Photo: running my fingers through the turf and the rubber "dirt" on the Rams' home field.

A lot of things have changed over the past few years for the Rams, following Georgia Frontiere's death. Even as questions remain over the team's long-term future in St Louis, the Rams have been working to reconnect with the local fan base. The latest example of this comes in the form of the inaugural Rams Fan Fest at the Edward Jones Dome.

The effort to reconnect with fans started four years ago under Billy Devaney and interim owners Chip and Lucia Rodriguez by re-opening practices to fans after years of Martz's cloak and dagger secrecy. At the same time, Rams fans (and players, like Steven Jackson) began taking to Twitter as social media began changing the landscape of fans interaction with each other, and with their teams.

The Rams launched their own Twitter handle in March 2009. But they didn't really start taking an aggressive approach to social media until this offseason, with the hire of Brian Killingsworth as their VP of Marketing. Prior to his arrival, the Rams had the worst social media footprint in the league.

Brian came to St Louis from the Tampa Bay Rays, where he spearheaded fan engagement policies that helped build a base for one of the worst teams (at the time) in baseball. When the Rays' young core emerged all at once and transformed the team into a World Series contender, the fan base was primed and ready to believe. His plan for the Rams: make the same thing happen here.

My own approach to social media and fan interaction took a turn a year ago, when I showed up at practice with my Twitter handle pasted to the nameplate of my Marshall Faulk jersey. After three years of being an essentially anonymous digital identity in the Rams fan universe, I was putting myself out there to connect with fellow Tweeters on the sidelines of #RamsCamp. This also caught the eye of a few friendly people in the Rams' marketing department.

A year -- and another regime change -- later and the Rams have added 50,000 Twitter followers and 250,000 Facebook fans, more than tripling their footprint. And these aren't silent fans either, as the #RamsFanFest hashtag became the #2 trending topic on Twitter yesterday afternoon.

Killingsworth and the Rams thanked their local Twitter fans by inviting a subset of us onto the field to watch practice from the sidelines... fist-bumping distance away from the emerging young stars of the Rams defense. It was an unforgettable experience, documented in photos after the break.

At Rams Camp on a sweltering friday afternoon, I paid close attention to Sam Bradford - his timing and his targets in his passing drills. I wanted to pay particular attention to how quickly he was able to deliver the ball after the snap, and whether he could avoid "sacks" behind his offensive line.

The good news is that Bradford was every bit as sharp as recent camp reports have made him out to be, peppering short and intermediate routes with accuracy and aplomb, and getting rid of the ball on average between two and three seconds after the snap. I missed a few passes after the first gatorade break, but on the throws I saw he completed 11 of 15 passes for what would have been maybe 120 yards or so.

Bradford seems eminently comfortable with the mechanics of Schottenheimer's offense, which has a lot of similar looks and concepts to Pat Shurmur's west coast scheme. But instead of checking down as he did in his rookie season, Bradford did a good job of looking toward the next level on the route tree. Still, though, he mixed in more than a fair number of targets to tight ends and running backs flooding the interior zones emptied out by the outside receivers.  

(One highlight - Isaiah Pead took a pass on a wheel route and motored up the left sideline, into the area patroled by fellow rookie Janoris Jenkins. As Jenkins prepared to make a camp-tackle, Pead made a statement -- and an audible crack -- by lowering his padded shoulder into Jenkins' chest and driving through him for additional yardage.) 

This is the rookie-year Bradford, calm and efficient and largely mistake-free. And perhaps most importantly, healthy. However, I wouldn't say he's quite all the way back yet. Sam's deep ball still appears to have a good bit of rust on it. 

Bradford only tried two deep balls that I saw, both to Chris Givens. The first was overthrown and intercepted by Cortland Finnegan, though perhaps we need to give Finnegan credit for thoroughly boxing out the young receiver and preventing him from getting up to full speed on the route. The second was a duck that Givens had to come back for, giving Craig Dahl enough time to recover and break up the pass.

We're only in the first week of camp, and we've seen a lot of positive signs in the return of Bradford's game. But the mechanics of his deep ball -- his confidence in the receiver, his confidence in the blocking to wait, plant and throw, and his touch on the ball -- these will bear watching as the preseason progresses.

We can't help but make comparisons between Bradford and Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, and point out all the things that Bradford does well that Sanchez doesn't. Like reading playbooks, taking command of a huddle, staying out of the spotlight, and (oh yeah) throwing a nice accurate ball. But regardless of how bad he plays, Sanchez has the fearlessness to say "f*ck it & chuck it" and let the ball hang up for one of his talented receivers to go get. And regardless of his many faults, Sanchez does throw an awful pretty deep ball.

