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BY: X
http://www.ramsondemand.com/blog/q-a-with-kevin-demoff/
Rams COO and Executive Vice President stopped by Rams On Demand to field some questions.
Shaky: After all you and the Rams organization have done this past year to better this 2012 Rams team.
Is there anything that the Rams organization did not get done that you wished you had?
I’m sure you are also looking forward to how the Rams organization can better the team in 2013 and better the fan experience. Can you give us any information on any plans looking forward to 2013?
Kevin Demoff: Shaky, there are always ways we can get better as a franchise and an organization. I’m proud of what the 125 men and women in our organization have done over the past three years but we know we can do better and we won’t rest until there is another Lombardi Trophy in the lobby and our fans think we are the most fan-friendly, community-oriented and accessible organization in sports.
We accomplished a lot of great things this offseason, starting with the hiring of Coach Fisher and his staff, Les Snead and his staff, expanding the pre-season television network to 8 states and every possible market in-between, returning to Joplin, building another playground, having Sam Bradford serve as the Komen Race Chair and completely overhauling the roster. One of the things I am most excited about is our first ever FanFest at the Edward Jones Dome next weekend.
Obviously the thing that jumps out to me that we were unable to accomplish is being able to give our fans a clear answer on the Edward Jones Dome lease and putting that issue out of sight and out of mind for our fan base. As much as I expected this could wind up in arbitration the optimist in me was hoping we’d find a quick solution. That will be a priority for 2013 as I expect the on-field product to be much improved. Then we can focus on how to keep growing the fan base.
Paceram: Can you give us your thoughts on the Rams Defense that Jeff Fisher and Les Snead have put together? Am I being overly optimistic thinking this unit is going to be very, very good? By adding veteran free agents Cortland Finnegan, Rocky McIntosh, Jo-Lonn Dunbar, Kendall Langford, William Hayes, Trevor Laws and Mario Haggan along with drafting Michael Brockers, Janoris Jenkins, Trumaine Johnson and Aaron Brown it seems to me that the Rams not only upgraded several positions on their Defense but also greatlly improved their depth as well. As excited as I am to seeing what the Rams Offense can do with Sam Bradford and his new weapons (Quick, Pead, Givens, Smith, etc) I can’t wait to see their new Defense in action! I honestly think Jeff Fisher will have the Rams back to respectability and playoff contention much sooner than many people (other than us Rams Fans!) think!
Thanks so much for sharing your time and thoughts with us!
Kevin Demoff: I share your optimism regarding the defense. I think the most important area we needed to improve was the defensive tackle position, and there is nothing better than seeing two 6’5, 320 lb monsters in Kendall Langford and Michael Brockers standing along the defensive line. That will make James Laurinaitis better, it will make Robert Quinn and Chris Long better, it makes our safeties better. The defensive line has strong depth and can be together for a long time if we can get Chris Long under contract. The other three are under contract for at least the next four years.
Most important for the secondary will be a return to health. This team will be better just from having a healthy Bradley Fletcher and Jerome Murphy, but add in the additions of Finnegan, Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson and you have the makings of a strong group. Josh Gordy proved that he can help last year and even young players like Kendric Burney have shown flashes this offseason. The safety position has 3 stalwarts in Mikell, Stewart and Dahl returning and the competition between our undrafted FA safeties for the final spot will be intense.
At linebacker, this defense needs a leader at MLB and we have just that in #55. Jo-Lonn Dunbar knows the defense and adds young toughness on the outside and Josh Hull, Mario Haggan and Rocky McIntosh will be a good battle for the other spot. The young LB’s are all in the mix as well and don’t be surprised to see them sneak into the lineup this season.
I hope we have the right ingredients to begin to come together pretty quickly.
Barrison6: Please KD we all know you are the man, and one way you can prove this to us is let us have the blue and yellows back as our default uniforms and change our throwback to blue and whites, more and more fans are asking for this and i would be happy seeing our blue and yellows every home game
Kevin Demoff: It wouldn’t be a chat without a uniform question! We are going to re-evaluate the uniform combinations and throwback options over the next year and may sit down with Nike to get their thoughts as well. We have a rich history and a lot of great options to consider. I personally love the old Blue and White uniforms as I have said on many occasions and our fans have fond memories of the Blue and Yellow. Maybe a new fresh look would be appropriate. Heck, I even like the Cleveland Ram uniforms as a throwback option. Stay tuned!
DR RAM
#1 What is the back up plan if Jason Smith continues to struggle?
#2 Has there ever been any discussion on whether Jason may be a better fit at guard? He seems like a good fit there.
#3 In your opinion, who do you think will win that spot?
#4 Were you surprised at some of the cuts that were made before the season started last year?
#5 Do you think many of Saffold’s problems last year related to confidence issues once things started going bad? It seemed like that was a
#6 Will coach Boudreau be able to fix these technical issues and turn Rodger into the player that we all think he should be?
#7 What do you think of Hughes future?
#8 Will Hughes get a chance to play any snaps at guard and compete for that position, or do the Rams think he is a tackle only?
#9 What do you think of the offensive lineman as a group so far, compared to last years group based on talent alone?
#10 Do you think that Boudreau was, in essence, a first round pick for the offensive line?
#11 The offensive line seems extremely light compared to the Falcons o-line. How does this fit in with coach Boudreau’s scheme?
#12 How does the Rokevious Watkins fit into that scheme, he is the biggest Ram’s offensive lineman?
Kevin Demoff: Impressive to sneak in a TWELVE PART QUESTION disguised as one question!
First and foremost, as Les Snead said in his stlouisrams.com chat earlier this week, we feel like the addition of Paul Boudreau as offensive line coach is the most important addition to our unit up front. The best offensive lines are always the most talented lines but the ones that play best together. The sum of the parts has to be greater than the whole. The other way to improve the sum of the parts is to get strong veteran leadership, and with Scott Wells making the line calls at center and Harvey Dahl to his right, we feel we have the vet leadership up front.
I think Rodger Saffold has quietly had one of the best offseasons of any of our returning players. He’s in great shape and has gotten stronger in the upper body. Our coaches are excited about his ability to return to or improve upon his 2010 form when he was a standout rookie. I can’t wait to see him in pads. As for Jason Smith, the focus this offseason has been to clean up his fundamentals. He has the physical tools to be a good tackle in the NFL and that is what we have emphasized. In 2010 when he had a full year in the lineup he was making great strides and we need to build on that. The most important aspect is keeping the group healthy and playing together so they work in harmony. Barry Richardson provides a lot of starting experience (started the last 32 games) should anything happen to our tackles and Kevin Hughes, Jose Valdez and Joe Long are all promising young players. I think Hughes is primarily a Tackle and that is where we will use him. He played well in the preseason last year but I think asking an undrafted kid from SE Louisiana to play LT in his first year in the NFL was a tall order, but we were forced to do that because of injuries.
