Whether he wants it or not, help for Steven Jackson may soon be on the way.

As a huge contingent of players and owners sit down to meet, ESPN is reporting that a basic framework of a deal is in place. Part of that deal? A return to a four-year path to unrestricted free agency, effectively opening the floodgates of available players to sign. 

And so, the biggest item on Billy Devaney's offseason to-do list might finally be addressed: finding a legitimate backup for Steven Jackson.  

On the heels of this news, Mike Clay of Pro Football Focus (@PFF_MikeClay on Twitter) comes through big-time with an updated list of available skill position free agents. No longer do we have to be wearing beer goggles to find an attractive counterpart for Jackson in the Rams' offense, squinting real hard at the likes of 80-year-old Darren Sproles or a constantly beat-up Cadillac Williams.

No, there is some real cream at the top. Here's a look at the top three new candidates:

A wiser, or at least more famous, man than I once said that any publicity is good publicity. What I took away from this is that if you’re in the news, for whatever reason, you’re alive, you have a pulse…you’re relevant. This hasn’t been the case around Rams Park since their 8-8 2004 playoff season. The most press the Rams received back then was their name in the box score of yet another listless defeat.

There was no talk of Free Agents, let alone high profile FA’s joining the Rams. Such talked would have easily been laughed off.  No scribe, blogger on TV host came near to mentioning the Rams and a division title in the same breath. There was no need to write about what might hold this team back from a run at the NFC West because, well get serious no such run was taking place and shortcomings all over the field were holding this team back.

Not the case anymore. Now I am not so drunk on Rams Kool-aid to suggest the Rams are anything more than contenders in perhaps the weakest division in the NFL.  But hey, after years of the Sheep inhabiting the Ed, I welcome these Rams’ into my home on Sunday’s.  These Rams have buzz. These Rams have a young, legit QB who WR’s want to come and play catch with, a strong and growing core on D with a desire for more. These Rams are being talked about…and here is what people are saying.

Can you hear me now!  

Bradley Fletcher action figure comes with kung-fu grip

Can Bradford lead the Rams to the division title…?

…or will the D get in his way

Don Shula not just known for his steak houses. Knows a bit about football too

Alex Smith behind center…music to my ears. And potentially the move that wins the NFC West for the Rams.

FA Wide Outs, we got ‘em.  Alright…who you want?

So what if he’s too stupid to NOT shoot himself. He can catch.

From prison to St. Louis (maybe), what a long strange trip it has been

OIFPW part 2 (Mini-Camp West Coast Style)

Giving back…just a nice story

Reporters that inhabit the odd center of the sports/business/legal Venn diagram are descending on Saint Louis once again, in advent of tomorrow's decision from the three-panel Judgeship of the 8th Circuit Court. On deck: a ruling, finally, on whether or not to re-lift the Lockout, upholding or kneecapping the decision by Judge Susan Nelson. 

Link: Andrew Brandt of the National Football Post steps into the George Michael Sports Machine to offer a highlight reel of how we got to this point, and what it means moving forward.

DeMaurice Smith and several of the players will be in court as well to hear the reading of the decision. Presumably they have been keeping their game faces in shape during the offseason; they'll need it, given the two consecutive rulings by this business-firendly court in favor of the owners. Another pro-Owner ruling won't force the players back to the table though, not with the Tom Brady et al vs the NFL anti-trust case still alive in its own legal arena. Yes, they're still attending mediation, but even the league now admits that they don't expect any results from that avenue. (SBJ story: subscription required.) 

As the Lockout grinds on with more player-initiated workouts springing up here and there -- the Rams' next get-together happens next week in Phoenix -- the league's coaches continue to be stuck in neutral. The position almost demands a "control-freak" personality, so there can't be a much worse feeling than not being there when your players get on the field. Anyone talking to Coach Spags right now gets one unfulfilled wish, repeated over and over like Dorothy clicking her ruby slippers: "When the players and coaches get back together... get back together..." 

Video: NFL.com's 32 Teams in 32 Days talks to Spags 

For all of that wishing, though, Spagnuolo and the Rams were apparently not a part of the coaches' cabal that crossed picket lines to side with the players. And for his part, Bill Parcells thinks the coaches will be okay as long as they maintain their focus. 