In three seasons, Sanchez has amassed 17 touchdown passes of 20 yards or more. In two seasons, Bradford has 8, but only two came last year. Sanchez also has eleven game-winning drives under his belt; Bradford has one. 

What would have happened if Bradford had been wearing Jets green, standing behind one of the game's best offensive lines and throwing to the likes of Santonio Holmes, Dustin Keller and Plaxico Burress? Who knows. All I can say is that I want to see number 8 recapture that deep ball accuracy and confidence in Rams blue.

More than 1600 fans piled in to the Rams' Earth City practice facilities yesterday, ready to see - and document - the new start under coach Fisher. As a result, the camp reports and fan photographs are starting to trickle in. Here's a morning's worth of geekout reading for you. 

Camp Report and Photos from Racetech at RealRamsFans.com

Mostly photos with some light commentary, this thread is long on eye candy and short on breathless proclomations of players about to have "breakthrough years" based on a shorts-and-shells practice with no contact allowed. In other words, a perfect encapsulation of day one. Some highlights: 

• Whoever wins the left guard position -- and it's Quinn Ojinnaka in the pole position right now -- will have been well-tested in practice, lining up across from Michael Brockers every day. 
• Lance Kendricks and Greg Salas both look noticeably bigger, while Steven Jackson looks noticeably trimmer. 
• Cortland Finnegan and Janoris Jenkins are both tiny. 

Day One RamsCamp Recap by Shane Gray, MO Sports Mag

This is a more reporterly recap from Shane Gray (@SGmosportsmag), one of Bleacher Report's primary Rams columnists. A lot of notes on individual drills, including a bit of awe-strickenness at Greg Zuerlein's cannon leg. Some highlights: 

• Brian Quick is not contact-shy, at least not in a pylon-destroying drill that all receivers and cornerbacks worked on together. 
• Josh Gordy's name was ringing out several times, a good sign for a hungry young player who continues to make the most of his opportunities. 
• The "catch of the day" belongs to Austin Pettis. Good to see him earning some swag back.  

First day impressions from Mike Sando, ESPN

Sando has been to many, many Rams camps in his day, including the ones in the paranoid Martz and Linehan regimes that were closed off to the rest of us. His perspective is always measured and cool-headed, which makes comments like these jump out: 

"Quarterback Sam Bradford and running back Steven Jackson stood out right away. Bradford appears so much healthier than he was last season. He threw with accuracy and authority. Jackson's size always impresses, but his quickness was also apparent Sunday (Jackson says he's at 5.1 percent body fat, by the way)." 

Sando also contributed some general impressions of the change in feel from Camp Spags to Camp Fisher.  

Your Twitter recommendation of the day: @miketphotog 

Some pretty outstanding sideline photos getting posted to Twitter, like this one:

 

Photo by Stella Horton

As always, the first open practice of RamsCamp is an event of our own making. There are footballs, and football players, but this is not Football. Players were in shorts and shells, and spent most of the first hour of the day stretching and working in position groups on athletic drills. Watching a practice is somewhat like watching a clockmaker wind a clock ... it's just daily business.

As clockmakers go, Jeff Fisher is clearly friendly with having lots of moving parts going at once. There is always action happening on multiple fields in any given practice, but even among position groups Fisher's Rams were operating in multiples. When the quarterbacks were asked to work on their dropbacks, for example, they all took snaps and did their drops simultaneously. 

At times it was chaotic for the casual fan, but it gives the maximum number of players the maximum number of reps, and coaches have videotape to lean on afterwards for confirmation of their evaluations.

Caveat: I didn't get to stick around long enough to see 11-on-11s, but there will be other practices on other days where I can get some of those observations in. Here's a quick synopsis of what I noticed:

• Janoris Jenkins is smooth as silk. Jenkins might be the best natural runner on the team, which is doubly impressive since he did most of his work on the backpedal. I made the comment on Twitter that Jenkins looks like Mardy Gilyard in reverse - he has the same lightness of foot, the same swivel in his hips. But he has better hands than Mardy, and hopefully a better NFL head as well.
  
  
• Brian Quick looks great in a straight line. The receivers all put in work in various combinations during 7-on-7 drills, with Greg Salas (playing mostly on the outside) and Danny Amendola making a number of good catches. Quick was matched up against Bradley Fletcher and Trumaine Johnson, among other corners, and showed a nice amount of wiggle in his early jumps. However, when the wideouts were running a four-corners drill, making a series of 90-degree cuts, Quick was noticeably unquick making his cuts. (At least he was being precise.)
  
