Hammond: Rams experimenting with players in different spots

[leoram]

Said it last week...

 

[StealYoGurley]

Wichman has been terrible in the run game, zero push and DTs consistently get penetration against him. I think Brown is way better easy substitution doesn't upset the chemistry at all because he has alot of experience playing next to Barnes and Havenstein.

On the other side is there really a net loss in upsetting the chemistry? Robinson has been terrible, hard to defend him in any phase of the game and Saffold is a natural tackle who has plenty of experience there. I have no problem with benching Robinson and moving Saffold out to LT. Haven't seen alot of Donnal, but I definitely wouldn't mind plugging him in at LG because it really cant get any worse at this point, and who knows he actually might be good. Robinson time at LG was completely uninspiring as a rookie, so I wouldn't mind seeing what Donnal has.

LT- Saffold
LG- Donnal
C- Barnes
RG- Brown
RT- Havenstein

 

[bdfitz]

This tinkering on the Oline coulda, shoulda been done in the preseason.

It's beyond me how a coach could start with a 0-28 shillacking and NOT make major changes by his 5th loss and 4th in a row.

Cooper should have replaced Quick or at least spelled Austin in the slot. Higbee should have shared time with Kendricks as neither of them can block but at least Higbee can catch.

A change of pace RB should have been picked up to distract Defenses from Gurley. I love Cunningham but Cristine Michael was still out there after being cut by Seattle. Did he even get a look?

 

[fearsomefour]

Maybe a guy like donald. But alot of dlineman are bull rusher going straight at you. I havent seen him do much of the lunging though not as much as he did earlier in his career his main problems are his hands ,and he can conceal them better with all the bodies around

Agree to disagree.
I think he would be a disaster at G right now.
But, again, like with all the critical stuff, would love to be proven wrong. Best case is him being a good LT for 10 years, second best is him being a Larry Allen type of G for 10 years, worst case is him just busting his way to the bench.

 

[fearsomefour]

Overreaction

Maybe.
But to say the development on offense has been anything but a joke is, well....a joke.

 

[fearsomefour]

This tinkering on the Oline coulda, shoulda been done in the preseason.

It's beyond me how a coach could start with a 0-28 shillacking and NOT make major changes by his 5th loss and 4th in a row.

Cooper should have replaced Quick or at least spelled Austin in the slot. Higbee should have shared time with Kendricks as neither of them can block but at least Higbee can catch.

A change of pace RB should have been picked up to distract Defenses from Gurley. I love Cunningham but Cristine Michael was still out there after being cut by Seattle. Did he even get a look?

Kenricks is a much better blocker and has better hands.

 

[FRO]

But when you give a coach players that have potential to be good and yet they are not, that has to fall on the coaching.

We've already discussed Robinson's physical gifts and desire to be better. Tavon Austin, another whipping boy on this board, has the potential to be a very dynamic weapon. In the right scheme, with the right coaching, he would be (if Mike Martz had a guy like Tavon, opposing DC's would wake up in cold sweats at night). The problem really comes down to coaching, and you can see by contrasting the offense and the defense.

On the defensive side of the ball, almost all of the players Snead has drafted have worked out to one degree or another. And on that side of the ball, we have good coaching. Fisher's only real mistake on that side of the ball was Tim Walton, and he corrected that one pretty quickly. He brought in a coordinator who is innovative, who doesn't try to fit square pegs in round holes, who instead of trying to force his scheme on the players figures out how to adapt his scheme to the strengths of his players, who makes on-the-fly adjustments to the opposing offense on game day, etc. This is why a 6th round pick like EJ Gaines becomes a starter early on. This is why a guy like Josh Forrest, on nobody's radar, shows great promise in his rookie year. On that side of the ball, those guys are very well coached, and it shows. How many guys have we talked about being busts on defense?

