2012 WEEK 1 - Detroit Lions

Transcription

2012 WEEK 1
ST. LOUIS RAMS (0-0)
AT
DETROIT LIONS (0-0)
Sunday, September 9, 2012, Ford Field, Noon
2012 SCHEDULE
RAMS FACE LIONS IN 2012 OPENER
Sun.
9/9
at Detroit
Noon
Fox
Sun.
9/16
Washington
3:05 p.m.
Fox
Sun.
9/23
at Chicago
Noon
Fox
Sun.
9/30
Seattle
Noon
Fox
Thurs. 10/4
Arizona
7:20 p.m. NFLN
Sun.
10/14
at Miami
Noon
Fox
Sun.
10/21
Green Bay
Noon
Fox
Sun.
10/28
New England*
Noon
CBS
Sun.
11/4
BYE
Sun.
11/11
at San Francisco 3:15 p.m.
Fox
Sun.
11/18
N.Y. Jets
Noon
CBS
Sun.
11/25
at Arizona
3:15 p.m.
Fox
Sun.
12/2
San Francisco
Noon
Fox
Sun.
12/9
at Buffalo
Noon
Fox
Sun.
12/16
Minnesota
Noon
Fox
Sat.
12/23
at Tampa Bay
Noon
Fox
Sun.
12/30
at Seattle
3:15 p.m.
Fox
The St. Louis Rams will kick off a new era next
Sunday when the team travels to Detroit to face the
Lions in their 2012 opener.
The Rams’ roster features 31 players who were not
with the team in 2011, and the team will take the field
for its first regular season contest under new head
coach Jeff Fisher. In the opener, Fisher will match
wits with Lions head coach Jim Schwartz, who
spent 10 seasons as an assistant on Fisher’s staff
in Tennessee, including eight as Fisher’s defensive
coordinator.
Fisher boasts a career record of 10-6 in Week 1,
while the Rams own a 38-36 mark in the opening
week. The Rams and Lions have previously met seven times in Week 1 but not
since 1980. Sunday’s game will mark just the second time in team history that the
Rams open their season in Detroit, the first of which came in 1965. The Rams’
first game in franchise history came against Detroit in 1937.
Coach Jeff Fisher
BROADCAST INFORMATION
TELEVISION
Fox
(KTVI, Ch. 2 in St. Louis)
*At Wembley Stadium in London, England
Play-by-Play: Chris Myers
Color Analyst: Tim Ryan
RADIO
WXOS (101.1 FM)
Play-by-Play: Steve Savard
Color Analyst: D’Marco Farr
Sideline Reporter: Tony Softli
Sideline Reporter: Jaime Maggio
THIS WEEK’S MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Wednesday, September 5
Thursday, September 6
Friday, September 7
-Practice: 11:50 a.m. - 2 p.m.
-Coach Fisher, QB Sam
Bradford available on field
after practice.
-Open locker room: 2:15-3 p.m.
-Practice: 11:50 a.m. - 2 p.m.
-Coach Fisher, RB Steven
Jackson available on field
after practice
-Dave McGinnis & Brian
Schottenheimer available
-Open locker room: 2:15-3 p.m.
-Practice: 11:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m.
-Coach Fisher available on
field after practice
-Open locker room: 1:30 2:15 p.m.
Saturday, September 8
Sunday, September 9
Monday, September 10
Travel Day
Rams
at
Lions
Jeff Fisher
Press Conference
4:30 p.m.
No Availability
Ford Field, Noon
VISIT OUR MEDIA WEBSITE AT MEDIA.STLOUISRAMS.COM
ARTIS TWYMAN - SENIOR DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
ATWYMAN@RAMS.NFL.COM - 314-516-8759
JULIA FARON - MANAGER OF MEDIA RELATIONS
JFARON@RAMS.NFL.COM - 314-516-8766
CASEY PEARCE - MANAGER OF MEDIA INFORMATION
CPEARCE@RAMS.NFL.COM - 314-516-8765
2012 RAMS PROJECTED STARTERS
OFFENSE
WR Brandon Gibson – Caught 36 passes for 431 yards and a
touchdown last season.
LT
Rodger Saffold – Started first 25 games of his career
before a pectoral injury ended his 2011 season after nine games.
Was a 2010 All-Rookie selection.
LG
Rokevious Watkins – Rams fifth-round draft pick earned AllSEC First Team honors last year at South Carolina. Versatile lineman played offensive guard for two years before switching to right
(first five games) and then left (final eight) tackle as a senior.
C
Scott Wells – Signed with Rams in March after eight seasons with Packers. Named to Pro Bowl last season. Started 100
games with Green Bay from 2004-11.
RG
Harvey Dahl – Mauling road grater enters second season
with St. Louis. Started all 16 games last season, including 10 at RG
and six at RT after injuries forced him to slide over.
RT
Barry Richardson – First-year Ram started 33 games at
right tackle in four seasons with Kansas City.
TE
Matthew Mulligan – Appeared in 34 career games with the
Jets & started 11 while playing for Rams Offensive Coordinator
Brian Schottenheimer.
WR Danny Amendola – Missed 15 games last season after suffering season-ending elbow injury in opener. In 2010, led the Rams
with 85 receptions for 689 yards and tied for the team lead with
three touchdown catches.
QB
Sam Bradford – 2010 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year
completed 191 passes for 2,164 yards in 10 games last season.
FB
Brit Miller – Appeared in 12 games with two starts at fullback last season and was a key contributor on special teams.
RB
Steven Jackson – Three-time Pro Bowler rushed for 1,145
yards last season. Is leading rusher among active NFL running
backs and holds NFL’s longest active streak of consecutive 1,000yard seasons (7).
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
WR Brian Quick – First of three second round picks by
Rams caught 202 passes for 3,418 yards and 31 touchdowns at
Appalachian State. Holds the school career-record for receptions
and ranks fifth in Southern Conference history.
RB
Isaiah Pead – Second round pick was First-Team All-Big
East and Big East Offensive Player of the Year in 2012. Ranks third
in Bearcats history with 3,288 rushing yards and 27 rushing touchdowns.
DEFENSE
LDE Chris Long – Led the Rams with career-high 13.0 sacks in
2011. Also added 15 pressures and 16 QB hits to go along with 33
tackles. Signed four-year contract extension in July.
LDT Kendall Langford - Signed with Rams as a free agent in
March. Played in 64 games with 55 starts with Miami. Collected
eight career sacks and posted 141 career tackles (101 solo).
RDT Michael Brockers – First-round draft pick was a SecondTeam All-SEC selection at LSU. Started 15 games in two seasons
and was credited with 79 tackles (34 solo), two sacks (16 yards), 11
tackles for loss (33 yards) and five quarterback pressures.
RDE Robert Quinn – Rams’ 2011 top draft choice had 5.0 sacks
and 14 quarterback hits in 15 games. Was NFC Special Teams
Player of the Week in Week 8 after blocking a punt that led to a TD
and blocked or partially blocked three punts.
SLB Rocky McIntosh – Seventh-year pro recorded 73 tackles
for Washington last season; boasts 580 tackles, 8.0 sacks and 3
int. in career.
MLB James Laurinaitis – Led the Rams in tackles for third time
in as many seasons with the club. Posted 142 stops. Has at least
100 tackles in each of his first three NFL seasons. Also had 3.0
sacks and two interceptions.
WLB Jo-Lonn Dunbar – Led all Saints linebackers with 90 tackles
in 2011; started 14 games last season; played four years in New
Orleans.
LCB Cortland Finnegan – Signed with St. Louis during opening
week of free agency after standout career in Tennessee. Former
Pro Bowler has 79 career starts. Career totals include 14 interceptions, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries and 4 touchdowns.
RCB Janoris Jenkins – Selected 39th overall in April’s draft.
Named Freshman All-American in 2008, Second-team All-SEC
and Third-Team All-American as a junior in 2010 while playing at
Florida.
SS
Darian Stewart – Third-year pro finished third among
Rams with 91 tackles in 2011. Led team with 10 passes defensed
and had 3.0 sacks and one interception.
FS
Quintin Mikell – Second among Rams with 100 tackles.
Also had a sack, four forced fumbles and two interceptions. Veteran
free agent joined St. Louis prior to 2011 after eight seasons
with Eagles.
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
DE
William Hayes – Played in 48 games with 12 starts for
Titans over a four-year campaign. Collected 181 career tackles
(105 solo) and 8.0 sacks.
WR Steve Smith – Led the NFC with 107 rec. in 2009. Career
totals include 231 catches for 2,510 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Signed with Rams as a free agent in March.
S
Craig Dahl – Totaled 54 tackles on defense and tied for the
team lead with 14 special teams stops.
TE
Lance Kendricks – Second round pick in 2011 had 28
receptions for 352 yards as a rookie.
CB
Bradley Fletcher – Missed 12 games due to knee injury
last season. Led Rams with 4 interceptions in 2010. Has 22 career
starts in three NFL seasons.
RB
Daryl Richardson – Rookie ranks second in rushing touchdowns, fifth in rushing yards and fourth in points scored in Abilene
Christian history. Twice named Second-Team All-Lone Star
Conference.
SLB Mario Haggan – Tenth-year pro has appeared in 121
games; spent four seasons in Denver after five with Buffalo; special
teams standout.
WEEK 1: ST. LOUIS RAMS
THE SERIES AT A GLANCE
AT
DETROIT LIONS
NOTABLE CONNECTIONS
• Overall Regular Season Series: Rams lead series, 42-39-1
• Overall Postseason Series: Lions lead 1-0
• Rams Regular Season Home Record vs. Lions: 21-18-1
• Rams Regular Season Road Record vs. Lions: 21-20
Former Rams:
• Lions Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan was the head coach of the
Rams from 2006-08.
• Lions Assistant Coach Todd Downing was a member of the Rams’ defensive coaching staff from 2006-08.
• Current Streak: Lions, One game (2010)
Former Lions:
• Rams Assistant Secondary Coach Brandon Fisher was a member of the
Lions’ defensive coaching staff in 2011.
• Rams Longest Streak: 12 games (1945-51)
• Lions Longest Streak: Six games (1960-63)
• Regular Season Point Total: Rams 1,592 - Lions 1,499
• Most Points, Rams: 65, Rams 65-24 (1950)
• Most Points, Lions: 44, Lions 44-6 (2010)
• Most Points, both teams: 89, Rams Rams 65-24 (1950)
• Fewest Points, Rams: 0, six times, last Lions 28-0 (1969)
• Fewest Points, Lions: 0, four times, last Rams 35-0 (2001)
• Fewest Points, both teams: 6, two times, Lions 6-0 (1938), Lions
6-0 (1940)
REGULAR SEASON SERIES HISTORY
Regular Season
Rams lead series, 42-39-1
Year Result
Location
1937 Lions, 28-0
CLE
Lions, 27-7
DET
1938 Rams, 21-17
CLE
Lions, 6-0
DET
1939 Lions, 15-7
DET
Rams 14-3
CLE
1940 Lions, 6-0
DET
Rams, 24-0
CLE
1941 Lions, 17-7
DET
Lions, 14-0
CLE
1942 Rams, 14-0
DET
Rams, 27-7
CLE
1944 Rams, 20-17
DET
Lions, 26-14
CLE
1945 Rams, 28-21
DET
1946 Rams, 35-14
LA
Rams, 41-20
DET
1947 Rams, 27-13
DET
Rams, 28-17
LA
1948 Rams, 44-7
LA
Rams, 34-27
DET
1949 Rams, 27-24
LA
Rams, 21-20
DET
1950 Rams, 30-28
DET
Rams, 65-24
LA
1951 Rams, 27-21
DET
Lions, 24-22
LA
1952 Lions, 17-14
LA
Lions, 24-16
DET
1953 Rams, 31-19
DET
Rams, 37-24
LA
1954 Lions, 21-3
DET
Lions, 27-24
LA
1955 Rams, 17-10
DET
Rams, 24-13
LA
1956 Lions, 24-21
DET
Lions, 16-7
LA
1957 Lions, 10-7
DET
Rams, 35-17
LA
Year
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1974
1975
1976
1980
1981
1982
1983
1986
1987
1988
1991
1993
1999
2001
2003
2006
2009
2010
Result
Rams, 42-28
Lions, 41-24
Lions, 17-7
Lions, 23-17
Rams, 48-35
Lions, 12-10
Lions, 14-13
Lions, 28-10
Lions, 13-10
Lions, 12-3
Lions, 23-2
Rams, 28-21
Tie, 17-17
Lions, 37-17
Lions, 20-0
Lions, 31-7
Rams, 14-7
Rams, 23-3
Rams, 31-7
Rams, 10-7
Lions, 28-0
Lions, 28-23
Rams, 21-13
Lions, 34-17
Rams, 16-13
Rams, 20-0
Rams, 20-17
Lions, 41-20
Rams, 20-13
Lions, 19-14
Rams, 21-10
Rams, 14-10
Rams, 37-16
Rams, 17-10
Lions, 21-10
Lions, 16-13
Lions, 31-27
Rams, 35-0
Lions, 30-20
Rams, 41-34
Rams, 17-10
Lions, 44-6
Location
DET
LA
LA
DT
LA
DET
DET
LA
DET
LA
LA
DET
LA
DET
DET
LA
DET
LA
DET
LA
DET
LA
DET
LA
LA
DET
DET
LA
LA
LA
LA
LA
DET
LA
DET
LA
DET
DET
DET
STL
DET
DET
Coaching Connections:
• Lions Head Coach Jim Schwartz was the Tennessee Titans’ defensive coordinator under Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher. Lions Defensive
Coordinator Gunther Cunningham, LBs Coach Matt Burke and Secondary
Coach Marcus Robertson also worked on Fisher’s staff in Tennessee.
• Schwartz, Burke and Robertson also worked with Rams Assistant Head
Coach Dave McGinnis, Secondary Coach Chuck Cecil and WR Coach
Ray Sherman in Tennessee.
• Lions LB Stephen Tulloch and DE Kyle Vanden Bosch played for
the Titans under Fisher. They were teammates with Rams CB Cortland
Finnegan and DE William Hayes and worked with McGinnis, Cecil and
Sherman.
• Cunningham, Rams Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and
QBs Coach Frank Cignetti worked together with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Hometown Connections:
• Rams CB Janoris Jenkins and Lions CB Bill Bentley both hail from
Pahokee, Fla.
NFL Teammate Connections:
• Rams G Harvey Dahl played with Lions CB Chris Houston and S Erik
Coleman with the Falcons. Rams General Manager Les Snead and OL
Coach Paul Boudreau were also in Atlanta when Houston and Coleman
played for the Falcons.
• Rams Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer was the Chargers’
QB coach when Lions WR Kassim Osgood and CB Drayton Florence
played in San Diego.
• Cignetti was the 49ers’ QBs coach when Lions QB Shaun Hill played in
San Francisco.
College Teammate Connections:
• Rams QB Sam Bradford and Lions LB Ronnel Lewis, LB Travis Lewis
and WR Ryan Broyles played together at Oklahoma.
• Rams DT Kendall Langford and Lions LB Justin Durant played together
at Hampton.
• Rams TE Lance Kendricks played with Lions LB DeAndre Levy at
Wisconsin.
• Rams LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar and Lions T Gosder Cherilus played together
at Boston College.
• Rams FB Brit Miller played with Lions RB Mikel Leshoure at Illinois.
• Rams WR Steve Smith played with Lions DE Lawrence Jackson at USC.
• Rams TE Mike McNeill played with Lions DT Ndamukong Suh at
Nebraska.
THE HEAD COACHES
JEFF FISHER
JIM SCHWARTZ
NFL Coaching Year: 26th year
Rams Head Coach: 1st year
Regular Season: 142-120 (.542)
Postseason: 5-6 (.455)
Jeff Fisher enters his first season as head coach of the St. Louis
Rams, after spending 16 full seasons as head coach of the
Tennessee Titans, 11 as executive vice president.
In his tenure with Tennessee, Fisher guided the Titans to six playoff
appearances (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008), three division
titles (2000, 2002, 2008), two AFC Championship games (1999,
2002) and one Super Bowl appearance (XXXIV). In the 2000s,
Fisher totaled 97 victories, the most successful decade in franchise
history. One of the Titans’ most memorable seasons under Fisher
was the 1999 campaign, where he led the team to its first AFC
Championship and an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIV.
Fisher originally joined the Oilers’/Titans’ coaching staff in 1994,
after spending two seasons as the defensive backs coach for the
San Francisco 49ers. He was elevated to head coach in November
1994, replacing Jack Pardee, for the final six games of the season.
Prior to San Francisco, Fisher reunited with his college coach John
Robinson, serving as the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator.
Fisher began his coaching career as an assistant for Buddy Ryan
and the Philadelphia Eagles in 1986, coaching the defensive backs
for three seasons before becoming the NFL’s youngest defensive coordinator in 1988. In 1989, the Eagles’ defense led the
NFL in interceptions (30) and quarterback sacks (62). In 1990,
Philadelphia’s defense paced the league in rushing defense and
ranked second in quarterback sacks.
A former defensive back at the University of Southern California,
Fisher played for Robinson in a star-studded defensive backfield
that included future NFL stars Ronnie Lott, Dennis Smith and Joey
Browner. The versatile Fisher also served as the Trojans’ backup
kicker and earned Pac-10 All-Academic honors in 1980.
Originally a seventh-round draft selection of the Chicago Bears in
1981, Fisher appeared in 49 games as a defensive back and return
specialist in five NFL seasons. He earned a Super Bowl ring following Chicago’s 1985 Super Bowl season, despite spending the year
on injured reserve with an ankle injury that prematurely ended his
playing career. During that season, Fisher began his post-playing
career by assisting Ryan as an “unofficial” coach as the Bears ultimately defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX.
A native of Southern California, Fisher was a high school AllAmerica wide receiver at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, Calif.
Fisher is an avid fisherman and golfer and he also does considerable work off the field. He also gives back to the NFL, serving on
the NFL Competition Committee since 2000 and as a co-chairman
of the committee from 2001-2010.
FISHER,
2012St. Louis Rams
1994-2010 Houston Oilers/
Tennessee Titans
1994
Houston Oilers
1992-93
San Francisco 49ers
1991
Los Angeles Rams
1988-90
Philadelphia Eagles
1986-88
Philadelphia Eagles
AT A
GLANCE
Head Coach
Head Coach
Defensive
Defensive
Defensive
Defensive
Defensive
Coordinator
Backs
Coordinator
Coordinator
Backs
NFL Coaching Year: 20th year
Lions Head Coach: 4th year
Regular Season: 18-30 (.375)
Postseason: 0-1 (.000)
Jim Schwartz, who enters his fourth season as Lions head coach,
offers a unique blend of coaching and player personnel experience
to the Lions head coaching position. He began his NFL coaching
career as a defensive assistant and quality control coach, progressed to position coach and then succeeded as a defensive coordinator for nearly a decade despite the constant nature of change in
today’s NFL.
Before his tenure in Detroit began in 2009, Schwartz spent 10
seasons with the Tennessee Titans, including eight (2001-08) as
defensive coordinator. While with the Titans, he worked under Head
Coach Jeff Fisher, one of the most successful coaches in the NFL
over the past 15 seasons. In 2008, Schwartz’s defense guided the
Titans to an NFL-best 13-3 record and an AFC South title.
Prior to his eight seasons as the Titans defensive coordinator,
Schwartz contributed to the Titans defense as the linebackers coach
where he also coordinated the team’s third down package in 2000.
Schwartz originally joined the Titans in 1999 as defensive assistant/
quality control. In his first year with the club, the team claimed the
AFC Championship and earned a berth in Super Bowl XXXIV.
Before joining the Titans in 1999, he spent three years (1996-98)
as a defensive assistant/quality control coach with the Baltimore
Ravens. During his tenure in Baltimore, he also coached the team’s
outside linebackers. After the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore
following the 1995 season, Schwartz made the transition from player
personnel to coaching. From 1993-95, he worked in the Browns’
player personnel department, serving as both a college and pro
scout.
In addition to his pro coaching and scouting experience, Schwartz
worked on the college level for four years before moving onto the
NFL. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach
at the University of Maryland, tutoring the Terrapins’ linebackers from 1989-90 and then served as graduate assistant at the
University of Minnesota (1990-91). He became a position coach in
the secondary at North Carolina Central (1991-92) before moving to
Colgate (1992) as linebackers coach.
The Baltimore, Md., native was a four-year letterwinner as a linebacker at Georgetown University, where he earned a degree in economics. In 1989 he earned numerous honors that include Division III
CoSIDA/GTE Academic All-America, All-America and team captain.
Schwartz and his wife, Kathy, have twins Christian and Allison along
with a younger daughter Maria.
SCHWARTZ,
20092001-08
2000
1999
1996-98
1993-95
1992
1991
1990
1989
Detroit Lions
Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans
Baltimore Ravens
Cleveland Browns
Colgate University
North Carolina Central
University of Minnesota
University of Maryland
AT A
GLANCE
Head Coach
Defensive Coordinator
Linebackers/Third Down Coach
Defensive Assistant
Defensive Assistant
College/Pro Scout
Linebackers
Secondary
Graduate Assistant
Graduate Assistant
FISHER ERA BEGINS IN ST. LOUIS
HE’S A WINNER
FISHER’S DNA
Hallmarks of a Fisher-led team include
a stout rushing defense, the ability to
possess the ball with a strong running
game and poise in the midst of adversity. In 11 of his 16 seasons in Tennessee, the Titans defense ranked in
the top 10 against the run and ranked
fourth in rushing defense over that
period (Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Diego). In 2003, the Titans finished first
in the NFL in rushing defense for only
the second time in franchise history
(1993).
In January, Jeff Fisher became the
26th full-time head coach in Rams history. Fisher returned to the NFL after a
one-year hiatus. He previously spent
16 seasons as the head coach of the
Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans.
Fisher is among the winningest head
coaches of his era. Among active
coaches, he’s tied with Giants Head
Coach Tom Coughlin for third-most
victories.
Head Coach Jeff Fisher
He and Coughlin are tied for 19th
on the NFL’s all-time wins list for the regular season, and
Fisher’s first victory as Rams head coach will allow him to
tie Hall of Famer Marv Levy on the all-time list at 143.
Most Regular Season Wins Among Active Head Coaches
Wins
1. Bill Belichick
175
2. Mike Shanahan
157
3t. Jeff Fisher
142
3t. Tom Coughlin
142
5. Andy Reid
126
A PLAYER’S COACH
Throughout his career,
Fisher has been lauded for
his ability to relate to players and get the most out of
them. That keen skill set is
due in large part to Fisher’s
personal experience. He
enjoyed a five-year playing
career with the Chicago
Bears as a defensive back
and punt returner.
Fisher is one of nine current NFL head coaches
who also played in the
Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher spent five years as
a safety and returner with the Chicago Bears.
league. Of those nine, three
were teammates at one time with the Bears: Fisher, Ron
Rivera and Leslie Frazier.
Current Head Coaches with NFL Playing Experience
Name, Pos.
Teams
Jeff Fisher, DB/PR
CHI
Leslie Frazier, DB,
CHI
Jason Garrett, QB
DAL, NYG
Jim Harbaugh, QB
CHI, IND, BAL, SD
Gary Kubiak, QB
DEN
Mike Mularkey, TE
MIN, PIT
Mike Munchak, G
HOU
Ron Rivera, LB
CHI
Ken Whisenhunt, TE
ATL, WAS, NYJ
Head Coach Jeff Fisher & Offensive
Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer
On the offensive side of the ball,
Fisher’s teams finished in the top 10 in rushing yards per game
eight times during his Oilers/Titans tenure and from 1995-2010,
only five NFL teams averaged more rushing yards per game
than Fisher’s clubs. Additionally, in 12 of Fisher’s 16 seasons,
the Titans finished with an average time of possession of more
than 31 minutes per game for the season.
Fisher believes in the philosophy that a strong running game
helps control the clock and keeps your defense fresh. In 12
of his last 14 seasons in Tennessee, the Titans finished in the
top half of the NFL in rushing offense, including seven top 10
finishes. Additionally, in 12 of the last 15 seasons, the Titans
finished with an average time of possession number of more
than 31 minutes for the season.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“If I had a franchise, what coach would I hire? His name is
Jeff Fisher. He is so good. He’s still young enough that he can
relate with the players on the team. He’s one of the brightest,
if not the brightest, coaches in the league. As a former player,
he knows how to work a locker room. He’s just sensational. His
schemes on defense are very good and imaginative. He’s got
everything.” -ESPN.com Senior Writer John Clayton
“Jeff is one of the most competitive and intelligent players that
I’ve ever coached. He was not overly gifted as a player, but he
made up for it by being the fiercest competitor and one of the
most intelligent people that I’ve known playing this game – and
that’s been the hallmark of his coaching career. He understands the entire game and is a leader more than anything
else. He will be in command of the entire team. The Rams will
reflect Jeff Fisher and the kind of person he is. It will be a great
era for the Rams.” - Former Rams Head Coach John Robinson
“Jeff has a history of developing fundamentally sound but
physically intimidating football teams. St. Louis is fortunate to
have a leader for its franchise with such impeccable credentials.” - Falcons President Rich McKay, with whom Fisher cochaired the NFL’s Competition Committee
“In 14 years of NFL football, Jeff Fisher is one of two coaches
that I have the most respect for. The St. Louis Rams are lucky
to have Fisher as their head coach.” - Former Rams and Titans
DE Kevin Carter
LES IS MORE
Les Snead was named Rams general
manager on February 14, 2012.
included 11 veteran free agents whom the club will count on heavily in
2012.