As for LG, no need to handicap it, the best player will play. Mattison, Watkins, Ojinnaka, they are all in the mix and provide different looks. It will be a great competition to watch and evaluate and we are confident that one of them will take advantage of the opportunity and become a fixture at LG.
ZN: Based on what you’ve seen this spring so far–and granted it’s early so we won’t hold you to it–what would you say right now about the 2nd year improvement and development of Quinn, Kendricks, Pettis, and Salas?
And if you had a do-over, would you have kept any of the lower round picks from that draft (including players like Williams and Hines)? (In short, do you regret the team having cut them last year.)
Kevin Demoff: The old adage is that a players’ biggest development is between the first and second year, and I think all of our picks from last year have shown great improvement. Quinn was dominant in the OTA’s which was a great sign. Pettis and Salas both showed really good hands and ability and I expect that will continue through training camp. Pettis was noticeably improved and became a good target for Sam. Kendricks is well suited for the F role in Coach Schottenheimer’s offense and it showed. They should all make strong contributions this year.
To be honest, I regret cutting any young player from last year given the way the year played out. The more young players we would have had the more we could have played them at the end of last season and found out if they had any ability. Did we make some mistakes last year? Absolutely, but we all made them together. It will be very frustrating to see a young player develop on another team that we had identified in the draft as a player who could improve our team, especially a player like Williams when we could use more young competition at OLB.
DR RAM: #1 Who do you think will be the breakout player(s) this year, like say Darian Stewart was last year?
Kevin Demoff: As for breakout players, I hate to single out any individual players but I’m excited about the growth of both Josh Hull and Eugene Sims. I think they could be players to watch this year after having contributing roles in the past. Austin Pettis is another that could emerge from that group. I also think we have some real depth at RB and the Richardson/Reynolds/Middleton/Schweiger group will be fun to watch in preseason.
Both Steve Smith and Brandon Gibson finished OTA’s strong and can help in the passing game, they can only help be playmakers in that group.
In reality, on the youngest team in the NFL, we expect all of our rookies to either start or be contributors. Les and Jeff drafted with the mindset of these players coming in and helping right away and we expect all of them to deliver on their promise.
As for rookie LB’s, let’s see them in pads first!
Selassie I: First,,, Thank You very much for taking the time to answer questions from us freaks here at ROD Kevin. Very cool of you, and I can assure you that this Ram Fan of 39 years appreciates it.
1) Is Stan going to buy the rest of Chip and Lucia’s ownership in the franchise, or are they going to remain permanent minority owners? I thought I remember reading that the plan is for Stan to purchase 100% of the shares at some point??
2) Between Coach Fisher, Les, and yourself,,, who has the biggest / nicest office?
3) Man, you’ve got a Tough Gig in handling the CVC Dome negotiations. I admire your hard work in this,,, it doesn’t go unnoticed by me.
Kevin Demoff: One of my favorite handles on ROD by the way…
I expect Chip and Lucia to be around the franchise for a long time, they are passionate fans and were great stewards of the organization for the period they were in charge. Many of the changes that started in 2008 were the result of their desire to get it right for our fans in St. Louis and their family’s legacy in the NFL is a great one. As for the specifics of their agreement with Mr. Kroenke, that’s probably best kept between the parties.
That’s easy — Mr. Kroenke has the nicest and biggest office, the rest are all very similar.
I appreciate the kind words on the comment, but like everything at Rams Park and in the organization, there are many hard-working employees, coaches and scouts making sure that we build a team that our fans can be proud of both on and off the field. To be honest, I get far too much credit for the great work of so many in this building. As for the blame when things go wrong, I rightfully get the blame!
BrokeU91: Hello Kevin,
Thanks for coming to this forum and answering our questions.
Is there any headway in contract extensions with Chris Long and James Laurinaitis? Has there been some hesitancy to lock them up before now, because of the possibility that they may not perform as well in the new defensive system? How big will their cap numbers be if they aren’t signed and they get a franchise tag?
Kevin Demoff: We continue to talk with the agents for Chris and James in hopes of getting a deal done with both of them. There is no hesitancy to extend their contracts, they’ve both earned new contracts and we would be excited to keep them in horns for a long time. Our coaching staff and personnel group believe in both players and expect them to be both strong players and leaders for our team moving forward.
The franchise numbers are not known for the LB and DE spot yet, but in all honesty, there is no chance we would franchise Chris Long as his franchise number would be north of $21m. We’ve planned carefully to make sure we have the opportunity to keep both players with us next year by having the salary cap room in 2013 to absorb both contract extensions.
Ramhusker: Thanks Kevin for finding this fantastic Ram Fan site. The guys who created this monster have done an amazing job as evidenced by you visiting to field our questions. I’d like to thank you and Ramsondemand.
I have a salary cap question for you. I see the Rams are near the bottom of the list as to available cap space. I know this is somewhat due to our Rams having to draft so high for the past decade. How do you plan for getting in a more favorable cap position while at the same time “remodeling” the roster to be a winner? That has to be a tall order for you and the Rams.
P.S. I too eagerly await the return of the old Blue and White uniforms! Make it happen dude!!!
Kevin Demoff: I think “cap space” can be misleading. Yes, we are one of the teams with less cap room this year than most, but we also went into the season planning to be at or near the bottom in cap space in order to preserve future cap space.
I know many fans ask why we haven’t restructured contracts to free up more “cap space” and the answer is simple — we don’t need any more in 2012. We always try to go into a season with roughly $3m of space to handle injuries and contingency plans (trades, signings, etc) and right now we are exactly at that number. When we signed Finnegan, Wells and Langford, we wrote the contracts in such a way as to take a normal salary cap hit in 2012 and not defer cap dollars into the future. This will allow us to re-sign our own players and add an impact FA or two every season.
The plan is to make sure we have as little signing bonus allocation as possible moving forward to give us greater roster flexbility. The salary cap is like a credit card, you can either pay it off as you go or you can make the minimum payments knowing you will have to pay in the future. We plan to pay it off as we go. We want to extend our key players and add quality free agents but always with an eye to the future. We are fortunate to have a number of young players under the new rookie salary system with multiple first rounders to come. We want to make sure we have adequate cap space in 2015 and beyond to pay those players as well. By the end of 2014, we will have 12 first or second rounders on the roster under the new rookie system and they will all start coming up for contracts, and we want to have the ability to keep that nucleus together. That’s why we will try to absorb as much of the salary cap charges as possible for the current roster.