Compare that to what we have had here on offense: Schottenheimer, Cignetti, and now Boras. Do those names inspire confidence in you? All three of those guys have had Tavon Austin, and none of them has ever fully integrated him into the offense. Schotty and Co. turned Sam Bradford into a boring, safety first checkdown artist and virtually negated his superior arm talent. This past Sunday they wouldn't let Goff throw past the sticks on 3rd down (and in fact, most of the routes run were not beyond the sticks). The list of coaching malpractice incidents on the offensive side of the ball could go on for days. And that is not on Snead. That is on Fisher, his philosophy that minimizes risk taking on offense to a ridiculous degree, and his poor choices of OC starting with Brian Schottenheimer.

Bring in a head coach who's not a total retrograde on offense, one who is willing to take at least some risks and wants to score points, and I have plenty of confidence that he can get that guy the players he wants.

Drafting project players at 2 and 33 doesn't fall on the HC, it falls on the guy making the picks. Fisher is a part of the failure, but he isn't the only one responsible.

Why would you trade up to pick Austin when the OC is Schotty and the HC is Fisher? Two ground and pound types and you give him a 5'8" 160 lb WR? That's a poor fit for the offense and Schotty and Fisher aren't creative offensive schemers.

Draft a LT at 2 that played in an offense that barely passed. The guy had little experience with pass protection. They didn't even have a playbook at Auburn. All he had to do is maul guys, very little thinking required. That type of game doesn't get played at the NFL, so just to expect a little coaching to get Robinson adjusted to the NFL game was risky. It's the second overall pick, why make such a risky bet?

Why pick Quick at 33rd when he was a raw, risky bet? It's year 5 and the best you can say is the guy is a contributing receiver. Not a bum, but what you envisioned at 33 overall.

Hard to point to a lot of offensive talent on the roster and Snead is the GM. Fisher deserves the bulk of the blame, but Snead shouldn't be given a free pass. He helped. Guy had a pile of premium picks to build an offense and couldn't do it.

 

[FRO]

Snead doesn't make draft choices, Fisher does. He has total roster and player control and has since day 1. Snead is little more than a scouting director.

If Fisher makes all the draft and roster choices then you have to credit him for Donald, Gurley, Brockers, Ogletree, ect. My point is you can't blame Fisher for the draft misses and praise Snead for the successes. Either Fisher gets credited for both, Snead gets credited for both, or both get credited for both. Since I do not know who makes the picks I place blame/credit on both Fisher and Snead and believe they both should go.

 

[bdfitz]

FF, gotta disagree on the hands. Higbee was a little nervous his first time out but wasn't that Kendricks that dropped what would have been the game winning TD a few weeks back? Doesn't he have the most drops on the team? How many goal line drops have we seen? He has his moments. Nowhere near as bad as Cook but come on.

 

[jrry32]

Wichman has been terrible in the run game, zero push and DTs consistently get penetration against him. I think Brown is way better easy substitution doesn't upset the chemistry at all because he has alot of experience playing next to Barnes and Havenstein.

On the other side is there really a net loss in upsetting the chemistry? Robinson has been terrible, hard to defend him in any phase of the game and Saffold is a natural tackle who has plenty of experience there. I have no problem with benching Robinson and moving Saffold out to LT. Haven't seen alot of Donnal, but I definitely wouldn't mind plugging him in at LG because it really cant get any worse at this point, and who knows he actually might be good. Robinson time at LG was completely uninspiring as a rookie, so I wouldn't mind seeing what Donnal has.

LT- Saffold
LG- Donnal
C- Barnes
RG- Brown
RT- Havenstein

Donnal is a worse version of Wichmann imo. He'll get no push in the run game. And Saffold has been the weakest link of our OL at points this year. I wouldn't move him to LT.

For better or worse, Greg needs to finish the year at LT. I'd put Jamon Brown back in the starting lineup. I'm also intrigued by the idea of moving Wichmann to Center after the year. He lacks the power to be an OG, but I don't think it would be problematic at Center. Plus, he's a good pass protector.

 

[wolfdogg]

I would take donald, brockers, and quinn in a closed meeting, and ask them which linemen do they think would be best at each position, and go from there.