  Given the number of passes that Bradford threw before the receiver had made his break, Quick's role in a timing-based offense might be limited early. But his red zone presence should be impressive right from the start, as long as Bradford's line can give him protection enough to hold the ball.
  
  
• Robert Turner, Quinn Ojinnaka getting early looks on the OL. Turner was filling in for the gimpy Scott Wells as the team's number one short-snapper, and Ojinnaka was getting a taste of life as a starter at left guard. From what I hear from folks who stuck around for the full 11-on-11s, the defensive line was well ahead of the offensive line, but that's not that surprising.
• Salas, Pettis, Bradley Fletcher all ran without a hitch - or a brace. I don't know if we saw game-speed from any of the three today, but these Rams returning from the MASH unit all looked healthy. Which is a plus on the first day.

Anthropological research suggests that we can make strong, comfortable associations with small numbers. 

("What? Is that really how you want to start an article?" Yes, stay with me now. It'll get better, I promise.)

"One" and "two" have very specific identities in our minds - the single and the pair. Likewise, "three" is the triangle or the trilogy. But anything beyond that, the identity of numbers becomes fuzzier. Four, five, fifty, a thousand, a gajillion -- without a specific identifier, they all become different forms of "many". A fog of data. It's why we make lists. 

Think back to last year - how many people started at cornerback for the Rams? Hell, who knows, right? Anything more than "two" -- Ron Bartell and Bradley Fletcher -- immediately signals that something is going wrong.

So when August rosters swell to 90 players and more, it isn't just difficult to keep track of everyone, it's nearly impossible. You're fighting against your own brain's biology.

So you pick favorites. Like I'm doing. I'll casually pay attention to as many names in various competitions as I can, comparing notes and following the Twitters. But the spirit of camp competition is embodied by its players on the bubble. And as camp-goers, you pick your favorites among the bubble players and examine them most closely. Here is a list, no more than three per position group, of the bubble players on my watch list. 

Bubble DBs: Jerome Murphy (#23), Josh Gordy (#25)

Granted, everyone is going to be watching the top three at the position. The brash rookie Janoris Jenkins (#21), his new mentor / partner in crime Cortland Finnegan (#31), and the almost forgotten rising talent Bradley Fletcher (#32) form an ideal triangle of competition. With Jenkins and Finnegan acting as the official carriers of Jeff Fisher's bad-boy philosophy, it will be particularly interesting to see how Fletcher -- a physical technician who loves to get inside opposing receivers' comfort zones -- fits in. And how he holds up. 

Trumaine Johnson, a top-100 pick, will also get a lot of reps, leaving precious few for Devaney draftee Jerome Murphy and midseason replacement Josh Gordy. Gordy, a former Packer, is an instinctual playmaker that made quite a few positive plays in a broken defensive backfield lsat season. Murphy has never seemed like a natural cornerback to me, but if the new coaching regime makes the conversion to safety, the team could create a Louis Delmas-like player -- making up for coverage liabilities with ferocious hitting ability.  

Bubble LB: Aaron Brown (#50)

The Rams have jump-started the competition at outside linebacker with a couple of greybeards in Jo-Lonn Dunbar (#58) and Rocky McIntosh (#52), as well as underused young free agent Mario Haggan (#51).

Of the three, Dunbar is the only one with playing experience in a Fisher/Williams defensive scheme, and would seem to have the inside track on a starting job. This, frankly, is not a good thing, as Pro Football Focus rated Dunbar among the least-effective LBs in the league in 2011. Dunbar made only 33 tackles and missed 9 more, a worse ratio than Brady Poppinga. Moreover, despite being used extensively as a pass-rusher, he generated only 6 pressures on 78 pass-rushing snaps. 

Enter Aaron Brown, a productive tackler despite his size (6-0" 237 lbs). He was not expected to be drafted, but the Rams made sure he didn't hit rookie free agency by snapping him up in the seventh round. Clearly they saw something they liked. Hopefully we'll get to see it too in camp. 

Bubble DLs: William Hayes (#95), Trevor Laws (#99), Eugene Sims (#92)

The starting four - Chris Long (#91), Robert Quinn (#94), Michael Brockers (#90 - a nod to Ndamukong Suh?) and Kendall Langford (#98) will be one of this team's strongest units, so competition should be especially heated for their backup jobs. 