Just three weeks after taking his new job,
Snead executed a trade that helped jumpstart the Rams’ rebuilding efforts. In early
March, Snead sent the second overall pick
in the 2012 NFL Draft to the Washington
Redskins in exchange for the sixth and
39th selections in this year’s draft as well
as Washington’s first round picks in both
2013 and 2014.
In his role as general manager, Snead oversees the club’s personnel
department and scouting efforts while partnering with Head Coach Jeff
Fisher to direct all personnel decisions for the club. In addition, Snead
coordinates all aspects of the club’s football operations with the head
coach.
Prior to joining the Rams, Snead spent 13 seasons with the Atlanta
Falcons. He served as the club’s director of player personnel from
2009-11 and also held posts as a pro scout and as the Falcons’ director of pro personnel.
When draft day arrived, Snead made two
additional trades which parlayed the team’s General Manager Les Snead
original first round pick into four 2012
selections. The Rams acquired a third pick in the second round
in this year’s draft when they traded the sixth overall pick to the
Dallas Cowboys in exchange for the 14th and 45th picks. Snead
then sent the 45th pick to Chicago for the 50th pick as well as a
fifth-round pick in this year’s draft.
When all the dealing was done, the Rams made four of the first 50
selections in the 2012 Draft, and Snead and the Rams selected 10
players who they believe will help the team return to the top of the
NFC West.
Snead’s meticulous effort on draft weekend told only part of the
story of his early efforts to retool the Rams’ roster. On the opening
day of free agency, Snead signed Pro Bowl CB Cortland Finnegan,
formerly of the Tennessee Titans. In the coming days, Snead also
led the efforts to acquire Pro Bowl C Scott Wells and DT Kendall
Langford, an ascending player whom the team views as a key
building block on the defensive line. Snead’s first free agency class
FIRST CLASS
Player, Pos.
Michael Brockers, DT
Brian Quick, WR
Janoris Jenkins, CB
Isaiah Pead, RB
Trumaine Johnson, CB
Chris Givens, WR
Rokevious Watkins, OL
Greg Zuerlein, K
Aaron Brown, LB
Daryl Richardson, RB
Snead joined the Falcons after three seasons (1995-97) in the pro
scouting department of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was hired by the
Jaguars prior to the franchise’s first season and helped put together a
team that garnered an AFC Championship Game berth in just its second year of existence. Jacksonville won its first division title in Snead’s
final year with the team.
Snead played tight end for Auburn from 1992-93 and was part of the
Tigers’ perfect 11-0 team in 1993. He also earned Southeast Region
Academic All-American honors during his college career.
NEW ADDITIONS
The Rams were active before and during the 2012 NFL Draft,
which allowed the team to make 10 selections, including four in
the top 50.
Round
1 (14)
2 (33)
2 (39)
2 (50)
3 (65)
4 (96)
5 (150)
6 (171)
7 (209)
7 (252)
Snead helped construct a roster that has been one of the NFL’s best
over the last few years. From 2008-11, the Falcons had four consecutive winning seasons, winning 43 games during that time, which are
the fifth-most wins in the NFL over that time period. Atlanta earned
playoff berths in each of the last two seasons and three of the last four
seasons, including a 2010 NFC South Championship. The Falcons
participated in one Super Bowl and two NFC Championship games
during Snead’s tenure with the club.
College
LSU
Appalachian St.
North Alabama
Cincinnati
Montana
Wake Forest
South Carolina
Mo. Western
Hawaii
Abilene Christian
Snead’s first free agent class as Rams’ GM included 11 veterans
whom the club hopes to have contribute this season.
Jo-Lonn Dunbar, LB - Led all Saints linebackers with 90 tackles
in 2011; started 14 games last season; played four years in New
Orleans.
Cortland Finnegan, CB - Former Pro Bowler has 79 career starts;
career totals include 14 int., 2 FF, 2 FR and 4 TDs.
Mario Haggan, LB - Tenth-year pro has appeared in 121 games;
spent four seasons in Denver after five with Buffalo; special teams
standout.
William Hayes, DE - Played in 48 games with 12 starts for Titans
over a four-year campaign...collected 181 career tackles (105 solo)
and 8.0 sacks.
Kendall Langford, DT - Played in 64 games with 55 starts with
Miami; collect ed eight career sacks and posted 141 career tackles
(101 solo).
Rocky McIntosh, LB - Seventh-year pro recorded 73 tackles for
Washington last season; boasts 580 tackles, 8.0 sacks and 3 int. in
career.
Matthew Mulligan, TE - Has appeared in 34 career games with the
Jets & started 11 while playing for Rams Offensive Coordinator Brian
Schottenheimer.
Barry Richardson, OT - Started 33 games at right tackle for Kansas
City.
Steve Smith, WR - Led NFC with 107 catches in 2009; spent 2011
with Eagles; career totals include 231 catches for 2,510 yards and
12 touchdowns.
Robert Turner, C/G - Has appeared in 41 games with two starts;
played five seasons with Jets.
General Manager Les Snead and Coach Jeff Fisher huddle during the 2012 NFL Draft. The Rams
were extremely active during the draft as they netted 10 players, including four of the top 50 overall
selections, as they retool the roster.
Scott Wells, C - Named to Pro Bowl last season; started 100 games
in eight NFL seasons, all with Green Bay.
RAMS ALL-TIME LEADING RUSHERS
Dick Bass
5,417 yards
Lawrence McCutcheon
6,186 yards
JACKSON STANDS ALONE
Marshall Faulk
6,959 yards
Eric Dickerson
7,245 yards
Steven Jackson
9,093 yards
AN ELITE CLUB
Steven Jackson kept his streak of 1,000-yard seasons alive as he
rushed for 1,145 yards in 2011. He has now rushed for 1,000 yards
in seven consecutive seasons, which is the NFL’s longest active
streak of consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. He also extended his
own team records for most consecutive 1,000-yard seasons (seven)
as well as most overall 1,000-yard seasons.
RB Steven Jackson raced into Rams
history midway through the 2010 season as he passed Hall of Famer Eric
Dickerson to become the franchise’s
all-time leading rusher, and he continues to add to the top total in club
history.
With seven straight 1,000-yard seasons, Jackson is in elite
company. Only six other running backs in NFL history have rushed
for 1,000 yards in seven or more consecutive seasons. The group
includes Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Curtis Martin, Thurman
Thomas, Eric Dickerson and LaDainian Tomlinson.
Jackson rushed for 1,145 yards on
260 carries (4.4 average yards per
carry) last season, including a 47-yard
touchdown run on the Rams’ first play
from scrimmage. He finished ninth in
the NFL and fifth in the NFC in rushing
yards a year ago.
RB Steven Jackson
Of that group, Smith, Sanders, Thomas, Martin and Dickerson are
members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Tomlinson retired this
spring and isn’t yet eligible for induction.
There are only three running backs in the NFL who hold the franchise
rushing record for the team that they currently play for: Jackson,
Carolina’s DeAngelo Williams and San Francisco’s Frank Gore.
Jackson has rushed for 9,093 yards for his career, which leaves him
just 907 shy of 10,000. Should he reach the milestone this season,
he’ll be the 27th player in NFL history to do so. However, Jackson
would be just the 15th player to rush for 10,000 yards for one team.
Of the 12 players who have done so with one team, 10 are in the
Hall of Fame.
Rams Career Rushing Yards Leaders
Steven Jackson (2004- )
Eric Dickerson (1983-87)
Marshall Faulk (1999-2005)
Lawrence McCutcheon (1972-79)
Dick Bass (1960-69)
Yards
9,093
7,245
6,959
6,186
5,417
In addition to holding the franchise mark for rushing yards, Jackson is
on the cusp of breaking Faulk’s team record for career rushing touchdowns. Jackson rushed for five touchdowns in 2011 to give him 52
career rushing touchdowns. He currently ranks third in Rams history
in the category, but he’s within striking distance of both Dickerson
and Faulk. Jackson enters the 2012 season needing just four scores
to tie Dickerson and six to tie Faulk’s franchise record.
Rams Career Rushing TD Leaders
Dan Towler (1950-55)
Dick Bass (1960-69)
RB Steven Jackson owns the NFL’s longest active streak of 1,000-yard seasons. His current streak
sits at seven-consecutive seasons with 1,000 yards or more.
CENTURY MARK
RB Steven Jackson rushed for 100 yards
or more in four games in 2011, and he
now ranks second in Rams history with 31
career 100-yard games.
Jackson needs seven 100-yard games
to tie Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson, who
rushed for 100 yards in 38 games, for the
most in team history. During a mid-season
stretch last fall, Jackson rushed for 100 or
more yards in three consecutive games.
Career 100-yard Games in Rams History
58
56
52
34
35
Lawrence McCutcheon (1972-79)
RB Steven Jackson
38
31
27
22
JACK OF ALL TRADES
CATCHING ON
Throughout his career, RB Steven Jackson has shown the ability to
catch passes out of the backfield and while lined up at receiver. In
addition to leading the team in rushing, Jackson finished second
among Rams with 42 catches last season. With 369 career catches,
Jackson is sixth in Rams history in the category.
Since becoming a full-time starter in 2006, Jackson has registered
307 receptions for 2,494 receiving yards (8.1-yard average). During
that time, Jackson’s 2,494 receiving yards and 307 receptions rank
second among all NFL running backs.
RB Steven Jackson has shown the ability
to contribute in the rushing game and in
the receiving game. Since the start of the
2006 season, Jackson ranks first in the
NFL with an average of 114.7 yards from
scrimmage per game.
Since 2006, Jackson has 2,057 touches
for 9,868 yards. His touches and scrimmage yards are the most over that time
period.
Receptions Leaders Among Running Backs, 2006-Present
Reggie Bush / NO-MIA
Steven Jackson / STL
L. Tomlinson / SD-NYJ
Maurice Jones-Drew/ JAC
Frank Gore / SF
Rec
337
307
282
278
272
Yards
2,438
2,494
2,380
2,473
2,266
Avg.
7.2
8.1
8.4
8.9
8.3
Long
74
64t
74
75
48
TD
13
6
9
10
9
Jackson rushed for 1,145 yards last sea- RB Steven Jackson
son and caught 42 passes for 333 yards.
His 1,487 total yards in 2011 ranked 11th in the NFL. In 2010,
Jackson ranked third in the NFC and ninth in the NFL with 1,624
scrimmage yards.
Jackson averaged 98.6 yards from scrimmage per game. He narrowly missed his sixth consecutive season with an average of at
least 100 yards from scrimmage per game. The streak dated back
to his first year as an NFL starter in 2006.
In 2006, Jackson recorded 2,334 yards from scrimmage, the fifthhighest single-season total in NFL history. That season, Jackson
rushed for 1,528 yards and 13 touchdowns on 346 attempts. He
added 806 yards receiving on 90 catches. The 90 catches rank
sixth in NFL history in one season among running backs.
Yards From Scrimmage/Game Leaders, 2006-Present
RB Steven Jackson dives for the end zone on touchdown reception. The catch was one of 369 in
Jackson’s career.
MAKING HISTORY
Earlier last season, RB Steven Jackson
passed Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk to
move into third in team history in yards
from scrimmage.
Steven Jackson / STL
Chris Johnson / TEN
Adrian Peterson / MIN
Ray Rice / BAL
Frank Gore / SF
Games
86
63
73
61
86
Touches
2,057
1,381
1,543
1,209
1,798
Yards
9,868
7,071
8,061
6,612
9,283
Yds/Game
114.7
112.2
110.4
108.4
107.9
MOVING UP THE CHARTS
He also made a significant move on the
team’s all-purpose yard list. Late in the
year, Jackson passed WR Henry Ellard
to move into third in team history in the
category.
RB Steven Jackson caught 42
passes in 2011 to give him
369 for his career. That leaves
Jackson ranked sixth in receptions in team history.
With 1,478 yards last year, Jackson
now has 12,096 scrimmage yards for
his career and has 12,175 all-purpose
yards. Jackson’s career totals include
9,093 rushing yards, 3,003 receiving
and 79 from kick returns.
Jackson caught 42 passes in
15 games, second most among
Rams. He entered the season
ranked ninth in team history in
catches. This season, he needs
31 receptions to tie Tom Fears
for fifth place on the team’s alltime list.
RB Steven Jackson
Among active NFL players, Jackson currently ranks second behind
Tony Gonzalez in career scrimmage yards.
Rams All-Time Leaders, Yards From Scrimmage
Years
Rushing
Rec.
1. Isaac Bruce
1994-07 150
14,109
2. Torry Holt
1999-08 57
12,660
3. Steven Jackson
20049,093
3,003
4. Marshall Faulk
1999-05 6,959
4,071
5. Henry Ellard
1983-93 55
9,761
Most All-Purpose Yards, Rams History
1. Isaac Bruce
2. Torry Holt
3. Steven Jackson
4. Henry Ellard
5. Marshall Faulk
Total
14,259
12,717
12,096
11,030
9,816
Yards
14,314
12,732
12,175
11,707
11,048
RB Steven Jackson hauls in a pass for one of his
369 career receptions. He now stands alone in
sixth place in the category.
Rams All-Time Receptions Leaders
1. Isaac Bruce
2. Torry Holt
3. Henry Ellard
4. Marshall Faulk
5. Tom Fears
6. Steven Jackson
7. Elroy Hirsch
8. Jack Snow
9. Jim Phillips
10. Jim Benton
Years
1994-2007
1999-2008
1983-93
1999-2005
1948-56
20041949-57
1965-75
1965-75
1938-47
Receptions
942
869
593
470
400
369
343
340
333
275
SAM’S THE MAN
LONG ON TALENT
A year after winning the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award,
Rams QB Sam Bradford’s second NFL season was slowed by a
high ankle sprain that caused him to miss six contests. Bradford
passed for 2,164 yards with six touchdowns and six interceptions in
10 games in 2011.
They say sacks often come in bunches,
and that’s the way Rams DE Chris Long
collected them in 2011.
Long finished the year with 13.0 sacks,
which ranked seventh in the NFL. In
Week 8 against New Orleans, Long
enjoyed his first three-sack game of his
career to help the Rams to a victory.
Bradford turned in two 300-yard performances early in the season.
In Week 6 at Green Bay, Bradford passed for 328 yards, his third
300-yard game of his career. He set a new single-game career
high in Week 2 as he passed for 331 yards against the New York
Giants. That night, he completed 22-of-46 throws with one touchdown and no interceptions in his Monday Night Football debut.
With his health restored, Bradford has high expectations as he
enters his third NFL campaign.
Long set a new career high in sacks
last season. His previous best was 8.5
in 2010.
During a midseason stretch, Long
recorded at least one sack in seven of
nine games. He also enjoyed a stretch
DE Chris Long
in which he had at least one sack in sixconsecutive games, a new career long. He had sacks in four straight
games in 2010.
With his 13th sack, Long equaled his Hall of Fame father’s career
high for sacks in a season. Howie Long had 13 sacks for the Raiders
in 1983.
Long led the Rams in sacks, quarterback pressures (15) and quarterback hits (16). His play helped the Rams collect 39 sacks as a
team last year.
QB Sam Bradford threw for 2,164 yards in 10 games last season.
SAM’S TROPHY CASE
Rams QB Sam Bradford added to his
trophy case following his first NFL season
when he was voted Associated Press
Offensive Rookie of the Year by a select
group of writers.
2011 NFL Sack Leaders
1. Jared Allen, MIN
2. DeMarcus Ware, DAL
3. Jason Babin, PHI
4. Jason Pierre-Paul, NYG
5t. Aldon Smith, SF
5t. Terrell Suggs, BAL
7. Chris Long, STL
8. Tamba Hali, KC
NEW ADDITION
As a sophomore at Oklahoma, Bradford
won the Heisman Trophy. When he added
Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, he
became just the seventh player and first
quarterback to win both the Heisman and
the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
WR Steve Smith joined the Rams as
a free agent in March, and St. Louis
is hopeful that the former Pro Bowler
will be a reliable target for QB Sam
Bradford.
The other players in that elite group include
University of Pittsburgh/Cowboys RB Tony QB Sam Bradford
Dorsett, Texas/Oilers RB Earl Campbell,
Oklahoma/Lions RB Billy Sims, South Carolina/Saints RB George
Rogers, Southern Cal./Raiders RB Marcus Allen, Oklahoma State/
Lions RB Barry Sanders and Ohio State/Oilers RB Eddie George.
Smith had his 2011 season cut
short due to a knee injury, but just
a couple years ago, he was one
of the NFL’s most productive pass
catchers.
FAMILY BUSINESS
When Chris Long recorded his 10th sack
in Week 12 against Arizona, it allowed him
and his father, Hall of Famer Howie Long, to
record some pass-rushing history.
Sacks
22.0
19.5
18.0
16.5
14.0
14.0
13.0
12.0
In 2009, Smith led the NFC and
finished second in the NFL with 107
receptions, which set a new Giants WR Steve Smith
record. He also finished third in the
conference in receiving yards (1,220) and earned an invitation to the
Pro Bowl.
The Longs became only the second father/
son combo to each record 10.0 sacks in
a season, joining Clay Matthews and Clay
Matthews, Jr.
Prior to signing with the Rams, Smith already had a connection with
Head Coach Jeff Fisher. Both men played at Taft High School in Los
Angeles before attending USC.
Howie reached 10.0 sacks in three consecutive seasons (1983-85). Matthews did DE Chris Long
so with the Cleveland Browns in 1984, and
Matthews, Jr. reached 10.0 for the Packers in each of his first two
NFL seasons.
2009 NFL Reception Leaders
1. Wes Welker, NE
2. Steve Smith, NYG
3t. Andre Johnson, HOU
3t. Brandon Marshall, DEN
5t. Dallas Clark, IND
5t. Reggie Wayne, IND
Rec.
127
107
101
101
100
100
CORT IS IN SESSION
When free agency began in early
March, the Rams quickly moved to
land their top target. That man was CB
Cortland Finnegan.
Finnegan played for Rams Head
Coach Jeff Fisher for five seasons in
Tennessee, where the Samford product developed a reputation as a feisty,
aggressive playmaker.
Finnegan was named to his first
career Pro Bowl in 2008 and earned
Associated Press All-Pro honors. He
also earned first-team All-Pro honors
after he led the Titans with 20 passes
defensed and finished tied for sixth in
the NFL with five interceptions.
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
If you want to find Rams MLB James Laurinaitis on the football field,
one can often simply follow the ball because the now fourth-year pro
seems to always be around it. Laurinaitis was again the Rams’ leader
in tackles as he racked up 142 in his third NFL season. It was his thirdconsecutive 100-tackle season.
Laurinaitis has proven to be a valuable defender against both the run
and the pass. He recorded 3.0 sacks and two interceptions last season, and he was second among Rams with eight passes defensed on
the year. He also had four quarterback pressures, two quarterback hits
and one fumble recovery.
Laurinaitis, due in part to his ability to play the run and pass at a high
level, rarely comes off the field. He played a team-high 1,052 snaps
in 2011.
CB Cortland Finnegan
Finnegan has been a model of consistency throughout his career.
He’s started 42 consecutive games, the fourth-longest active streak
among NFL cornerbacks.
Longest Active Streaks, Consecutive Starts By a CB
Games
1. Ronde Barber, TB
199
2. Brandon Carr, KC/DAL
64
3. Drayton Florence, BUF/DEN
45
4. Cortland Finnegan, TEN/STL
42
5. DeAngelo Hall, WAS
34
Linebacker James Laurinaitis once again found himself atop the Rams’ list of leading tacklers.
DANDY DANNY
WR Danny Amendola played in just one game in 2011 due to an
elbow injury he suffered in Week 1, but as 2012 approaches, he
hopes to pick up where he left off.
In 2010, Amendola led the Rams with 85 receptions for 689 yards.
He finished ninth in the NFL and fifth in the NFC in catches in 2010.
He also averaged 11.3 yards per punt return.
In 2009, his first season on an NFL roster, Amendola caught 43
passes for 326 yards in 14 games. He surpassed both totals by
midseason in 2010 and added three touchdowns as well.
In addition, Amendola was one of the league’s best on third down.
His 29 receptions on third down were third-most in the NFL in 2010.
The former Texas Tech Red Raider led the NFL in all-purpose
yardage in 2010 with 2,364 yards. Amendola was the only player in
the league to lead his team in punt return, kick return and receiving
yardage.
Amendola’s 85 catches in 2010 ranked 13th in Rams history for a
single season. He’s caught at least one pass in every game since
joining the Rams in Week 2 of the 2009 season, a streak of 31 consecutive games with a reception.
RUSHING ROBERT
The Rams used the 14th overall pick in last
year’s draft on a young pass rusher who they
hoped would help them get after the quarterback, and DE Robert Quinn showed why he
was highly coveted in April.
On the season, Quinn recorded 5.0 sacks
and finished second among Rams with 14
quarterback hits, trailing only Chris Long’s
16.
In addition to his role on defense, Quinn DE Robert Quinn
was an asset on special teams. Against the
Bengals in Week 15, he partially blocked a punt, which was the third
time last season he either blocked or partially blocked a punt. In
Week 8, Quinn blocked a punt that led to a Rams touchdown and
sacked Drew Brees. Quinn was named NFC Special
Teams Player of the Week for his efforts against the Saints.
Quinn tied Sean Gilbert (5.0 in 1992) for the third most sacks by a
rookie in Rams history.
SAFETY FIRST
S Quintin Mikell, who signed with the
Rams as a free agent prior to the 2011
season, provided an immediate impact
on St. Louis’ defense. The nine-year
veteran was a part of five takeaways in
his first year as a Ram.
Mikell finished second among Rams with
100 tackles a year ago. He trailed only
James Laurinaitis in stops. Mikell also
had one sack, two interceptions and four
forced fumbles.
The return of WR/PR Danny Amendola will give the Rams’ offense a boost. In 2010, Amendola was
Sam Bradford’s favorite target.
Mikell, who spent his first eight NFL
seasons with the Eagles, boasts career
totals of 5.0 sacks and 12 interceptions.
S Quintin Mikell celebrates an interception with his teammates.
FAMILY TIES
Rams CB Janoris Jenkins is the latest
in a long line of NFL players who hail
from the small South Florida city of
Pahokee. The Rams selected Jenkins
with the 39th pick in April’s draft.
Special Teams Coordinator John
Fassel - Father Jim was a longtime
NFL coach and was the head coach of
the New York Giants from 1997-2003.
TE Cory Harkey - Practice squad
member is the son of Mike Harkey,
who enjoyed a 10-year Major League
career as a pitcher with the Cubs and
Dodgers and is currently a coach on
Joe Girardi’s Yankees staff.
NFL HOTBED
When it comes to producing NFL talent, few places in the country can rival
“The Muck.”
The Rams’ roster is chocked full of
players and coaches who are closely related to professional sports and
entertainment figures. Here’s a look
at them.
Jenkins was an All-SEC performer at
Florida, where he spent three seasons
before finishing his career at North
Alabama last season.
RB Daryl Richardson is the third member of his family to make an NFL roster.
Later this season, he’ll square off against
brother Clyde Gates and the Jets.
LB James Laurinaitis - Father Joe wrestled under the name
“Animal” and was a prominent figure in the WWE and WCW as a
member of the Road Warriors and Legion of Doom.
DE Chris Long - Father Howie was inducted into the Pro Football
Hall of Fame following a standout career with the Raiders.
WR Austin Pettis - Uncle Gary enjoyed a lengthy Major League
career and grandfather Del Rice was a catcher with the Cardinals.
RB Daryl Richardson - Brother Bernard Scott currently plays
running back for the Bengals and brother Clyde Gates plays wide
receiver for the Jets.
Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer - Father Marty
played in the AFL and was the head coach of the Browns, Chiefs,
Redskins and Chargers.
FAST FACTS
• The oldest player – LB Mario Haggan, 32 years old (3/30/80)
• The youngest player – DT Michael Brockers, 21 years old (12/21/90)
• The tallest player – DT Matt Conrath, 6-7.
• The shortest player – S Quinton Pointer, 5-9.
• The farthest distance a player has to travel from their hometown –
P Johnny Hekker hails from Bothell, Wash., which is 2,108
miles from the ContinuityX Training Center.
• The shortest distance a player has to travel from their hometown
to St. Louis, Mo. – TE Mike McNeill is from Kirkwood, Mo., just 15
miles from the ContinuityX Training Center.
• College with the most current Rams - Virginia (Chris Long, Matt
Conrath, Rodney McLeod).
Here’s a look at some notable names
who have made the trek from the
Pahokee/Belle Glade to the NFL. The
group includes Hall of Famer Rickey CB Janoris Jenkins
Jackson and several notable current NFL players.
Player, Pos.
Reidel Anthony, WR
Bill Bentley, CB
Roosevelt Blackmon, DB
Anquan Boldin, WR
Kevin Bouie, RB
James Burroughs, CB
Timothy Golden, LB
Eric Green, CB
Bobby Harden, S
Santonio Holmes, WR
Reynaldo Hill, CB
Rickey Jackson, LB
Ray McDonald, DE
Eric Moore, DE
Kendrick Mosley, WR
Louis Oliver, DB
Alphonso Smith, CB
Fred Taylor, RB
Andre Waters, S
NFL Team(s)
TB
DET
CIN, GB
ARI, BAL
ARI, SD
IND
PHI, NE
ARI
MIA
PIT, NYJ
TEN
NO, SF
SF
STL, NE
CLE
MIA, CIN
DET
JAC, NE
PHI
FRONT AND CENTER
One of the Rams’ key additions this offseason was C Scott Wells, who signed
with St. Louis as a free agent in March.