Ramhusker: Hey Kevin, I have another question for you.
Being a Rams fan for 40+ years, I often feel I wish I could help the team out some way. I know you have plenty of capable scouts that have more than enough to do but I often think it would be a great idea for those scouts to have volunteer eyes and ears about the country. Is there presently a way for fans like me to drop a scout a name of a player from a small school/s that maybe they have missed?
Thanks again!
Kevin Demoff: Of course, feel free to tweet @LesSneadHair to recommend a player to Les!
Lesson: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Mr. Demoff!
I remember last season there were upgrades to the TVs and such at the Dome last season. Will there be anything like that again for this season? Thanks!
Kevin Demoff: There will be a few minor changes to the EJD this season, but most of them will be small. We are trying to continue to upgrade the food choices so you will see more grill carts throughout the concourses and some new menu items. The most noticeable change is we are re-opening the team store in the NE Corner of the stadium so fans have a place to shop for new Rams geat from Nike and New Era. We will continue to tweak our in-game entertainment to make it better for fans and we have a new in-stadium host in Sara Dayley from KSDK. Finally, we have a number of new promotional items such as the Fisher Stache for the opener to give to fans as they walk into the stadium.
Oh yeah, we also have a home primetime game for the first time in 5 years! It’s about time!
X: I heard a lot of media pundits saying Justin Blackmon was a lock for this team in the 2012 draft, but I also read some more obscure reports that Michael Brockers was the Rams’ target in the first round no matter what. What would have happened if Blackmon dropped to the #6 spot this Spring? Would that spot have been traded, presumably for more than the return on Claiborne? Was Brian Quick ranked higher on your boards than Blackmon anyway?
Kevin Demoff: One of the more fascinating hypotheticals we have talked about in the office has been the trade at 6 if Blackmon had still been on the board, but we were always looking to trade back out of the Top 10 so I think we all agree it would have played out the same. I give Les and Jeff tremendous credit for having a draft strategy beginning in February and sticking to it throughout the offseason. The goal was to acquire multiple first and second round picks and begin to build this team’s talent level. We weren’t (and still aren’t) one player away.
As for Brian Quick, when Les and I first had dinner in January during the GM search process, he was a big believer in Brian Quick and that never wavered. His outstanding private workout in front of our coaches and scouts confirmed what Les had always said about him and he has shown that talent since arriving in St. Louis. We are excited about his potential, but there were a lot of good receivers in this draft and they all brought unique skill sets to the table that were all different. That’s why comparisons amongst them are very hard. AJ Jenkins is a very different player than Michael Floyd who was different than Kendall Wright, etc etc…
F Mulder: Hi Kevin, assuming you sign Jenkins and Johnson somewhere within the expected salary range you have set out, what will be the cap situation for the upcoming season?
What is a comfortable amount under the cap necessary for issues that may require using more cap money during the season?
Finally, can you discuss the potential cap situation for 2013? I know it is early and there are several bigger contracts that need to be addressed but my understanding was that we would be in very good cap shape next season.
Thanks!
Kevin Demoff: As mentioned in another thread, we are about $3m under the salary cap as of Sunday and that probably won’t change. That is always the contingency number we like to be at heading into August.
For 2013, in reality we are about $25-30m under the salary cap after the FA signings this past year. Most of that will be used to re-sign our own players while bringing in maybe a free agent or two. We’ve always planned that 2013 would be about keeping our own that philosophy won’t change.
Angry Ram: Hi Mr. Demoff, thanks for taking the time.
What is going on with these lawsuits from former employees? They seem fixed on spoiling the team’s image. How is this being handled or is it handled already?
What exactly is arbitration with regards to the stadium? Is there more of a chance an extension could be agreed during that time, or nothing more than what happened a couple months ago?
Last this is just a comment, but thanks a ton for expanding the Rams’ coverage to Oklahoma. From having radio stations called “your home for St. Louis Rams football” and listening to Savard/Farr during games, to having the local preseason game feeds, Bradford’s influence is huge, maybe bigger than Adrian Peterson’s. Dallas will always have priority because of the close proximity, but the Rams have overtook other teams as the #2 team here. Having OKC and Tulsa markets being affiliates is awesome and I’m hoping it will stay that way for a long time, especially if the team stays in St. Louis.
Thank you
Kevin Demoff: I can’t comment on ongoing litigation, but we take pride in trying to be a great workplace for all of our employees and its disappointing when some feel we haven’t achieved that goal. I don’t believe the media or chat rooms or forums are the places to address these issues which is why you won’t see any team comments on the lawsuits.
The arbitration process is really just beginning as we are working with the CVC to select the arbitrators. Once the arbitrators are selected, we have to find a time when all three arbitrators can hold the proceedings and once the proceedings are complete the arbitrators likely will give a ruling by the end of the year. I don’t believe there will be any new updates until late in the season at the earliest and it could go until the end of the year as outlined in the lease.
We were the top rated television show in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City markest last August, we are thrilled to be part of Sooner Nation and to continue to grow fans in Oklahoma.
Memento: Mr. Demoff,
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our site. It’s awesome when someone like yourself answers the questions of loyal Rams fans.
Anyway, I was curious as to how you targeted specific free agents in this off-season. Not just the big names like Cortland Finnegan, Kendall Langford, and Scott Wells, but also guys like Trevor Laws and Rocky McIntosh. Was there a specific plan that you, Fisher, and Snead stuck to?
Again, thank you so much for your time. I’ve got faith in you guys getting a winning record this year.
Go Rams!
Kevin Demoff: Les and Jeff had a specific plan of trying to improve this team, but Les is a big believer in fixing units one at a time and not taking a scattershot approach to building the roster. The signing of Kendall Langford along with the drafting of Michael Brockers was designed to put in place a strong front four, with the idea of getting quality depth behind it. Cortland Finnegan was added with the idea of drafting at least one corner to pair with our returning players to get a strong cornerback group and secondary. Scott Wells was brought in to not only be the glue of the OL but to be Sam Bradford’s eyes and ears up front, just as he did with Aaron Rodgers. We wanted tough, physical players to set the tempo for a Coach Fisher team. Once we accomplished that, it was about adding the best possible younger talent we could to bring competition all over the roster. We wanted to add a WR in free agency but we dropped out of most of them when the bidding when past our comfort level. We knew we could do that because we always wanted to add Steve Smith who had put up better numbers than most of the FA WR when healthy. It has some risk in signing a player coming off an injury but we felt Steve would be much better in his second season since the surgery.