William Hayes is a newcomer to keep an eye on, having been drafted by Jeff Fisher in 2008 and who played a very effective role as a spot pass-rusher as recently as 2010. Hayes could be Long's primary backup, or even spell him on obvious rushing downs, as Long's weakness is in run defense. Trevor Laws is a bit more invisible, an interior linemen who is not a disruptive force, but he could become an effective glue guy in the middle.  

Bubble OLs: Joe Long (#77), Robert Turner (#59) 

The offensive line remains the biggest worry area on the team, with only one-and-a-half of five spots locked down in any meaningful way - Harvey Dahl at right guard, and (if healthy) Scott Wells at center. However, Wells has been slowed and will give way to a number of substitutes in the early going. Most notably, Robert Turner has shown himself capable with the Jets of playing any role on the offensive line from center to guard to jumbo-tackle (a sixth blocker on short-yardage packages). 

On the outside, the starting jobs will be Rodger Saffold's and Jason Smith's to lose. But given their injury history, the team would be very wise to stockpile backups. One of the most intriguing is Jake Long's younger brother Joe, who was a four-year starter in Division II at left tackle. If the 6'5" 304-lb Long is finally ready for the bright lights, he could be a find.

Bubble WRs: Brandon Gibson (#11), Danario Alexander (#84), Steve Smith (#12)

With the Rams apparently ready to depend in great extent on Brian Quick (#83) and Danny Amendola (#16) to man the X and Z positions, and Greg Salas (#87) primed to re-establish chemistry with Bradford, competition at the Y and backup spots will be fierce. 

Given that Brandon Gibson stood as the "established veteran" on this roster, it made sense for the Rams to bring in someone -- even someone as far removed from their glory as Steve Smith -- to compete for the job. But it's fair to question what Smith has left in the tank, or in his knees, after bombing out with the Philadelphia Eagles last year. 

The X factor (pun intended) may be Danario Alexander, who could be called upon to tag-team with Quick to provide a constant deep-threat presence on the field. Alexander has excelled with limited snaps at the top of the route tree, and a platoon situation could be the best way to maximize his health and effectiveness. Despite being a "west coast offense," the Jets found frequent targets for Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burress in the red zone. DX likes that job just fine.  

Bubble TEs: All of them. 

This is a large and undistinguished group, of which former Jet Mathhew Mulligan (#82) as a block-first player might be the one most worth keeping an eye on. The Rams desperately need an improved run-blocking presence, with Kendricks unable to take on most edge rushers and Hoomanawanui rarely healthy enough to put his skills to work.

Bubble RBs/FBs: Brit Miller (#49), Daryl Richardson (#26), Ben Guidugli (#41) 

Brit Miller beat out a past-his-prime Mike Karney for the stating job last year, and then promptly disappeared from the Rams' gameplan. Miller got a vanishingly small number of snaps in the Rams' running offense under Josh McDaniels, so his lock on the job would not appear to be built on much more than his body of work in practices. The fact the Rams brought in former Falcon Pro-Bowler Ovie Mughelli (#34) this week would appear to make a statement to that fact.   

Another RamsHerd favorite is throwing his hat in the ring at H-back, former tight end Ben Guidugli. His roster prospects may be very slim, but he's a worker and is fun to watch. Likewise, 7th-round running back Daryl Richardson reportedly flashed some "slippery" in minicamp, in the words of The Pigskin Arch's Patty Hseih.  

We're just a few days away from the first open Rams practice of the season, which has become a bit of an event for local fans. Sort of like the swallows returning to Capistrano, it isn't in and of itself a very unusual event -- football players practice, we get it -- but it heralds the opening of a new season. So we go, smartphones and water bottles in hand, to watch the proceedings with a sniper's eyes, hoping to find elements of significance to latch our hopes onto.

I love practice observations -- particularly in the Twitter-enabled world where you can get a firehose of chatter going from a dozen or more enthusiastic spotters -- but they're ultimately not nearly as revealing as we want them to be. A player that excels in practice (ahem Brandon Gibson) or in the preseason (hello Lance Kendricks) isn't necessarily guaranteed of translating that excellence into the regular season.

We know this, but at the same time there are always subtle indicators that show up in practice that do echo into regular season play. With that in mind, here are three things that we should be able to see in practice that should be significant in terms of the season to come.

#1: Sam Bradford's time to release.

NFL Films guru Greg Cosell analyzed Sam Bradford's puzzling 2011 decline and highlighted a critical factor: "Bradford was tentative in the pocket, not mentally sharp, and at times he did not let it loose when he had a throw."

