Burwell: No reason to up Rams' season as lost

[RamBill]

Burwell: No reason to up Rams' season as lost
• By BRYAN BURWELL

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_b43e26f5-7f89-574e-b6b9-472a56a626df.html

If you ever needed a more clear example of the heartless reality of pro football’s “next-man-up” nature, this was surely it. Late Sunday afternoon, just as Rams coach Jeff Fisher walked through one door into the Rams Park auditorium to confirm to the world that Sam Bradford and his surgically repaired left knee were once again lost for the season, there was Shaun Hill — the new starting quarterback — quietly slipping through another door on his way to another meeting.

A few hours earlier, a devastated Bradford had left the building, unsure of what his future held. He was once the face of this franchise, a No.1 overall pick destined to lead the Rams out of the darkness into playoff relevance. Now he is an injury prone young man coping with this awful news, wrestling with the uncomfortable notion that he may never reach his enormous potential.

Hill talked to Bradford before he left the building. They have grown close working together for the past five months. Yet Bradford’s bad news is Hill’s latest career big break. These are the moments that make you realize how quickly the process rolls on in NFL locker rooms. No time for lengthy sentimentality when you have a game plan to absorb, a team to lead and an opportunity to capitalize upon.

“We will move forward as a football team,” said Fisher. “Shaun is our guy. ... We have all the confidence in the world in him.”

So now let’s get to the essential question on every Rams loyalist’s mind:

Without Bradford, is the Rams’ season a disaster in waiting?

The answer is not nearly as simple as the question. The short answer is no. The longer answer all depends on the uncertainty of a typical NFL season. But let’s begin with the short answer. Don’t overlook the fact that the offseason release of last year’s No. 2 QB Kellen Clemens, the acquisition of the 13-year veteran Hill and the surprising, rapid maturity of No. 3 passer Austin Davis have put this franchise in a decidedly better position to withstand Bradford’s absence than when he went down midway through last season.

Hill is simply and indisputably a better alternative to Clemens. The Rams won’t have to turn the offense back to the stone age to compete because unlike his predecessor, Hill can indeed throw the deep ball with some proven level of efficiency (he has a 61.9 percent career completion percentage). He is not a “game manager.” He is not a guy whose greatest offensive asset is his ability to hand the football off and not make mind-numbing mistakes.

Without Bradford, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer will not be automatically forced to scale back the offense and abandon the vertical game that Bradford was clearly and impressively implementing this preseason. Hill does not have all of Bradford’s special quarterbacking gifts, but that doesn’t mean he will forget about the deep passes to Brian Quick and Kenny Britt that have suddenly become a valuable tool of this offense.

As Fisher said Sunday, the most noticeable difference between last year and this year is the talent that surrounds the quarterbacks this season.

“We have,” he said, “probably as good talent as we’ve had since we came here. Shaun is excited about that and I know he’ll benefit from that.”

How much he benefits becomes the great unknown of this critically important season.

A year ago, Clemens went 4-5 as a starter. Can Hill do any better with an improved array of offensive talent all around him? Can he benefit from a better offensive line? Can he get the ball to his improving receivers? Will he provide the perfect balance needed to complement Fisher’s obsession with running the football?

This football season hasn’t started yet, and it hardly makes any sense to proclaim it done before it barely begins. But let’s not kid ourselves. The loss of Bradford means something and it means something big. The Sam Bradford we were watching during preseason looked like the sort of guy who could fit a football into any window, no matter how cramped, covered, deep or difficult. The Bradford we watched all summer was looking like the sort of passer who was ready to live up to his enormous potential. That guy was the key to a breakthrough season for this luckless franchise.

That QB had the sort of gifts that could — if all things went really, really well — lead to places most Rams fans considered their ultimate football dreams.

But we won’t see that Bradford this year, and who knows if we’ll ever see that Bradford again?

Shaun Hill doesn’t have to be Bradford for this season to be a success. He just has to be a passer capable of being a legitimate offensive threat. He has to be someone who can go deep when he has to. He has to be a guy who can get the football into the end zone, who can create enough firepower through the air to prevent the rugged NFC West defenses from stacking up the line of scrimmage and turning the Rams’ rushing attack into an ineffective mess.

From every bit of adversity comes some level of opportunity.

Let’s see what sort of opportunity the Rams can cull from this latest setback.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Nicely done.

 

[RamBill]

'Devastating news' ends Bradford's season
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_444196a8-7261-5ab4-ae40-6c47ddaab04d.html

For Sam Bradford, there were countless hours of rehab work over the past 10 months. A determination to prove his doubters wrong and lead the Rams to higher ground.