ScotsRam: Hi, I have tickets for the London game and I am ridiculously excited about getting to see the Rams live for the first time. I was wondering if there will be any opportunities to meet Ram players or even yourself while the rams are in town. Additionally, I would love to visit St Louis in the future and wondered if you have plans to run packages for international fans to visit StL as you are doing for US based fans to visit London? Thanks for your time!
Kevin Demoff: The London game is essentially a second Super Bowl, so there will be many great fan experiences. The team will participate in the Fan Rally at Trafalgar Square on Saturday and there is a large tailgate party for all of the fans on Sunday prior to the game. There will be great opportunities for Rams fans to enjoy the week of festivities in London and it should be a great growing experience for our young team to play a primetime game in front of 85,000 fans.
As for travel packages to the US, we have a great partner in PrimeSport who handles travel packages, give them a call!
Kevin
Libertadrocks: I was wondering if the Rams have any ‘fiscal cliffs’ in the foreseeable future? A year where we could be in serious cap trouble without cutting players or have to restructure deals. Just based on current contract structures.
Also how would resigning/extending Chris Long and James Laurinaitis effect the out years cap situation?
One more. Is there talk within the organization about making SJ39 a Rams for life? I know it’s a business and sometimes difficult decisions must be made, but I think I speak for most Ram fans when I say I truly appreciate the effort and leadership he has exhibited through the tough times.
Thanks!
Kevin Demoff: The fiscal cliff that has me most worried is 2015 and 2016 when our young draft picks for the next few years will be coming up for contract extensions. For example, with 5 players in the top 65 picks, and we expect all to become stars, we need to begin planning now to extend all of them in 2016 and beyond. With the haul from the RGIII trade we need to plan to absorb all of our young players as they will become our nucleus for years to come.
I’m not that concerned about 2013 as we have the ability to absorb contracts for #55, #91 and #16. Thankfully, most of our roster is now on their rookie deals so we have the ability to re-sign free agents and add new free agents without harming our core of young talent. That’s the advantage of being the youngest team in the league.
The way to prevent a fiscal cliff is by not pushing out salary cap charges into the future. Pay the players you can afford now and plan for today’s rookies to be tomorrow’s stars. If your Super Bowl window is closing you can take the alternative philosophy, but I think we can all agree our window hasn’t been open and isn’t closing.
Bluecoconuts: Kevin,
Thank you for taking time out of your busy day’s to answer some of our questions. As we all know, last year, and years before, the Rams seem to suffer an abundance of injuries, often to key positions. With Jeff Fisher’s experience does he have any secret tips that could help prevent these from happening, or is it just cross your fingers, and rub your lucky rabbits foot, hoping that it doesn’t happen?
Oh! Also whenever you get the stadium deal worked out, please make the seats blue not red!
Thank you, keep up the great work! Can’t wait to see the Rams shock some teams on Sunday and make the NFL take notice!
-Colin
Kevin Demoff: Couldn’t agree more on the blue seats, but the seat color doesn’t matter if we do our job and get them filled. With fans in Rams jerseys filling the seats they will always look blue!
As for injuries, I think Coach Fisher knows how to manage a team through the season to match his tough and physical style of play. Last year we had a lot of broken bones which is impossible to prevent. The key is knowing when to push your team and when to back off, and Coach Fisher, Les Snead, Reggie Scott and the doctors have a good plan in place. At some point we have to catch an injury break. We did in 2010 and you saw us make great strides, so rub that rabbit’s foot.
ZN: According to Football Outsiders the Rams last year had the single most injured offense since 2002. (They also show that offensive injuries do more damage to a team’s chances than injuries to defense.) You were part of that, of course, and experienced it first hand. Now I know the mantra about how “all teams have injuries”–but not all teams have the most injured offense of an entire decade.
2 questions.
1. Posed as a short series of questions. What does that do to morale? Not just the team, the whole building. What are the dark and more hopeful sides of that experience? Does it lead to any grim humor about being cursed? (I’m partly serious about that last question.) What was it like to realize the Rams were going to IR their tenth cornerback?
2. The team struggled at first with the McDaniels offense. Do you believe they were catching on to that offense before the injuries derailed that?
Kevin Demoff: I don’t think we ever thought we were cursed, but the injuries are just like the stages of denial and anger. At first you can’t believe it’s happening to you and then you finally come to acceptance. There were times though at CB all you could do was laugh, but as the players were dropping against the Eagles, it’s hard to explain how you feel. I was most disappointed for fans and the entire organization that a whole 9 months of hope could go out the window as you watched our best players leave against the Eagles.
As for Josh’s offense, people forget that Sam Bradford had 2 300-yard passing games in the first 5 games and how well we moved the ball initially versus both the Eagles and the Giants. To be fair to Josh and the players, in the one full game that Steven Jackson and Sam Bradford both played in and were healthy against the Packers, we put up a season high in yards (something like 435 yards) and moved the ball really well. The offense seemed to be hitting its stride and then Sam hurt his ankle on the final play. Had that not happened and we added Brandon Lloyd, I think the offense would have been vastly different the remainder of the year. But going through 4 QBs, a number of RBs, 5 LT’s, there was never a hope for that unit.
X: Thank you for taking the time to interact with the fans here at ROD! My question would be this. If the Rams had fared better last year (a virtually impossible task given the amount of injuries), would Steve Spagnuolo had been retained even with Jeff Fisher hitting the open market?
Kevin Demoff: I left the host’s question for last.
The organization’s decision to make a change would not have been made had we been 8-8 or anywhere close to that. We were fortunate to have a great person in Steve Spagnuolo leading our organization and a talented and dedicated group of assistant coaches. I don’t know of any coaching staff that had to face more adversity last season than ours between the hardest schedule in the NFL and the number of injuries we faced. They did an admirable job having been dealt a lousy hand and our team played hard for them until the end. I think this team has a bright future and much of that is because of the work Coach Spagnuolo and Billy Devaney did in changing the culture and perception of this team and finding young talent like Chris Long, James Laurinaitis, Sam Bradford, Rodger Saffold, Lance Kendricks, Austin Pettis, Greg Salas, Bradley Fletcher, Jerome Murphy, Jason Smith, Darian Stewart and others. They don’t get enough credit for the work they did in pointing this team in the right direction. Steve and Billy are the type of people you root for every day and when this team turns the corner they deserve all of our appreciation for the role they played in that.
——————
To all members of Rams On Demand,
Thank you for letting me participate on your board today. This site does a great job of bringing Rams fans together and that is what forums are for, giving our passionate fans a place to talk to other fans. We all may disagree from time to time on players, play calls, draft picks or free agents, but we have a common passion for the Rams that binds us all. Always remember that and great times are ahead for our beloved franchise!