We didn't know it at the time, but this was evident in the Rams' practices as well. Whereas his play under Pat Shurmur was predicated on making quick reads and throwing darts, under Josh McDaniels he seemed more content to float back and watch routes unfurl. It wasn't uncommon for a play to evolve for four, five or six seconds in practice before Bradford made a throw. Often, it was a beauty of a throw, and we were so wrapped up (then as now) in the wide receiver competition that we were more focused on the catch (or non-catch) to notice that in a real game, without the red jersey, he would have been spread out like fertilizer on the grass.

A return to a West-Coast-based offense should mean a return to decisions made on pre-snap reads and quick throws (two seconds or less from the snap), rather than waiting on combo routes and one-on-one battles to unfold.

#2: Robert Quinn vs Rodger Saffold

One of the true highlights of camp is watching the linemen square off against each other in pass rush / pass protection drills. Whenever those start, I turn away from whatever else is going on and hustle over there to watch.

Three years ago, watching Chris Long engage in these drills was painful. He was so easily swallowed up in his bull rush, and so frustrated at being contained by savvier players like Adam Goldberg. One year later, though, he looked like a different man. He had a far more refined rip move, and his first step seemed lightning fast. He ate up whoever was trying to guard him, and it paid off in a breakthrough 8 1/2 sack season (with a league-leading 57 hurries) that put him back on the map as a pass-rushing force. 

This year, with so much talent on the defensive side of the ball and such uncertainty on the offensive side, there will be a lot at stake in these battles. Saffold needs to show significant improvement, especially on inside moves - something that Quinn is naturally gifted at. We want to see Quinn become more fully realized as well, showing more consistent motor and more strength to go along with his speed.

#3: Who's being vocal?

The leadership on field can be seen in practice, although it's easier to see when those leaders are being vocal and animated. Chris Long and James Laurinaitis were the obvious captains on defense, and helped ensure that the team never quit on the 2011 season despite the piles of demoralizing losses (of games and teammates).

However, Steven Jackson and Sam Bradford both tend toward "quiet" leadership ... Bradford especially. Part of this is a factor of how they spend their "down" time -- Bradford rarely spent a minute on the sideline without McDaniels or a backup QB in his ear. The offensive line also felt captain-less. It will be interesting to see whether Harvey Dahl (reunited with offensive line coach Paul Boudreau) or veteran center Scott Wells (and his Packers Super Bowl ring) take audible and visible charge of their unit.

One player whose voice will be missed, at least from a fan's perspective, is Mardy Gilyard. He may not be quite NFL caliber as a wideout, but he's got a Hall of Fame level of swagger. No doubt our ears will be tuned to Janoris Jenkins, Cortland Finnegan and Brian Quick to fill that void.

Brian McIntyre at NFL.com recently profiled the Rams' WR battle as one of the league's camp competitions to watch. And in doing so, he gives us his picks to make the roster, and highlights who he thinks is on the bubble. Let's start with the givens (pun intended):

The Rams used the No. 33 overall draft pick on Appalachian State receiver Brian Quick, who signed a four-year, $5.387 million contract that included $3.822 million in guaranteed money, and spent the No. 96 draft pick on Wake Forest receiver Chris Givens.

Quick and Givens are not going anywhere. Beyond that, it's a free-for-all for three, maybe four roster spots.

McIntyre also pits Danny Amendola vs Steve Smith in a battle for the primary slot receiver, though it wouldn't be a surprise to see both on the roster. The battle then for the remaining one or two spots comes down to four players: 

Greg Salas posted big numbers out of the slot at Hawaii and was having a promising rookie season before suffering a broken leg midway through the season. Injuries to Amendola and Salas is what got 2011 third-round selection Austin Pettis on the field as a rookie. Pettis' performance is why the Rams invested so heavily in the wide receiver position again this April. Brandon Gibson currently sits atop the depth chart, but he's a player the current coaching staff and front office inherited, has a seven-figure salary ($1 million) and can be released with no cap implications. The new regime also inherited Danario Alexander, who is a game-changing deep threat when healthy, which he rarely is.

Despite the easy dig on Pettis, McIntyre introduces a surprise factor that may just save him from preseason roster cuts: his impending season-opening sit-down for performance-enhancing drugs:

"Pettis is suspended for the first two games, and he has talent, so why release him at the end of training camp? Given the injuries the Rams had at the position last year, they may need him by Week 3. 

Like any player looking to impress a new coaching staff - especially one as veteran as this, with WR coach Ray Sherman easily able to measure you on a scale of 0 to TO - all of the Rams' holdover wideouts face a steep challenge to get back on the field.