Wells is coming off a Pro Bowl season in
which he was at the forefront of one of
the NFL’s most dynamic offenses.
Entering his ninth season out of
Tennessee, the veteran will be counted
on to help anchor one of the NFL’s
youngest teams.
He spent the last eight seasons in Green
C Scott Wells
Bay, leading the way for a pair of 4,000yard passers in Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. Last season, he
started all 16 games for the NFL’s highest-scoring offense and
helped the Packers to a league-best 15-1 record.
St. Louis native Mike McNeill has a short commute to the ContinuityX Training Center.
Wells brings a wealth of experience to St. Louis. His 100 career starts
are the most among Rams’ starting offensive linemen. In addition,
he’s started eight postseason games and played a key role on a
Super Bowl championship team in 2010. Including the postseason,
Wells has started 52 consecutive games.
2012 RAMS DRAFT PICKS
DT Michael Brockers
WR Brian Quick
DT Michael Brockers
D1 (14) - LSU
WR Chris Givens
D4 (96) - Wake Forest
- Second-team All-SEC selection for national
runner up in 2011.
- Caught 163 passes for 2,473 yards (15.1
ypc) and 21 touchdowns at WFU.
- Started 15 games in two seasons and was
credited with 79 tackles (34 solo), two sacks
(16 yards), 11 tackles for loss (33 yards) and
five quarterback pressures.
- Ranks fourth in school history in receptions
and third in receiving yards.
WR Chris Givens
WR Brian Quick
D2a (33) - Appalachian St.
OT Rokevious Watkins
D5 (150) - South Carolina
- Caught 202 passes for 3,418 yards and 31
touchdowns…holds the school career-record
for receptions and ranks fifth in Southern
Conference history.
- Earned All-SEC First Team honors and
SEC Coaches’ Second Team in 2011.
- 3,418 receiving yards is also an ASU
record.
OT Rokevious Watkins
- Versatile lineman played offensive guard
for two years before switching to right (first
five games) and then left (final eight) tackle
as a senior.
- Two-time All-Southern Conference honoree.
CB Janoris Jenkins
D2b (39) - North Alabama
K Greg Zuerlein
D6 (171) - Missouri Western
- Played final season at North Alabama after
spending three seasons at Florida where he
was named Freshman All-American in 2008.
- Was named All-American by six different
organizations following his senior season.
- Second-team All-SEC and Third-Team AllAmerican as a junior in 2010.
CB Janoris Jenkins
K Greg Zuerlein
- Recorded eight interceptions in three seasons at Florida.
RB Isaiah Pead
D2c (50) - Cincinnati
LB Aaron Brown
D7a (209) - Hawaii
- First-Team All-Big East and Big East Offensive Player of the Year in 2012.
- Named First-Team All-WAC as a senior at
Hawaii.
- Ranks third in Bearcats history with 3,288
rushing yards and 27 rushing touchdowns.
- Two-year starter for the Warriors after
transferring from Saddleback Community
College in California where he was an honorable mention Junior College All-American as
a sophomore.
LB Aaron Brown
RB Isaiah Pead
CB Trumaine Johnson
- Three-time selection to First-Team All-Mid
America Intercollegiate Athletic Association
and also earned MIAA Special Teams Player
of the year as a senior.
CB Trumaine Johnson
D3 (65) - Montana
RB Daryl Richardson
D7b (252) - Abilene Christian
- Two-time All-American and three-time AllBig Sky Conference first-team; nominated
for the Buck Buchanan Award, given to the
best defensive player in the NCAA Football
Championship Subdivision ranks.
- Ranks second in rushing touchdowns, fifth
in rushing yards and fourth in points scored
in ACU history; twice named Second-Team
All-Lone Star Conference.
- Recorded 15 career interceptions and 35
passes defensed.
RB Daryl Richardson
- Is younger brother of Bengals RB Bernard
Scott and Jets WR Clyde Gates.
ST. LOUIS RAMS 2011 DEFENSIVE STATS
(Based on coaches evaluation)
TACKLES
Total
Solo
James Laurinaitis
142
101
Quintin Mikell
100
64
Darian Stewart
88
55
Chris Chamberlain
84
51
Brady Poppinga
69
31
Justin King
63
52
Craig Dahl
54
36
James Hall
53
34
Josh Gordy
53
36
Justin Bannan
38
24
Chris Long
34
17
Fred Robbins
32
19
Rod Hood
28
21
Darell Scott
26
14
Gary Gibson
25
15
Bradley Fletcher
24
19
Al Harris
20
13
Robert Quinn
20
12
Ben Leber
12
9
C.J. Ah You
11
5
Eugene Sims
10
5
James Butler
10
5
Bryan Kehl
8
4
Marquis Johnson
7
4
Ron Bartell
2
2
Chris Smith
1
1
Total
1,010
647
*Tackle totals include tackles for loss
* PD is passes defensed
Asst.
41
36
37
33
38
11
18
19
17
14
17
13
7
12
10
5
7
8
3
6
5
5
4
3
0
0
373
SPECIAL TEAMS STATISTICS
Total Solo
Craig Dahl ........................16
12
Dominique Curry ..............16
11
Eugene Sims ....................13
7
Darian Stewart..................11
9
Brit Miller ...........................9
7
Josh Hull............................8
3
Quinn Porter ......................8
4
David Nixon .......................7
6
Bryan Kehl .........................7
7
Chris Chamberlain.............7
7
James Butler .....................3
3
Josh Brown........................3
1
Donnie Jones ....................2
2
Chris Smith ........................2
2
Josh Gordy ........................2
1
Greg Salas ........................2
1
Jake McQuaide .................2
1
Bradley Fletcher ................1
1
Justin Cole.........................1
1
Austin Pettis ......................1
0
Ben Leber ..........................0
0
James Hall.........................0
0
Robert Quinn .....................0
0
Total ................................122
87
Ast.
4
5
6
2
2
5
4
1
0
0
0
2
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
35
FF
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
FR
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
Sacks
3.0
1.0
3.0
2.0
0.0
1.0
0.0
6.0
0.0
0.0
13.0
1.0
0.0
0.0
3.0
0.0
0.0
5.0
0.0
1.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
39.0
BK
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
3
4
Yards
24.0
9.0
23.0
9.0
0.0
6.0
0.0
48.0
0.0
0.0
86.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
16.0
0.0
0.0
35.0
0.0
5.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
261.0
BK Rec
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Int.
2
2
1
1
0
1
1
0
3
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
12
QB
*PD Press.
8
4
4
1
10
0
1
1
2
2
6
0
0
0
1
4
3
1
3
1
2
15
3
1
5
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
7
0
2
3
0
2
1
4
1
2
0
0
0
0
2
1
0
0
0
0
61
43
QB
Hits
2
3
1
1
3
3
2
13
1
1
16
2
0
1
3
2
0
14
1
1
2
1
0
0
0
0
73
SACK LEADERS
No.
Chris Long .......................... 13.0
James Hall............................ 6.0
Robert Quinn ........................ 5.0
James Laurinaitis ................. 3.0
Gary Gibson ......................... 3.0
Darian Stewart...................... 3.0
Chris Chamberlain................ 2.0
Quintin Mikell ........................ 1.0
Justin King ............................ 1.0
C.J. Ah You .......................... 1.0
Fred Robbins ........................ 1.0
Total ................................... 39.0
FF
0
4
2
1
0
1
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
13
FR
1
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
Yards
86.0
48.0
35.0
24.0
16.0
23.0
9.0
9.0
6.0
5.0
0.0
261.0
ST. LOUIS RAMS /
WON 2, LOST 14
09/11 L 13-31
09/19 L 16-28
09/25 L 7-37
10/02 L 10-17
10/16 L 3-24
10/23 L 7-34
10/30 W 31-21
11/06 L 13-19 OT
11/13 W 13-12
11/20 L 7-24
11/27 L 20-23
12/04 L 0-26
12/12 L 13-30
12/18 L 13-20
12/24 L 0-27
01/01 L 27-34
WEEK 17 / THROUGH SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2012
* RUSHING
No. Yds
Avg Long TD
Philadelphia
56,722 S. Jackson
260 1145
4.4 47t 5
at New York Giants
78,290 C. Williams
87 361
4.1 23
1
Baltimore
56,289 Norwood
24
61
2.5 10
0
Washington
56,113 Clemens
LG
6
37
6.2 18t 1
at Green Bay
70,604 Clemens
TM
6
37
6.2 18t 1
at Dallas
80,086 Bradford
18
26
1.4 17
0
New Orleans
57,179 B. Gibson
2
16
8.0 11
0
at Arizona
60,628 B. Miller
5
14
2.8 12
0
at Cleveland
64,900 D. Jones
1
9
9.0
9
0
Seattle
56,400 Salas
1
8
8.0
8
0
Arizona
56,029 Feeley
3
4
1.3
6
0
at San Francisco
69,732 Pettis
1
-6 -6.0 -6
0
at Seattle
66,577 Kendricks
1
-8 -8.0 -8
0
Cincinnati
56,431 TEAM
409 1667
4.1 47t 7
at Pittsburgh
60,081 OPPONENTS
509 2427
4.8 91t 17
San Francisco
55,990 * RECEIVING
No. Yds
Avg Long TD
St.L.
Opp.
Lloyd
LG
70 966 13.8 44
5
TOTAL FIRST DOWNS
267
313
Lloyd
TM
51 683 13.4 37
5
Rushing
79
122
S. Jackson
42 333
7.9 50
1
Passing
159
166
B. Gibson
36 431 12.0 34t 1
Penalty
29
25
Kendricks
28 352 12.6 45
0
3rd Down: Made/Att
64/228
83/216
Salas
27 264
9.8 21
0
3rd Down Pct.
28.1
38.4
Pettis
27 256
9.5 35
0
4th Down: Made/Att
8/23
5/8
Alexander
26 431 16.6 68
2
4th Down Pct.
34.8
62.5
C. Williams
14
93
6.6 16
0
POSSESSION AVG.
28:07
31:53
Sims-Walker TM
11 139 12.6 33
0
TOTAL NET YARDS
4537
5734
Bajema
9
71
7.9 19
0
Avg. Per Game
283.6
358.4
Hoomanawanui
7
83 11.9 27
0
Total Plays
1013
1033
Amendola
5
45
9.0 18
0
Avg. Per Play
4.5
5.6
B. Miller
3
41 13.7 20
0
NET YARDS RUSHING
1667
2427
Clayton
3
26
8.7 12
0
Avg. Per Game
104.2
151.7
Spach
2
2
1.0
3
0
Total Rushes
409
509
N. Miller
LG
1
8
8.0
8
0
NET YARDS PASSING
2870
3307
N. Miller
TM
1
8
8.0
8
0
Avg. Per Game
179.4
206.7
TEAM
292 3258 11.2 68
9
Sacked/Yards Lost
55/388
39/261
OPPONENTS
294 3568 12.1 93t 21
Gross Yards
3258
3568
* INTERCEPTIONS
No. Yds
Avg Long TD
Att./Completions
549/292
485/294
Gordy
3
37 12.3
30
0
Completion Pct.
53.2
60.6
Laurinaitis
2
15
7.5
15
0
Had Intercepted
10
12
Mikell
2
11
5.5
11
0
PUNTS/AVERAGE
106/43.9
81/44.9
King
1
51 51.0
51
0
NET PUNTING AVG.
106/37.0
81/39.2
Hood
1
27 27.0
27
0
PENALTIES/YARDS
112/899
111/951
Stewart
1
27 27.0
27t 1
FUMBLES/BALL LOST
27/13
24/6
Chamberlain
1
4
4.0
4
0
TOUCHDOWNS
18
45
C. Dahl
1
-3 -3.0
-3
0
Rushing
7
17
TEAM
12 169 14.1
51
1
Passing
9
21
OPPONENTS
10
40
4.0
13
0
Returns
2
7
* PUNTING
No. Yds Avg Net TB In Lg B
* SCORE BY PERIODS
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT PTS D. Jones
105 4652 44.3 37.0 9 29 65 1
TEAM
37 58 37 61
0 193 TEAM
106 4652 43.9 37.0 9 29 65 1
OPPONENTS
94 103 100 104
6 407 OPPONENTS
81 3636 44.9 39.2 8 29 71 1
* SCORING
TD-Ru-Pa-Rt K-PAT
FG S PTS * PUNT RETURNS
Ret FC Yds Avg Long TD
Jo. Brown
0 0 0 0 18/18 21/28 0 81 Pettis
15 10 139
9.3 39 0
S. Jackson
6 5 1 0
0 36 N. Miller LG
10 10 147 14.7 88t 1
Lloyd LG
5 0 5 0
0 30 N. Miller TM
8 10 128 16.0 88t 1
Lloyd TM
5 0 5 0
0 30 Salas
2 3
29 14.5 29 0
Alexander
2 0 2 0
0 12 Amendola
1 0
0
0.0
0 0
Clemens LG
1 1 0 0
0
6 Porter
LG
1 1
1
1.0
1 0
Clemens TM
1 1 0 0
0
6 Porter
TM
1 1
1
1.0
1 0
B. Gibson
1 0 1 0
0
6 Clayton
0 1
0
--- --- 0
N. Miller LG
1 0 0 1
0
6 TEAM
27 25 297 11.0 88t 1
N. Miller TM
1 0 0 1
0
6 OPPONENTS
45 28 552 12.3 99t 2
Stewart
1 0 0 1
0
6 * KICKOFF RETURNS
No. Yds
Avg Long TD
C. Williams
1 1 0 0
0
6 Porter
LG
25 554 22.2
32
0
Hall
0 0 0 0
1
2 Porter
TM
25 554 22.2
32
0
TEAM
18 7 9 2 18/18 21/28 2 193 Norwood
24 611 25.5
47
0
OPPONENTS
45 17 21 7 44/44 31/37 0 407 N. Miller LG
6 104 17.3
23
0
2-Pt Conv: TM 0-0, OPP 0-0
N. Miller TM
2
43 21.5
23
0
SACKS: Long 13, Hall 6, Quinn 5, G. Gibson 3, Pettis
3
62 20.7
24
0
Laurinaitis 3, Stewart 3, Chamberlain 2,
Sims
1
10 10.0
10
0
Ah You 1, King 1, Mikell 1, Robbins 1, TM 39, Mattison
LG
0
2
--2
0
OPP 55
TEAM
55 1280 23.3
47
0
FUM/LOST: Bradford 10/7, Feeley 3/2,
OPPONENTS
36 902 25.1
54
0
Salas 3/1, Clemens(LG) 2/0, Clemens(TM) 2/0, * FIELD GOALS
1-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50+
S. Jackson 2/1, Pettis 2/0, Amendola 1/0,
Jo. Brown
0/ 0 7/ 7 6/ 7 8/12 0/2
Kendricks 1/1, Lloyd(LG) 1/0,
TEAM
0/ 0 7/ 7 6/ 7 8/12 0/2
Porter(TM) 1/0, Porter(LG) 1/0,
OPPONENTS
2/ 2 9/10 12/13 7/ 9 1/3
C. Williams 1/1, Wragge 1/0
Jo. Brown: (49G,47N,23G)(21G,25G,27G)()(32G)
(47N,36G)()(38G)(48G,37G,41G,42B)(29G,34G)()(35G,48G,50N)()(46G,29G)(45N,26G,43G)(52N,33N)
(49G,48G) OPP:(34G)()(51N,51N,21G,31G,38G)(38G)(32G)(30G,51G)(49N)(27G,38G)(44G,32G,43G,
27G,22N)(19G)(29G,37G,22G)(36G,19G,28G,34G)(42G,23G,38N,48G)(21G,41G)(21G,49G)(48N,36G,42G)
* PASSING
Bradford
Feeley
Clemens
Clemens
Brandstater
Lloyd
Lloyd
Norwood
TEAM
OPPONENTS
LG
TM
LG
TM
Att Cmp Yds Cmp% Yds/Att TD
357 191 2164 53.5 6.06
6
97
53 548 54.6 5.65
1
91
48 546 52.7 6.00
2
91
48 546 52.7 6.00
2
2
0
0
0.0 0.00
0
1
0
0
0.0 0.00
0
1
0
0
0.0 0.00
0
1
0
0
0.0 0.00
0
549 292 3258 53.2 5.93
9
485 294 3568 60.6 7.36 21
TD% Int Int%
1.7 6
1.7
1.0 2
2.1
2.2 1
1.1
2.2 1
1.1
0.0 0
0.0
0.0 0
0.0
0.0 0
0.0
0.0 1 100.0
1.6 10
1.8
4.3 12
2.5
Long Sack/Lost Rating
68
36/ 248
70.5
34
10/ 72
66.0
36t
9/ 68
73.8
36t
9/ 68
73.8
--0/
0
39.6
--0/
0
39.6
--0/
0
39.6
--0/
0
0.0
68
55/ 388
69.0
93t 39/ 261
87.4
RAMS COACHES & PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
Head Coach
Assistant Head Coach
Special Teams Coordinator
Offensive Coordinator
Assistant Strength
Tight Ends
Offensive Line
Assistant Special Teams
Assistant Linebacker
Secondary
Quarterbacks
Assistant Offensive Line
Assistant Secondary
Strength & Conditioning
Wide Receivers
Assistant Defensive Line
Running Backs
Quality Control/Offense
Defensive Line
Linebackers
Quality Control/Defense
Jeff Fisher
Dave McGinnis
John Fassel
Brian Schottenheimer
Adam Bailey
Rob Boras
Paul T. Boudreau
Paul F. Boudreau
Joe Bowden
Chuck Cecil
Frank Cignetti
Andy Dickerson
Brandon Fisher
Rock Gullickson
Ray Sherman
Clyde Simmons
Ben Sirmans
Andy Sugarman
Mike Waufle
Blake Williams
Dennard Wilson
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
PLAYERS
16 Danny AMENDOLA
93 Jermelle CUDJO
51 M ario HAGGAN
55 James LAURINAITIS
38 Rodney McLEOD
27 Quintin MIKELL
97 DARELL Scott
73 ROKEVIOUS Watkins
4 Greg ZUERLEIN
am-men-DOLE-uh
CUDD-joe
HAY-gan
Lore-in-eye-tis
mic-CLOUD
like MICHAEL
duh-RELL
ruh-CAVE-ee-us
ZURR-line
RAMS UNOFFICIAL DEPTH CHART
8/27/2012
OFFENSE
WR
11 Brandon Gibson
12 Steve Smith
83 Brian Quick
LT
76 Rodger Saffold
72 Wayne Hunter
69 Ty Nsekhe
LG
73 Rokevious Watkins
66 Shelley Smith
C
63 Scott Wells
59 Rob Turner
RG
62 Harvey Dahl
66 Shelley Smith
RT
79 Barry Richardson
72 Wayne Hunter
69 Ty Nsekhe
TE
82 Matthew Mulligan
88 Lance Kendricks
89 Mike McNeill
WR
16 Danny Amendola
87 Greg Salas
13 Chris Givens
QB
8 Sam Bradford
9 Austin Davis
FB
49 Brit Miller
HB
39 Steven Jackson
24 Isaiah Pead
LDE
91 Chris Long
95 William Hayes
LDT
98 Kendall Langford
71 Matt Conrath
96 Kellen Heard
RDT
90 Michael Brockers
97 Darell Scott
93 Jermelle Cudjo
RDE
94 Robert Quinn
92 Eugene Sims
SLB
50 Rocky McIntosh
51 Mario Haggan
MLB
55 James Laurinaitis
56 Josh Hull
WLB
58 Jo-Lonn Dunbar
52 Justin Cole
LCB
31 Cortland Finnegan
22 Trumaine Johnson
RCB
21 Janoris Jenkins
32 Bradley Fletcher
33 Quinton Pointer
SS
20 Darian Stewart
43 Craig Dahl
37 Matt Daniels
FS
27 Quintin Mikell
38 Rodney McLeod
26 Daryl Richardson
DEFENSE
SPECIALISTS
P
6 Johnny Hekker
K
4 Greg Zuerlein
H
6 Johnny Hekker
LS
44 Jake McQuaide
PR
16 Danny Amendola
21 Janoris Jenkins
KR
24 Isaiah Pead
21 Janoris Jenkins
42 Terrance Ganaway
RAMS ALPHABETICAL ROSTER
# Player
16 Amendola, Danny
8 Bradford, Sam
90 Brockers, Michael
52 Cole, Justin
71 Conrath, Matthew
93 Cudjo, Jermelle
43 Dahl, Craig
62 Dahl, Harvey
37 Daniels, Matthew
9 Davis, Austin
58 Dunbar, Jo-Lonn
31 Finnegan, Cortland
32 Fletcher, Bradley
42 Ganaway, Terrance
11 Gibson, Brandon
13 Givens, Chris
51 Haggan, Mario
95 Hayes, William
96 Heard, Kellen
6 Hekker, Johnny
56 Hull, Josh
72 Hunter, Wayne
39 Jackson, Steven
21 Jenkins, Janoris
22 Johnson, Trumaine
88 Kendricks, Lance
98 Langford, Kendall
55 Laurinaitis, James
91 Long, Chris
50 McIntosh, Rocky
38 McLeod, Rodney
89 McNeill, Mike
44 McQuaide, Jake
27 Mikell, Quintin
49 Miller, Brit
82 Mulligan, Matthew
69 Nsekhe, Ty
24 Pead, Isaiah
33 Pointer, Quinton
83 Quick, Brian
94 Quinn, Robert
79 Richardson, Barry
26 Richardson, Daryl
76 Saffold, Rodger
97 Scott, Darell
92 Sims, Eugene
66 Smith, Shelley
12 Smith, Steve
20 Stewart, Darian
59 Turner, Robert
73 Watkins, Rokevious
63 Wells, Scott
4 Zuerlein, Greg
Injured/Reserve (1)
99 Laws, Trevor
Practice Squad (7)
61 Barnes, Tim
77 Brodine, Mason
54 Brown, Aaron
46 Harkey, Cory
14 Johnson, Nick
34 Reynolds, Chase
70 Washington, Brandon
Pos
WR
QB
DT
LB
DT
DT
S
G
S
QB
LB
CB
CB
RB
WR
WR
LB
DE
DT
P
LB
T
RB
CB
CB
TE
DT
LB
DE
LB
S
TE
LS
S
FB
TE
T
RB
S
WR
DE
T
RB
T
DT
DE
G
WR
S
C/G
T
C
K
Ht
5-11
6-4
6-5
6-3
6-7
6-2
6-1
6-5
6-0
6-2
6-0
5-10
6-0
6-1
6-0
6-0
6-3
6-3
6-6
6-5
6-3
6-5
6-2
5-10
6-2
6-3
6-6
6-2
6-3
6-2
5-10
6-4
6-2
5-10
6-1
6-4
6-8
5-10
5-9
6-3
6-4
6-6
5-10
6-5
6-3
6-6
6-4
5-11
5-11
6-4
6-3
6-2
6-0
Wt
188
224
322
242
290
311
212
308
211
221
226
188
200
240
205
198
274
272
339
227
245
318
240
193
204
247
295
250
270
242
183
235
247
204
253
265
325
197
186
220
264
319
196
314
317
265
297
195
214
308
338
300
187
DOB
Age Exp College
11/2/1985
26
3 Texas Tech
11/8/1987
24
3 Oklahoma
12/21/1990 21
R LSU
11/22/1987 24
3 San Jose St.
8/11/1989
23
R Virginia
9/28/1986
25
3 Central Oklahoma
6/17/1985
27
5 North Dakota State
6/24/1981
31
6 Nevada-Reno
9/27/1989
22
R Duke
6/2/1989
23
R Southern Mississippi
3/13/1985
27
5 Boston College
2/2/1984
28
7 Samford
6/25/1986
26
4 Iowa
10/7/1988
23
R Baylor
8/13/1987
25
4 Washington State
12/6/1989
22
R Wake Forest
3/30/1980
32
10 Mississippi State
5/2/1985
27
5 Winston-Salem State
10/17/1985 26
2 Memphis
2/8/1990
22
R Oregon State
5/21/1987
25
3 Penn State
7/2/1981
31
9 Hawaii
7/22/1983
29
9 Oregon State
10/29/1988 23
R North Alabama
1/1/1990
22
R Montana
1/30/1988
24
2 Wisconsin
1/27/1986
26
5 Hampton
12/3/1986
25
4 Ohio State
3/28/1985
27
5 Virginia
11/15/1982 29
7 Miami (Fla.)
6/23/1990
22
R Virginia
3/7/1988
24
2 Nebraska
12/7/1987
24
2 Ohio State
9/16/1980
31
10 Boise State
9/15/1986
25
4 Illinois
1/18/1985
27
4 Maine
10/27/1985 26
1 Texas State
12/14/1989 22
R Cincinnati
4/16/1988
24
R UNLV
6/5/1989
23
R Appalachian St.
5/18/1990
22
2 North Carolina
5/15/1986
26
5 Clemson
4/12/1990
22
R Abilene Christian
6/6/1988
24
3 Indiana
3/15/1986
26
4 Clemson
3/18/1986
26
3 West Texas A&M
5/21/1987
25
3 Colorado State
5/6/1985
27
6 USC
8/4/1988
24
3 South Carolina
8/20/1984
28
4 New Mexico
2/24/1989
23
R South Carolina
1/7/1981
31
9 Tennessee
12/27/1987 24
R Missouri Western
H.S. Hometown
The Woodlands, Tex.
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Houston, Tex.
Chino Hills, Calif.
Oak Lawn, Ill.
Lawton, Okla.
Mankato, Minn.
Fallon, Nev.
Fayetteville, Ga.
Meridian, Miss.
Syracuse, N.Y.
Milton, Fla.
Youngstown, Ohio
DeKalb, Tex.
Puyallup, Wash.
Wylie, Tex.
Clarksdale, Miss.
High Point, N.C.
Galveston, Tex.
Bothell, Wash.
Millheim, Pa.
Honolulu, Hi.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Pahokee, Fla.
Stockton, Calif.
Milwaukee, Wisc.
Petersburg, Va.
Plymouth, Minn.
Charlottesville, Va.
Gaffney, S.C.
Oxon Hill, Md.
St. Louis, Mo.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Eugene, Ore.
Decatur, Ill.
Bangor, Me.
Arlington, Tex.
Columbus, Ohio
Ft. Myers, Fla.
Columbia, S.C.
Ladson, S.C.
Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Bedford, Ohio
Columbia, S.C.
Mt. Olive, Miss.
Avondale, Ari.
Woodland Hills, Calif.
Huntsville, Ala.
Austin, Tex.
Fairburn, Ga.
Brentwood, Tenn.
Lincoln, Nebr.
How Acq
FA-'09
D1-'10
D1-'12
FA-'11
FA-'12
FA-'09
FA-'09
UFA(ATL)-'11
FA-'12
FA-'12
UFA (NO)-'12
UFA (TEN)-'12
D3-'09
W(NYJ)-'12
T(PHI)-'09
D4-'12
UFA(DEN)-'12
UFA (TEN)-'12
W(BUF)-'12
FA-'12
D7C-'10
T(NYJ)-'12
D1-’04
D2B-'12
D3-'12
D2-'11
UFA (MIA)-'12
D2-'09
D1-'08
UFA (WAS)-'12
FA-'12
FA-'11
FA-'11
UFA(PHI)-'11
FA-'10
UFA(NYJ)-'12
W(IND)-'12
D2C-'12
FA-'12
D2A-'12
D1-'11
UFA(KC)-'12
D7B-'12
D2-'10
D4-'09
D6B-'10
W(HOU)-'12
UFA (PHI)-'12
FA-'10
UFA (NYJ)-'12
D5-'12
UFA (GB)-'12
D6-'12
DT
6-1
304
6/14/1985
27
5
Notre Dame
Dayton, Ohio
UFA (PHI)-'12
C
DE
LB
TE
WR
RB
G
6-4
6-7
6-0
6-4
5-11
6-0
6-2
300
270
237
260
187
200
320
5/14/1988
2/18/1988
9/24/1988
6/17/1990
8/16/1989
10/22/1987
8/13/1988
24
24
23
22
23
24
24
1
1
R
R
R
1
R
Missouri
Nebraska-Kearney
Hawaii
UCLA
Henderson State
Montana
Miami (Fla.)
Longwood, Mo.
Elm Creek, Neb.
Puyallup, Wash.
Chino Hills, Calif.
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Drummond, Mont.
Miami, Fla.
FA-'11
W(OAK)-'12
D7A-'12
FA-'12
FA-'12
FA-'11
FA-'12
RAMS NUMERICAL ROSTER
Birth
#
Player
4 Greg Zuerlein
6 Johnny Hekker
8 Sam Bradford
9 Austin Davis
11 Brandon Gibson
12 Steve Smith
13 Chris Givens
16 Danny Amendola
20 Darian Stewart
21 Janoris Jenkins
22 Trumaine Johnson
24 Isaiah Pead
26 Daryl Richardson
27 Quintin Mikell
31 Cortland Finnegan
32 Bradley Fletcher
33 Quinton Pointer
37 Matthew Daniels
38 Rodney McLeod
39 Steven Jackson
42 Terrance Ganaway
43 Craig Dahl
44 Jake McQuaide
49 Brit Miller
50 Rocky McIntosh
51 Mario Haggan
52 Justin Cole
55 James Laurinaitis
56 Josh Hull
58 Jo-Lonn Dunbar
59 Robert Turner
62 Harvey Dahl
63 Scott Wells
66 Shelley Smith
69 Ty Nsekhe
71 Matthew Conrath
72 Wayne Hunter
73 Rokevious Watkins
76 Rodger Saffold
79 Barry Richardson
82 Matthew Mulligan
83 Brian Quick
88 Lance Kendricks
89 Mike McNeill
90 Michael Brockers
91 Chris Long
92 Eugene Sims
93 Jermelle Cudjo
94 Robert Quinn
95 William Hayes
96 Kellen Heard
97 Darell Scott
98 Kendall Langford
Reserved/Injured (1)
99 Trevor Laws
Practice Squad (7)
14 Nick Johnson
34 Chase Reynolds
46 Cory Harkey
61 Tim Barnes
54 Aaron Brown
70 Brandon Washington
77 Mason Brodine
NFL
Pos
Ht
Wt
Date
Age Exp College
H.S. Hometown
How Acq
K
P
QB
QB
WR
WR
WR
WR
S
CB
CB
RB
RB
S
CB
CB
S
S
S
RB
RB
S
LS
FB
LB
LB
LB
LB
LB
LB
C
G
C
G
T
DT
T
T
T
T
TE
WR
TE
TE
DT
DE
DE
DT
DE
DE
DT
DT
DT
6-0
6-5
6-4
6-2
6-0
5-11
6-0
5-11
5-11
5-10
6-2
5-10
5-10
5-10
5-10
6-0
5-9
6-0
5-10
6-2
6-1
6-1
6-2
6-1
6-2
6-3
6-3
6-2
6-3
6-0
6-4
6-5
6-2
6-4
6-8
6-7
6-5
6-3
6-5
6-6
6-4
6-3
6-3
6-4
6-5
6-3
6-6
6-2
6-4
6-3
6-6
6-3
6-6
187
227
224
221
205
195
198
188
214
193
204
197
196
204
188
200
186
211
183
240
240
212
247
253
242
274
242
250
245
226
308
308
300
297
325
290
318
338
314
319
265
220
247
235
322
270
265
311
264
272
339
317
295
12/27/1987
2/8/1990
11/8/1987
6/2/1989
8/13/1987
5/6/85
12/6/1989
11/2/1985
8/4/1988
10/29/1988
1/1/1990
12/14/1989
4/12/1990
9/16/1980
2/2/1984
6/25/1986
4/16/1988
9/27/1989
6/23/1990
7/22/1983
10/7/1988
6/17/1985
12/7/1987
9/15/1986
11/15/1982
3/30/1980
11/22/1987
12/3/1986
5/21/1987
3/13/1985
8/20/1984
6/24/1981
1/7/1981
5/21/1987
10/27/1985
8/11/1989
7/2/1981
2/24/1989
6/6/1988
5/15/1986
1/18/1985
6/5/1989
1/30/1988
3/7/1988
12/21/1990
3/28/1985
3/18/1986
9/28/1986
5/18/1990
5/2/1985
10/17/1985
3/15/1986
1/27/1986
24
22
24
23
25
27
22
26
24
23
22
22
22
31
28
26
24
22
22
29
23
27
24
25
29
32
24
25
25
27
27
31
31
25
26
23
31
23
24
26
27
23
24
24
21
27
26
25
22
27
26
26
26
R
R
3
R
4
6
R
3
3
R
R
R
R
10
7
4
R
R
R
9
R
5
2
4
7
10
2
4
3
5
4
6
9
3
1
R
9
R
3
5
4
R
2
2
R
5
3
3
2
5
2
4
5
Missouri Western
Oregon State
Oklahoma
Southern Mississippi
Washington State
USC
Wake Forest
Texas Tech
South Carolina
North Alabama
Montana
Cincinnati
Abilene Christian
Boise State
Samford
Iowa
UNLV
Duke
Virginia
Oregon State
Baylor
North Dakota State
Ohio State
Illinois
Miami (Fla.)
Mississippi State
San Jose St.
Ohio State
Penn State
Boston College
New Mexico
Nevada-Reno
Tennessee
Colorado State
Texas State
Virginia
Hawaii
South Carolina
Indiana
Clemson
Maine
Appalachian St.
Wisconsin
Nebraska
LSU
Virginia
West Texas A&M
Central Oklahoma
North Carolina
Winston-Salem St.
Memphis
Clemson
Hampton
Lincoln, Nebr.
Bothell, Wash.
Meridian, Miss.
Puyallup, Wash.
Wylie, Tex.
The Woodlands, Tex.
Huntsville, Ala.
Pahokee, Fla.
Stockton, Calif.
Columbus, Ohio
Jacksonville, Fla.
Eugene, Ore.
Milton, Fla.
Youngstown, Ohio
Ft. Myers, Fla.
Fayetteville, Ga.
Oxon Hill, Md.
Las Vegas, Nev.
DeKalb, Tex.
Mankato, Minn.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Decatur, Ill.
Gaffney, S.C.
Clarksdale, Miss.
Chino Hills, Calif.
Plymouth, Minn.
Millheim, Pa.
Syracuse, N.Y.
Austin, Tex.
Fallon, Nev.
Brentwood, Tenn.
Avondale, Ari.
Arlington, Tex.
Oak Lawn, Ill.
Honolulu, Hi.
Fairburn, Ga.
Bedford, Ohio
Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
Bangor, Me.
Columbia, S.C.
Milwaukee, Wisc.
St. Louis, Mo.
Houston, Tex.
Mt. Olive, Miss.
Lawton, Okla.
Ladson, S.C.
High Point, N.C.
Galveston, Tex.
Columbia, S.C.
Petersburg, Va.
D6-'12
FA-'12
D1-'10
FA-'12
T(PHI)-'09
UFA (PHI)-'12
D4-'12
FA-'09
FA-'10
D2B-'12
D3-'12
D2C-'12
D7B-'12
UFA(PHI)-'11
UFA(TEN)-'12
D3-'09
FA-'12
FA-'12
FA-'12
D1-’04
W(NYJ)-'12
FA-'09
FA-'11
FA-'10
UFA (WAS)'-12
UFA(DEN)-'12
FA-'11
D2-'09
D7C-'10
UFA (NO)-'12
UFA (NYJ)-'12
UFA(ATL)-'11
UFA (GB)-'12
W(HOU)-'12
W(IND)-'12
FA-'12
T(NYJ)-'12
D5-'12
D2-'10
UFA(KC)-'12
UFA(NYJ)-'12
D2A-'12
D2-'11
FA-'11
D1-'12
D1-'08
D6B-'10
FA-'10
D1-'11
UFA (TEN)-'12
W(BUF)-'12
D4-'09
UFA (MIA)-'12
DT
6-1
304
6/14/1985
27
5
Notre Dame
Dayton, Ohio
UFA (PHI)-'12
WR
RB
TE
C
LB
G
DE
5-11
6-0
6-4
6-4
6-0
6-2
6-7
187
200
260
300
237
320
270
8/16/1989
10/22/1987
6/17/1990
5/14/1988
9/24/1988
8/13/1988
2/18/1988
23
24
22
24
23
24
24
R
1
R
1
R
R
1
Henderson State
Montana
UCLA
Missouri
Hawaii
Miami (Fla.)
Nebraska-Kearney
Santa Cruz, Calif.
Drummond, Mont.
Chino Hills, Calif.
Longwood, Mo.
Puyallup, Wash.
Miami, Fla.
Elm Creek, Neb.
FA-'12
FA-'11
FA-'12
FA-'11
D7A-'12
FA-'12
W(OAK)-'12
ST. LOUIS RAMS ROSTER BY EXPERIENCE
#
Player
Pos
Ht
Wt
9/4/2012
Birth
Date
NFL
Age Exp College
H.S. Hometown
How Acq
10th year (2)
51 Haggan, Mario
27 Mikell, Quintin
LB
S
6-3 274
5-10 204
3/30/1980
9/16/80
32
30
10
10
Mississippi State
Boise State
Clarksdale, Miss.
Eugene, OR
UFA(DEN)-'12
FA-'11
9th year (3)
39 Jackson, Steven
72 Hunter, Wayne
63 Wells, Scott
RB
T
C
6-2
6-5
6-2
7/22/83
7/2/1981
1/7/1981
29
31
31
9
9
9
Oregon State
Hawaii
Tennessee
Las Vegas, Nev.
Honolulu, Hi.
Brentwood, Tenn.
D1-’04
T(NYJ)-'12
UFA (GB)-'12
7th year (2)
31 Finnegan, Cortland
50 McIntosh, Rocky
CB
LB
5-10 188
6-2 242
2/2/84
11/15/1982
28
29
7
7
Samford
Miami (Fla.)
Milton, Fla.
Gaffney, S.C.
UFA(TEN)-'12
UFA (WAS)-'12
6th year (2)
43 Dahl, Craig
62 Dahl, Harvey
S
G
6-1
6-5
209
308
7/7/85
6/24/1981
27
30
6
6
North Dakota State
Nevada-Reno
Mankato, Minn.
Fallon, NV
FA-'09
FA-'11
5th year (5)
58
98
91
79
12
Dunbar, Jo-Lonn
Langford, Kendall
Long, Chris
Richardson, Barry
Smith, Steve
LB
DT
DE
T
WR
6-0
6-6
6-3
6-6
5-11
226
295
276
319
195
3/13/1985
1/27/1986
3/28/85
5/15/1986
5/6/1985
27
26
27
26
27
5
5
5
5
6
Boston College
Hampton
Virginia
Clemson
USC
Syracuse, N.Y.
Petersburg, Va.
Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
UFA (NO)-'12
UFA (MIA)-'12
D1-'08
UFA(KC)-'12
UFA (PHI)-'12
4th year (7)
16
32
11
55
82
59
97
Amendola, Danny
Fletcher, Bradley
Gibson, Brandon
Laurinaitis, James
Mulligan, Matthew
Turner, Robert
Scott, Darell
WR
CB
WR
LB
TE
C/G
DT
5-11
6-0
6-0
6-2
6-4
6-4
6-3
186
198
210
247
265
308
315
11/2/85
6/25/86
8/13/87
12/3/86
1/18/1985
8/20/1984
3/15/86
26
26
25
25
27
28
26
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
Texas Tech
Iowa
Washington State
Ohio State
Maine
New Mexico
Clemson
The Woodlands, Texas
Youngstown, Ohio
Puyallup, Wash.
Plymouth, Minn.
Bangor, Me.
Austin, Tex.
Columbia, S.C.
FA-'09
D3-'09
T(PHI)-'09
D2-'09
UFA(NYJ)-'12
UFA (NYJ)-'12
D4-'09
3rd year (9)
8
52
93
56
49
76
92
66
20
Bradford, Sam
Cole, Justin
Cudjo, Jermelle
Hull, Josh
Miller, Brit
Saffold, Rodger
Sims, Eugene
Smith, Shelley
Stewart, Darian
QB
LB
DT
LB
FB
OT
DE
G
S
6-4
6-3
6-2
6-3
6-1
6-5
6-6
6-4
5-11
228
242
299
239
253
323
250
297
215
11/8/87
11/22/87
9/28/86
5/21/87
9/15/86
6/6/88
3/18/86
5/21/1987
8/4/88
24
24
25
25
25
24
24
25
24
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
Oklahoma
San Jose St.
Central Oklahoma
Penn State
Illinois
Indiana
West Texas A&M
Colorado State
South Carolina
Chino Hills, Calif.
Lawton, Okla.
Millheim, Pa.
Decatur, Ill.
Bedford, Ohio
Mt. Olive, Miss.
Avondale, Ari.
Huntsville, Ala.
D1-'10
FA-'11
FA-'10
D7C-'10
FA-'10
D2-'10
D6B-'10
W(HOU)-'12
FA-'10
2nd year (5)
96
88
89
44
94
Heard, Kellen
Kendricks, Lance
McNeill, Mike
McQuaide, Jake
Quinn, Robert
DT
TE
TE
LS
DE
6-6
6-3
6-4
6-2
6-4
339
247
235
247
264
10/17/1985
1/30/88
3/7/1988
12/7/87
5/18/90
26
24
24
24
21
2
2
2
2
2
Memphis
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Ohio State
North Carolina
Galveston, Tex.
Milwaukee, Wisc.
St. Louis, Mo.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Ladson, S.C.
W(BUF)-'12
D2-'11
FA-'11
FA-'11
D1-'11
1st year (1)
69 Nsekhe, Ty
T
6-8
325
10/27/1985
26
1
Texas State
Arlington, Tex.
W(IND)-'12
Rookie (16)
90
71
37
9
42
13
6
21
22
38
24
33
83
26
73
4
DT
DT
S
QB
RB
WR
P
CB
CB
S
RB
S
WR
RB
T
K
6-5
6-7
6-0
6-2
6-1
6-0
6-5
5-10
6-2
5-10
5-10
5-9
6-3
5-10
6-3
6-0
322
290
211
221
240
198
227
193
204
183
197
186
220
196
338
187
12/21/1990
8/11/1989
9/27/1989
6/2/1989
10/7/1988
12/6/1989
2/8/1990
10/29/1988
1/1/1990
6/23/1990
12/14/1989
4/16/1988
6/5/1989
4/12/1990
2/24/1989
12/27/1987
21
23
22
23
23
22
22
23
22
22
22
24
23
22
23
24
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
LSU
Virginia
Duke
Baylor
Wake Forest
Oregon State
North Alabama
Montana
Virginia
Cincinnati
UNLV
Appalachian St.
Abilene Christian
South Carolina
Missouri Western
Houston, Tex.
Oak Lawn, Ill.
Fayetteville, Ga.
Meridian, Miss.
DeKalb, Tex.
Wylie, Tex.
Bothell, Wash.
Pahokee, Fla.
Stockton, Calif.
Oxon Hill, Md.
Columbus, Ohio
Ft. Myers, Fla.
Columbia, S.C.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Fairburn, Ga.
Lincoln, Nebr.
D1-'12
FA-'12
FA-'12
FA-'12
W(NYJ)-'12
D4-'12
FA-'12
D2B-'12
D3-'12
FA-'12
D2C-'12
FA-'12
D2A-'12
D7B-'12
D5-'12
D6-'12
Brockers, Michael
Conrath, Matthew
Daniels, Matthew
Davis, Austin
Ganaway, Terrance
Givens, Chris
Hekker, Johnny
Jenkins, Janoris
Johnson, Trumaine
McLeod, Rodney
Pead, Isaiah
Pointer, Quinton
Quick, Brian
Richardson, Daryl
Watkins, Rokevious
Zuerlein, Greg
236
318
300
ST. LOUIS RAMS POSITIONAL ROSTER
#
Player
9/4/2012
NFL
Age Exp College
Ht
Wt
Birth
Date
QB
QB
6-4
6-2
228
221
11/8/87
6/2/1989
24
22
2
R
RB
RB
RB
RB
RB
FB
5-10
5-10
6-0
6-2
6-1
6-1
197
196
200
236
240
253
12/14/1989
4/12/1990
10/22/1987
7/22/83
10/7/1988
9/15/86
22
22
23
29
23
25
WR
WR
WR
WR
WR
WR
6-0
5-11
6-0
5-11
5-11
6-3
210
195
198
187
188
220
8/13/87
5/6/85
12/6/89
8/16/89
11/2/85
6/5/1989
TE
TE
TE
TE
6-4
6-4
6-3
6-4
260
265
243
235
OL
C
T
C
G
T
G
T
T
T
T
6-4
6-4
6-5
6-2
6-4
6-8
6-2
6-5
6-3
6-5
6-6
DT
DE
DT
DE
DE
DT
DE
DE
DT
DT
DT
Pos
H.S. Hometown
How Acq
Oklahoma
Meridian, Miss.
D1-'10
FA-'12
R
R
1
8
R
4
Cincinnati
Abilene Christian
Montana
Oregon State
Baylor
Illinois
Columbus, Ohio
Jacksonville, Fla.
Drummond, Mt.
Las Vegas, Nev.
DeKalb, Tex.
Decatur, Ill.
D2C-'12
D7B-'12
FA-'11
D1-’04
W(NYJ)-'12
FA-'10
25
26
22
23
26
22
3
6
R
R
3
R
Washington State
USC
Wake Forest
Henderson State
Texas Tech
Appalachian St.
Puyallup, Wash.
Wylie, Tex.
Santa Cruz, Calif.
The Woodlands, Tex.
Columbia, S.C.
T(PHI)-'09
UFA (PHI)-'12
D4-'12
FA-'12
FA-'09
D2A-'12
6/17/90
1/18/85
1/30/88
3/7/88
21
27
24
23
R
4
R
R
UCLA
Maine
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Chino Hills, Calif.
Bangor, Me.
Milwaukee, Wisc.
St. Louis, Mo.
FA-'12
UFA(NYJ)-'12
D2-'11
FA-'11
308
300
305
300
297
325
320
318
338
314
319
8/20/84
5/14/1988
6/24/1981
1/7/81
5/21/1987
10/27/1985
8/13/1988
7/2/1981
2/24/89
6/6/88
5/15/86
27
23
30
31
25
26
24
31
23
24
26
4
1
5
9
3
1
R
9
R
3
5
New Mexico
Missouri
Nevada-Reno
Tennesseee
Colorado State
Texas State
Miami (Fla.)
Hawaii
South Carolina
Indiana
Clemson
Austin, Tex.
Longwood, Mo.
Fallon, NV
Brentwood, Tenn.
Avondale, Ari.
Arlington, Tex.
Miami, Fla.
Honolulu, Hi.
Fairburn, Ga.
Bedford, Ohio
Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
UFA (NYJ)-'12
FA-'11
FA-'11
UFA (GB)-'12
W(HOU)-'12
W(IND)-'12
FA-'12
T(NYJ)-'12
D5-'12
D2-'10
UFA(KC)-'12
6-7
6-7
6-5
6-3
6-6
6-2
6-4
6-3
6-6
6-3
6-6
290
270
322
276
250
311
265
272
339
315
295
8/11/89
2/18/1988
12/21/90
3/28/85
3/18/86
9/28/86
5/18/90
5/2/85
10/17/1985
3/15/86
1/27/86
22
24
21
27
26
25
21
26
26
26
26
R
1
R
4
2
3
R
5
2
3
5
Virginia
Nebraska-Kearney
LSU
Virginia
West Texas A&M
Central Oklahoma
North Carolina
Winston-Salem St.
Memphis
Clemson
Hampton
Oak Lawn, Ill.
Elm Creek, Neb.
Houston, Tex.
Mt. Olive, Miss.
Lawton, Okla.
Ladson, S.C.
High Point, N.C.
Galveston, Tex.
Columbia, S.C.
Petersburg, Va.
FA-'12
W(OAK)-'12
D1-'11
D1-'08
D6B-'10
FA-'10
D1-'11
UFA (TEN)-'12
W(BUF)-'12
D4-'09
UFA (MIA)-'12
LB
LB
LB
LB
LB
LB
LB
6-2
6-3
6-3
6-0
6-2
6-3
6-0
242
274
242
237
247
245
226
11/15/82
3/30/80
11/22/87
9/24/88
12/3/86
5/21/87
3/13/85
29
32
24
21
25
2
27
7
10
2
R
3
3
5
Miami (Fla.)
Mississippi State
San Jose St.
Hawaii
Ohio State
Penn State
Boston College
Gaffney, S.C.
Clarksdale, Miss.
Chino Hills, Calif.
Puyallup, Wash.
Plymouth, Minn.
Millheim, Pa.
Syracuse, N.Y.
UFA (WAS)'-12
UFA(DEN)-'12
FA-'11
D7A-'12
D2-'09
D7C-'10
UFA (NO)-'12
S
CB
CB
DB
CB
CB
S
S
S
S
5-11
5-10
6-2
5-10
5-10
6-0
5-9
6-0
5-10
6-1
215
193
204
204
188
200
186
211
183
209
8/4/88
10/29/88
1/1/90
9/16/80
2/2/84
6/25/86
4/16/1988
9/27/1989
6/23/90
6/17/85
24
23
22
30
28
26
24
22
22
27
2
R
R
9
7
4
R
R
R
5
South Carolina
North Alabama
Montana
Boise State
Samford
Iowa
UNLV
Duke
Virginia
North Dakota State
Huntsville, Ala.
Pahokee, Fla.
Stockton, Calif.
Eugene, Ore.
Milton, Fla.
Youngstown, Ohio
Ft. Myers, Fla.
Fayetteville, Ga.
Oxon Hill, Md.
Mankato, Minn.
FA-'10
D2B-'12
D3-'12
UFA(PHI)-'11
UFA(TEN)-'12
D3-'09
FA-'12
FA-'12
FA-'12
FA-'09
K
P
LS
6-0
6-5
6-2
187
227
219
12/27/87
2/8/1990
12/7/87
24
22
24
R
R
R
Missouri Western
Oregon State
Ohio State
Lincoln, Neb.
Bothell, Wash.
