Michael Brockers hopeful for long-term contract/Wagoner

[RamBill]

Michael Brockers hopeful for long-term contract
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra...chael-brockers-hopeful-for-long-term-contract

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- As the first draft pick of the Jeff Fisher and Les Snead era in St. Louis, Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers figured to be a building block in the team's long-term aspirations.

The Rams made Brockers the No. 14 overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft after trading down twice to add more picks. He was the third first-round pick added to a defensive line that has since added two more. But while the rest of those picks have had clearly defined roles in their time with the team, Brockers' job has been more of a moving target.

It has made for a difficult read on where Brockers fits best. He has been asked to gain weight to hold up better against the run and lose weight so he can be a better pass rusher in the span of a year.

But Brockers has at least one fit that he hopes to add to the list for the immediate and long-term future and that's staying a Ram well beyond the next two seasons.

"I am definitely hopeful I can get a long-term deal," Brockers said. "Being here with Fish, I love the team. Everybody wants to stay with one team their whole career. I know it’s a business but at the same time, I love these guys here and I would love to stay here in St. Louis and be with these guys."

The Rams seem to share that opinion after choosing to exercise their fifth-year option to ensure Brockers is with the team at least through the 2016 season. That decision keeps Brockers from becoming a free agent after this year and will cost the Rams $6.146 million against the 2016 salary cap if the two sides don't work out a deal before then.

It would be a surprise if it came to that. Brockers' representatives and the Rams have engaged in some initial conversations about a deal, but nothing appears imminent. That doesn't mean something won't come together, though. Just last year, the Rams had exercised that same option on defensive end Robert Quinn and then signed him to a lucrative contract extension in Week 2, nearly a full year before the option would kick in.

"I’m going to let agents and GMs do what they have to do," Brockers said. "I’m going to try to stay back and get my eye on the field and what I have to do to get better."

Brockers' pursuit of improvement should be buoyed by the fact he finally seems to have a set role heading into 2015. Midway through 2014, the Rams moved Brockers to more of a nose tackle position, asking him to tie up multiple blockers to help free up rookie running mate Aaron Donald.

The move paid off as Donald posted nine sacks and went on to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year. Brockers' numbers took a hit as he dropped to 32 tackles and two sacks after 46 and 5.5 in 2013.

Although his new job doesn't come with much in the way of glamour or statistics, Brockers is embracing it.

"I’m OK with that," Brockers said. "I’ll do a great job, whatever they ask me to do, that’s what I do and I do it to the best of my ability. If it’s helping this team win games, that’s all I can ask for."

 

[JackDRams]

Brockers is one of my favorite rams. I hope we ink him to a long term deal.

 

[Alan]

I think there will have to be a decision made as to which player, Brockers or Fairley, they will expend the big bucks on. I think that's why they haven't extended Brockers contract. This year will be big for both of them and the winner will probably be a Rams next year. Lots of Rams will be FAs after this season and I don't see them signing them all.

 

[Sleepy1711]

Pay the kid, but not too much though.. just enough so he'd be happy.

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

keep this man.

.

 

[JUMAVA68]

Pay the man

 

[RamBill]

Rams DT Brockers taking his game to a new level
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_336f3a86-c0bb-5e84-a9f3-d74ce56051c8.html

Say what you will about Michael Brockers, but the Rams’ defensive tackle leaves no stone unturned when it comes to trying to improve his game.

A couple of years ago, he hired a personal chef to make sure he was eating right. Last season he showed up lighter in an attempt to improve his quickness and overall effectiveness.

As for this offseason, he has taken up mixed martial arts training in an effort to use his hands better on the football field and keep opposing blockers’ hands away.

“In life, I think every day you have to learn something,” Brockers said. “If you’re not learning, you’re not living. So definitely for the most part, I try to ‘up’ my game. There’s never a time where I feel like I know it all.”

Line play at the NFL level isn’t only about strength, power, and quickness; it’s also about leverage and technique. Usually, once an offensive lineman gets his hands on you, it’s over for a defensive lineman.

“It’s about getting that man’s hands off you, especially playing defensive tackle and nose guard,” Brockers said. “It’s all about physicality, and not trying to let them get their hands on you and grab you and stuff like that.”

The most interesting aspect of Brockers’ fray into martial arts is his teacher. It’s none other than Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame defensive tackle Randy White.

Brockers made the hookup through his agent Scott Casterline, who also represents White. Prior to the start of the Rams’ offseason conditioning program on April 20, Brockers made regular weekend visits to work with White in Dallas.

Brockers, whose permanent residence is in Houston, would make the four-hour drive to Dallas on a Thursday and stay there working with White until returning on Sunday.

“It’s been a slow process,” Brockers said. “He’s been doing this stuff all his life, for all his career. So learning from him I’m starting to get like the steps down. I’m trying to implement it a little bit in my game, trying to use it for 2015.”

Brockers grew up a Cowboys fan in part because there wasn’t a football team in Houston between 1997, when the Oilers left for Tennessee, and 2002, when the expansion Texans started playing. Brockers, still only 24, is too young to have seen White play but knew who he was before the martial arts tutoring begin.

“I knew a lot about some of the history about Dallas and knew he was part of it,” Brockers said. “So for the most part when I learned he wanted to work with me, I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’

“It’s cool because of the fact that he’s a Hall of Famer and you think that they carry themselves a lot higher than they do. They’re at the top of the top. But he’s a real chill guy, cool, down to earth. So that’s the reason why I really like working out with him, because he’s a great guy to talk to and he listens and tries to really help my game.”

White was introduced to martial arts training in 1976, his second year in the NFL, by then-Cowboys strength and conditioning coach Bob Ward. In that sense, Ward and the Cowboys were way ahead of their time.