Kevin
http://www.ramsondemand.com/blog/q-a-with-kevin-demoff/
Rams COO and Executive Vice President stopped by Rams On Demand to field some questions.
Shaky: After all you and the Rams organization have done this past year to better this 2012 Rams team.
Is there anything that the Rams organization did not get done that you wished you had?
I’m sure you are also looking forward to how the Rams organization can better the team in 2013 and better the fan experience. Can you give us any information on any plans looking forward to 2013?
Kevin Demoff: Shaky, there are always ways we can get better as a franchise and an organization. I’m proud of what the 125 men and women in our organization have done over the past three years but we know we can do better and we won’t rest until there is another Lombardi Trophy in the lobby and our fans think we are the most fan-friendly, community-oriented and accessible organization in sports.
We accomplished a lot of great things this offseason, starting with the hiring of Coach Fisher and his staff, Les Snead and his staff, expanding the pre-season television network to 8 states and every possible market in-between, returning to Joplin, building another playground, having Sam Bradford serve as the Komen Race Chair and completely overhauling the roster. One of the things I am most excited about is our first ever FanFest at the Edward Jones Dome next weekend.
Obviously the thing that jumps out to me that we were unable to accomplish is being able to give our fans a clear answer on the Edward Jones Dome lease and putting that issue out of sight and out of mind for our fan base. As much as I expected this could wind up in arbitration the optimist in me was hoping we’d find a quick solution. That will be a priority for 2013 as I expect the on-field product to be much improved. Then we can focus on how to keep growing the fan base.
Paceram: Can you give us your thoughts on the Rams Defense that Jeff Fisher and Les Snead have put together? Am I being overly optimistic thinking this unit is going to be very, very good? By adding veteran free agents Cortland Finnegan, Rocky McIntosh, Jo-Lonn Dunbar, Kendall Langford, William Hayes, Trevor Laws and Mario Haggan along with drafting Michael Brockers, Janoris Jenkins, Trumaine Johnson and Aaron Brown it seems to me that the Rams not only upgraded several positions on their Defense but also greatlly improved their depth as well. As excited as I am to seeing what the Rams Offense can do with Sam Bradford and his new weapons (Quick, Pead, Givens, Smith, etc) I can’t wait to see their new Defense in action! I honestly think Jeff Fisher will have the Rams back to respectability and playoff contention much sooner than many people (other than us Rams Fans!) think!
Thanks so much for sharing your time and thoughts with us!
Kevin Demoff: I share your optimism regarding the defense. I think the most important area we needed to improve was the defensive tackle position, and there is nothing better than seeing two 6’5, 320 lb monsters in Kendall Langford and Michael Brockers standing along the defensive line. That will make James Laurinaitis better, it will make Robert Quinn and Chris Long better, it makes our safeties better. The defensive line has strong depth and can be together for a long time if we can get Chris Long under contract. The other three are under contract for at least the next four years.
Most important for the secondary will be a return to health. This team will be better just from having a healthy Bradley Fletcher and Jerome Murphy, but add in the additions of Finnegan, Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson and you have the makings of a strong group. Josh Gordy proved that he can help last year and even young players like Kendric Burney have shown flashes this offseason. The safety position has 3 stalwarts in Mikell, Stewart and Dahl returning and the competition between our undrafted FA safeties for the final spot will be intense.
At linebacker, this defense needs a leader at MLB and we have just that in #55. Jo-Lonn Dunbar knows the defense and adds young toughness on the outside and Josh Hull, Mario Haggan and Rocky McIntosh will be a good battle for the other spot. The young LB’s are all in the mix as well and don’t be surprised to see them sneak into the lineup this season.
I hope we have the right ingredients to begin to come together pretty quickly.
Barrison6: Please KD we all know you are the man, and one way you can prove this to us is let us have the blue and yellows back as our default uniforms and change our throwback to blue and whites, more and more fans are asking for this and i would be happy seeing our blue and yellows every home game
Kevin Demoff: It wouldn’t be a chat without a uniform question! We are going to re-evaluate the uniform combinations and throwback options over the next year and may sit down with Nike to get their thoughts as well. We have a rich history and a lot of great options to consider. I personally love the old Blue and White uniforms as I have said on many occasions and our fans have fond memories of the Blue and Yellow. Maybe a new fresh look would be appropriate. Heck, I even like the Cleveland Ram uniforms as a throwback option. Stay tuned!
DR RAM
#1 What is the back up plan if Jason Smith continues to struggle?
#2 Has there ever been any discussion on whether Jason may be a better fit at guard? He seems like a good fit there.
#3 In your opinion, who do you think will win that spot?
#4 Were you surprised at some of the cuts that were made before the season started last year?
#5 Do you think many of Saffold’s problems last year related to confidence issues once things started going bad? It seemed like that was a
#6 Will coach Boudreau be able to fix these technical issues and turn Rodger into the player that we all think he should be?
#7 What do you think of Hughes future?
#8 Will Hughes get a chance to play any snaps at guard and compete for that position, or do the Rams think he is a tackle only?
#9 What do you think of the offensive lineman as a group so far, compared to last years group based on talent alone?
#10 Do you think that Boudreau was, in essence, a first round pick for the offensive line?
#11 The offensive line seems extremely light compared to the Falcons o-line. How does this fit in with coach Boudreau’s scheme?
#12 How does the Rokevious Watkins fit into that scheme, he is the biggest Ram’s offensive lineman?
Kevin Demoff: Impressive to sneak in a TWELVE PART QUESTION disguised as one question!
First and foremost, as Les Snead said in his stlouisrams.com chat earlier this week, we feel like the addition of Paul Boudreau as offensive line coach is the most important addition to our unit up front. The best offensive lines are always the most talented lines but the ones that play best together. The sum of the parts has to be greater than the whole. The other way to improve the sum of the parts is to get strong veteran leadership, and with Scott Wells making the line calls at center and Harvey Dahl to his right, we feel we have the vet leadership up front.
I think Rodger Saffold has quietly had one of the best offseasons of any of our returning players. He’s in great shape and has gotten stronger in the upper body. Our coaches are excited about his ability to return to or improve upon his 2010 form when he was a standout rookie. I can’t wait to see him in pads. As for Jason Smith, the focus this offseason has been to clean up his fundamentals. He has the physical tools to be a good tackle in the NFL and that is what we have emphasized. In 2010 when he had a full year in the lineup he was making great strides and we need to build on that. The most important aspect is keeping the group healthy and playing together so they work in harmony. Barry Richardson provides a lot of starting experience (started the last 32 games) should anything happen to our tackles and Kevin Hughes, Jose Valdez and Joe Long are all promising young players. I think Hughes is primarily a Tackle and that is where we will use him. He played well in the preseason last year but I think asking an undrafted kid from SE Louisiana to play LT in his first year in the NFL was a tall order, but we were forced to do that because of injuries.