However, there just might be a reason for hope -- or at least a reason to hope for hope -- with the late-breaking news that several key owners met in secret with Smith and several of the players. No mediators, no court order, no third parties of any kind between them, except perhaps a sommolier. More an more details have been trickling out since this was first reported -- the known attendees now include the power trio of Jerry Jones, Jerry Richardson and Robert Kraft, as well as a pair of elder voices of common sense, the Giants' John Mara and the Steelers' Dan Rooney.  

The timing of the meeting is curious, unless both sides think that tomorrow's ruling is already in the bag for the owners. And it very probably is. The Players would then be down to their weapon of last resort -- the "nuclear option" of a full-on legal assault on the NFL's anti-trust exemption. 

If you blow that exemption out of the water, it might mean a financial windfall for the players, but it could also destroy everything we know about competitive balance in the NFL: the salary cap, revenue sharing, even the NFL Draft itself. 

And if there's anything worth hoping for, here's hoping it won't come to that.

Football Sundays are back! Join us in reliving the Rams' 2010 season, week by week.

The predictions were coming in all preseason -- despite the buzz around Sam Bradford, the 2010 season was going to be another long mudslog through the worst division in football. SI's pundits, former NFL scouts and sophisticated prediction machines agreed: it would take another year and another top-five draft pick, maybe another coaching change, before the excitement returned to St Louis.

Bradford, Spagnuolo, and a cast of surprising players said to hell with all of that, we think we can win NOW!

As we get set to relive the 2010 season, using NFL.com's invaluable Game Rewind, let's re-set the table for that season by identifying three key themes from training camp that would carry over to the big rebound year. 

One non-courtroom item in the PFT rumor mill today has the Rams potentially lining up for Randy Moss' services this season. Not that anyone has talked to anyone, or that any "agreements" (wink, wink) are in place, just that the Rams might be a fit.

Josh McDaniels' experience with Moss in New England is cited as the basis for the argument, but it ignores a couple of realities that we went through in depth last fall, while making the case for Moss, and the case against. While we had some pretty good speculative arguments on the plus side, I believe the pendulum has shifted significantly away from this possibility. Analysis after the break:

My memory is a little fuzzy, who is this guy again?

I am a patient boy, I'll wait I'll wait I'll wait I'll wait. But this waiting for something substantial to happen, for the business of football to get back to normal, is torturous. The mental pathways that were once devoted to the Rams, to the myriad possibilities of the draft, of free agency, and of the 2011 season, are barely firing now, fogged and occluded by this cloud of depression that hangs over the offseason now.

We are all together in the post-draft void, and I'm sitting at the epicenter of the big nothing, here in St Louis where the 8th district court is busy sleeping on the legal fate of the league. Theories and analyses abound, but the more I read the less informed I feel.

The latest legal salvo from the NFL touches on one of the few chords that resonates with fans: competitive balance. Lifting the lockout now in an uncapped environment, they say, would open the doors for teams like the Cowboys (yes, the same Cowboys crying most about their stadium debt) to play like the Yankees in baseball and sign all the best available free agents. And it would hurt the chances of small-market teams like the Rams of competing for those same players.

It's a good argument on paper, but falls apart quickly for anyone with a working memory longer than that of Guy Pearce in Memento. (And if you don't get that reference, go now to the local video store and grab this movie. One of the very best mind-bending movies of the last decade.)

After all, last year's league was uncapped, and teams spent remarkably less than in previous years. And if the lockout was lifted, the league could institute 2010 rules immediately and create as level a playing field as last year, when the very smallest of the small market teams -- the Green Bay Packers -- won the Super Bowl.

More worrisome are the rumblings, all from unofficial sources, that the league is considering a nuclear option of their own. If the players are willing to scuttle the rules of collective bargaining by walking away from their union, the owners, so the rumor goes, might consider shuttering their teams entirely.

Aaron Nagler at Cheesehead TV does a nice job of skewering the league's latest scare tactic. But the bigger problem is that we have to spend any time at all talking about this crap, when we could be talking about football.

