Its Clear the Rams Trust Gaines

[mr.stlouis]

Just absoulutely flooring how our 6th round rookie has entrenched his position as as starter. IDK if the Rams are just looking to rest a couple guys that have been hurt, but check out the snap counts against OAK.

Gaines- 78 (every snap on D)
Johnson- 57
Jenkins- 40

Wow! Nearly double the snaps of Jenks? That's wild! Just incredible how well he's playing.

 

[A55VA6]

Yeah, they definitely trust him. But the numbers are probably skewed because they pulled Jenkins out because he isn't fully 100% and I believe Tru didn't start.

 

[Legatron4]

Does anyone know what QBs rating is when throwing against him is? It seems like he's always batting down passes.

 

[shovelpass]

Gaines has been getting the start/snaps over Tru for the past 2-3 weeks now. And JJ was pulled because his MCL was/is still bothering him.

 

[Alan]

I don't know about the word trust. I think they just think he's comparable to the other two. Gaines has been very lucky. Were it not for the injuries to our other three guys he wouldn't have been able to show his stuff. He was able to take advantage of the opportunity and now I think they view him as on par with the other two. I wouldn't go by what Fisher said in that press conference because he said Gaines and JJ would be the starters if push came to shove. Tru has been a little rusty since he came back and I think the Fish is merely trying to goose him a little. But I don't know that to be true so who knows, maybe we should believe him. :eek: Although I try to never believe what Fisher (and most other coaches) say.

 

[LazyWinker]

I'm getting impression that Gaines is higher on the depth chart than Johnson.

 

[Big Willie]

I don't know about the word trust. I think they just think he's comparable to the other two. Gaines has been very lucky. Were it not for the injuries to our other three guys he wouldn't have been able to show his stuff. He was able to take advantage of the opportunity and now I think they view him as on par with the other two. I wouldn't go by what Fisher said in that press conference because he said Gaines and JJ would be the starters if push came to shove. Tru has been a little rusty since he came back and I think the Fish is merely trying to goose him a little. But I don't know that to be true so who knows, maybe we should believe him. :eek: Although I try to never believe what Fisher (and most other coaches) say.

You may be right, but I could tell watching training camp that the coaching staff knew they had a player in Gaines that wasn't your normal rookie CB. I think trust is the right word.

 

[BonifayRam]

Rookie EJ Gaines has earn every bit of that Fisher/Williams trust. :bow:

Thrown completely into the frying pan from the very start. What caused that ? Two things injury to the Rams #1 starting LCB Trumaine Johnson who did not return to play until wk 9 & #2 ongoing nagging foot issues with Rams top reserve the #3 Brandon McGee. 2nd yr CB Brandon McGee was placed on the IR after the Rams played their 7th game after playing in only one Ram game. McGee may have entered this season as the #3 CB next season he may be the #6th Rams corner.

Most of Gaines starts took place @ LCB for 8 games. Gaines moved mostly into the Nickle post after DB Joyner went down to injury in game 9. However Gaines continued to play LCB & RCB posts along with the Nickel post. Rookie Gaines also teamed up with UDFA Rookie Roberson wk 8 against KC where the Rams started two rookies @ CB. That's a ton of heat!:shooting:

Its been a long, long, long .......time since the Rams have drafted a third day CB this good! Once heralded rookie Lamarcus Joyner returns to full health it will give Gregg Williams some great opportunities with four deep CB's ready to roll. Then throw in trio of safeties Barron-McDonald & McLeod ......the remaining 4 games will be fun to watch.

 

[Memento]

Rookie EJ Gaines has earn every bit of that Fisher/Williams trust. :bow:

Thrown completely into the frying pan from the very start. What caused that ? Two things injury to the Rams #1 starting LCB Trumaine Johnson who did not return to play until wk 9 & #2 ongoing nagging foot issues with Rams top reserve the #3 Brandon McGee. 2nd yr CB Brandon McGee was placed on the IR after the Rams played their 7th game after playing in only one Ram game. McGee may have entered this season as the #3 CB next season he may be the #6th Rams corner.

Most of Gaines starts took place @ LCB for 8 games. Gaines moved mostly into the Nickle post after DB Joyner went down to injury in game 9. However Gaines continued to play LCB & RCB posts along with the Nickel post. Rookie Gaines also teamed up with UDFA Rookie Roberson wk 8 against KC where the Rams started two rookies @ CB. That's a ton of heat!:shooting:

Its been a long, long, long .......time since the Rams have drafted a third day CB this good! Once heralded rookie Lamarcus Joyner returns to full health it will give Gregg Williams some great opportunities with four deep CB's ready to roll. Then throw in trio of safeties Barron-McDonald & McLeod ......the remaining 4 games will be fun to watch.

Hopefully Roberson gets healthy as well. I have very high hopes for him.

 

[Alan]

Big Willie looking at the coaches for clues:
You may be right, but I could tell watching training camp that the coaching staff knew they had a player in Gaines that wasn't your normal rookie CB. I think trust is the right word.

Could be. I'm pretty sure they noticed right away that he wasn't going to be your normal 6th rounder.

 

[PowayRamFan]

Our late round drafting has been impeccable, I don't think our worst critic could deny that...

 

[Athos]

Hope someone is able to get the completion rate against Gaines and the QB-rating and TDs as well.

Should be pretty damn good for a rook.

 

[PaRam24]

According to pro football focus, Gaines has been targeted 57 times and allowed 35 completions for an average of 6.91 yards per completion. He has allowed 1 td and qbs have a rating of 80.6 when targeting Gaines. I'm not sure about the rules for citing sources but here is the link: https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/11/21/cb-rookie-report/

 

[jjab360]

I still have no idea why he fell to the sixth round.

I didn't think anybody thought he would make it out of the third. When he fell that far I thought maybe there was an injury, character issue, or serious athletic shortcoming that I hadn't heard about, but apparently not. The rest of the NFL just seemed to go braindead with this guy, he is what he advertised at Mizzou, no reason he should've fallen that far at all.

 

[jrry32]

I still have no idea why he fell to the sixth round.

I didn't think anybody thought he would make it out of the third. When he fell that far I thought maybe there was an injury, character issue, or serious athletic shortcoming that I hadn't heard about, but apparently not. The rest of the NFL just seemed to go braindead with this guy, he is what he advertised at Mizzou, no reason he should've fallen that far at all.

Multiple reasons but the biggest is size. Many teams have strict height/weight/speed requirements for CBs. Plus, his measurables were fairly mediocre. Honestly, I liked EJ a lot but he's outplaying even my expectations for him. I thought he'd be more scheme limited than he is. He has good straight-line speed but doesn't have the quickest feet which usually is a real big issue for a small CB but he makes up for it with his football IQ, instincts, and ball-skills.

That's why I've always been of the opinion that when drafting later, you should look for someone that is missing an attribute or two(which would cause them to fall) but is special in other areas...because that can allow them to compensate.

I'm getting impression that Gaines is higher on the depth chart than Johnson.

Eh. I don't know about that. Gotta consider that Trumaine missed a long time with an injury as we were incorporating a new scheme. I think both of those are key factors as to why they're easing him back in to an extent.