 

[A.J. Hicks]

Donnal is a worse version of Wichmann imo. He'll get no push in the run game. And Saffold has been the weakest link of our OL at points this year. I wouldn't move him to LT.

For better or worse, Greg needs to finish the year at LT. I'd put Jamon Brown back in the starting lineup. I'm also intrigued by the idea of moving Wichmann to Center after the year. He lacks the power to be an OG, but I don't think it would be problematic at Center. Plus, he's a good pass protector.

It's like Saffold spent too much time with tank tops during the Hard Knocks filming. He truly has been a big disappointment this year.

 

[UKram]

I would take donald, brockers, and quinn in a closed meeting, and ask them which linemen do they think would be best at each position, and go from there.

I'd probably leave out Donald coz ain't nobody that block him

 

[UKram]

Drafting project players at 2 and 33 doesn't fall on the HC,

I think it probably does fro ... fisher is the cook Snead is just the guy who buy whatever ingridents chef fisher tells him to

I know they all build the draft board but come on we traded up for tavon you're telling me Snead went "screw it jeff I'm trading up
For TA " and fisher was all like "nuh huh" and Snead was like ."yep for realzys...
So suck it ..it's a done deal we just drafted him... now get me my coffee "

At the least it's a joint decision on draft issues ... fisher maybe went to Snead and said we want either goff or wentz can you get us to number one to take him ? And Snead said let me see what I can do yadda yadda yadda rest is history

 

[VegasRam]

What's interesting to me is that Reynolds seems to be the key to the Oline.
Versatile, and they just play(ed) better with him.
Hope they sign him for a few more years.

 

[DaveFan'51]

Donnal is a worse version of Wichmann imo. He'll get no push in the run game. And Saffold has been the weakest link of our OL at points this year. I wouldn't move him to LT.

For better or worse, Greg needs to finish the year at LT. I'd put Jamon Brown back in the starting lineup. I'm also intrigued by the idea of moving Wichmann to Center after the year. He lacks the power to be an OG, but I don't think it would be problematic at Center. Plus, he's a good pass protector.

I still think, we should have kept "Kush!!"

 

[FRO]

I think it probably does fro ... fisher is the cook Snead is just the guy who buy whatever ingridents chef fisher tells him to

I know they all build the draft board but come on we traded up for tavon you're telling me Snead went "screw it jeff I'm trading up
For TA " and fisher was all like "nuh huh" and Snead was like ."yep for realzys...
So suck it ..it's a done deal we just drafted him... now get me my coffee "

At the least it's a joint decision on draft issues ... fisher maybe went to Snead and said we want either goff or wentz can you get us to number one to take him ? And Snead said let me see what I can do yadda yadda yadda rest is history

I'm not saying Snead is flying solo. I'm saying its a joint decision and to let Snead be free of any responsibility in the whole matter doesn't sit well with me. Yeah they have done a remarkable job of finding defensive talent. They have done a brutal job of getting offensive talent. 12 offensive players picked in the top 100 by this regime. 4 in the top 10. That's not good enough.

 

[lockdnram21]

Kenricks is a much better blocker and has better hands.

Better hands then who? As many balls he dropped that touch down he dropped last year and I tink this year

 

[ramfan46]

Better hands then who? As many balls he dropped that touch down he dropped last year and I tink this year

Also killed a promising drive by fumbling without being touched on Sunday! Lance has made some truly boneheaded plays in his 5 years as a Ram. I like him as a number 2 TE and nothing more. Start giving Higbee #1 reps and see if he shows you enough to believe. I'd also be working with Heminway as much as possible, he's the best athlete out of the 3 IMO.

 

[OntarioRam]

If anyone thinks Greg Robinson is what is holding this offense back, as oppose to Jeff Fisher and our coaching/scheme, they haven't been watching the Rams. Our problems run much deeper than our LT - who, first the first time in his career I might add, has been playing decent football IMO. Still not worth the #2 overall pick though.