Once again, he brought receivers out to Oklahoma on his own dime to work on the passing game and boost camaraderie. There was a renewed effort to display leadership in an evolving offense that needs to be shown the way.

In training camp and the preseason, Bradford did everything he was asked and played well. Often very well.

And then, in the matter of a few seconds Saturday night, it was all gone. Cleveland defensive end Armonty Bryant flashed around Rams left tackle Jake Long, struck Bradford just after he had released a pass, and that was that.

Bradford went down with a left knee injury and is done for the season, as coach Jeff Fisher confirmed early Sunday evening.

The anterior cruciate ligament that was surgically repaired last December following an injury at Carolina in October didn’t hold up to the hit by Bryant. That’s what an MRI examination showed Sunday, and now it must be repaired again.

“Anyone that’s gone through that procedure and the rehab understands that to have it happen again within a calendar year is very, very difficult,” Fisher said. “The news was devastating to him this morning.”

Fisher met with Bradford after the MRI results came in, and then Bradford left Rams Park to spend some time with his parents.

“I really can’t give you any timetable as to when he’s gonna have this procedure done,” Fisher said. “A lot of people worked very hard with him. Reggie (Scott), his training staff. Rock (Gullickson) — strength staff. And the doctors.

Scott is the team’s head athletic trainer; Gullickson is the strength coach.

“If you saw Sam at practice, you saw him play the last two preseason games, I think you’d agree with me that he was 100 percent back and on his way,” Fisher said.

“Put yourself in his position. How hard he worked to get back, and how excited he was to be back and lead this football team into the season. So yeah, it’s very, very difficult for him.”

There was some optimism following Saturday night’s 33-14 preseason victory over Cleveland that the injury might not be serious. Bradford wasn’t carried off on a cart and walked off the field under his own power. He felt pretty good in the locker room afterward and told some teammates that he was OK.

After the MRI examination, Bradford was anything but OK. The play that ended his 2014 was “highly unusual,” according to Fisher.

“You know, it’s a one in a hundred chance that something like that would happen,” Fisher said. “It wasn’t a high impact (hit). ACL injuries, they’re all different, and this was just kind of a hyper-extension that just had impact come from the outside.

“The knee was locked and something has to give. Unfortunately, the ACL gave.”

When the news spread that Bradford was done for the year, several teammates tweeted out their respects and well-wishes:

• DE Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE): ”Hurting for my friend, teammate Sam because we know the work he puts in every day and the caliber of person he is. Tough. We got your back 8.”

• LB James Laurinaiits (@JLaurinaitis55): ”My heart hurts for my friend Sam. The way he worked, the leadership he showed, and his spirit was amazing this whole offseason. Hate this.”

• RT Joe Barksdale: (@BazookaJoe72): ”Praying for Sam, but the team will still continue to build on what we’ve started, to get where we are trying to go.”

But as Fisher indicated, as much as the Rams feel Sam’s pain, there’s no time for self-pity. The NFL is a fast-moving train this time of the year. The team’s regular-season opener against Minnesota is 13 days away, so it’s time to regroup, refocus, and move on.

The Rams will move on with veteran Shaun Hill as their starting quarterback.

“Shaun’s our guy,” Fisher said. “He’s got experience. I’ve got all the confidence in the world in him. We have around our quarterback position right now probably as good of talent as we’ve had since we came here. Shaun’s excited about that, and I know he’ll benefit from that.”

After Bradford’s injury last season, the Rams had to alter the offense because Kellen Clemens lacked the arm strength to throw the deep ball with any degree of consistency, But Fisher indicated Sunday that it will be business as usual with Hill under center.

“We’re not gonna change anything,” Fisher said. “Everybody knows we’re gonna run the football first. We’re gonna do that, and we’re gonna do that well. ... And then everything else will come off of that.”

Austin Davis, who spent most of the offseason and training camp as the team’s No. 4 quarterback, catapults to No. 2 on the depth chart after his second strong outing in three preseason games.

That leaves rookie Garrett Gilbert at No. 3.

After the Bradford news broke Sunday, there was all kinds of Internet speculation about the Rams trading for Philadelphia’s Mark Sanchez or New England’s Ryan Mallet. Fisher squelched those rumors Sunday, at least temporarily.

“I’d heard that there’s speculation that we’ve been on the phone (with other teams),” Fisher said. “That’s not true. That doesn’t mean to say that we won’t. But we haven’t done it at this point. We’ll get together as an organization and see.”

