighty fine product so far. Fisher and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer know that the days of those keep-it-close, low-scoring Sundays are no longer the Rams’ blueprint for success. They do not need to slog it out to win games because they now believe they’re capable of putting 30 points on the scoreboard on any given Sunday.
“I think you have to start with the group as a whole,” said Schottenheimer. “Obviously, the weapons that we’ve added or developed. Bringing Kenny Britt in has helped. He can make a lot of plays for us down the field. Jared Cook in Year Two (there has been) big development. Lance Kendricks has gotten a lot better. Just different guys doing it.”
But an equally significant part of this puzzle has been Austin’s ability to run this offense to a higher degree of efficiency than it operated last year when Bradford went down with a knee injury. He can throw with great accuracy in general, but his deep throws are precise as well. That’s why he earned this job weeks ago and Fisher’s announcement on Wednesday was a mere formality.
“Austin’s played very, very well,” said Schottenheimer. “That’s a big part of it. But the credit goes to these guys for the way they’ve worked more than anything because, again, this is nothing that we haven’t seen. We saw it spring, we saw it all training camp against our defense. We’ve got weapons that have the ability to make plays. Again, I think Austin certainly benefits from that, but again the trigger man is going to be the guy that gets a lot of the credit but also is going to take the blame. From day one like I said, in big moments he’s stepped up. The throw he made to (Brian) Quick last week … that’s just a great throw. The guy was kind of bearing down on him. He stood there and threw it.”
So the job is his and he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder, which is smart. Fisher doesn’t want him to worry about a quick hook if he has a bad game, which he inevitably will, because this is the NFL and everyone has a bad game.
What he has to avoid is stringing together a litany of bad games, because just as quickly as he replaced Hill, the entire thing can be reversed.
Oh yes, and just like it was silly to think anyone really needed Fisher to say Davis was the starting quarterback, he doesn’t have to say that he can change back to Hill if need be. This is the NFL, and no one has to be told that if they don’t play well, they don’t play.
• By BRYAN BURWELL
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_8a3a03a4-33d2-56fb-933c-5183399a51fd.html
On his second day as an official member of pro football’s most exclusive athletic fraternity, the Rams newest starting quarterback Austin Davis was all fun and games after a late-afternoon practice at Rams Park. Inside the locker room, he goofed for the TV cameras with tackle Joe Barksdale as they critiqued a new bobblehead of Robert Quinn.
Davis played the dutiful straight man to Barksdale’s comic routine, deadpanning answers with perfect timing, and of course the camera loved it all. Consider this one of those tiny hidden perks of his new status as one of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the National Football League. There are many others large and small that he will surely discover along the way. Yet every time he walks into that locker room, there are also constant reminders of his not-so-distant past as a member of the NFL transient class.
On the far wall of the room, next to the equipment room window is a small strip of high-end locker-room real estate where the Rams quarterbacks normally take up residence. Sam Bradford is over there. Shaun Hill is over there. Garrett Gilbert is over there. However, Davis’ locker stall is on the other side of the room where his No. 9 sticks out like a sore thumb between the big men with big numbers. Offensive linemen to his left, linebackers to his right.
They gave him that locker stall when he was the fourth-string QB on the depth chart. The world has changed in a whirlwind since then. With two starts under his belt, and enough evidence for Jeff Fisher to officially certify what his actions had been saying for nearly three weeks, the coach told the rest of us on Wednesday that Davis had shown him enough to officially leap over Hill on the depth chart (you know, sort of like what I’ve been telling you for weeks).
“Well Austin’s had a really solid couple of days,” Fisher told a handful of reporters after practice on Thursday. “He’s throwing the ball really well right now. He’s different. He’s got confidence. (I’m) looking forward to watching him play.”
Everything has changed so fast for Davis, but as he blazes forward on his meteoric rise up the Rams depth chart, let’s hope the symbolism of his locker-room real estate is a constant reminder of just how quickly a man’s fate can rise and fall in this demanding performance-related business. The NFL is a coldhearted business that measures your worth by what you put on tape.
Davis’s tape is a mighty fine product so far. Fisher and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer know that the days of those keep-it-close, low-scoring Sundays are no longer the Rams’ blueprint for success. They do not need to slog it out to win games because they now believe they’re capable of putting 30 points on the scoreboard on any given Sunday.
“I think you have to start with the group as a whole,” said Schottenheimer. “Obviously, the weapons that we’ve added or developed. Bringing Kenny Britt in has helped. He can make a lot of plays for us down the field. Jared Cook in Year Two (there has been) big development. Lance Kendricks has gotten a lot better. Just different guys doing it.”
But an equally significant part of this puzzle has been Austin’s ability to run this offense to a higher degree of efficiency than it operated last year when Bradford went down with a knee injury. He can throw with great accuracy in general, but his deep throws are precise as well. That’s why he earned this job weeks ago and Fisher’s announcement on Wednesday was a mere formality.
“Austin’s played very, very well,” said Schottenheimer. “That’s a big part of it. But the credit goes to these guys for the way they’ve worked more than anything because, again, this is nothing that we haven’t seen. We saw it spring, we saw it all training camp against our defense. We’ve got weapons that have the ability to make plays. Again, I think Austin certainly benefits from that, but again the trigger man is going to be the guy that gets a lot of the credit but also is going to take the blame. From day one like I said, in big moments he’s stepped up. The throw he made to (Brian) Quick last week … that’s just a great throw. The guy was kind of bearing down on him. He stood there and threw it.”
So the job is his and he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder, which is smart. Fisher doesn’t want him to worry about a quick hook if he has a bad game, which he inevitably will, because this is the NFL and everyone has a bad game.
What he has to avoid is stringing together a litany of bad games, because just as quickly as he replaced Hill, the entire thing can be reversed.
Oh yes, and just like it was silly to think anyone really needed Fisher to say Davis was the starting quarterback, he doesn’t have to say that he can change back to Hill if need be. This is the NFL, and no one has to be told that if they don’t play well, they don’t play.