As for LG, no need to handicap it, the best player will play. Mattison, Watkins, Ojinnaka, they are all in the mix and provide different looks. It will be a great competition to watch and evaluate and we are confident that one of them will take advantage of the opportunity and become a fixture at LG.
ZN: Based on what you’ve seen this spring so far–and granted it’s early so we won’t hold you to it–what would you say right now about the 2nd year improvement and development of Quinn, Kendricks, Pettis, and Salas?
And if you had a do-over, would you have kept any of the lower round picks from that draft (including players like Williams and Hines)? (In short, do you regret the team having cut them last year.)
Kevin Demoff: The old adage is that a players’ biggest development is between the first and second year, and I think all of our picks from last year have shown great improvement. Quinn was dominant in the OTA’s which was a great sign. Pettis and Salas both showed really good hands and ability and I expect that will continue through training camp. Pettis was noticeably improved and became a good target for Sam. Kendricks is well suited for the F role in Coach Schottenheimer’s offense and it showed. They should all make strong contributions this year.
To be honest, I regret cutting any young player from last year given the way the year played out. The more young players we would have had the more we could have played them at the end of last season and found out if they had any ability. Did we make some mistakes last year? Absolutely, but we all made them together. It will be very frustrating to see a young player develop on another team that we had identified in the draft as a player who could improve our team, especially a player like Williams when we could use more young competition at OLB.
DR RAM: #1 Who do you think will be the breakout player(s) this year, like say Darian Stewart was last year?
Kevin Demoff: As for breakout players, I hate to single out any individual players but I’m excited about the growth of both Josh Hull and Eugene Sims. I think they could be players to watch this year after having contributing roles in the past. Austin Pettis is another that could emerge from that group. I also think we have some real depth at RB and the Richardson/Reynolds/Middleton/Schweiger group will be fun to watch in preseason.
Both Steve Smith and Brandon Gibson finished OTA’s strong and can help in the passing game, they can only help be playmakers in that group.
In reality, on the youngest team in the NFL, we expect all of our rookies to either start or be contributors. Les and Jeff drafted with the mindset of these players coming in and helping right away and we expect all of them to deliver on their promise.
As for rookie LB’s, let’s see them in pads first!
Selassie I: First,,, Thank You very much for taking the time to answer questions from us freaks here at ROD Kevin. Very cool of you, and I can assure you that this Ram Fan of 39 years appreciates it.
1) Is Stan going to buy the rest of Chip and Lucia’s ownership in the franchise, or are they going to remain permanent minority owners? I thought I remember reading that the plan is for Stan to purchase 100% of the shares at some point??
2) Between Coach Fisher, Les, and yourself,,, who has the biggest / nicest office?
3) Man, you’ve got a Tough Gig in handling the CVC Dome negotiations. I admire your hard work in this,,, it doesn’t go unnoticed by me.
Kevin Demoff: One of my favorite handles on ROD by the way…
I expect Chip and Lucia to be around the franchise for a long time, they are passionate fans and were great stewards of the organization for the period they were in charge. Many of the changes that started in 2008 were the result of their desire to get it right for our fans in St. Louis and their family’s legacy in the NFL is a great one. As for the specifics of their agreement with Mr. Kroenke, that’s probably best kept between the parties.
That’s easy — Mr. Kroenke has the nicest and biggest office, the rest are all very similar.
I appreciate the kind words on the comment, but like everything at Rams Park and in the organization, there are many hard-working employees, coaches and scouts making sure that we build a team that our fans can be proud of both on and off the field. To be honest, I get far too much credit for the great work of so many in this building. As for the blame when things go wrong, I rightfully get the blame!
BrokeU91: Hello Kevin,
Thanks for coming to this forum and answering our questions.
Is there any headway in contract extensions with Chris Long and James Laurinaitis? Has there been some hesitancy to lock them up before now, because of the possibility that they may not perform as well in the new defensive system? How big will their cap numbers be if they aren’t signed and they get a franchise tag?
Kevin Demoff: We continue to talk with the agents for Chris and James in hopes of getting a deal done with both of them. There is no hesitancy to extend their contracts, they’ve both earned new contracts and we would be excited to keep them in horns for a long time. Our coaching staff and personnel group believe in both players and expect them to be both strong players and leaders for our team moving forward.
The franchise numbers are not known for the LB and DE spot yet, but in all honesty, there is no chance we would franchise Chris Long as his franchise number would be north of $21m. We’ve planned carefully to make sure we have the opportunity to keep both players with us next year by having the salary cap room in 2013 to absorb both contract extensions.
Ramhusker: Thanks Kevin for finding this fantastic Ram Fan site. The guys who created this monster have done an amazing job as evidenced by you visiting to field our questions. I’d like to thank you and Ramsondemand.
I have a salary cap question for you. I see the Rams are near the bottom of the list as to available cap space. I know this is somewhat due to our Rams having to draft so high for the past decade. How do you plan for getting in a more favorable cap position while at the same time “remodeling” the roster to be a winner? That has to be a tall order for you and the Rams.
P.S. I too eagerly await the return of the old Blue and White uniforms! Make it happen dude!!!
Kevin Demoff: I think “cap space” can be misleading. Yes, we are one of the teams with less cap room this year than most, but we also went into the season planning to be at or near the bottom in cap space in order to preserve future cap space.
I know many fans ask why we haven’t restructured contracts to free up more “cap space” and the answer is simple — we don’t need any more in 2012. We always try to go into a season with roughly $3m of space to handle injuries and contingency plans (trades, signings, etc) and right now we are exactly at that number. When we signed Finnegan, Wells and Langford, we wrote the contracts in such a way as to take a normal salary cap hit in 2012 and not defer cap dollars into the future. This will allow us to re-sign our own players and add an impact FA or two every season.
The plan is to make sure we have as little signing bonus allocation as possible moving forward to give us greater roster flexbility. The salary cap is like a credit card, you can either pay it off as you go or you can make the minimum payments knowing you will have to pay in the future. We plan to pay it off as we go. We want to extend our key players and add quality free agents but always with an eye to the future. We are fortunate to have a number of young players under the new rookie salary system with multiple first rounders to come. We want to make sure we have adequate cap space in 2015 and beyond to pay those players as well. By the end of 2014, we will have 12 first or second rounders on the roster under the new rookie system and they will all start coming up for contracts, and we want to have the ability to keep that nucleus together. That’s why we will try to absorb as much of the salary cap charges as possible for the current roster.
Ramhusker: Hey Kevin, I have another question for you.
Being a Rams fan for 40+ years, I often feel I wish I could help the team out some way. I know you have plenty of capable scouts that have more than enough to do but I often think it would be a great idea for those scouts to have volunteer eyes and ears about the country. Is there presently a way for fans like me to drop a scout a name of a player from a small school/s that maybe they have missed?
Thanks again!
Kevin Demoff: Of course, feel free to tweet @LesSneadHair to recommend a player to Les!
Lesson: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Mr. Demoff!
I remember last season there were upgrades to the TVs and such at the Dome last season. Will there be anything like that again for this season? Thanks!
Kevin Demoff: There will be a few minor changes to the EJD this season, but most of them will be small. We are trying to continue to upgrade the food choices so you will see more grill carts throughout the concourses and some new menu items. The most noticeable change is we are re-opening the team store in the NE Corner of the stadium so fans have a place to shop for new Rams geat from Nike and New Era. We will continue to tweak our in-game entertainment to make it better for fans and we have a new in-stadium host in Sara Dayley from KSDK. Finally, we have a number of new promotional items such as the Fisher Stache for the opener to give to fans as they walk into the stadium.
Oh yeah, we also have a home primetime game for the first time in 5 years! It’s about time!
X: I heard a lot of media pundits saying Justin Blackmon was a lock for this team in the 2012 draft, but I also read some more obscure reports that Michael Brockers was the Rams’ target in the first round no matter what. What would have happened if Blackmon dropped to the #6 spot this Spring? Would that spot have been traded, presumably for more than the return on Claiborne? Was Brian Quick ranked higher on your boards than Blackmon anyway?
Kevin Demoff: One of the more fascinating hypotheticals we have talked about in the office has been the trade at 6 if Blackmon had still been on the board, but we were always looking to trade back out of the Top 10 so I think we all agree it would have played out the same. I give Les and Jeff tremendous credit for having a draft strategy beginning in February and sticking to it throughout the offseason. The goal was to acquire multiple first and second round picks and begin to build this team’s talent level. We weren’t (and still aren’t) one player away.
As for Brian Quick, when Les and I first had dinner in January during the GM search process, he was a big believer in Brian Quick and that never wavered. His outstanding private workout in front of our coaches and scouts confirmed what Les had always said about him and he has shown that talent since arriving in St. Louis. We are excited about his potential, but there were a lot of good receivers in this draft and they all brought unique skill sets to the table that were all different. That’s why comparisons amongst them are very hard. AJ Jenkins is a very different player than Michael Floyd who was different than Kendall Wright, etc etc…
F Mulder: Hi Kevin, assuming you sign Jenkins and Johnson somewhere within the expected salary range you have set out, what will be the cap situation for the upcoming season?
What is a comfortable amount under the cap necessary for issues that may require using more cap money during the season?
Finally, can you discuss the potential cap situation for 2013? I know it is early and there are several bigger contracts that need to be addressed but my understanding was that we would be in very good cap shape next season.
Thanks!
Kevin Demoff: As mentioned in another thread, we are about $3m under the salary cap as of Sunday and that probably won’t change. That is always the contingency number we like to be at heading into August.
For 2013, in reality we are about $25-30m under the salary cap after the FA signings this past year. Most of that will be used to re-sign our own players while bringing in maybe a free agent or two. We’ve always planned that 2013 would be about keeping our own that philosophy won’t change.
Angry Ram: Hi Mr. Demoff, thanks for taking the time.
What is going on with these lawsuits from former employees? They seem fixed on spoiling the team’s image. How is this being handled or is it handled already?
What exactly is arbitration with regards to the stadium? Is there more of a chance an extension could be agreed during that time, or nothing more than what happened a couple months ago?
Last this is just a comment, but thanks a ton for expanding the Rams’ coverage to Oklahoma. From having radio stations called “your home for St. Louis Rams football” and listening to Savard/Farr during games, to having the local preseason game feeds, Bradford’s influence is huge, maybe bigger than Adrian Peterson’s. Dallas will always have priority because of the close proximity, but the Rams have overtook other teams as the #2 team here. Having OKC and Tulsa markets being affiliates is awesome and I’m hoping it will stay that way for a long time, especially if the team stays in St. Louis.
Thank you
Kevin Demoff: I can’t comment on ongoing litigation, but we take pride in trying to be a great workplace for all of our employees and its disappointing when some feel we haven’t achieved that goal. I don’t believe the media or chat rooms or forums are the places to address these issues which is why you won’t see any team comments on the lawsuits.
The arbitration process is really just beginning as we are working with the CVC to select the arbitrators. Once the arbitrators are selected, we have to find a time when all three arbitrators can hold the proceedings and once the proceedings are complete the arbitrators likely will give a ruling by the end of the year. I don’t believe there will be any new updates until late in the season at the earliest and it could go until the end of the year as outlined in the lease.
We were the top rated television show in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City markest last August, we are thrilled to be part of Sooner Nation and to continue to grow fans in Oklahoma.
Memento: Mr. Demoff,
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our site. It’s awesome when someone like yourself answers the questions of loyal Rams fans.
Anyway, I was curious as to how you targeted specific free agents in this off-season. Not just the big names like Cortland Finnegan, Kendall Langford, and Scott Wells, but also guys like Trevor Laws and Rocky McIntosh. Was there a specific plan that you, Fisher, and Snead stuck to?
Again, thank you so much for your time. I’ve got faith in you guys getting a winning record this year.
Go Rams!
Kevin Demoff: Les and Jeff had a specific plan of trying to improve this team, but Les is a big believer in fixing units one at a time and not taking a scattershot approach to building the roster. The signing of Kendall Langford along with the drafting of Michael Brockers was designed to put in place a strong front four, with the idea of getting quality depth behind it. Cortland Finnegan was added with the idea of drafting at least one corner to pair with our returning players to get a strong cornerback group and secondary. Scott Wells was brought in to not only be the glue of the OL but to be Sam Bradford’s eyes and ears up front, just as he did with Aaron Rodgers. We wanted tough, physical players to set the tempo for a Coach Fisher team. Once we accomplished that, it was about adding the best possible younger talent we could to bring competition all over the roster. We wanted to add a WR in free agency but we dropped out of most of them when the bidding when past our comfort level. We knew we could do that because we always wanted to add Steve Smith who had put up better numbers than most of the FA WR when healthy. It has some risk in signing a player coming off an injury but we felt Steve would be much better in his second season since the surgery.