Cincinnati, Ohio
D6-'12
FA-'12
FA-'11
QUARTERBACKS (2)
8
9
Sam Bradford
Austin Davis
RUNNING BACKS (6)
24
26
34
39
42
49
Isaiah Pead
Daryl Richardson
Chase Reynolds (PS)
Steven Jackson
Terrance Ganaway
Brit Miller
WIDE RECEIVERS (6)
11
12
13
14
16
83
Brandon Gibson
Steve Smith
Chris Givens
Nick Johnson (PS)
Danny Amendola
Brian Quick
TIGHT ENDS (4)
46
82
88
89
Cory Harkey (PS)
Matthew Mulligan
Lance Kendricks
Mike McNeill
OFFENSIVE LINE (11)
59
61
62
63
66
69
70
72
73
76
79
Robert Turner
Tim Barnes (PS)
Harvey Dahl
Scott Wells
Shelley Smith
Ty Nsekhe
Brandon Washington (PS)
Wayne Hunter
Rokevious Watkins
Rodger Saffold
Barry Richardson
DEFENSIVE LINE (11)
71
77
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
Matthew Conrath
Mason Brodine (PS)
Michael Brockers
Chris Long
Eugene Sims
Jermelle Cudjo
Robert Quinn
William Hayes
Kellen Heard
Darell Scott
Kendall Langford
LINEBACKERS (7)
50
51
52
54
55
56
58
Rocky McIntosh
Mario Haggan
Justin Cole
Aaron Brown (PS)
James Laurinaitis
Josh Hull
Jo-Lonn Dunbar
SECONDARY (10)
20
21
22
27
31
32
33
37
38
43
Darian Stewart
Janoris Jenkins
Trumaine Johnson
Quintin Mikell
Cortland Finnegan
Bradley Fletcher
Quinton Pointer
Matthew Daniels
Rodney McLeod
Craig Dahl
SPECIALISTS (3)
4 Greg Zuerlein
6 Johnny Hekker
44 Jake McQuaide
2012 ST. LOUIS RAMS TRANSACTIONS
Date
Name
Move
Date
Name
Move
Jan. 2
DT Cornell Banks
C Tim Barnes
CB Kendrick Burney
Signed to Reserve/Future Contract
June 14
July 24
LB Rocky McIntosh
OL Michael Hay
CB Jeremy Caldwell
Signed
Waived
Waived
WR John Chiles
TE Demarco Cosby
DT John Henderson
T Ryan McKee
July 28
Aug. 15
FB Ovie Mughelli
TE Jamie Childers
WR Charles Gilbert
WR Brandyn Harvey
Signed
Waived
Signed
Signed
RB Chase Reynolds
Aug. 17
P Tom Malone
Waived
P Tom Malone
K Garrett Lindholm
OL Jovan Olafioye
WR John Chiles
OL Jovan Olafioye
C Jason Brown
DT Justin Bannan
DE James Hall
DT Fred Robbins
WR Nick Miller
LB David Nixon
CB Ron Bartell
CB Cortland Finnegan
DT Kendall Langford
C Scott Wells
G Quinn Ojinnaka
WR Steve Smith
FB Brit Miller
TE Matthew Mulligan
OL Rob Turner
QB Tom Brandstater
LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar
DE Williams Hayes
DT Trevor Laws
QB Kellen Clemens
WR Danny Amendola
DT Jermelle Cudjo
WR Dominique Curry
DT Michael Brockers
WR Brian Quick
CB Janoris Jenkins
RB Isaiah Pead
CB Trumaine Johnson
WR Chris Givens
T Rokevious Watkins
K Greg Zuerlein
LB Aaron Brown
RB Daryl Richardson
K Josh Brown
CB Chris Smith
RB Quinn Porter
DT John Henderson
CB Nate Ness
TE Demarco Cosby
G Michael Hay
RB Calvin Middleton
TE Deangelo Peterson
LB Noah Keller
S Quinton Pointer
S Matthew Daniels
P John Hekker
FB Todd Anderson
DE Scott Smith
C T. Bob Hebert
DT Matt Conrath
LB Alex Hoffman-Ellis
LB Derrick Choice
S Rodney McLeod
RB Nick Schweiger
LS Travis Tripuka
WR Dominique Curry
CB Marquis Johnson
T Thomas Welch
CB Brian Jackson
T Joe Long
LB Sammy Brown
DE Jamaar Jarrett
WR Mike Campbell
T Barry Richardson
LB Mario Haggan
LB Derrick Choice
T Jose Valdez
TE Brody Eldridge
Signed
Waived
Waived/Failed Physical
Released
Released
Released
Released
Waived
Waived
Released
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed RFA Tender
Signed ERFA Tender
Signed ERFA Tender
Selected 14th overall in NFL Draft (1st Round)
Selected 33rd overall in NFL Draft (2nd Round)
Selected 39th overall in NFL Draft (2nd Round)
Selected 50th overall in NFL Draft (2nd Round)
Selected 65th overall in NFL Draft (3rd Round)
Selected 96th overall in NFL Draft (4th Round)
Selected 171st overall in NFL Draft (6th Round)
Selected 252nd overall in NFL Draft (7th Round)
Released
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Signed
Waived
Claimed off waivers from MIN
Claimed off waivers from IND
DT John Gill
CB Josh Gordy
DE Vernon Gholston
FB Todd Anderson
TE Brody Eldridge
WR Charles Gilbert
DT John Gill
WR Brandyn Harvey
LB Alex Hoffman-Ellis
T Kevin Hughes
LB Noah Keller
K Garrett Lindholm
T Ryan McKee
RB Calvin Middleton
RB Nick Schweiger
LS Travis Tripucka
WR Danario Alexander
DT Trevor Laws
WR Mike Campbell
DE Mason Brodine
DT Cornell Banks
C Tim Barnes
QB Tom Brandstater
DE Mason Brodine
LB Aaron Brown
LB Sammy Brown
DB Kendric Burney
DE Vernon Gholston
TE Ben Guidugli
C T. Bob Hebert
DE Jamaar Jarrett
WR Nick Johnson
T Joe Long
G Bryan Mattison
FB Ovie Mughelli
TE Deangelo Peterson
RB Chase Reynolds
DE Scott Smith
T Jose Valdez
FB Ovie Mughelli
WR Austin Pettis
TE Corey Harkey
QB Kellen Clemens
DT Kellen Heard
RB Terrance Ganaway
C Tim Barnes
DE Mason Brodine
LB Aaron Brown
TE Corey Harkey
RB Chase Reynolds
WR Nick Johnson
WR Greg Salas
CB Jerome Murphy
TE Michael Hoomanawanui
G Quinn Ojinnaka
T Ty Nsekhe
G Brandon Washington
G Shelley Smith
Signed
Traded to IND
Signed
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived-Injured
Placed on Reserved-Injured
Waived
Claimed off waivers from OAK
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Waived
Released
Placed on Reserve/Suspended by Commissioner
Waived
Released
Claimed off wiavers from BUF
Claimed off waivers from NYJ
Signed to practice squad
Traded to NE
Waived
Waived
Released
Claimed off waivers from IND
Signed
Jan. 9
Jan. 20
Feb. 6
Feb. 10
Mar. 12
Mar. 13
Mar. 15
Mar. 17
Mar. 22
Mar. 26
Mar. 30
April 2
April 11
April 12
April 17
April 25
April 26
April 27
April 28
April 30
May 1
May 2
May 3
May 4
May 5
May 8
May 14
May 15
May 16
May 18
Aug. 22
Aug. 27
Aug. 28
Aug. 31
Sept. 1
Sept. 2
RAMS FEATURE CLIPS
ST. LOUIS RAMS FEATURE CLIPS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Back in the game, Fisher has had a whirlwind last few months, By Jeff Diamond………………………..……….…………. 2
SI.com / March 2, 2012
Fisher guides Rams through first full-squad practice, By Jim Thomas……………………………………..………..………… 5
STLToday.com / May 17, 2012
No panic in Fisher, By Bryan Burwell……………………………………………………………….………………………….……… 7
STLToday.com / August 15, 2012
Ram tough: Les Snead leans on strengths to rebuild St. Louis, By Albert Breer…………………………………….………. 9
NFL.com / May 5, 2012
Snead Makes Impressive First Impression, By Howard Balzer…………………………………………….………..….…….… 12
101ESPN.com / February 15, 2012
Bradford starting over again, By Jim Thomas……………………………………………………………….……….. …………… 14
STLToday.com / April 8, 2012
Rams' Jackson is building a legacy, By Bernie Miklasz…………………………………………………..…………...….……… 16
STLToday.com / September 2, 2012
Plenty of action ahead for Jackson, By Kathleen Nelson………………………………………………….…..….……………… 18
Hard work, dedication lift Brockers, By Bryan Burwell………………………………………………………………….………… 20
STLToday.com / April 29, 2012
Long assumes leadership role for young Rams, By Andrew Astleford……………………………….………………...……… 23
FoxSportsMidwest.com / June 14, 2012
Rams expect Quinn to step up in Year 2, By Jim Thomas………………………………………..…………………….…...…… 25
STLToday.com / June 14, 2012
Quinn stands out for Rams, By Bryan Burwell………………………………………………………………………..…….……… 27
Rams' Amendola puts freak injury behind him, By The Associated Press………………………..…………………………… 29
FoxSportsMidwest.com / August 1, 2012
Scott Wells goes extra mile for children, By Jim Thomas……………………………………….…………………………..…… 31
Rams rookie RB has taken hits since early age, By Jim Thomas………………………………..……………………...……… 34
STLToday.com / June 13, 2012
Show Me State: Rams' Steve Smith out to prove he's still got it, By Aditi Kinkhabwala……………………………..….….. 36
NFL.com / June 12, 2012
Rams working on the 'wow' factor with new punter Hekker, By Jim Thomas…………………..………………….....……… 37
Page 1
ST. LOUIS RAMS NEWS CLIPS
Publication: SI.com
Section/# of Pages: Sports/1 of 3
Date: 3/2/12
Back in the game, Fisher has had a whirlwind last few months
By Jeff Diamond
One year ago, Jeff Fisher spent his 53rd birthday snowboarding in Montana. After a stalwart stint on the Tennessee sideline, Fisher was
no longer the Titans head coach, freeing him from the responsibilities of a typical February.
His 54th birthday last Friday, however, was back to his norm. The new Rams coach spent it in Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting
Combine, balancing a non-stop schedule of meetings with Rams staff members, interviews with coaching staff candidates, trade talks with
teams seeking the Rams' coveted No. 2 overall pick and -- oh yeah -- combine workouts to watch and interviews with 18 draft prospects
that evening.
"I've been at the Combine on my birthday in 25 of the last 26 years," Fisher told me when I caught up with him in Indianapolis last
weekend. "I enjoyed my year off and the opportunity to do some things I couldn't do while coaching -- watch my son Trent play football
as a redshirt freshman at Auburn, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro last May with the Wounded Warriors, play some golf and do a lot of fishing in
the summer and fall in Montana. But now I'm really excited about the Rams and our future. There's a hundred things going on at once and
I have to prioritize to get things done."
Fisher stayed connected to the NFL during his year off, serving as a non-voting member of the NFL Competition Committee (he was
previously co-chairman and has now officially rejoined the group) and a consultant to the NFL's Football Operations and Officiating
departments. In the meantime, he declined network TV offers, knowing all along that he would return to coaching in 2012.
Now that he has, it's been a whirlwind few months. Here's an inside look at what it's like to first take over an NFL team.
During Thanksgiving week last year, Fisher began to look seriously at six teams that he thought may make a coaching change, despite it
all being "a lot of rumors at that point." He spoke regularly with agent Marvin Demoff and starting to research the teams. He put his
findings together in a book that included his roster evaluations, team needs and a look at the organizational structure -- what the
ownership and front office staff looked like.
In December, Fisher kept his ear to the rumor mill and narrowed his list to three or four teams. Conversations began between teams and
Demoff, but Fisher wouldn't speak with any team that had not yet fired their head coach. One team that had fired its coach already, the
Dolphins, engaged Fisher in "numerous conversations" in the last week of December.
"As the regular season ended, I narrowed my list to two -- Miami and St. Louis."
On January 2, the day the Rams fired Steve Spagnuolo, Fisher spoke with both teams, first with the Dolphins' contingent of owner
Stephen Ross, GM Jeff Ireland and consultant Carl Peterson, then with Rams executive vice president of football operations/chief
operating officer Kevin Demoff, also the son of Fisher's agent Marvin ("that was not an issue, we were objective"). Meanwhile, Fisher
worked on his list of potential coaches to compile a staff once he was hired.
The next day brought a flight to Palm Beach, Florida."I met with Stephen, Jeff and Carl and then we had dinner. The next day we had a
breakfast meeting, I visited the Dolphins facility and had a final lunch before I flew back to Nashville. There were no offers yet. I just
wanted to get comfortable with the team." Fisher met with the Rams a few days later, first in Denver and then at the team facility, where
he got a chance to meet Sam Bradford ("I was very impressed with him").
With his destination narrowed to the two teams and initial meetings with both done, Fisher and Demoff sent "a non-economic issues wish
list" to both teams, addressing the set-up of the organization, Fisher's personnel role and support for the coaches. Miami responded first,
kickstarting serious negotiations, with the Rams following.
After two days, Fisher had made up his mind. He would coach the Rams.
Both teams were informed, and a day later Fisher was announced as the Rams' new coach. Fisher did not want to give specific reasons for
his decision, other than to say he had a good comfort level with "the opportunity to win." That didn't stop speculation regarding the
reasons Fisher chose St. Louis. It was reported that he preferred Kroenke as his owner and wanted a say in personnel decisions, which the
Rams were more open to. It also didn't hurt that the Rams had three very valuable assets -- a potential franchise quarterback in Sam
Bradford, the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming draft available to deal to the highest bidder, and approximately $25 million in salary cap
room going into free agency and that number could grow with some player cuts before March 13.
Page 2
Publication: SI.com
Date: 3/2/12
Now it's time to put together a staff, starting with offensive coordinator. Though he had a few candidates in mind, there was one who
stood out to Fisher.
"I'm literally driving down Hillsboro Road in Nashville and I call Brian (Schottenheimer) to set up a meeting to talk about the offensive
coordinator position. I had no idea he was in Nashville at that moment. He had moved his family there and lived off Hillsboro Road so I
was driving by his development as we spoke. So we had dinner that night and talked further the next day."
Gregg Williams was soon after added as defensive coordinator, and over the next few days the staff started coming together.
"I was really on the move during (the first week of February). On the 1st, I had been in Nashville identifying things in my house that I
wanted to move and drove to St. Louis that day as Kevin and I were doing GM interviews and I was still interviewing coaches. On the
2nd, I drove from St. Louis to Indianapolis to do media interviews at the Super Bowl. On the 3rd, I drove from Indy to Nashville to
continue to get stuff in order and see family. On the 5th -- the morning of Super Bowl Sunday -- Brian Schottenheimer and I interviewed a
coaching candidate in Nashville. Then the next day I drove back to St. Louis."
Those GM and coaching interviews spilled into the next week. Eventually Les Snead is hired as the team's GM, but there are still coaches
to hire. If that isn't enough, pre-Combine draft meetings were beginning to get underway. And lest we forget that NFL coaches and
players are real people, Fisher also had to deal with finding a place to live in St. Louis, which he did in mid-February, and getting settled
there. Realizing that he wouldn't have enough time to search for a more permanent home, Fisher found a townhouse to occupy until he has
more time in mid-June, when he'll again go househunting and deal with relocating.
Late February brought a flurry of activity for Fisher. With still two spots remaining on his staff, Fisher had to set up the last of his
coaching interviews while participating in NFL Competition Committee meetings all day -- and some evenings -- for three days, and
meeting Snead and Demoff in Indianapolis about everything going on with the team. Meanwhile, February 24 brought the start of the
combine -- a 24/7 football existence -- meaning Fisher had to balance all of the prior responsibilities with watching workouts, personnel
meetings, interviews, trade talks and media sessions.
Now that the Combine is behind him, Fisher is focused on free agency (the Rams have 20 unrestricted free agents, including wide receiver
Brandon Lloyd, and several restricted free agents) and the draft. He'll be heavily involved in trade discussions for the No. 2 pick, and he
knows full well that this could be a franchise-changing move.
Fisher also wants to set his schedule for minicamps and OTAs. Under the new CBA, the number of OTA days was reduced from 16 to 10,
and player participation in the offseason (including the conditioning program) cannot begin until April 2. "I've met a lot of our players but
we can't sit down and talk football now, and most of our players want to get started."
Fisher's hectic March schedule includes Competition Committee meetings from March 3 to 9 and league meetings during the last week of
the month. He'll be attending pro days for draft prospects and meeting with potential draftees that the Rams bring in for visits in April.
NFL free agency begins on March 13 and Fisher says the Rams will be "active." He knows that with the exception of starting quarterback
(Bradford), middle linebacker (James Laurinaitis), starting running back (Steven Jackson), safety (Quintin Mikell and Darian Stewart) and
perhaps defensive end (Chris Long and Robert Quinn), the Rams have needs everywhere. He also knows that the Rams have some good
players who were on injured reserve last season and will return (such as cornerback Bradley Fletcher and wide receiver Danny
Amendola).
To help the coach deal with keeping track of all the names and stats? Fisher carries an iPad loaded with profiles and video of Rams
players, free agents and college players. "Today's technology is amazing. I've got all this with me whenever I want to review it."
Despite the Rams winning a total of 10 games over the past three seasons, Fisher has an optimistic outlook."We must have a plan in place
and be mindful of avoiding mistakes. We can't go crazy in the free agent market. It's going to take some time but this is a good football
team that was a game away from the playoffs in 2010 and was decimated with injuries last season. Our expectation is to win games and be
a consistent playoff team year after year and that increases the odds to win a championship."
In regard to his whirlwind schedule, Fisher can see a light at the end of the tunnel. When the off season program and OTAs end in midJune, he'll finally be able to catch up on his sleep, resume a normal workout routine that is important to him (he completed the Music City
Marathon in 2002) and head to his second home in Montana for family time and fishing before training camp and the new season.
"It's real mind-boggling what I've gone through with the non-stop past couple of months. But you multi-task and push forward. It can be
overwhelming if you let it. The most difficult thing is following up and getting back to the phone calls, emails and texts ... all the people
Page 3
Publication: SI.com
Date: 3/2/12
expressing interest and waiting to hear from me. You continue the process -- some of the coaches you want fall through so you go find a
better guy. You just have to know that at the end of the day, it will all get done."
Page 4
Publication: STLToday.com
Date: 5/17/12
Fisher guides Rams through first full-squad practice
By Jim Thomas
For the first time as Rams head coach, Jeff Fisher has his rookies and veterans together on the practice field.
The gang's all here.
On Tuesday, the first day of the full-squad practices, Fisher had the rookies introduce themselves to the veterans in the team auditorium at
Rams Park. Fisher had the rookies provide more information than just the basics.
"You ask the newcomer to stand up and give his name, position, school," Fisher said after Wednesday's practice. "His favorite movie.
Name of his first pet, and what happened to it. And his nickname."
What about those pets?
"Quite a few hamsters, turtles," Fisher reported.
What happened to them?
"A couple killed by trains and buses," he replied. "Somebody's dog got killed by a train. We had one — his parents just put (the pet)
'down' that morning. You know, it's sad. But it was good introductions."
Cornerback Cortland Finnegan, who spent his first five seasons playing for Fisher in Tennessee, said it's the coach's way of establishing
team chemistry and camaraderie.
"It's just part of the ritual," Finnegan said. "It's always something Coach Fisher breaks in there for giggles and to break the ice."
Many of the new players were given nicknames at the introductory session. Finnegan said one rookie was dubbed Gonzo — after the
Muppet character — but Finnegan wouldn't reveal Gonzo's identity.
Finnegan said his nickname as a Titans rookie in 2006 was Fido, because like a dog chasing cars, he had a habit of going after things.
"I played nickel and I would always run after the wrong guy," Finnegan said.
Apparently, that's as far as Fisher goes when it comes to rookie initiation. For example, the time-honored NFL tradition of having rookies
sing in front of the vets doesn't exist for a Fisher team.
"They're not going to sing," Fisher said. "That's one thing they're not going to do. We don't haze here. They're here to help us win."
With more than 80 players on the field Wednesday, rookies and veterans alike were inundated with X's and O's.
"We added a bunch of things today," Fisher said. "We've got a lot of 'base' in, we've got third down, and red zone. Friday, we'll probably
do some 2-minute. So we're throwing a lot at 'em. But they've responded very well and they're practicing well together."
This is the third coaching change in six years for the Rams, and a major roster upheaval has taken place each time. But the shake-up
engineered by Fisher, general manager Les Snead and executive vice president of football operations Kevin Demoff has been greater than
what took place in Steve Spagnuolo's inaugural season in 2009, or Scott Linehan's first Rams team in 2006.
To a large degree, dozens of strangers must get to know each other, learn to work with each other, and trust each other on the football
field.
"You know what, we're building," Finnegan said. "I like where we're going. We're pushing each other. We look to be a good football
team. If we can all push each other, I like what we're going to do this year."
As part of a Tennessee draft class that included college stars Vince Young and LenDale Young, Finnegan remembers being star-struck his
first couple of practices as a rookie, as if he was just glad to be there as a seventh-round selection out of tiny Samford University.
Page 5
Date: 5/17/12
As he prepares for his fifth NFL season, defensive end Chris Long says he can't even remember his first few days as a professional in
2008.
"It's a blur," Long said. "Time moves fast in this league, and it's just important to take advantage of your opportunities because it does
move fast."
Fisher wants the rookies to move fast on the field, but because none of the spring practices can take place in pads, he wants them to work
smart as well.
"There's a fine line between practicing with and without pads," Fisher said. "What we want to accomplish over the next couple days is
relearn how to practice at a great tempo without pads and protect each other."
As linebacker James Laurinaitis said, the last thing a young player needs to do is get a teammate hurt trying to impress the coaches.
"There's a fine line of blitzing full speed to get close to Sam (Bradford), but realizing that if you end up close enough to where his hand
falls on your helmet, that's a real fast way to get cut," he said.
With enough players to go four-deep on the depth chart, getting enough practice repetitions isn't easy given league rules limiting the
amount of practice time in the spring. Because of that, Fisher and his staff squeezed in an extra period with just the rookies Wednesday,
while the veterans stretched on another field at the end of practice.
Every last rep counts for rookies such as offensive guard Rokevious Watkins, a fifth-round pick from South Carolina. The thing that stood
out the most about the first two practice days with the veterans was "how fast the game is going," Watkins said. "I'm trying to transition
into game speed. It's like bullets out there when you're dealing with the veterans. The more you know, the faster you can play."
At least Watkins already has a nickname, one given him by South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier: Rok — as in Rock. Other Rams rookies,
including the mysterious Gonzo, weren't so lucky.
Page 6
Date: 8/15/12
No panic in Fisher
By Bryan Burwell
On the first day back on the practice field since Sunday's unsightly 35-point spanking, Jeff Fisher was, as his players like to say, his old
cool self. The world had not come to an end. The sky had not fallen, the earth had not opened up in the middle of the Rams Park practice
fields and attempted to swallow up the entire training camp roster in angry retribution for Fisher's Rams having the audacity to lose the
opening game of the preseason by such a lopsided score.
It was just another work day in the midst of the endless training camp grind for Fisher, who just did what he always does, which is glide
around the practice field observing everything from behind the reflection of those cool designer sun glasses.
Emotional fans can have the luxury of over-reacting to the outcome of an August dress rehearsal. Experienced head coaches like Fisher
react to the scoreboard's inconsequential numbers with the proper regard, which is somewhere between a chuckle and a yawn.
"Yeah, I don't think there were many tears on the airplane coming home (Sunday)," Fisher said with a rather sardonic smirk on Monday.
"What you want to see is ... them play hard, and they did. We've got to play better. Believe me, we're not ready for Detroit yet, (but) we
will get better."
If you want to know a thing or two about a football coach — what he thinks, what he stands for, how he does his job — observe him
when there's a tinge of panic in the air. It doesn't matter if it's artificial panic like the sort that was swirling in the air with so many people
overreacting to the outcome of a meaningless preseason game, or the genuine restlessness that can permeate when the scores actually do
matter.
If the man in charge freaks out when everyone around him starts losing their grip, that's a very bad sign.
Fisher is not that guy. The players rave about his never-nervous demeanor.
"There's just something about him," said tight end Lance Kendricks. "He's like this really cool, laid-back guy. Just always in control of
things. Not a lot of screaming and shouting. He just lays it all out to you, very matter of fact. This is it, here's how it's done. Now go do it.
He's the same way every day, every meeting, every practice."
They're going to need that demeanor, because this is not going to be an easy remake. There are some glaring issues that need to be fixed
around here, and it's going to take a man who knows exactly what he's doing to get it done.
And it's not going to take a patient man, because one of the last words I'd use to describe Fisher is "patient." The word I'd use is "resolve,"
because it's going to take a man with a ton of resolve and a mountain of personal belief to turn this franchise around as quickly as Fisher
insists it will take to turn the Rams back into winners.
When someone asked him why he seems so emotionally steady all the time, Fisher grinned again. "Hey if you do this (he waves his hand
up and down like a roller coaster) your team does that. And we want to do this (his hand rising on a steady accent). I mean, we're going to
learn from this. We're going to correct the mistakes and we're going to move on. Even in a losing effort (Sunday) afternoon in a preseason
game, we got a little bit better because we got a chance to go out and compete against somebody else. And we did some good things and
the big picture is, 'Are you getting better?' And we did. And we have to continue to do so."
This isn't crazy, blind happy talk from some wide-eyed, inexperienced football coach who's gushing on his first trip to the rodeo. Fisher,
in his 17th season as a NFL head coach, is the third-most tenured active head coach in the league behind only Bill Belichick and Mike
Shanahan. He knows exactly what he's looking at and more importantly, what he's looking for. He understands exactly what he inherited
with this roster and how much work is required to make this into a team that can win consistently on Sundays in the fall.
Yet there's a reason why he believes he can turn this team around in a hurry. While some of it has to do with the belief that the NFC West
is such a weak division that you can leap from worst to first overnight, most of it is rooted in his belief that if he doesn't exhibit the power
of positive thinking publicly, it will be impossible to get his players to buy into a winning mentality, too.
So understand that Fisher believes the preseason serves two important purposes: To find out who can play, and to gradually get the team
ready for the regular season. Nothing else matters. Not the scoreboard. Not impressing nervous fans.
Page 7
Date: 8/15/12
So in the first two games, mostly he's evaluating talent, who should start, who should make the roster, who can help you win right away
and who are the more long-term projects. Once those objectives are established, the last two games are designed to get those who can help
you win now ready to play that first regular-season game. Winning games in the preseason is not nearly as critical, which is why in the
five previous seasons where Fisher's teams have finished with a losing preseason record, only once did that lead to a losing record in the
regular season (2005 at 4-12).
"Well, I mean, you want to win the games, but yeah, the preseason is to get ready for the regular season," Fisher said. "It's to fine-tune and
prepare and get them to a level where you're ready to compete when the season starts."
I need to see a lot more before I'm ready to believe the Rams are ready to make a dramatic worst-to-first turnaround. But the last place I'm
looking in the preseason is the scoreboard.
Page 8
Publication: NFL.com
Date: 5/5/12
Ram tough: Les Snead leans on strengths to rebuild St. Louis
By Albert Breer
Tuesday was May 1. For new St. Louis Rams general manager Les Snead, the beginning of the new month meant it was finally time to tie
up a whole bunch of loose ends.
Snead, formerly personnel director for the Atlanta Falcons, was hired by the Rams in mid-February. His self-imposed directive since then
has been to focus on four aspects of roster management. They were, in order, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of his new club; deal
the second pick in the draft; prepare for and complete free agency; and then do the same with the draft.
"I did those four things," Snead said, over the phone from his office this week. "And with a lot of people that I know, I've had to say, 'Oh,
that's a May project.' I'm still living in the hotel. The boxes Atlanta sent me are still stacked up against the wall, and I haven't opened one.
I don't have a file cabinet or anything. Basically, I said, 'Everything's a May project, except for those four things.'"
Snead can unpack and find a place to live now. His vision for the Rams, in this job he spent the better part of two decades preparing, is
beginning to take shape.
In less than three months, Snead brought home a historic haul in dealing what became Robert Griffin III's draft rights to Washington,
worked a free-agent period that landed Cortland Finnegan, Kendall Langford and Scott Wells for St. Louis, and spearheaded perhaps the
most aggressive and daring draft-day effort that any NFL club had.
And Rams COO Kevin Demoff is hardly surprised by the swashbuckling style that Snead has employed, even if the new GM remains in
the considerable shadow cast by new head coach Jeff Fisher.
"There was a reason Les was the first call I made when we went looking for a GM," said Demoff, who led the search process. "We met
with a lot of capable people, and a lot of people I think will become great GMs. But there was something unique about Les' way of
thinking. It inspired you, and made you believe he'd have immediate success. It's his self-confidence, and it's not arrogance, but he
believes in his ability. He can get the most of the people around him. He can bring a group together."
On the first night Demoff met with Snead, over dinner, the 13-year Falcons personnel man detailed his plan for trading the second pick.
He showed Demoff how he could build a draft around the second-rounders, and gave him names of players he'd target. One was
Appalachian State receiver Brian Quick, whom Snead built a consensus on in the building, and wound up taking atop Round 2.
Another thing Snead passed along to Demoff was his GM proposal. In it were four core principles. The last two were pretty standard -- to
be passionate and be honest. The first two set the Rams course.
"The first thing is 'wake up sprinting,' and that means that I'm gonna begin every day striving to achieve excellence at top speed," Snead
explained. "That's a motto of mine. And (next) is 'don't be scared,' and I've got a bullet point that says, 'Have the mental and moral
strength to venture, persevere and withstand adversity, fear and difficulty.'"
He, and the Rams by extension, have done that.
The Griffin trade
The central question on the second phase of Snead's itinerary was never complicated: Would the Rams consider trading Sam Bradford,
rather than the No. 2 overall pick, and take Griffin?
"No," Snead said, succinctly. "The only time it might've crossed my mind was if, for some reason, we were to get stuck at two because we
didn't get what we really wanted. Do you take the kid and trade him from there? That might've been the only time, and that would've been
the riskiest of risky moves. But I'll be clear: We decided early on that Sam was our quarterback."
When the Rams' brass met in February, Snead asked if it was realistic to get three first-rounders for the pick. It was communicated to him
that price was unprecedented for a single pick. So Snead followed up with a suggestion: "Maybe we can get an extra two also."
"What I give him credit for," Demoff said, "is when he sets out and decides what wants, he gets what he wants."
Page 9
Date: 5/5/12
The above criteria set what Snead referred to as the "Gold Standard." The Rams wanted to create an artificial deadline to push urgency on
the clubs vying for Griffin. Snead told those teams that he wanted to do a deal before free agency, because he wanted to know what he'd
be working with prior to that vital date. The Gold Standard was the price it would take, as Snead explained it, "to get it done today."
A half-dozen clubs were involved. Five of the six were willing to move before the start of free agency, while one said it would rather wait
until later in the offseason. The Redskins were the one club to meet the Gold Standard. So the deal was done. Remember, honesty was one
of Snead's GM principles. He told the clubs three 1s and a 2 would move the pick. And it did. No poker there.
Snead emphasized "location, location, location" in describing a pick he referred to as a "nice piece of real estate." The fact that the first
pick, held by the Indianapolis Colts, was unavailable, helped, as did the reality that two of the top three underclassmen at quarterback
(Andrew Luck, Griffin) declared, rather than all three (Matt Barkley went back to school). Snead's job, as he saw it, was to capitalize on
the circumstance.
"Whether we did it earlier or later, you never know, maybe your piece of real estate loses value, maybe it increases value," he said. "If you
don't get your quarterback in free agency, maybe you get desperate, or you have two teams that are really desperate. You never know, but
we were very happy with what we got."
The important thing was going into 2013 and '14 with two first-rounders, and setting the stage to attack in free agency, which the Rams
did the following Tuesday. But it would be the deal-closer, that extra second-rounder, that was invaluable to the draft day strategy the new
GM wanted to employ.
First draft
Just as Snead had gambled that the value of the second pick would reach its peak early, more than a month before the draft, he'd roll the
dice on draft day that one of the interior defensive linemen he and Fisher liked, Fletcher Cox or Michael Brockers, would be available in
the middle of the first round. After Justin Blackmon came off the board with Jacksonville leapfrogging St. Louis, the decision to bail was
made based on the ability to get the club at fourth pick in a 33-selection range (Nos. 33-65).
This one paid off, too. Taking Brockers at 14, and throwing him in a group that already has Langford, Chris Long, Robert Quinn and
pretty decent depth created a strength on a roster that didn't have many of them.
But Snead wasn't done taking risks.
While North Alabama CB Janoris Jenkins, with his paternity and drug issues, was the most publicized character-flagged player the Rams
took in the second round, he was hardly the only one. The two picks to follow -- Cincinnati's Isaiah Pead and Montana's Trumaine
Johnson -- also had off-field questions that were considered attributable to simple immaturity, but were significant enough to raise
eyebrows in league circles.
As one AFC personnel director said, "You get one, that's OK, but they picked three in a row." Another AFC scout called the Rams' draft
"exceptional. They got a lot of good players, but they also took a lot of risks, as far as character. I'd personally say they did a very nice
job, and the truth is, based on the roster, they needed to take those risks."
The overarching thought inside the Rams was that, under former GM Billy Devaney, character had been emphasized to such a degree that
the young talent already there -- with players like Long, Bradford and middle linebacker James Laurinaitis -- would help the new guys.
Fisher's history dealing with such at-risk rookies was another factor, as was the fact that, as the scout said, the time had come to gamble.
And then, there was the confidence that Demoff and Fisher had in Snead's exhaustive research, reflective of a guy whose background was
pounding pavement as a scout. It was most apparent in Snead's work on Jenkins, whom he started working on for the Falcons last summer
with a trip to Florida.
"It takes a lot of man hours to become comfortable with that," Snead said of Jenkins. "Jeff and I discussed it. If we were to get an extra
second-rounder, now five picks in those first 65, and said, 'OK, maybe there's a chance to go and be aggressive.' And so that player, we
thought was gonna be there, and we had to make a decision, and we thought he was a first-round talent. So we did the due diligence ... and
at the end of the day, you sign off and say, 'Let's roll.'"
Not many people argue with the Brockers pick, a young prospect with a high ceiling and no apparent character problems. But Snead
knows his first draft will be judged by the four picks between 33 and 65 -- Quick, Jenkins, Pead and Johnson.
Page 10
Date: 5/5/12
Snead told Demoff he'd target Quick back in January, and three roulette spins on players who may prove to be first-round talents. In the
GM's conviction and guts, the group provides a window into what Demoff and the Rams bought into with Snead.
Time to unpack
And then you have the vision that Demoff had of the coach/GM relationship. To him, though Fisher was most certainly the big fish in the
Rams' haul, it was important that he project correctly what this "arranged marriage" would look like, no matter the perception that this
was gonna be Fisher's show.
"You always have to pick one before the other, and in my ideal world, I'd always pick the GM first," Demoff said. "But we had Jeff there
and we had to leap into that. We never viewed it as the 'King Coach' or 'King GM.' You want them to be close, to think like one another,
to complement one another. … And Les always wanted to be the GM of the Rams. He didn't care if Jeff Fisher was the head coach or
Carrie Fisher was the head coach.
"He wanted to be in charge of finding the talent. Too much is made of roles. If you watched on draft, you'd have no idea who was in what
role. And Les doesn't care who gets credit anyway."
Snead's been a little too busy for that.
And as much as this job has gone according to the playbook he handed Demoff in January, there also have been things he couldn't quite
prepare for. The good news is Snead -- having worked for/with Tom Coughlin, Dan Reeves, Rich McKay, Bobby Petrino, and Thomas
Dimitroff, and having gone through so many regime changes, not to mention the Michael Vick affair in Atlanta -- was prepared to adjust.
"I'm a very OCD personality, very organized, one of those people where I had my whole life organized on the computer," Snead
explained. "I could go to this file, and go back and get this or that, from personal all the way to professional. Since I've gotten here, I have
all the files I have from my previous life on two discs on a desk, and I haven't used my computer one time since I've been here, except to
watch video."
Demoff jokes that Snead has "worn out his iPad" instead. But the point is that his job now is different than it was -- he says, "I couldn't
live without my computer" in Atlanta -- and he was as ready as he thought he'd be.
Now, for Snead, it's about drawing on experience and acting on instincts built over his time as a lieutenant in Jacksonville and Atlanta.
"I would hate to get in this chair or this job too early and not have the experience. You realize the computer's not your brain," Snead
continued. "You realize it's your brain and the experience and the knowledge and all those things combined over the years, but really it's
the experience. The experience gives you a foundation where you're confident to make decisions. And it gives, let's call it 'a young 41year-old,' the wisdom to make decisions."
Maybe now he'll finally move out of the hotel and unpack those boxes.
Plus, he's got plenty of people to call back now, with the big things -- those four major objectives for the Rams -- out of the way.
And as for the "May Projects" he promised, Snead laughs. "My biggest May project now is to figure out what I'm actually gonna do in
May, and then push the rest to June and July."
Page 11
Publication: 101ESPN.com
Date: 2/15/12
Snead Makes Impressive First Impression
By Howard Balzer
If first impressions mean anything, the Rams hit a home run with the hiring of their new general manager.
Tuesday afternoon, on Valentine’s Day, Samuel Lester Snead (no relation to the golfing great) addressed the media and displayed the selfassurance that certainly convinced Kevin Demoff and Jeff Fisher that he was the man for the job.
Of course, words mean little when it comes to succeeding in the high-stakes world of the NFL. Winning the press conference doesn’t
count for much, but Les Snead certainly has the pedigree from working 16 years in the NFL. But he also knows only results on the field
will convince a fan base that has watched the Rams win 15 of 80 games over the last five seasons.
As Snead said when asked how far away he believes the Rams are from turning things around, “Here’s what I think. I think we are not far
away at all. Now I will say this, I don’t think I need to sit up here and talk about it. I think we need to start making very sound, very
superior decisions and we’ll stack those and I think that will lead to success. I would rather not talk about it, just show you.”
Demoff, who spearheaded the team’s search for a head coach and general manager following the Jan. 2 firings of Steve Spagnuolo and
Billy Devaney, believes the decisions to add Fisher and Snead are winning ones.
Said Demoff, “When we started this process in January, to think that we’d wind up with the two men sitting to my left here to run our
building and to lead us forward was an exciting thought. I didn’t know if it was attainable, but as we sit here today it absolutely was.
“Les Snead was the first call we made regarding our general manager and the last call we made regarding our general manager position,
and that’s a great thought for me. From our first interview, it was clear he was ready to lead our football team and to lead a football team
in the National Football League and I know throughout our time after hiring coach Fisher, he impressed that upon us as well.”
What was it that Demoff sensed in Snead? He said, “They (Atlanta Falcons) never had back-to-back winning seasons and all of a sudden
you have four straight winning seasons. And that’s the sign of someone who can come into a franchise like ours that seeks stability and
provide it. With coach Fisher on the coaching side and Les overseeing our personnel department, we are set up for the future and for
future success.”
Snead actually had his first interview with Demoff prior to the hiring of Fisher on Jan. 13. Once Fisher started work, he was heavily
involved in the interview process and became equally impressed with Snead.
Said Fisher, “The exciting part about our initial visit and the time we spent (together) was that despite the fact that we both come from
two different organizations, a lot of the philosophical things were identical and it was a fit; it was a match. The way they’ve run their
personnel department is very similar to what I was used to. I’m just really excited about moving forward, about the innovative ideas and
where we’re going to take this team.”
Like Fisher, what excites Snead is the presence of Sam Bradford.
“I like Sam,” Snead said. “I believe he’s a franchise quarterback. Believe me, every team that doesn’t have that spends every waking
moment searching for one. There is good young talent on this team. Obviously, when you are last in the league in wins over the last five
seasons, there are holes. But at least you’re not looking for a quarterback.”
Snead also understands his relationship with Fisher will be paramount for success.
“The head coach and general manager better be the best team in the building,” he said.
Lord knows, that hasn’t been the case very often in the franchise’s tenure through 17 seasons in St. Louis. After all, it’s not only about
acquiring the right players; it’s making them into a team.
Said a confident Snead, “I do want this organization to be an organization that understands how to build, develop, and coach its football
team to win division championships consistently, and that’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to hear me say a lot of times that
everybody in this building is going to be passionate about winning.
Page 12
Publication: 101ESPN.com
Date: 2/15/12
“Every player, every staff member, every coach. We’re going to have a purpose. We’re going to understand what we’re trying to
accomplish and why it works. And then we’re going to go thrive.”
Snead was one of nine candidates interviewed and several won promotions with their teams, including some that weren’t interviewed.
Concluded Demoff, “I think we made a lot of people some money and titles over the past few weeks. But the list was taken from talking
to a lot of people throughout the league, from working with people in Indianapolis and Mobile and seeing kind of the collective wisdom
of a lot of different scouting departments.
“To me, the thing that I love about it is three people wound up being GMs, three people got promoted, and we got the best guy out of the
group.”
Now, it’s up to Snead to show us that’s the case.
Page 13
Date: 4/8/12
Bradford starting over again
By Jim Thomas
Quarterback Sam Bradford is learning his third offense in three NFL seasons — from his third coordinator, no less. But at first blush, the
transition may be easier than expected.
"I like the offense that we're running this year," Bradford said Tuesday. "It's more similar to two years ago than to last year. There is some
carryover, so I am somewhat familiar with it, which makes it nice trying to learn it again."
Bradford, speaking after the Rams' first minicamp practice of the spring, said there are even some similarities in the language and playcalling from his rookie season of 2010, when Pat Shurmur was offensive coordinator. There is another similarity to 2010, when Bradford
was NFL offensive rookie of the year: a position coach.
"I'm glad that we have a quarterbacks coach now," Bradford said, referring to Frank Cignetti. "Obviously, with Josh (McDaniels) trying to
do both last year I think it was just a lot for him to handle. Sometimes some of the little things such as drops, footwork, throwing
mechanics kind of got put aside as opposed to putting reads and everything in front. ... I think it's going to be great for my development."
Other than some informal workouts without coaches present, Bradford had no time to learn the McDaniels offense until the start of
training camp because of the lockout. Even with the abridged offseason schedule this spring under the new collective bargaining
agreement, Bradford gets at least a couple of months to learn the system of new coordinator Brian Schottenheimer before the start of
training camp.
"To have an offseason program, and to come here in a minicamp and get to have walk-throughs, get to have 7-on-7 — things that we
didn't have last year — that really helps," Bradford said. "The more reps you get at it, the more comfortable we become."
Even though some of the language of the new offense is similar to the Shurmur system, one of Bradford's main goals this spring is getting
fluent in that language with Schottenheimer.
"I think that's the biggest thing, to make sure that when we speak we're on the same page and we're talking about the same things,"
Bradford said.
And with the help of Cignetti, Bradford wants to polish up his mechanics and fundamentals.
"Work on my footwork, work on my release, try to speed things up," Bradford said. "All the little things that maybe I've taken for granted,
and took for granted last year, that may have dropped my play."
Instead of taking the next step forward following his strong rookie season, Bradford's play regressed last season for a variety of reasons —
many of which were out of his control. He knows he has a lot to prove this coming season, or re-prove.
"Obviously last year was very disappointing as far as the injury, my performance," Bradford said. "It just wasn't up to par with what I
expected from myself. So there's no doubt that I'm extremely excited to get back out there this year and prove to myself and to everyone
else that I can be the type of player I think I can be."
As Fisher re-affirmed in an interview last week, one of the big reasons he took the Rams' job was the presence of a Bradford as a
franchise-caliber quarterback. Bradford said he clicked with Fisher right away, dating back to that January meeting when Fisher came to
Rams Park while he still deciding whether to coach for St. Louis or Miami.
"I actually do remember that meeting," Bradford said. "I really didn't want to get my hopes up because I knew that if we didn't get him as
our head coach I was going to be very disappointed. I knew from the day that I met him that he's the guy that I wanted to lead us into next
year and into the future."
After a long period of rest and rehab in the offseason, Bradford has gotten past the high-ankle sprain that sabotaged much of his 2011
season.
"I went to a doctor literally two days after the season ended and he told me not to do anything, really, until March 1," Bradford said.
Page 14
Date: 4/8/12
Bradford was surprised to hear those words. He wasn't expecting to be told to basically stay off the ankle in terms of rigorous activity for
nearly two months. It was an indication of the severity of the injury. Once that 'shut-down" period was over, he returned to St. Louis at the
end of February and got back in the training room for rehab work with head athletic trainer Reggie Scott.
"I would say it felt 10 times better then, and it's only gotten stronger since I've been here working with Reg," Bradford said.
Page 15
Date: 9/2/12
R ams' J ackson is building a legacy
B y B er nie M iklasz
This is a column about Rams running back Steven Jackson, who may be having the best career of a bad-team player in modern NFL
history.
We'll get to SJ39 in a few moments.
First, some relevant background:
Last month I spent two days in Canton, Ohio to participate in a senior committee meeting at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I was honored
to be among the five voters asked to choose two 'senior" players for Hall of Fame consideration.
After hours of discussion and several rounds of voting, we chose nose tackle Curley Culp (Kansas City, Houston) and linebacker Dave
Robinson (Green Bay.) If the full selection committee approves with a vote the day before the Super Bowl, Culp and Robinson will be
enshrined into the Hall of Fame next summer.
At the beginning of the process , we probably reviewed more than 100 players. Many of them were outstanding and accomplished NFL
players. For some reason, they were overlooked when their names appeared on the normal Hall of Fame ballot. That's why there's a senior
committee: to undo past mistakes and recognize Hall-worthy players who slipped through the cracks.
Which brings us back to Steven Jackson.
Will he get lost in history?
Jackson is building a Hall of Fame case. He's putting up consistently good numbers over a long stretch of seasons. Jackson has managed
to produce at a high level and roll up the yards under circumstances that put him at a disadvantage. And that makes his career even more
impressive.
Jackson hasn't had the benefit of being surrounded by many talented teammates. He hasn't had the assistance provided by competent
coaching. He hasn't had the advantage of working for a smart football operation that keeps the roster stocked with quality players.
Jackson hasn't set up behind a formidable offensive line. Except on rare occasion, he hasn't had the luxury of having running lanes opened
by a dynamic passing game. In 2006 the Rams had an energetic and accurate Marc Bulger dishing passes to Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt,
and the Rams finished fourth in the NFL in passing yards.
It's no coincidence that Jackson had his best NFL season in 2006, leading the NFL with 2,334 yards from scrimmage and scoring 16
touchdowns. But the Rams' passing game soon faded into mediocrity, and defenses began stacking eight men in the box to gang up on
Jackson. But SJ39 still rumbled to 1,000-yard seasons.
In his eight seasons in St. Louis Jackson has played for five head coaches: Mike Martz, Joe Vitt, Scott Linehan, Jim Haslett and Steve
Spagnuolo. He's had several GMs, and a procession of multiple offensive coordinators. Now Jeff Fisher is in charge, making it six
coaches in nine seasons.
In Jackson's first eight years, the Rams won 37 games and lost 91 for a winning percentage of .289. The Rams have had the fewest wins in
the NFL since Jackson arrived as a first-round draft choice in 2004.
But it would be foolish to blame Jackson for the Rams' woeful record. He hasn't bungled the draft or made idiotic personnel decisions.
Jackson isn't responsible for the chronic losing; he's a victim.
From 2004 through 2011, the Rams drafted 70 players. Only one, Jackson, has earned Pro Bowl honors. He's a three-time Pro Bowl pick.
From 2004-2011, half of the NFL's 32 teams had at least five draft picks develop into Pro Bowl players. And 27 of the 32 had at least
three picks make it to the Pro Bowl.
Page 16
Date: 9/2/12
Jackson grinds on. He's overcome the negative factors and a noxious environment to emerge as one of the most productive players of his
generation.
• Jackson is one of only seven backs in NFL history to have seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. It could have been eight, but as a
rookie Jackson shared time with Marshall Faulk.
• Since 2005, when he became the starter, Jackson leads the NFL in rushing yards and total yards from scrimmage. He's second in rushing
yards per game. He's eighth in rushing touchdowns and 10th in total TDs. He leads all league running backs in receptions and receiving
yards.
• Jackson already ranks 31st in NFL history in rushing yards (9,093.) With 1,181 yards this season, he'd move into the top 25. By the end
of the season, Jackson will probably become the 26th running back in NFL history to amass 10,000 career rushing yards.
• Jackson is 48th in league history for most yards from scrimmage (12,096) and can crack the top 30 this season.
• Jackson is the Rams' all-time rushing leader. He's already rushed for more yards than four modern-era Hall of Fame running backs: Jim
Taylor, Larry Csonka, Leroy Kelly and Floyd Little.
Next Sunday in Detroit, Jackson will begin his ninth season for the Rams. He's 29, and getting close to that age-30 milepost that often
marks the decline phase for backs.
In NFL history, only 36 backs have reached the 1,000-yard threshold in their age-29 seasons. The number drops to 20 backs with a 1,000yard season at age 30.
Jackson, however, is in the best shape of his career. He's disciplined and dedicated to enhancing his health, diet and fitness. Barring
injury, I don't see why Jackson can't keep powering up past age 30.
After eight seasons of often going it alone, Jackson is getting some help from coaches who value the running game and promising rookie
running backs to carry part of the load. Not only is he set for a robust 2012 season, but Jackson seems capable of sustaining his impressive
production for at least two or three more seasons.
Will that be enough to get Jackson into the Pro Football Hall of Fame? I don't know. But for being stuck on such a sorry team and in a
hopeless situation, Jackson has put together a pretty amazing career.
That's why I thought about Steven Jackson when visiting Canton last month. I know this much: This man should not be forgotten.
Page 17
Date: 5/25/12
Plenty of action ahead for Jackson
By Kathleen Nelson
After eight years in the NFL, Steven Jackson has a wealth of background material with which to offer comparisons and contrasts.
He has thrived in the Rams' backfield through a half-dozen head coaches and just as many offensive coordinators, rushing for more than
1,000 yards seven consecutive years. The latest version of the Rams offense, under coach Jeff Fisher and offensive coordinator Brian
Schottenheimer, seems to strike a balance: just enough of the familiar to ease the learning curve; just enough new stuff to keep it
interesting.
Jackson said the portion he's seen so far, about 70 percent, closely resembles the scheme of coordinator Pat Shurmur, who worked under
Steve Spagnuolo in 2009 and 2010 but left last year to take over as head coach in Cleveland.
"This offense is very similar, not identical," Jackson said. "The learning curve has not been too harsh on myself. Sam (Bradford) is
looking good, our receivers, we have a deep group that is very competitive that's going to not only help us, but is also going to bring the
best out of each individual guy. All in all, as an offense we're looking good. And especially Coach (Paul T.) Boudreau up front, what he's
doing with the offensive line is very impressive as well."
Boudreau is a familiar face. He worked with the Rams' offensive line in 2006 and 2007 before joining the Falcons' staff. His goal will be
to get the most out of the Rams' young tackles, Jason Smith and Rodger Saffold.
"We have some key additions up front," Jackson said of the offensive line. "What we have and what we brought here I think are going
make us better as an offensive unit. I think it's going to actually help our tackles to play with some veteran guys from other systems. Our
tackles, although they're young, they're very athletic. We can really do some big things once we get everyone jelling."
Fisher also has managed to keep practices interesting for the veterans with his own twists, mixing team sessions with conditioning games
that are more relaxed.
"You can still compete and have fun and just enjoy each other," he said. "Things like that, that change the monotony of things but still get
the job done, those little subtle things help form camaraderie and guys getting to know each other."
With his wealth of experience, Jackson should be a font of knowledge for the young players, particularly the running backs that the Rams
drafted last month, Isaiah Pead and Daryl Richardson. Both complement, rather than compete with, Jackson's skill set. Jackson said he
was impressed by Richardson's quickness.
"Everything that you read, everything that you saw is pretty legit," he said.
Pead, who was drafted in the third round out of Cincinnati, is another story. Cincinnati operates on the quarter system, meaning class is
still in session. Hence, Jackson has yet to meet Pead but isn't concerned about his absence.
"I don't know much about Pead. I'm looking forward to meeting him, looking forward to mentoring him, playing with him," Jackson said.
"The season doesn't start until September. You won't even remember that he wasn't here right now."
Jackson has been a leader for the Rams through many bad seasons and has spoken of wanting at some point to mentor younger backs.
Now that the Rams' have invested in youth at the position, though, Jackson said he can't just hop on a soapbox in the locker room and start
spouting pearls of wisdom to the masses.
"Those kinds of things happen gradually. You have to see where guys are at," he said. "You have to let natural relationships happen over
time. I've had a chance to talk to quite a few of the rookies, most of them are very humble and they're very excited about the opportunity
to play here in St. Louis. That's positive, that's a good thing looking forward. But any time I get a young running back in the room with
me, and he has a question, I try to answer it. I try to answer it in a way that he gets it. Everybody learns differently. I've been fortunate
enough that I'm able to be relatable in the situations and helping them understand certain things in the offense."
At this point, though, some rookies aren't ready for answers. They're not even sure of the right questions to ask.
Page 18
Date: 5/25/12
"They're just overwhelmed not only with the information that they're receiving, but I'm pretty sure they've watched us over the years play
football, so they have to get over the awe of it as well," he said. "But these guys, once you get in between the lines, they're doing a good
job. They're football players."
Page 19
Date: 4/29/12
Hard work, dedication lift Brockers
By Bryan Burwell
On Saturday afternoon, Rams defensive line coach Mike Waufle and his new best friend Michael Brockers were hanging out in the big
second-floor conference room at Rams Park making small talk as the team's first-round draft pick wore out his arm signing a table full of
autographed footballs and mini-helmets.
For Waufle, it was all a part of the natural bonding process between a coach and his latest football apprentice. Getting To Know You 101.
It's Waufle's job to make sure that the massive, 6-foot-6, 322-pound rookie hits the ground running because he is being counted on to be
the most critical building block in the massive overall of this perennially dysfunctional franchise.
You wonder why the Rams invested so much effort landing this kid and will now spend even more effort carefully nurturing him with
round-the-clock hands-on tutoring? Just listen to someone who knows Brockers best. "This is a young man who understands that what
he's just done by becoming a first-round draft pick isn't the end of the journey," says Michael Jackson, Brocker's high school coach. "Mike
understands that this wasn't the end of the dream. It is just the beginning. St. Louis probably doesn't know it, because they think drafting a
defensive tackle isn't all that sexy. But tell them they're getting a beast. Tell them they're getting a kid who will come in with his lunch
pail and work every day because that's what he's done every day of his life."
BIG MAN OF THE FAMILY
The kid is being expected to move mountains, and he's very qualified for the gig. Wait until you see him in person. Wait until you see him
on a practice field in shorts and pads and you see those long legs, broad shoulders and condor-like arms that make him appear to be some
enormous sequoia rumbling down field. He'll have to prove it, earn it and establish it, but the pro football wise guys will tell you he's a
young Albert Haynesworth without the bad attitude. That's the sort of anchor this sorry, no-account run defense needs to turn around as
fast as Jeff Fisher swears it will.
And just like his high school coach says, he will put in the work, because that's what he's been doing all his life. The work ethic began
because his mother Tiffany raised him right, raised him to believe that hard work doesn't hurt, that taking care of responsibilities is not
only an obligation but a necessity.
When all his other friends were goofing around in the streets back in Houston, young Michael Brockers was trying to find ways to help
his single mother of five keep food on the table, clothes on the kids' back and bills paid.
"I just felt like since I was the oldest in the family, I was old enough to have a job and do my part to help out," Brockers said. "(His
mother) was struggling so much just getting us school supplies, school uniforms and stuff like that. She was scuffling just to pay the bills.
So I told her 'Mom I'm going to help you out. I'll eliminate me from the equation so all you have to do is focus on the little kids.'"
So he went off to Hobby Airport to apply for a job in the food court and landed a job at Poppa's Burgers. "I was the shake man," he said.
"They hired me to make milkshakes, but I didn't really know what a shake man did."
Pretty soon, 17-year-old Brockers was his own one-man utility crew behind the counter at Poppa's. "They told me I was the shake guy,
but I ended up being the shake guy, the inventory guy, the sweep guy, the dishes guy. I ended up doing everything. But you know what? I
loved it. I loved getting those (pay)checks, I loved buying my own clothes. I felt very independent and it felt even better when I knew I
was helping my mom by chipping in sometimes to buy shoes for the kids, too. I just wanted to do whatever I could to relieve some stress
from my mom."
Three years earlier, young Michael Brockers was not all that crazy about being the man of the family. Even though he was already big
enough to be a man (by the seventh grade he was already 6-2, 220 pounds), he wasn't nearly ready emotionally to take on that sort of
responsibility. How many 14-year-old boys want to take on the burden of helping to raise his four younger siblings while his single
mother went to every odd job she could get to support the family?
When all his friends were running off after school to football and basketball practices during the week and hanging out in the streets on
the weekends going to parties, young Mike Brockers was hurrying home after school to meet his little brothers and sisters when they got
home from grammar school. His job was to cook dinner, make them do their homework, do his homework, give them baths, put them in
their pajamas and get them to bed before Tiffany Brockers came home from her night job as a telemarketer for Southwest Bell at 9 p.m.
Page 20
Date: 4/29/12
"Oh man I hated it at the time," says Michael now. "During that time I was always complaining: 'I have no life. I can't do this, I can't do
that.' I didn't understand why I had to sit in the house and baby-sit while everyone else got to go outside. I couldn't go out for football
because I had to come home and baby-sit. I missed some basketball games because I had to baby-sit. I just didn't understand why. I kept
asking myself why was she doing this to me? I thought it was like a punishment."
But just like most kids who can't understand the methods of their parents when they are immature high school adolescents, Brockers grew
up in his three years at LSU and began to understand what his mother was doing for him and his siblings.
He wasn't just baby-sitting his siblings. He was also staying off the mean streets of his rugged Houston neighborhood. It's hard to get into
trouble running with the wrong crowd when the only crowd you're running with are 5-, 6- and 8-year-old family members in a cramped
apartment.
"I remember one night in high school I wanted to go out to this party and my mom wouldn't let me go because she said I had to watch the
kids," Brockers says. "I was real mad, too. But the next day we get up and we're watching the (local TV) news and they said someone got
shot at that party I wanted to go to."
Tiffany Brockers looked at her oldest son and with equal parts fear and relief.
"She said, 'Thank God you didn't go,'" Michael said. "And I looked at her and I was like 'Yeah, thank God I didn't go!'"
It was in so many moments like that when it finally started dawning on Tiffany Brockers' biggest boy that she was a lot smarter than he
ever imaged. "It's just little things like that that make me realize that mom had the long picture in mind," he said. "By the time I got to
college, I could see what she had done. My rap sheet is clean. No crime, no drugs or anything."
A RELENTLESS WORKER
The first time Jackson laid his eyes on Michael Brockers, the football coach at Houston's Chavez High School was not terribly impressed.
Although the kid was fairly big for an eighth-grader, standing over 6-foot-2 and weighing more than 200 pounds, Brockers was a long,
long way from the first-round NFL draft pick he would become.
"He was wearing a ratty old St. Louis Rams T-shirt," Jackson recalled. "He probably wore that T-shirt two or three times a week. He
hadn't played any football like all the other kids and he could barely bench press 95 pounds. My strength coach told me when he got him
in the weight room the first time he was just goo. That's what he called him, 'Goo.' A big kid but he as goo, just weak as he could be."
He did not exactly look like the man-mountain he is today. "He wore glasses and they sat on his face kind of funny," Jackson said. "Not
impressive at all. He had a lot of work to do, but the good thing is he did it."
One year later, he was a 6-4, 250-pound freshman who lived in the weight room.
"He was just a relentless worker," said Jackson. "But we couldn't put weight on him or keep weight on him. Even though he was 6-6, 255
by his senior year, he could have been a lot bigger. But we just couldn't keep weight on him even though he was a workout fiend. Because
he came from a very poor family, he wasn't getting the nutrition he needed. But he worked so hard and had such a fast metabolism. You
couldn't run him out of the weight room. You knew when he got to LSU and got to a real training table and with a world-class strength
coach and was able to drink muscle milk and everything else he needed, we knew this kid would blow up."
Though he doesn't talk very much about his father, Brockers comes by this football talent honestly. Melvin Evans, who played one season
with the Dallas Cowboys 1992 Super Bowl champion team as a 6-4, 330 offensive lineman, met Tiffany Brockers when he was a college
student at Texas Southern University. After Tiffany got pregnant, Evans dropped out of sight and has had little or no contact with her or
Michael since the day he was born (Dec. 21, 1990).
Jackson said he never once saw Evans at one of Michael's games in four years at Chavez High. So even though Evans supplied the
football DNA, Tiffany Brockers created the work ethic that made her son into the player he is today. But Jackson knew by the time the
kid went off to LSU on a scholarship as a three-star recruit, he was on his way to becoming an NFL draft pick.
"I told (LSU coach) Les Miles this kid is going to make a lot of money one day, but I was wrong about him being a left tackle," said
Jackson. "I swore he was going to be protecting someone's blind side."
Page 21
Date: 4/29/12
Once at LSU, it didn't take Brockers long to put on weight. He came in as a defensive end, but after red shirting his first year in Baton
Rouge, he was moved to defensive tackle last season, but he weighed only 280 pounds. "When I transferred from an end to a tackle I was
getting bounced around," said Brockers. "Especially on power plays and stuff like that I was getting knocked over and on the ground all
the time so I had it on my mind, they aren't going to move me anymore. I went on an eating binge and put on weight so they couldn't
move me anymore."
When he came back for his red-shirt sophomore year in 2011, Brockers had ballooned to over 300 pounds and looked like a sequoia tree.
Now no one was shoving him aside. He was doing all the shoving, and even though he says he wasn't thinking much about turning pro,
that didn't stop NFL scouts from salivating that he might come out at the end of the season.
"I was never thinking that way," said Brockers. "I wanted to keep playing at LSU. I wanted to graduate with the guys I came in with and
win a couple of national titles before I left. But it didn't work out that way."
It didn't work out that way because his family was back in Houston struggling to survive. Michael had not been home for more than a year
and didn't know that his mother was forced to move out of a nicer house that they lived in when he was in high school into a cramped
apartment in one of the worst sections of Houston. His mother never told him what was going on at home, but when Brockers went back
to Houston last Christmas Eve, he could not believe how much hard times his family had fallen on.
"It was awful," he said. "There was trash all over the place outside. Garbage on the ground all over the place. As I walked through this
mess, I kept saying to myself, 'I hope it looks better inside the apartment.'"
It didn't.
"I walked in and I hated it," he said. "I couldn't even stay in the apartment. I just stayed in the car. Every time I did go back into the
apartment, I said 'I hate this. This isn't us. This isn't you, mom?' It was too small for all of them to be living in. All the appliances were
old. I was opening up the cabinets where the food was and there were roaches crawling all over the place and I just shook my head and
kept saying to myself 'This is not us. This is not us.'"
The same paternal instincts he developed as a teenaged kid working for minimum wage at Poppa's Burgers were taking over again. "It just
didn't sit right with me in my soul to see my family living in those conditions," Brockers said.
And now, because of football, he was in a position to make a whole lot more money than a shake man could bring in. So he made up his
mind right then and there that the Bowl Championship Series national championship game against Alabama in a few weeks would be his
last game as a collegian. "I said it's time to change this," Brockers said. "I didn't care if I went in the third round. The money would still be
good enough to change their lives."
Now he is a father-to-be himself, engaged to a young lady named Faith Youngblood, and he can't wait to do all the right things that his
biological father never bothered to do.
"And I promise you," he says with a proud smile. "I will know what to do. Being a father is going to be an amazing thing."
Page 22
Publication: FoxSportsMidwest.com
Date: 6/14/12
Long assumes leadership role for young Rams
By Andrew Astleford
ST. LOUIS – Chris Long is in transition. Not long ago, the St. Louis Rams' premier defensive end was a rookie fascination. Not long ago,
he was the second-overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft with famous family ties to complement his promising size and speed.
He was Chris Long, the unproven-but-gifted son of Hall of Famer Howie Long. He was Chris Long, the consensus All-American from
Virginia who called the moment the Rams selected him the best of his life. He was Chris Long, the low-risk pass rusher whom then-St.
Louis coach Scott Linehan viewed as a "no-brainer" to pick the night the Santa Monica, Calif., native became a centerpiece of the Rams'
future at defensive line.
Long remains so – only he's more seasoned after 64 games, with 149 tackles and 30 ½ sacks for his career. On Tuesday after a minicamp
session, he looked toward an empty practice field at Rams Park and considered the passing of time. In three months, St. Louis will begin a
season of renewal, and he'll be trusted to provide veteran leadership in the Rams' first campaign under coach Jeff Fisher.
"It reminds you that time flies," Long said of becoming a veteran. "Honestly, it has been a blur – more luckily than anything, because we
have lost a lot. So it's not a bad thing that time has flown by. But it also reminds you that you have to make the most of every
opportunity."
Yes, Long's wiser with each flip of the calendar, and he has evolved into someone who's known for production rather than potential. This
fall, at age 27, he'll be the oldest member of a skilled line that includes free-agent pickup Kendall Langford, a defensive tackle formerly of
the Miami Dolphins, and fresh faces like defensive end Robert Quinn and defensive tackle Michael Brockers – both first-round selections
from the past two years who represent promise like he once did.
For Long, though, his outlook has changed. The future has arrived.
"Before I know it, hopefully if I'm lucky, I'll be an eight-year guy," he said. "I'll be looking back like, ‘Where did the last four years go?' I
have to work hard and take advantage of all my opportunities."
***
Small moments have marked large change within the Rams this offseason. That's important to remember when understanding how Long
has moved on from last season, when he earned a career-high 13 sacks.
There's the command Fisher projects at Rams Park as a 17-year veteran. There's the message sent from locker-room leaders when
speaking about the new staff, like when running back Steven Jackson said Tuesday, "You can definitely tell a difference in leadership, a
difference in confidence. It's not so much of on-the-job training." There's the credibility that came with Fisher's hire, an announcement
that helped Long focus on continuing his growth.
"It feels good to know if we handle our business as players, he's definitely going to handle his business as a coach, because he has been
doing it for so long, and he has exhibited he knows how to do it," Long said of Fisher. "It's a reassuring thing that you're going to get an
honest shake at it."
The feeling is mutual. Fisher has compared Long to Kyle Vanden Bosch, a defensive end for the Detroit Lions who played for the
Tennessee Titans from 2005 to 2009. Like Vanden Bosch, Long has earned a reputation for being relentless, and it shows in the 6-foot-3,
270-pound player's steady improvement as a pass rusher: Long had four sacks as a rookie, five in his second year and 8 ½ in this third
before the breakout season last fall. Meanwhile, he has 122 solo tackles for his career.
"I think Chris has been more comfortable with who he is as a player," said Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis, who had 105 tackles and
three sacks last season. "I think he realizes what his strengths are, and he's focused on perfecting those things. You can see it in the limited
numbers of opportunities he had to pass rush last year with how much we were behind in games. He took advantage of them. … Last year,
he didn't sneak up on anybody. He got even better. I think that's a testament to his work ethic. In the NFL, you're either getting better or
you're getting worse. He's gotten better every year, and I hope he continues to do so."
With that improvement, though, comes knowledge that he must continue growing to preserve his future in the league. It's part of the
NFL's cycle: Long learned how to be a trusted professional by observing former Rams stars James Hall and Leonard Little.
Page 23
Date: 6/14/12
Veterans mentor the young, youth always replaces the old, and the evolution continues for each player until retirement.
Now, Long finds himself on the opposite side of that maxim. He has become an example to young players like Quinn and Brockers. It's a
role Long has tried to embrace while keeping ambitious goals for himself.
"My bar is always high," Long said. "I want to get better and better. Whatever I did last year, I want to play a lot better football. I'm not
talking about from a numbers standpoint. I'm talking from a football standpoint. At the end of the year, hopefully, I would be able to tell
that I've become a better player."
***
Long lets his mind wander a bit when speaking about the future. He sees a lot of potential in the Rams' defensive line, and he's eager to
watch it develop.
Still, a question remains that will reveal much about the Rams' success this season: How good can this young group of pass rushers be?
"We can be really good," Long said. "We have a lot of speed. Robert Quinn looks really good right now. If he keeps working hard, the
sky's the limit for him. I've always thought that, and I think he's on the cusp of being a pretty good player in this league. He's got to go out
and put it together. If guys like him take the next step, the sky's the limit. If I take my next step, if we all try to take this next step, we can
try to be tone-setters for this team."
Long has shown that ability. His three-sack performance in a stunning victory over the New Orleans Saints last October was a highlight in
an otherwise dreary final season under former coach Steve Spagnuolo. That afternoon at the Edward Jones Dome, Long showed that he's
a maturing star who's creating his own legacy removed from his famous father.
"Chris, he's one of those lead-by-example guys," Fisher said. "He goes and goes and goes. When you play that hard consistently play after
play after play, you make plays. Young guys look up to you that way, and you can establish a standard of play on the defensive line."
Fisher has tried to spark that spirit in others by challenging his defensive line to make history this season. He has said he wants the group
to break the NFL record of 72 sacks set by the Chicago Bears in 1984.
Consider: St. Louis had 39 sacks last season, tied for 15th in the league. Most likely, the gap will be too large to overcome to set a new
standard. Still, the request shows how much faith Fisher has in Long and others on the defensive line.
The trust is warranted. In an offseason of transition for the emerging defensive end, Long is eager to show that last season was little more
than Act One.
"Last year, he turned it on real big," said Quinn, who finished with five sacks and 23 tackles as a rookie. "Just making the O-linemen
terrified of you – when you do that, you've got the winning edge. It's definitely something I saw that he did last year."
Page 24
Date: 6/14/12
Rams expect Quinn to step up in Year 2
By Jim Thomas
As an NFL neophyte, Robert Quinn was part of a time-share at right defensive end with veteran James Hall last season. Strangely, coach
Steve Spagnuolo didn't even dress Quinn — the No. 14 overall pick in the 2011 draft — in the season opener. He was a healthy scratch,
and a pregame inactive.
When all was said and done, Quinn played about half the snaps last season and had modest success, with five sacks, 14 quarterback hits
and three blocked or partially blocked punts.
His sack total was the third-highest in franchise history for a Rams rookie, and in a vote by the players Quinn earned the Carroll
Rosenbloom Memorial Award as the team's rookie of the year.
Nonetheless, there was plenty of room for improvement. Twelve rookies had more sacks than Quinn last season, and he wasn't always
stout against the run.
With Jeff Fisher now on board as head coach, Hall no longer on the team and a new defensive scheme in place, there will be no easing
Quinn into action in 2012. He is the team's starting right end, and a full-time player. To say expectations are sky-high for him at Rams
Park almost is an understatement.
"There's nothing but upside with Robert," said Mike Waufle, the Rams' new defensive line coach. "When you're a student of the game,
you've got a chance to be able to progress faster. The second thing is that he has speed. He's 'God-gifted' like crazy from top to bottom,
and this is a speed game."
A highly-respected line coach, Waufle spent the past two seasons with the Oakland Raiders but is best known for his work with the New
York Giants from 2004-09. With the Giants, he coached the likes of Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, and Osi Umenyiori. With Oakland, he
coached Richard Seymour. So Waufle knows what a top-flight defensive lineman looks like.
Quinn has that kind of potential.
"I'm very pleased at his ability to rush the passer because he's working on a number of different moves, a number of different techniques,
and he's had success—at times — with each and every one of them," Waufle said. "So we can see that progression. And through spaced
repetitions, hopefully they're going to develop into habits."
But you can't play defense for Fisher if you can't play the run, and Quinn is making strides in that area as well.
"That's been an area of emphasis up front on the defensive line this offseason — run techniques," Fisher said. "It's hard to do it without
pads on. But he's really come on. His strength has really improved significantly and he's going to be what they (the prior regime) drafted
him to be. We're very fortunate to have him."
Waufle also sees the improvement in Quinn's run defense, albeit in the controlled spring environment without pads and with much less
than full contact.
"I'm real excited about how he's playing the run," Waufle said. "Most pass rushers are tagged as not wanting to be run defenders. And he's
taking the running game as being a serious issue. He's working really well with his hands. He's working to control blockers."
The Rams finished 31st in run defense a year ago, yielding 151.7 yards a game. The season total of 2,427 rushing yards allowed was
third-worst in franchise history. Many of the big runs came on the perimeter. Sometimes it was a case of cornerbacks missing tackles, or
outside linebackers getting wiped out by blockers.
But the ends — Quinn included — had their share of run defense snafus, whether it was getting pinned inside by blockers or getting
deked by counter-action or misdirection. Interestingly, Quinn has lost about five pounds in the offseason in an effort to get even quicker.
He's down to 260 pounds, which is on the light side for a defensive end.
"I don't want to get too skinny — they might move me to linebacker or something," he joked.
But Quinn doesn't think that will prevent him from being an effective run defender.
Page 25
Date: 6/14/12
"I'd say it's your mentality," Quinn said. "If you're thinking you're small and allowing (blockers) to come off on you, definitely it'll
happen. But I have the mentality to just attack 'em, and if you're lower than your opponent, they can't do too much. Leverage wins."
As Waufle points out, leverage won for the Giants in a 2007 season capped by a stunning upset of previously unbeaten New England in
Super Bowl XLII.
"People don't realize that when I coached Michael Strahan, and Osi Umenyiora, and Justin Tuck in the Super Bowl, Tuck was playing
inside at 263, Michael weighed 251, and Osi was 254," Waufle said. "So, if you learn how to be a leverage player, which (Quinn's)
studying and learning how to do, you can play against a lot of players."
Lastly, Waufle has been pleasantly surprised by Quinn's work habits and approach in the classroom.
"He's very quiet, but he's a great listener," Waufle said. "And he's able to feed back an awful lot of information. ... He's able to almost
teach the class."
The exams began Sept. 9 with the regular0season opener in Detroit. And several teammates can't wait to see how Quinn fares.
"I'm really looking forward for him to have a breakout season," running back Steven Jackson said. "If there's anybody I'd tell our fans to
look for, it'd be Robert."
"Robert's taken some big strides," defensive end Chris Long added. "He's going to be the guy. He really will be.
"I'm dead serious. If he takes the steps I think he's going to take this year, I think he's going to be the guy."
Page 26
Date: 8/8/12
Quinn stands out for Rams
By Bryan Burwell
As all the extreme wide-bodied and thick-necked giants assembled on the far corner of the Rams Park practice field on Tuesday
afternoon, it was easy to see how much defensive end Robert Quinn sticks out in a crowd.
In a flock of extremely oversized defensive linemen that coach Jeff Fisher loves to collect, Quinn sticks out like a gazelle among the
rhinos and elephants. An extremely big gazelle (6-foot-4, 264 pounds), but a gazelle nonetheless. He is cut like a well-muscled inverted
triangle, wide shoulders spreading out forever, but everything quickly tapering down to these long, bowlegged sprinter's legs. All around
him are 300-pound big bodies, stomping and pounding and rumbling along with sheer power and strength. But there is last year's firstround pick pawing the ground in a three-point stance like Usain Bolt ready to explode out of the starting blocks.
For now, this is how Quinn sticks out in the crowd. In time, if things go according to plans, the Rams are counting on him to stick out for
far more significant reasons. Last year, he showed flashes of his pass rushing potential with five sacks in a part-time role. This year, the
expectations are much higher. They are hoping he turns into a fierce double-digit sack artist to go in tandem with Chris Long and turns the
Rams defensive line into one of the main strengths of this team.
Quinn has been impossible to miss in the first weeks of camp. He seems to flash across your eyes in every pass rushing drill like a blur. In
11-on-11 drills, every time you see the flash of white jersey slashing around the edge on the pass rush right into the lap of nearly every
quarterback before they can cock their throwing arm, it seems to be No. 94. He has burst past every offensive lineman put in front of him.
On the rare occasion that he does not get into the backfield, there's another familiar scene.
Someone has tugged on Quinn's jersey, almost yanking it off his shoulder pads and nearly hauling him to the ground out of a sense of
desperate survival.
Ask Jeff Fisher if he's noticing the same thing, and he grins as if you're handing out free money. "Yeah, and I'm kinda hoping that sort of
thing carries over into the games, too," the head coach said after Tuesday's practice. "It kind of reminds me a little bit — and you might
think I'm crazy about the comparison — but it's a little bit like (Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl running back) Chris Johnson's rookie year in
training camp where you kept saying, 'Gosh, if this was a game do you think he'd score on that?' Well now it's like, 'Boy if this was a
game, he'd have a few sacks by the time the game's over, right?'"
