BonifayRam
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- Jan 14, 2013
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- Vernon
shaunpinney said:
Current OL going into camp
That's the problem each and every year we have injuries why would you expect it to be any different this season. shaunpinney do you have any concerns that of the five you listed two have extensive injury history in just a still young NFL career. Three of your listed starters were on the IR last season. Four are coming off long term rehabbing times. The all important Saffold you held up so high has missed parts or whole 21 games in two seasons. How can you say Saffold is going to excel when he has yet to perform the duties @ ORT in any training camp or pre season or any NFL game at Right OT? Saffold who has played left OT & nothing else in HS, College & NFL may have been drafted & planned by Spags to play ORT but that never took place, it never happened. For two NFL drafts Fisher & Snead have not drafted the first Offensive Tackle they have instead brought in UFA's or wavered OT's? Early last year they did well with UFA's OT's in Richardson, Hunter, Ojinnaka & Turner. Later when the season started they brought in Barksdale, Nsekhe & Chris Williams. Snead & Fisher have dispersed the first four OT's and have kept the later three & brought in UFA Long & UDFA Brown. so they are doing it again this season. Thus far Snead & fisher do not feel strongly about building an OL through the draft with top first and second day draft selections, completely different from the current top two teams in our division & NFC ... San Fran & Seattle.
I wished I had your such optimism on all these Ram OL facts. I had a serious natural high & much higher optimism last season after Fisher cast off starting OLG Jacob Bell, OC Jason Brown, Swing OT Adam Goldberg & ORT Jason Smith. But when Snead & Fisher waited till the third day of the draft to reach to select Rok Watkins as the only move through the draft. Fisher made a high end purchase for a small average strength but smart well seasoned center only to see him having three surgeries on the same leg (knee & bones in foot). I did watch Wells play and found his play poor period and outplayed @ center by Robert Turner. First regular season game Rams watched as Sam Bradford's OL lost starting center, OLG & OLT. That's unusual for most NFL teams but not the Rams. Rams inserted their rookie OL Watkins into the OLG post but he was also injured in this first game too& was IR'd. So in the first NFL game Rams placed two OL'ers on IR and Saffold did return in week two but was injured again and was out until week 10. Saffold's back up Wayne Hunter played OLT for 3 games until he was hurt & was out for 5 weeks thus giving us Barksdale starting in 2 games and took up the swing OT position for 3 other games.
Early last season Sam Bradford suffered through protection from Fisher's Ram OL'ers who played in their first regular NFL games OLT Ty Nsekhe, OLG Shelley Smith, OLT Joe Barksdale & OLG Rok Watkins. Sam also survived the protection of discarded released refurbishing OL projects like OLT Wayne Hunter, ORT/ORG Chris Williams & OLG Quinn Ojinnaka :ohno: :omg: . YIKES! So that all happened over the first quarter of the season. Sam Bradford is lucky to be alive! Kudos for Sam Bradford! :bangin:
This current OL as we have now does on paper look to have some very good potential. The Rams 3 center cadre containing 32 yr old rehabbing Wells, 2nd yr player UDFA Tim Barnes & rookie 4th rd pick Barrett Jones would not be as good as last yrs 2012's Wells-Turner-Barnes edition. Only Wells has any NFL game experience.
Fisher went into 2012 with Turner-Dahl & Watkins dumping Bryan Mathison & Quinn Ojinnaka before the season started. Fisher quickly burned through his OG's in his first game of 2012. Being forced to roam the streets to bring back the great Ojinnaka back to replace Watkins & sign Shelley Smith off of the Texan release waver wire. Fisher went into the regular season with only three OT's and when injuries struck the OT cadre it sent Fisher doing the same thing for OT's who were unemployed. Thus the early Sam Bradford Ram season OL was made up unemployed discarded street free agents Shelley Smith, Joe Barksdale, TY Nsekhe, Brandon Washington, Quinn Ojinnaka & Chris Williams.
The current 2013 OG candidates looks fat in numbers & unknowns too. Texans 2010 6th rd pick Shelley Smith & Harvey Dahl have NFL experience starting now. Dahl should be healthy enough and Smith held his own starting games @ both OLG & ORG. Rok Watkins is said to be finally in playing condition but will still be considered a first yr player after spending all of his TC & pre season just getting into shape missing valuable practice time in 2012 with Boudreau. Eagles 6th rd 2012 pick Brandon Washington is also here & healthy ready to get with Boudreau too. So the four OG cadre should be ample or adequate for 2013. The Rams also signed UDFA Kevin Saia a 6-2 310 pound LEFT OG from Louisiana tech who played four seasons @ OLG. So Fisher gets a plus here.
