- Joined
- Jul 31, 2010
- Messages
- 8,874
Ignorance is bliss for Fisher on LA front
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_d2dd2c8b-7cab-57bd-afd5-219454974bf1.html
INDIANAPOLIS • When it comes to the ongoing saga of the Rams’ potential relocation to Los Angeles, coach Jeff Fisher favors a head-in-the-sand approach.
He told a large media gathering Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine that he has purposely avoided keeping tabs on the LA situation.
“If I don’t know anything, then when someone asks me, and I say, ‘I don’t know anything,’ I’m telling you the truth,” Fisher said. “My focus – of course this is coach-speak – is this year, our football team in St. Louis.
“And as things come up here on a daily basis right now, they’re gonna continue to change. Whatever happens, happens. But I love St. Louis. We’ve got a great fan base. We’ve got some work to do as we go through this process. But our focus is on 2015.”
Fisher is in kind of a tightrope position on such questions. He doesn’t want to say anything that riles his boss, Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who has plans to build a stadium in Inglewood, Calif. But he doesn’t want to alienate a fan base frustrated with the team’s losing ways and angry over the owner’s apparent attempt to move the team to greener pastures.
“Those (fans) that came out saw some really good football games,” Fisher said. “And the true fans that know what we’re doing see improvement. They know we’ve been without our first-round pick in the starting quarterback (Sam Bradford).”
SPEAKING OF BRADFORD
Fisher, as he has done on numerous occasions, mentioned Bradford’s 5-2-1 record against the NFC West since 2012 in his defense.
“And we weren’t very good when we got here,” Fisher said. “So we’re counting on him. I’m betting on him. And if that doesn’t happen, then we’ll win games with somebody else.”
This is the season for bad rumors – and they continue to fly on the subject of Bradford. Such as the highly exaggerated one earlier in the week that the Rams had given Bradford permission to seek a trade.
“I was surprised to hear that,” Fisher said. “Not surprised, but that’s inaccurate. We’ve talked about what our plans are.”
And the latest rumor came Friday, namely that the Cleveland Browns want to trade for Bradford. Maybe the Browns do, but as general manager Les Snead said Wednesday, deleting Bradford from the roster does nothing to help the team.
From Fisher having a long talk with Bradford about the offensive coordinator job (which went in-house to Frank Cignetti), to Bradford having dinner with Chris Weinke before hiring him as quarterbacks coach, the Rams are showing no signs that Bradford doesn’t figure heavily into their plans for 2015.
QB SEARCH
So what’s the Plan B at quarterback if Bradford’s Plan A?
“I don’t know what that looks like right now,” Fisher said. “We’ll let you know. It could be a veteran. It could be a draft choice. It could be a combination. It could be Austin (Davis). It could be Shaun (Hill). ... I think it’s extremely important that we have an option.”
The Rams have either scheduled or conducted formal interviews with at least four quarterbacks attending the Combine: Baylor’s Bryce Petty, UCLA’s Brett Hundley, Oregon State’s Sean Mannion, and Colorado State’s Garrett Grayson.
Those four prospects are considered the second-tier in this year’s quarterback class behind headliners Jameis Winston of Florida State and Marcus Mariota of Oregon. It’s widely considered a far-from-stellar QB group, but the quarterback-needy Rams are in no position to be critical. They may be drafting one of those guys.
“Well, a lot of passes were completed last year, so there’s some good players,” Fisher said. “It’s still early. Obviously, there’s the top two that are mentioned.
“And then there’s another group that I haven’t gotten to yet. But that doesn’t mean to say that any who aren’t in the top two aren’t gonna be able to make plays.”
SURGERY FOR ROBINSON
Fisher revealed Friday that offensive lineman Greg Robinson, the team’s presumptive left tackle in 2015, underwent offseason surgery for a toe injury.
Because of the surgery, Robinson has been at Rams Park basically every day doing rehab work.
“And he comes into the building not worrying about going out on the practice field and making a mistake,” Fisher said. “He comes in the building every day learning how to be a pro, and that’s important.”