A little patience is necessary in a situation such as this, Fisher said, especially with cutdown time at hand around the league.

“It makes no sense to jump and react right now, and try to fill the hole at whatever cost,” Fisher said. “We’re gonna take our time and evaluate this. There’s gonna be some quarterbacks that are released, and there may or may not be some quarterbacks out there that have trade value. We just don’t know. It’s way too soon.”

 

[-X-]

What the crap? When did Laurinaitis get back on twitter?

*Followed.

 

[RamBill]

Good news on Brockers, Saffold, Langford
• By Joe Lyons

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_c811bd18-7daf-5840-9117-4b0497bd69ca.html

The news from Rams Park on Sunday wasn’t all bad. It just seemed that way.

Mixed in with confirmation that quarterback Sam Bradford re-injured his surgically repaired left knee in the first quarter of Saturday night’s 33-14 victory over the Browns in Cleveland and will be lost for the season, Rams coach Jeff Fisher pointed out that three other players who went down with first-half ankle injuries — offensive lineman Rodger Saffold and defensive tackles Michael Brockers and Kendall Langford — are not expected to miss significant time.

“All three can potentially play this Thursday night,” Fisher said.

And the news about cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who was carted off in the second quarter with a knee injury, was more promising than anticipated.

“We got good news, considering the mechanism of what happened to Trumaine Johnson,” Fisher added, “We’ll miss Trumaine anywhere from four to six weeks with an MCL sprain,’’ Fisher said. The injury does not require surgery.

The young Rams secondary features some options, including second-year player Brandon McGee and rookies Lamarcus Joyner and E.J. Gaines.

“They’ve been coming on,’’ Fisher said. “We’ve got a good group, a good solid group there. We’ll be OK there until Tru comes back.’’

Asked who might replace Johnson at cornerback opposite fellow third-year pro Janoris Jenkins, Fisher did not tip his hand.

“Brandon, E.J., or Lamarcus, it’s a good group to pull from,” he said.

ROBINSON OFF THE BENCH

Greg Robinson, the No. 2 overall selection in May’s draft, did not start in Cleveland, but the 6-foot-5, 332-pounder from Auburn did lead the team with 58 snaps.

“I wanted to get Rodger some time early,” Fisher explained. “We knew that Greg was going to play both positions (guard and tackle), so we got Rodger in there early and (right guard) Davin (Joseph) is playing well.

“Greg played pretty well. Again, he got plenty of snaps. He’s improving. He’s going to be a really good player for us.’’

WATTS, SAM SHINE

Undrafted free agent Trey Watts highlighted the Rams’ strong finish Saturday in his first significant playing time. The Tulsa product showed explosiveness and elusiveness in leading all rushers with 36 yards on nine carries to go along with three catches for 31 yards.

He closed out the scoring with a 12-yard touchdown run. On the play, Watts started right before cutting back to the middle of the field for the score.

“He’s very talented with the ball in his hands (and) I thought he was OK without the ball in his hands last night,” Fisher said. “In college, he was a versatile back, worked out out of the backfield, lined up in the slot and did all kinds of things. (He has) good run skills and vision. ... It was good to see him make some plays.’’

Speaking of making plays, defensive end Michael Sam, the seventh-round draft pick from Mizzou, made the most of his 19 defensive snaps, sacking former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel twice and following up the first one with Johnny Football’s “money fingers” celebration.

“Michael’s making plays, yeah,’’ Fisher said. “We’ve moved people around because of the flow of the game, we played guys a little longer, so (we) didn’t give him as many reps as we’d like, but he’s probably going to get plenty of time to play this week.’’

KIRKSEY STARS

The Browns were paced defensively by linebacker Chris Kirksey, a Hazelwood East High product who led all tacklers in the game with five solo stops and a pair of assists. He had one tackle for loss, one pass defended and a third-quarter interception that he returned 23 yards to set up a 7-yard touchdown scramble by Manziel.

Kirksey, a 21-year-old who played at Iowa and was drafted in the third round, entered the game with a team-leading 11 tackles in the preseason and is making a bid for a starting spot at inside linebacker, a spot that’s crucial to the success of the Browns’ defensive system.

Another area product who played Saturday was rookie fullback Ray Agnew (DeSmet, SIUC), who had one reception for 4 yards. Agnew is the oldest son of former Rams defensive lineman Ray Agnew, an 11-year pro and a member of the Rams’ Super Bowl championship squad in 1999. The elder Agnew has been a fixture in the Rams’ front office since his playing days ended and was recently promoted to director of pro personnel.