Rams News Recap: Mar. 5

[RamBill]

Rams Focus on Re-Signing Their Own –PD
Ready, set … It’s almost that time of year again — the NFL free agency and trading period.

Rams Free-Agent Preview: Linebacker –Wagoner
The free-agent market is scheduled to open March 10 and teams may begin negotiations with those poised to hit the market beginning March 7.

Why the Rams should pull a reverse RG3 swap to get Marcus Mariota –LaCanfora
A year ago, at about this same time, I urged the St. Louis Rams to be proactive and package Sam Bradford and get out from his outsized contract from a bygone collective bargaining agreement while they still could.

Finding the Best Free-Agent Signings for all 32 NFL Teams –Prisco
With a week until free agency begins it’s time to take a look at best fits for some of the pending free agents.

Bernie: Bradford Should Cut Rams A Break
Oh, goodie … it’s your lucky day! Time for another hot take on Rams quarterback Sam Bradford.

Lance Kendricks Figures to Draw Free-Agent Interest –Wagoner
As his first crack at free agency approaches, St. Louis Rams tight end Lance Kendricks wouldn’t mind staying with the team that drafted him.

Rams Offense Needs Most Offseason Attention –Wagoner
For better or worse, the St. Louis Rams have made it abundantly clear that they are committed to continuity.

Morning Ram-blings: St. Louis Stadium Update –Wagoner
The St. Louis stadium project offered yet another update this week, including some new renderings which were said to include more input from the St. Louis Rams.

Did the Rams Miss An Opportunity to Draft Elite Talent? –Audio

Kiper’s Mock Draft 3.0 –Video

Has NFL Botched LA Stadium Deal by Creating Three Lame Duck Franchises? –Audio

Phil Savage: Forget the Numbers, Look at the Tape –Video

 

[RamBill]

Morning Ram-blings: Free-agent fits
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/16777/morning-ram-blings-free-agent-fits

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- As the early window to negotiate with free agents nears, it's a popular parlor game at this time of year to project which teams could be the best fits and possible landing spots for the top talents poised to become available.

It's similar to mock drafts in that it's a fun exercise, but comes mostly as a guess that will later prove inaccurate. Money always trumps everything and until we know which teams are willing to offer the most to a given player, interest from teams really doesn't amount to much.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let's take a look at some of the projections around the web on possible landing spots for not only the St. Louis Rams free agents, but others who might end up in St. Louis.

At TheMMQB.com, Greg Bedard offered his list of the top 100 free agents with best fits for all of them. Here's the top 50 followed by Nos. 51-100.

At CBSSports.com, Pete Prisco does the same but with one fit for every team.

At ProFootballFocus.com, they have an entire panel that offers best fits for the top 75 free agents.

The Rams don't come up much in Bedard's list, but they do have a few mentions. His No. 42 player is Denver offensive lineman Orlando Franklin and he matches Franklin to the Rams as a good fit. From there, he ranks tight end Lance Kendricks No. 75, tackle Joe Barksdale No. 88 and receiver Kenny Britt No. 98. Bedard considers the Rams the best fit for Britt but sees Kendricks to Cleveland and Barksdale to Carolina.

Prisco's rankings send Barksdale to the New York Giants and Britt to the San Francisco 49ers. He has Oakland center Stefen Wisniewski signing with the Rams.

The Pro Football Focus group has only a few Rams mentions, but does include one vote for Wisniewski to the Rams, four votes for Britt staying in St. Louis, and a single vote each for receiver Michael Crabtree and defensive back Davon House to the Rams.

Again, none of that means much in the grand scheme of things, but I do think Carolina and the Giants are sensible and possible fits for Barksdale. And Kendricks to Cleveland might make sense if the Browns lose Jordan Cameron in free agency.

The bigger issue here would be if the Rams lost all three -- Kendricks, Barksdale and Britt, particularly the latter two. If that pair departs, the Rams are going to find themselves in a tough spot, having to find help at two positions for which you could argue they already need more.

I.C.Y.M.I.

A roundup of Thursday's Rams stories appearing on ESPN.com. ... In the Ram-blings, we opened the day with a look at the latest on the St. Louis stadium efforts. ... We then examined the Rams' need to bolster the offense this offseason. ... The free-agent preview series continued with a glimpse of the linebackers class. ... Finally, we got a closer look at what could become of Kendricks.

Elsewhere:

Columnist Ashley Fox explores the vagaries of the salary cap.
Our 32 NFL Nation reporters offer their choice for their team's most pressing offseason need.
For Insiders, here's Mel Kiper Jr.'s latest mock draft.
At 101sports.com, Randy Karraker received a response to his letter to Senator Ryan Silvey about the St. Louis stadium initiative.
At stltoday.com, Bernie Miklasz writes that the Rams still need a talent infusion.
Jim Thomas writes that Rams fans who didn't get the St. Louis stadium survey can request one.