“Bob had the vision of incorporating the martial arts into our football,” White told the Post-Dispatch. “I enjoyed doing it and really took to it. It really helped my career.”

Even after his career ended following the 1988 season, White continued his martial arts training. And he started training others, from elementary school-age youths up to NFL players.

One of his past “students” was six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle La’Roi Glover, who spent three of his 13 NFL seasons with the Rams (2006-08) and is currently the Rams’ director of player programs.

(White met Glover at an arm-wrestling tournament, where Glover was a participant and White was doing commentary.)

“I’m not the great guru but I’ve got something to offer,” White said. “Something they can look at. If they like it, they can add it to what they do.”

White, now 62, has found Brockers to be a very willing pupil.

“Michael really is a very intense guy,” White said. “And is hungry to get better and be better. I’ve spent some time with him. I don’t know how many times we’ve trained. Quite a few.

“He really picked it up and he saw the value of what I was showing. It takes just a little bit to really grasp how you apply it. You develop sensitivity. We do hand drills and develop sensitivity.

“Most players, right off the bat they want to know, ‘Well, if he does this, what do I do?’ I can show ’em that, and I can show ’em a counter for a specific way a guy is trying to block you or attack you.”

But eventually, it’s got to come instinctively.

“When you’re on the football field, you don’t have time to be thinking about what move am I gonna use,” said White, who is training Brockers for free. “You’ve just gotta feel it. So you keep working the drills and develop sensitivity, and I show ’em all the different options that I know to make themselves effective as far as rushing the passer, pursuing a play.”

Just like learning more traditional defensive line techniques, Brockers knows it will take lots of repetition to take his martial arts techniques to that instinctive level. So once the Rams’ offseason program started in Earth City and he could no longer make the weekly trips from Houston to Dallas, Brockers studied videos to try to stay sharp.

“I even practice with my wife sometimes,” Brockers said.

(Now that’s a devoted wife.)

“Just hand movements,” Brockers said. “It’s not like I’m really throwing her or anything.”

The drills with White are strictly hands and footwork. The sessions last two to three hours, with a break thrown in here and there.

Once the Rams complete the final week of OTA practice sessions next week, the veterans have a five-week break before the start of training camp. Brockers plans to spend at least a couple of those weeks working with White in Dallas.

Once camp starts at the end of July, White might drop in at Rams Park to watch Brockers in practice, seeing if he’s applying the martial arts techniques on the football field.

“He wants to be the best he can possibly be,” White said. “And when you’ve got a guy that’s got that attitude, and he’s got the ability he has, he’s gonna be successful.”

 

[DaveFan'51]

"I am definitely hopeful I can get a long-term deal," Brockers said. "Being here with Fish, I love the team. Everybody wants to stay with one team their whole career. I know it’s a business but at the same time, I love these guys here and I would love to stay here in St. Louis and be with these guys."

This is the type of player you like to keep on the team. I like him. But as @Alan said, with all the FA's coming up, he'll be fighting for his job with Fairley and vice versa!

 

[JackDRams]

This is the type of player you like to keep on the team. I like him. But as @Alan said, with all the FA's coming up, he'll be fighting for his job with Fairley and vice versa!

I dunno Dave. There's nobody like Brockers on the team. We lose Fairley, we likely don't skip much of a beat. We lose Brockers, our run defense is in trouble.

 

[DaveFan'51]

I dunno Dave. There's nobody like Brockers on the team. We lose Fairley, we likely don't skip much of a beat. We lose Brockers, our run defense is in trouble.

That's why I said " Vice Versa " Fairley is going to have to prove his worth to the Team Too!

 

[ram007]

They are not signing him to an extension in 2015

 

[hotanez]

They are not signing him to an extension in 2015

Why not ram007?

 

[Dieter the Brock]

 

[Amitar]

Brockers is very good and a integral part of the Rams defense. Signing Brockers is a no brainer imho. If they let him walk and can't keep their own 1st round picks and still have a losing record the Rams have no chance of ever winning.

 

[ram007]

Why not ram007?

They picked up his 2016 option. There is no big upside to extending him as I believe Rams would like to see him play better

 

[hotanez]

They picked up his 2016 option. There is no big upside to extending him as I believe Rams would like to see him play better

I see your point but in my opinion the coaching staff has been happy with his play and the guy is only going to get better. It wouldn't surprise me if they extend his contract during this season.

 

[JackDRams]

They picked up his 2016 option. There is no big upside to extending him as I believe Rams would like to see him play better

They would extend him early if they believe his extension would be cheaper then what he would be due 2016 right? I'm not sure how much he gets though.

 

[LACHAMP46]

The most interesting aspect of Brockers’ fray into martial arts is his teacher. It’s none other than Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame defensive tackle Randy White.

while i still hate Dallas...Brockers working with the "Manimal" is kinda cool....

 

[Akrasian]

They also might extend him to reduce his cap hit for 2016 - to get money to sign other players. If the going rate for his skill set is $5 million AAV for instance, they could give him a long contract at that, maybe rising somewhat near the end but at that level for the first few years. Guarantee enough of it that he is set for life and his kids will be able to go to college with no worries about costs, maybe they will be set up to start out well - so long as he is not foolish with his money.

I've always figured that the goal should be to have your kids be able to go to college, get a grad degree if they so desire, and then set up the kids so they don't have debt and can get going in adulthood - for instance, if a kid wants to go to dental school, send them their, and help finance their practice initially so they have no debts. That way the wealth from being an athlete continues through the generations - and just require the kids to help other family members as the opportunity arises. Pay it forward, you know.