The OT candidates of OLT Jake Long, Rodger Saffold ORT, Swing 3rd OT Chris Williams 5yr vet, OLT Joe Barksdale 2 yr vet & OLT Ty Nsekhe 1st yr. Fisher added another UDFA in Branden Brown 6-6 310 pound Right tackle started 38 games @ ORT protecting a left hand QB. I think that Barrett Jones is a better NFL quick fix @ OT than a NFL OG. Jones does not have the power or strength to handle NFL DT's but DE is another story he might excel better than we think. We know that C.Williams is no starting OT either at side he has failed seriously @ OLG too. CW might be a possible ORG reserve so CW is a minus. Barksdale played mostly @ OLT in college failed to make the very weak Oakland Raider 2012 as a reserve OT? He was waved before the reg. season started. Rams have hyped him up. Barksdale would be a very weak 3rd swing OT. The 6-8 tall Nsekhe spent 3 yrs playing semi pro ball until the panic'd Colts signed him in Aug 2012 they quickly released Ty. Month later the Rams signed him to roster after the rash of OL injuries. Ty did see the Game day field several times. Rams did what the Colt did released him a few weeks later. Later signed him to the PS. IMO 4th rd pick of Barrett Jones may have more talent & worth as the best swing OT candidate of the entire bunch of Fisher's OT candidates. That's not good my fellow ROD'ers. Guess I should point out that two OG candidates have decent college OT experience (Washington & Watkins played OT their Sr seasons). Washington play OLT and Watkins best games came from ORT.
Summary
Seems to me that Snead & Fisher are gambling on this cadre of OL'ers once again remaining healthy. At the very center of this situation is Rodger Saffold the NEW starting Right OT .......Saffold will have to have the best & healthiest NFL season in 2013 for this OL to be what most think it will be....If we used Ram past OL history makes this a serious bad bet. Would you call it a bad bet in 2013? Ok if that not enough weight on Saffold's shoulders Fisher is depending on Saffold to be the backup to the all important OLT post too for Jake Long too. Not an issue right?
Rodger Saffold Sidebar Paragraph
Since Saffold's arrival he has been assigned to play game day next to OLG's like Jacob Bell, Hank Fraley, Jason Brown, Kevin Hughes, Tony Wragge, Robert Turner, Quinn Ojinnaka & Rok Watkins. Saffold being teamed finally with a aggressive talented OG like Harvey Dahl might be the best thing that has happened to him since entering the NFL. So I am looking for anything positive from all angles here. Saffold might find more happiness with Harvey. The best thing I could wish for from this flip flop of Saffold is he does experience an all pro season @ ORT & Snead & Fisher pay him OLT $$$ to be here for the next half decade! :woooot:
If Saffold goes left who goes right? Who is the top reserve ORT ? Who is that? Have you named them yet? Got their names OK. What your telling me is Fisher is betting on pass former NFL grade failures @ ORT in Joe Barksdale & Chris Williams. Is that what you are telling me? I am supposed to feel good about that? Rams did not draft a future ORT this yr. They did not draft one last yr either. They did not draft one in 2011 either but that was Spags too. I said last month the best most experienced ORT we have on the Ram roster is our starting 32 yr old Harvey Dahl...He was a starting ORT in college & spent the first half of his NFL yrs playing ORT before Boudreau gave him a chance to play OG. Harvey is not all that good @ ORT but he would be the best so this brings out my point on the situation @ ORT is. On the positive side I feel so good about 4th rd. rookie Barrett Jones that before I would bet on JB or CW starting @ ORT I would go with rookie Jones starting ORT he is no failure like the other two. In the near future fisher will need to develop or draft a starting ORT after this season.
It should also be said that this 2013 draft for Right OT's was deplorable in value so they could be much smarter that the rest of the NFL GM's & HC's for not wasting draft picks on very low quality ORT's. Lets face it if those two can pull off this major transition of Saffold left to right & Saffold does excel & stays healthy for the first time since 2010 as shaunpinney & most ROD'ers believe then Sam Bradford will ride this wave far into the playoffs. I do not think that even Saffold knows how important he is to Sam Bradford and the entire 2013 season. If Sam is constantly looking right and seeing Saffold constantly destroying & pancaking DE's that effect on Sam's comfort-ability will soar off the charts something he has had very little of since his arrival here. Thus allowing him to constantly read his check-downs & make the proper throws over & over again.
OLT- Jake Long/R.Saffold/J.Barksdale/ T.Nsekhe
OLG- S.Smith/B.Washington(R)/K.Saia(R)/B.Jones(R)
OC- S.Wells/T.Barnes/B.Jones(R)
ORG- H.Dahl/C.Williams/R.Watkins
ORT- Saffold/B.Jones(R)/B.Brown(R)/R.Watkins
Conclusion
Sam Bradford has showed over and over again that if he is given time in the pocket & is comfortable he can carve up any defense even the best defenses like 9ers & Seahags even without any NFL grade A weapons. To Snead & Fisher credit have spent big amounts of cap money on 2 veteran all pro OL'ers to protect Sam in Scott Wells & Jake Long. Snead & Fisher have placed a ton of pressure on Paul Boudreau on the rest of what they have brought in to direct instruct & guide a jumble of new Ram cadre into the right perfect 2013 OL for Sam Bradford.