Giving ourselves something to talk about

Here at RamsHerd, though, we plan on preserving some kind of sanity by reliving the 2010 season, week by week. Let the legal battle take its own course, but we won't be mining it for daily non-updates. That's what PFT is for.

Instead, each weekend we will rewatch and re-recap a game from Sam Bradford's debut season. While we know how it will all turn out, the exercise of rewatching will refresh our memories and give us a fresh perspective on the Rams' foundations for the coming season. Starting this Sunday with the season opener versus Arizona, we'll be wrapping up in late August.

Hopefully by then, we'll actually have something to talk about.

Seeing a trend? We sure are.

When Josh McDaniels took over the offensive coordinator position, much was made of the versatility of his scheme, and his ability to work with the talent give him. Accordingly, few expected as complete an overhaul of the offensive skill positions that the Rams draft has shown so far.

Despite our depth at wide receiver and tight end, the Rams dove in and made three consecutive picks at the position. We now have four or five TEs and as many as ten WRs in house, with more draft to come.

The quality that separates the guys we just got from the players we already have? Very good to great hands. New Era Scouting on Greg Salas: "ideal size, shows good hands." Sideline Scouting on Austin Pettis: "Above-average hands, doesn't let the ball get into his body." New Era on Lance Kendricks: "Catches like a wide receiver. Has big hands and can snag the ball out of the air."

Except for Amendola and our safety-valve tight ends, the Rams pass catchers have struggled with drops and lapses in concentration. And it isn't as though we have a lot of of speed or big-play ability on the roster with Avery nearly always hurt. Here's how they rank in Catch Percent, according to PFF stats:

Receivers
Danny Amendola: 74.6%
Brandon Gibson: 61.6%
Danario Alexander: 60.6%
Mark Clayton: 60.5%
Donnie Avery (2009): 51.1%
Laurent Robinson: 49.3%
Mardy Gilyard: 40%

Tight Ends
Billy Bajema: 73.7%
Daniel Fells: 73.2%
Michael Hoomanawanui: 61.9%
Fendi Onobun: 50%

21Bird
@RamsHerd come training camp if any wr has problems catching your job is gone...all these rooks are sure handed

It sure seems as though a message is being sent. McDaniels wants to flood the field with as many legitimate targets as possible for Bradford and let him pick and choose. But nothing will blow up a perfect play call or a perfect decision by Bradford than a drop.

Last year, receivers who dropped a pass in training camp had to run a lap around the field. This year, they might as well keep running all the way out to the parking lot. 

George C. Scott has agreed to play the role of @PFF_Tyson in the film adaptation of #MockThree.

With the selection of Graig Cooper as Mr. Irrelevant, MockThree is officially in the books and the Rams war room breaks into exhausted cheers.

With a 16-hour draft clock and the vagaries of interacting with 31 other war rooms, there has been little sleep in our "smoke-filled-room" over the past six days. (In fact, that "smoky" smell emanates from a combination of the beef jerky, barbecue chips and Kaldi's coffee that has been fueling our draft efforts.)

Now that the dust has settled, here's a recap of our draft efforts: 

Round 1: Rams pick Illinois DT Corey Liuget

The draft got off to a bit of a stumble out of the gate, as our dream scenarios fell one by one and we were left with the fourth option on our board, Corey Liuget. But while we expressed some not-so-private frustration at the time, Liuget was on our board for a reason -- he's very quick off the snap, very polished with his technique, and able to get to the quarterback. He'll be able to come in and contribute in Spagnuolo's defense from day one.

Ironically, each of the War Room members had our own favorites for this spot, some more loudly than others, but Liuget was the one guy we could all agree on as a compromise pick. He's sort of the "BLT and fries" pick on the menu -- guaranteed to be good, but you probably won't brag about it.

Round 2: Rams pick Illinois RB Mikel Leshoure

Tim led the way with this pick, jumping on the running back option far sooner than some of us might have. As perhaps the most educated guy in the room, Tim laid out his arguments for Leshoure like bricks of an impenetrable wall, blocking any objections with his logical masonry.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of going running back at this juncture was that it broke up a three-way battle royale over which of the group of second-tier receivers to cast our fate with. Van, Tyson and I each had our projected heroes (I liked Titus Young) and goats (and not Leonard Hankerson), not a one aligning with the other -- a common symptom of this group of misfit talents.