ScotsRam: Hi, I have tickets for the London game and I am ridiculously excited about getting to see the Rams live for the first time. I was wondering if there will be any opportunities to meet Ram players or even yourself while the rams are in town. Additionally, I would love to visit St Louis in the future and wondered if you have plans to run packages for international fans to visit StL as you are doing for US based fans to visit London? Thanks for your time!
Kevin Demoff: The London game is essentially a second Super Bowl, so there will be many great fan experiences. The team will participate in the Fan Rally at Trafalgar Square on Saturday and there is a large tailgate party for all of the fans on Sunday prior to the game. There will be great opportunities for Rams fans to enjoy the week of festivities in London and it should be a great growing experience for our young team to play a primetime game in front of 85,000 fans.
As for travel packages to the US, we have a great partner in PrimeSport who handles travel packages, give them a call!
Kevin
Libertadrocks: I was wondering if the Rams have any ‘fiscal cliffs’ in the foreseeable future? A year where we could be in serious cap trouble without cutting players or have to restructure deals. Just based on current contract structures.
Also how would resigning/extending Chris Long and James Laurinaitis effect the out years cap situation?
One more. Is there talk within the organization about making SJ39 a Rams for life? I know it’s a business and sometimes difficult decisions must be made, but I think I speak for most Ram fans when I say I truly appreciate the effort and leadership he has exhibited through the tough times.
Thanks!
Kevin Demoff: The fiscal cliff that has me most worried is 2015 and 2016 when our young draft picks for the next few years will be coming up for contract extensions. For example, with 5 players in the top 65 picks, and we expect all to become stars, we need to begin planning now to extend all of them in 2016 and beyond. With the haul from the RGIII trade we need to plan to absorb all of our young players as they will become our nucleus for years to come.
I’m not that concerned about 2013 as we have the ability to absorb contracts for #55, #91 and #16. Thankfully, most of our roster is now on their rookie deals so we have the ability to re-sign free agents and add new free agents without harming our core of young talent. That’s the advantage of being the youngest team in the league.
The way to prevent a fiscal cliff is by not pushing out salary cap charges into the future. Pay the players you can afford now and plan for today’s rookies to be tomorrow’s stars. If your Super Bowl window is closing you can take the alternative philosophy, but I think we can all agree our window hasn’t been open and isn’t closing.
Bluecoconuts: Kevin,
Thank you for taking time out of your busy day’s to answer some of our questions. As we all know, last year, and years before, the Rams seem to suffer an abundance of injuries, often to key positions. With Jeff Fisher’s experience does he have any secret tips that could help prevent these from happening, or is it just cross your fingers, and rub your lucky rabbits foot, hoping that it doesn’t happen?
Oh! Also whenever you get the stadium deal worked out, please make the seats blue not red!
Thank you, keep up the great work! Can’t wait to see the Rams shock some teams on Sunday and make the NFL take notice!
-Colin
Kevin Demoff: Couldn’t agree more on the blue seats, but the seat color doesn’t matter if we do our job and get them filled. With fans in Rams jerseys filling the seats they will always look blue!
As for injuries, I think Coach Fisher knows how to manage a team through the season to match his tough and physical style of play. Last year we had a lot of broken bones which is impossible to prevent. The key is knowing when to push your team and when to back off, and Coach Fisher, Les Snead, Reggie Scott and the doctors have a good plan in place. At some point we have to catch an injury break. We did in 2010 and you saw us make great strides, so rub that rabbit’s foot.
ZN: According to Football Outsiders the Rams last year had the single most injured offense since 2002. (They also show that offensive injuries do more damage to a team’s chances than injuries to defense.) You were part of that, of course, and experienced it first hand. Now I know the mantra about how “all teams have injuries”–but not all teams have the most injured offense of an entire decade.
2 questions.
1. Posed as a short series of questions. What does that do to morale? Not just the team, the whole building. What are the dark and more hopeful sides of that experience? Does it lead to any grim humor about being cursed? (I’m partly serious about that last question.) What was it like to realize the Rams were going to IR their tenth cornerback?
2. The team struggled at first with the McDaniels offense. Do you believe they were catching on to that offense before the injuries derailed that?
Kevin Demoff: I don’t think we ever thought we were cursed, but the injuries are just like the stages of denial and anger. At first you can’t believe it’s happening to you and then you finally come to acceptance. There were times though at CB all you could do was laugh, but as the players were dropping against the Eagles, it’s hard to explain how you feel. I was most disappointed for fans and the entire organization that a whole 9 months of hope could go out the window as you watched our best players leave against the Eagles.
As for Josh’s offense, people forget that Sam Bradford had 2 300-yard passing games in the first 5 games and how well we moved the ball initially versus both the Eagles and the Giants. To be fair to Josh and the players, in the one full game that Steven Jackson and Sam Bradford both played in and were healthy against the Packers, we put up a season high in yards (something like 435 yards) and moved the ball really well. The offense seemed to be hitting its stride and then Sam hurt his ankle on the final play. Had that not happened and we added Brandon Lloyd, I think the offense would have been vastly different the remainder of the year. But going through 4 QBs, a number of RBs, 5 LT’s, there was never a hope for that unit.
X: Thank you for taking the time to interact with the fans here at ROD! My question would be this. If the Rams had fared better last year (a virtually impossible task given the amount of injuries), would Steve Spagnuolo had been retained even with Jeff Fisher hitting the open market?
Kevin Demoff: I left the host’s question for last.
The organization’s decision to make a change would not have been made had we been 8-8 or anywhere close to that. We were fortunate to have a great person in Steve Spagnuolo leading our organization and a talented and dedicated group of assistant coaches. I don’t know of any coaching staff that had to face more adversity last season than ours between the hardest schedule in the NFL and the number of injuries we faced. They did an admirable job having been dealt a lousy hand and our team played hard for them until the end. I think this team has a bright future and much of that is because of the work Coach Spagnuolo and Billy Devaney did in changing the culture and perception of this team and finding young talent like Chris Long, James Laurinaitis, Sam Bradford, Rodger Saffold, Lance Kendricks, Austin Pettis, Greg Salas, Bradley Fletcher, Jerome Murphy, Jason Smith, Darian Stewart and others. They don’t get enough credit for the work they did in pointing this team in the right direction. Steve and Billy are the type of people you root for every day and when this team turns the corner they deserve all of our appreciation for the role they played in that.
——————
To all members of Rams On Demand,
Thank you for letting me participate on your board today. This site does a great job of bringing Rams fans together and that is what forums are for, giving our passionate fans a place to talk to other fans. We all may disagree from time to time on players, play calls, draft picks or free agents, but we have a common passion for the Rams that binds us all. Always remember that and great times are ahead for our beloved franchise!
Kevin