In one particular pass rush drill on Tuesday afternoon when defensive line coach Mike Waufle and assistant line coach Clyde Simmons
had the big boys weave through four heavy bags then sprint to a fifth bag that was supposed to be the quarterback, if you closed your
eyes, you'd still know when it was Quinn's turn just by the sound.
There were all these 280- and 300-pound monsters thumping their way around the tackling dummies with violent, heavy-handed, teethrattling open-palmed swings that sent the bags bouncing hard off the ground.
From 15 yards away, you could hear and feel the impact of these blows vibrating. It was the sound and fury of sheer power of very large,
very physical men pounding the daylights out of the bags with anger and unadulterated violence.
THUMP ... THUMMP ... THUMMMP ... WHOOOOMMP!
Then it was Quinn's turn.
SHHUMMP ... SHHHHOOMP ... WHOOSSH ... WHOOOOSSSH!
It was the sound of a saber slicing through the air. He was whacking the same bags with his long arms extended to his full 82-inch
wingspan. But when Quinn delivered his blows, they were lightning-quick strikes that created a different disturbance. It was the
difference between a fat guy doing a cannon ball into the pool and an Olympic diver slicing into the water barely creating a ripple.
He flashed a wide, self-satisfied smile when someone brought that up to him.
"It's all about speed," he said. "Moving fast. Moving quick."
Page 27
Date: 8/8/12
Sitting under a misting tent after practice, Quinn was surprised when told how impressive his practice had been. "To be honest with you, I
thought I had an awful practice," he said. "But that's how I always am. I try to think that every day is going to be the best practice I ever
had, but I'm so hard on myself and I end up focusing on all the things I think I did wrong. It's always good to focus on the things you did
well in practice, but for me to become a better player, I tend to focus in on the negative, things I can correct to become a better player. So
for me, I concentrate on the things you did well and keep on trying to perfect those, and work on the bad things and try to improve those."
Ask him if he has a goal to hit double digits in sacks, and he quickly shakes his head. Instead he tells you about trying to become a
complete player, better on the run, being able to shove an offensive lineman back five yards every play and disrupt a play by sheer force.
"That's what Coach Waufle keeps emphasizing every day to us," he said. "He wants me to be able to do everything and that's what I want
to do."
And when it comes to the thing he does best, which is getting after the quarterback, Quinn says he'll be counting sack totals this year, just
not the ones you expect. "I really don't have a personal goal," he said. "But Coach Waufle has been saying since Day 1, 'Break the NFL
record for most (team) sacks.' So I am more concerned with that and if you look at the talent we have on defense with all our linemen, I
think we can do it. If we as a team break that record, that's what I will be satisfied with, not the individual stuff. This year is totally
different than last year. We're looking at the big picture."
And the big picture means that if Quinn, Long, Michael Brockers, Kendall Langford and all the other linemen are even remotely close to
chasing the 1984 Chicago Bears record of 72 sacks as a team, then the big picture ought to mean a huge improvement for the Rams.
Page 28
Date: 8/1/12
Rams' Amendola puts freak injury behind him
By The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Experiencing the play that ruined his 2011 season was plenty for Danny Amendola. The St. Louis Rams wide receiver
has never watched video of his freak injury, saying all that matters is he is back.
Amendola was Sam Bradford's go-to possession guy in 2010 with 85 receptions. He was durable, too, especially given the fact he is 5-11
and 188 pounds. Amendola played in all 16 games and totaled 90 kickoff and punt returns.
He didn't make it out of the 2011 opener. Amendola put his left hand to the turf while making a cut against the Eagles and dislocated his
left elbow. Slow motion replays showed the elbow hyperextending severely.
"I've never seen it, I don't even care. The words don't haunt me, either," Amendola told the Associated Press. "Injuries are part of the
game and that's the way it goes sometimes.
"It's all right, it's all good. I'm back."
The Rams (No. 28 in AP Pro 32) worked out in 102-degree heat into early Tuesday evening with no issues, heading into a light day with
an hour-long special teams practice in pads Wednesday. The first full-pad, full-squad practice is Thursday.
"You put the pads on, get some contact, that's what it's all about," cornerback Cortland Finnegan said. "It'll definitely separate the men
from the boys."
Fisher said players are weighed before and after each practice to make sure they are replacing fluids. He said the effort was "outstanding."
"We're an air-conditioned society now, OK," Fisher said. "In the old days we spent summertime outside, and some of the older ones knew
when we got in trouble Mom said, `Go to your room.' They say that now, you go, `Yeah, cool, we've got all kinds of stuff to do in the
room.
"Moms need to say go outside, I guess."
Amendola was having a typical game before the injury, with five catches for 45 yards. He tried rehab for a month, then tried a sturdier
brace before going on injured reserve in October.
Now it is all behind him.
"I'm back to 100 percent. As strong as I've ever been," Amendola said after the second day of training camp. "No complaints."
Fisher said Amendola looks like he did pre-injury.
"He's got really no issues," Fisher said. "He was doing well prior to this break in the summer and he's running good, he's catching good
and right now he's clearly on the same page with Sam."
The 26-year-old Amendola isn't concerned about winning a job in a more crowded field of candidates. Brandon Lloyd left in free agency,
but the Rams drafted wide receiver Brian Quick in the second round and Chris Givens in the fourth, and signed veteran free agent Steve
Smith, who is coming off a serious knee injury.
Among the holdovers from the Steve Spagnuolo regime are Brandon Gibson (36 catches), often-injured but intriguing deep threat Danario
Alexander, and second-year players Greg Salas and Austin Pettis. Pettis is suspended for the first four games for violating the NFL policy
on performance enhancing substances.
"It's cool, it's what football's all about, I guess," Amendola said. "We're getting better. Our room is as good as I've seen it."
The undersized Amendola cracked the NFL the hard way after a productive career at Texas Tech, spending the 2008 season on the Dallas
Cowboys practice squad and the start of '09 on the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad before the Rams picked him up.
Page 29
Date: 8/1/12
Given that, absorbing a fifth offensive system in parts of four seasons with Brian Schottenheimer now making the calls is not such a big
deal.
Amendola described the West Coast style offense as a mix of everything he has experienced in the NFL. He said he has picked up more
since Schottenheimer came aboard earlier this year than he did the rest of his career.
"Every offense has a lot of similarities, you've just got to learn the verbiage and whatnot," Amendola said. "It's intricate, but we're up here
all day long working on it, so we're learning."
Page 30
Date: 8/27/12
Scott Wells goes extra mile for children
By Jim Thomas
For most of his short time as a St. Louis Ram, center Scott Wells has been a man of mystery.
Just a couple of days into the spring practice period in mid-May, Wells wasn't on the field. When he returned, he was a spectator with his
right knee wrapped.
Turned out he had undergone surgery on the knee, but it was described as a routine procedure and indications were he wouldn't be
sidelined for long. But at the full-squad minicamp in mid-June — the last team activity heading into a six-week break — Wells was gone
again.
Coach Jeff Fisher would only say that Wells was excused for personal reasons. So where was he?
Turns out, Wells was in Africa — Uganda to be exact — with his wife Julie to adopt two children. Well, they went there to adopt two
children, they ended up with three.
A confidentiality agreement with the orphanage in Uganda prevented Wells from speaking publicly on the topic during the lengthy
adoption process. And it was only after his wife returned home from Uganda a week ago with new daughter Caroline (age 5) and new
sons R.J. (2) and Elijah (3) that Wells felt comfortable talking about the exhausting yet exhilarating experience.
The idea
"We've always wanted a large family," Wells said, "And about six years ago we lost twin boys on Thanksgiving Day — they were
stillborn. And since that moment, we kind of started talking about adopting.
"We had a lot of friends adopt, and it kind of seemed like it was something God was pushing us towards. The school my (biological) kids
attend in Nashville, there's a lot of adoptions at that school. We'd started talking about it, we'd read a couple of books on it, and then we
said, 'Well, that's something we'd like to do some day.'
"And then it was almost like everywhere we turned there was somebody who had adopted. I felt like God was really hitting me in the face
with it. So once we had our last child, we got serious about it."
Wells and his wife have three biological children: Jackson (8), Lola (5) and Kingston (2). So the newly expanded lineup gives them four
boys and two girls.
The process started with Wells and his wife researching different countries. They chose Uganda, in part because they had friends who had
adopted children from Uganda.
"To us, and talking to people who have done mission work over there and have adopted over there, the need was great," Wells said.
"HIV's huge over there, malaria, tuberculosis. The life expectancy's not great; it's very low. The majority of the population's young
because people don't live to be old. So we really just felt ... that's where we were being led."
About a year and a half ago, long before Wells had any inkling he'd be a Ram, he and his wife began the application process. Ideally, they
wanted either a boy and a girl, or two boys — with both children age 3 or less.
"My wife contacted several orphanages and explained kind of our story, and our life situation," Wells said. "We had one contact us back
and say we've got two children we think would be great for you, and the paired us up with two boys."
About two months later, they heard from the orphanage again. Turns out the 2-year-old (R.J.) had a sister (Caroline). What to do?
"We decided to keep the brother and sister together," Wells said. "I said, 'What's the difference between five and six kids?' "
The trip
Page 31
Date: 8/27/12
For fear of infection, Wells waited until the sutures were out and the wound closed from the knee surgery before he and his wife left for
Africa on June 13. Uganda is not one of the nations that follow the Hague Convention on inter-country adoption, which complicated the
process.
"There's a lot of corruption that you're fighting," Wells said. "Going into it we were really trying to keep quiet what I did for a living; how
much finances we had or whatever. There's a little bit of that you have to disclose for the courts. They want to make sure you're
financially responsible, that you can handle the children you're wanting to adopt."
Wells signed a four-year, $24 million free-agent deal with the Rams in March, after spending his first eight NFL seasons with Green Bay.
"The key was to go in there as quietly as possible," Wells said. "I had to sign a contract with the orphanage saying I wouldn't discuss it via
Twitter, Facebook, the media. Basically, I had to keep everything hush-hush until it was finalized. That's why Coach (Fisher) did an
outstanding job of helping me keep it quiet. Because I had to tell (the Rams) so I could get permission to go."
Wells was in Uganda for a month, returning to the U.S. on July 13 so he could get ready for camp. His wife was there for 2½ months.
"The (orphanage) home we went through, they refused to pay any bribes," Wells said. "It's one of the older orphanages, and the woman
who runs it is really trying to do it the straight and narrow way. So it was an uphill battle because there's a lot of places that would rather
just pay the bribe — and they refused to. So that was important to us, but it also made it a longer process."
While the process unfolded, Wells and his wife got to know the family additions. They spent time with them every day, but the children
had to be back at the orphanage at night. To help with the acclimation process, a Wells photo album was sent to Uganda about nine
months before their arrival. So when Wells and his wife arrived in Uganda, the prospective new members of the family recognized them.
"The 3-year-old (Elijah) warmed up immediately," Wells said. "As soon as we got to the orphanage, he ran up and wanted a hug ... put his
arms out and he said, 'Daddy.' "
Just like that, the heart of a rough, tough, 300-pound Pro Bowl offensive lineman melted.
"Oh absolutely," Wells aid.
The first gathering of the newly expanded Wells family took place a week ago in Nashville, their permanent residence. (The entire family
will move to St. Louis soon for the football season.)
Since Wells wasn't going to play last week against Kansas City, Fisher let him return home for a day — one of the most memorable days
of his life.
"That was right up there — all time," Wells said. "One, seeing my biological childrens' reaction to seeing their mother again after not
seeing her for 10 weeks. ... My 8-year old (Jackson) broke down immediately. It was pretty special."
The bonus was seeing how his biological kids responded to seeing their new brothers and sister for the first time.
"My 8-year old, immediately he had a big smile on his face when he saw them," Wells said. "He's wanting to help out with the boys.
"Seeing my 5-year old daughter (Lola) really take to the girl we had adopted and holding her hand, showing her around, and when we got
home immediately going to her bedroom, playing dress up. Just seeing my 2-year-old (Kingston) taking the other two up to his room and
showing them everything."
The knee
Wells obviously couldn't work with the Rams' athletic training staff during his time in Uganda, but he doesn't think the trip slowed the
recovery from knee surgery. He took all kinds of rehab equipment with him and did his rehab work at night once the kids were back at the
orphanage. He also took the Rams' playbook with him, via iPad, and reviewed it every night.
An unexpected hurdle cropped up when Wells was slowed by illness — a bug he thinks he picked up from eating something there.
Page 32
Date: 8/27/12
"I got a little parasite," Wells said. "It didn't slow down the rehab as much as it just was a pain. I lost a little bit (of weight), but I've gained
it all back."
Wells never had knee problems in Green Bay, but the knee flared up in an early practice session with Rams and surgery followed.
"It wasn't a major procedure," said Wells, whose preseason debut was Saturday night against Dallas. "It was just a basic go and clean it
up, remove any cartilage or whatever."
And that's where the mystery began.
Page 33
Date: 6/13/12
Rams rookie RB has taken hits since early age
By Jim Thomas
As the saying goes, every play in the violent world of the National Football League is like a car wreck.
Rams running back Isaiah Pead, a second-round draft pick from the University of Cincinnati, hasn't played a snap of professional football.
But he already knows what it feels like to get struck by a car.
He was just three years old when it happened when he was crossing a street.
"I remember stopping, and I braced myself," Pead said Tuesday following the first practice of Rams minicamp. "Got hit, kind of flew, and
hit another car. My mom said (the car) was going about 25-30 miles an hour, and hit the brakes as it was hitting me."
An ambulance came, but Pead didn't even go to the hospital. No broken bones.
Pead's mom later told him that he didn't even cry — or not much anyway.
So from an early age, Pead established that he could take hit. Now, he's got to do it in the NFL.
For the first time basically since the Rams picked Steven Jackson in the first round of the 2004 draft, the team invested a high draft pick in
the position, taking Pead at No. 50 overall.
(The Rams did pick Brian Leonard at No. 52 overall in 2007, but Leonard was more of a fullback/running back hybrid.)
Pead's role hasn't been defined, and it seems clear that this still is Jackson's backfield. Sounding every bit like the eager rookie, Pead is
willing to contribute wherever and however he can.
"I'm looking forward to helping this team win, and looking forward to playing on Sunday," Pead said. "That's what you dream of. When I
do get in, it's gonna be for the good."
Initially, he could be used as a third-down back as well as occasionally spelling Jackson for a series.
"I'm a football player," Pead said. "I'm a winner, and also a competitor. I want to win. And if it's being a third-down back, then I'll make
the best of it. I'm also wanting to compete one day to be the starter. But at the same time, I'm not selfish and I'm understanding."
In addition, he will be looked at as a punt and kickoff returner.
But first things first.
Pead is just trying to learn the offense after missing all but two practices during OTAs (organized team activities) because of the
University of Cincinnati's later graduation schedule.
He returned in time for an OTA session last Wednesday — his first practice with the Rams since the rookie minicamp a month earlier.
"It's good to get Isaiah back," coach Jeff Fisher said. "He's been working. He's in shape. And he's picking things up very, very quickly.
Like so many college teams running spread offenses, the Bearcats called their plays via hand signals from the sidelines during games.
"And here we're going off actual words in the huddle," said Pead, something he hadn't done since his high school days at Eastmoor
Academy in Columbus, Ohio.
At Eastmoor, Pead broke school rushing records held by the great Archie Griffin, who went on to win back-to-back Heisman trophies at
Ohio State.
Pead didn't match Griffin's college success, but was no slouch at Cincinnati. He was the Big East Conference offensive player of the year
in 2011, and gained more than 3,000 yards rushing over his Bearcats career.
Page 34
Date: 6/13/12
When talking about Pead's assets, his instincts, speed and quickness usually are brought up.
He takes more pride in being a smart football player but knows he has a long way to go — and a short time to get there — in terms of
mastering his Rams playbook.
"I want to have the mentality of a quarterback," he said. "So, before the quarterback is making audibles or while he's making audibles, I'm
right there with him and seeing everything he's checking to and things like that.
"I'm not up to speed. I'm still trying to get the basics. But by the time the season comes, I want to be the same mind-set as (quarterback
Sam) Bradford."
Even before the draft, Jackson expressed a willingness to work with any rookie running back the team brought in, as long as the rookie is
willing to learn. That shouldn't be a problem with Pead, and Jackson likes what he sees so far.
"Very quick, very shifty, really explosive," Jackson said of Pead. "All the things that you read and hear about — he possesses those
things. As the season goes, I'll get to know him a little more. I mean, you hate to try to comment on somebody after just meeting them for
a couple days. But he's a great talent and he's a great kid as well."
Page 35
Date: 6/12/12
Show Me State: Rams' Steve Smith out to prove he's still got it
By Aditi Kinkhabwala
EARTH CITY, Mo. -- Ignore the healthy knee. Set aside the fresh new start. Even forget the wildly talented quarterback. Steve Smith is
sure he'll be back to form this season for one reason alone: He has his No. 12 jersey back.
"Randall Cunningham wouldn't let me have it last year," the one-time Eagle said with a mock pout and a very real laugh. A one-time
Giant, too, the 27-year old wide receiver is now a Ram, and has a lightness to him after what can only be called a trying year. In that
unfamiliar No. 11 jersey, of course.
"Oh, that messed up things. I definitely have my swag back now," Smith said, still joking, but kind of telling the truth, too.
Just 28 months removed from a Pro Bowl appearance, the 5-foot-11, 195-pound receiver is in St. Louis on a one-year, show-me deal.
Meaning, show the Rams he's still that totally dependable possession receiver who was absurdly tough across the middle and was, for a
good while, Eli Manning's security blanket.
Smith's 2010 was derailed first by a torn pectoral muscle and then by an ACL injury to his knee, requiring microfracture surgery. A free
agent the next summer, the Giants' medical staff counseled prudence. The Eagles' didn't, offered a bit more money, and Smith left for
Philadelphia. His knee slowed him at first, then he suffered a bone bruise late. After a 1,220-yard 2009, he had 124 yards in 2011, on just
11 catches and a whole lot of scout team play.
"I learned a whole other side of football," he said. A star at USC, Smith barely even manned a scout team there his freshman year, making
the experience of miming Victor Cruz (the man who would ultimately break Smith's single-season Giants marks) and Santana Moss
wholly new. But Smith guilelessly insists "it was a learning year," and yes, if he could've been any hungrier, it made him so.
"In the NFL, it's not what have you done. It's what are you doing right now," he said. "When you get hurt, you lose a little steam. People
forget about you and doubt you. I want to remind the coaches here I'm a great player."
The Rams open mandatory minicamp with a slew of receivers, but without one set of totally distinguishable hands just yet. Brandon
Lloyd is gone. Danny Amendola is coming off October triceps surgery. Greg Salas and Austin Pettis were mid-round picks last year,
Brian Quick and Chris Givens are rookies this year. Brandon Gibson, 24, had 431 yards in 15 games a year ago, 23-year-old Danario
Alexander totaled 431 yards in 10 games.
Smith is easily the most accomplished of the group, from the 107-catch 2009 to the Super Bowl ring to the week in Hawaii. But he talks
about the young group and its talents glowingly. Givens caught a tough touchdown at practice Friday. Smith said Amendola is looking
"good and healthy." And Smith has a positive outlook on his own game in St. Louis: "I fit in well."
New Rams coach Jeff Fisher is from the same high school (Taft, in Los Angeles) as Smith. Fisher's a USC Trojan, too, and Smith said
Fisher was easily the top reason he came to St. Louis. The Rams have responded well to Fisher and his manner, as he pushes when he
needs to and also lets off the throttle, as he did last Thursday, when he gave his team a day off from OTAs.
With a pedigree that includes only winning programs (even his high school went to consecutive city championship games), Smith said he
still struggles to reconcile the Rams he's practicing with went 2-14 last year. Fisher is relentlessly upbeat, the Rams believe in their talent,
and then there's Sam Bradford, who Smith simply called "incredible."
"He is so accurate. His accuracy is just amazing. He can really put a ball in the smallest of windows," Smith said. "The competition is up,
we're all flying around and I really like our schemes."
And in June, what's not to like? Smith declared himself 100 percent healthy. He said the knee, the bones, the hamstrings, everything feels
perfectly normal. He refused to wonder if he pushed himself too fast early last year and said he has no regrets. On the day the Giants were
visiting the White House, he volunteered that he was happy his former teammates won their second Super Bowl in five years -- and said
he regularly talks to one-time mentee Hakeem Nicks, who broke his foot a few weeks ago.
After Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia, the pace of St. Louis agrees with him. There aren't as many reporters at practice, there
isn't as much scrutiny and right now, "I can walk around and no one really knows who I am."
Then again, if things go right, that will only be temporary.
Page 36
Date: 5/13/12
Rams working on the 'wow' factor with new punter Hekker
By Jim Thomas
Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel piled up some frequent-flyer miles this spring in search of a punter.
The team's interest level in re-signing veteran Donnie Jones ranged somewhere between little and none. (Jones eventually signed with the
Houston Texans as a free agent.)
So with the punting job wide open, Fassel worked out no fewer than eight college punters, some on more than one occasion. As the draft
wore down and it was time to start working the phones for rookie free agents, the Rams pretty much had an open field.
California's Bryan Anger, the star of this year's punting class, went a surprising No. 70 overall (in the third round) to Jacksonville, making
him the highest-drafted punter since Todd Sauerbrun in 1995. The only other punter drafted was Wisconsin's Brad Nortman, who went to
Carolina on the final pick of the sixth round.
Several recognizable names remained available as the draft ended, including:
• Georgia's Drew Butler, a former Ray Guy award winner as college football's top punter.
• Florida State's Shawn Powell, who set a school record with a 47.0-yard average last season.
• Brian Stahovich of San Diego State, whom Fassel had worked out in March.
But when the Rams asked Fassel who he wanted, there was no hesitation: Johnny Hekker of Oregon State. And that's who the team signed
as a rookie free agent shortly after the draft concluded on April 28.
"The first thing I liked about Johnny was what he put on game film," Fassel said. "He's got a big leg. He's a big, tall, long guy. I think the
potential for him is unlimited."
Fassel knows what punting looks like at its highest level because for the last four years in Oakland — three as Raiders special teams
coordinator — he has worked with Shane Lechler, one of the best punters in the NFL history and a seven-time Pro Bowler.
That sets the bar pretty high for Hekker.
"His really good balls are pretty close to Lechler's good balls," Fassel said. "The difference is, Lechler hits eight of 10 'wow!' — Johnny
will hit five out of 10 'wow!'"
It is Fassel's task to help build up Hekker's ratio of "wow" kicks.
"One thing we'll work on with him is his consistency," Fassel said.
Speaking of both Hekker and sixth-round draft pick Greg Zuerlein, a place-kicker from Missouri Western State, Fassel added: "One thing
I don't want to do is over-think it and become mechanical about it. Both of them. Because one of their greatest strengths is they're natural
and they're smooth. So I don't want them to become a machine."
Hekker played quarterback at Bothell (Wash.) High near Seattle and had a scholarship offer to play that position at Southern Utah. But his
heart was set on playing Pacific 10 Conference football (now the Pac-12), and his only chance to do so was as a walk-on punter at Oregon
Sate.
He was awarded a scholarship entering his sophomore season with the Beavers, and improved his numbers every year. For the most part
those numbers weren't great, certainly not good enough to get noticed by the NFL: a 39.7-yard average in 2008; 40.1 yards in '09; and
41.7 yards in '10.
Hekker saved his best for last, with a 44.0-yard average last season. He had at least one punt of 60 yards-plus in six games in 2011, and
established a single-game school record with a 52.5-yard average against Utah.
Page 37
Date: 5/13/12
But he still had some clunkers, including a shanked punt last season against Wisconsin that went for minus-4 yards and was dubbed
"Worst Punt Ever" on YouTube.
"I'm working on consistency," Hekker said. "At Oregon State, I just had some bad kicks. Bad kicks have always just kind of plagued me."
His punt for minus-4 yards was rugby style, rolling out to his right before striking the ball. That's a style used in college, because the
coverage team gets to leave the line of scrimmage right after the snap. Rolling out gives the coverage unit an extra second or two to get
down field.
"A lot of those college teams, they do that rollout rugby punt," Fassel said. "(Hekker) did that about half the time, which meant he never
really got to focus on one craft, which is a professional pocket-style punt. ... His rugby days are over."
That's because coverage rules are different in the NFL: you have to wait until the ball is struck before running downfield, so there's no
advantage gained by punting rugby style.
Even with his good numbers last season, Hekker didn't get invited to any college all-star games, or the NFL scouting combine.
"I got overlooked in that sense," he said.
But he made the most of his offseason. He trained with kicking guru Mike McCabe in Alabama. He also worked in Arizona at Gary
Zauner's specialist combine; Zauner is a long-time college and professional special teams coach. That led to an invitation to an NFL
regional combine in New York, kind of a satellite program to the big scouting combine in Indianapolis.
"I tried to make my rounds, get my name out there as best I could," Hekker said.
Fassel worked him out at Oregon State's pro day, and stayed in touch up through the draft.
"I wasn't quite sure of his interest level," Hekker said. "You hear stuff from coaches and you're not really sure which all of it's genuine."
Fassel's interest obviously proved genuine because Hekker basically has been handed the punter's job in St. Louis. It's his to lose.
"I'm just so blessed beyond belief to have this opportunity to work with this team," Hekker said.
Page 38

2012 WEEK 1 - Detroit Lions

Transcription

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