Round 3: Rams select Wisconsin G John Moffitt

At this point, I put my foot down. Literally. As the rest of the room cast out notions and ideas, I removed my mud-encrusted boot and two-day-old sock, stepped up onto my chair and planted my gnarled, unpedicured, cheese-smelling, hairy-toed, 37-year-old foot onto the folding table that housed our big board. When you ask an oldster into the room as a "senior advisor," you have to be prepared for the worst.

"If we're going to re-commit to the run, we have to rebuild the interior," I growled, as shock waves of putridity assaulted my brothers in arms. "Now." There was no further argument, and the road-grading Moffitt was an obvious choice.

Round 4: Rams select Boise State S Jeron Johnson

This pick was all Van. Perhaps tired of the mounting waves of concern about player safety, or just looking to inject a little danger into the defense, he advocated for a man who might literally kill someone on the field with his intense tackling ability.

With a growing Viking bloodlust in the room as he retold tales of Johnson's heroic exploits, the call to draft Jeron built to a roar until the pick was announced. I believe things were set on fire, though my memories of that night are a little hazy.

Round 5: Rams draft SDSU WR Vincent Brown

Though still just an apple-cheeked babe, the head of our War Room showed a cool head and sharp eye that were far in advance of his years. This was keenly on display in this fifth round, as the rest of us nursed our hangovers and our grudges and watched in amazement as Tyson plucked a fantastic value pick in Vincent Brown.

Brown is a player that was once in consideration back in the group of 2nd-round receivers, but whose star began to fade after a sub-par Combine 40 time, and the fickle pre-draft buzz moved on to flashy projects like Kentucky's Randall Cobb. But Brown is a guy that steady-handed scouts love, and Tim wasted no time in mining some valuable points to back up the pick: "In the last two seasons, Brown has averaged 17.3 yards a catch and 19.6 yards a catch. He’s posted a long of 30 yards or more in 14 of his last 19 games, 8 of which were over 50 yards."

This is one of the picks that really excites us.

Round 7: Rams select Appalachian State LB D.J. Smith

With no immediate prospect of signing any undrafted free agents, there was no such thing as a throw-away pick in the 7th round. And so we actively sought out useful players who could come in and fill needs, even after more than 200 top talents had exited the board.

We hope we've found a gem here in D.J. Smith, who former Rams scout Dave Razzano compares to small-school star linebacker London Fletcher. If anyone would know, it would be Razzano, who was with the Rams when Fletcher walked on and went on to start all 16 games of his rookie season.

Round 7: Rams select TCU DT Cory Grant

Tyson went back to an old favorite here, re-mining one of his late-round gems from Mock One, and providing Spagnuolo with a stout new weapon for the interior of his defensive line.

While Liuget profiles to be an eventual three-down replacement for the 34-year-old Fred Robbins, the beefier Grant should rotate in nicely in the opposite DT slot on first and second downs, filling the space vacated by Cliff Ryan.

We have to salute @EmPuLsE for running three of the most entertaining and insightful mock drafts of this silly pre-draft season, and for having the audacity to invite more than 100 twitterers to form up in to 32 war rooms for this epic session. Now, we put our mocks away and get ready for the real thing...

Well, Mr. Bradford, I hope you enjoyed your honeymoon period in the NFL. You started all 16 games, revitalized a franchise, set some records and even had your face on the Madden 2012 cover for half a second. But becoming one of the fresh new faces of the NFL comes with a cost. The 2011 schedules came out today, and the NFL is throwing a battle royale in your honor, inviting you to the very toughest competition in the league. You'll face the winners of five of the last six Super Bowls, hosting only one of them, and only three non-conference opponents had records under .500.

Sounds like a tough road, right? In fact, it's being called the very toughest schedule in the league.  

Week after week, you'll be taking the best shots from the best out there. Week after week, they'll come to see if you and these young upstart Rams have what it takes. The NFL is sending the axe gang after you. And it might get bloody.

The full hustle, after the break: