The addition of Cofield and Umenyiora could be huge

Steve Spagnuolo’s reputation was built on relentless pressure and dominating defense, especially after leading the 2007 Giants to a Super Bowl title over the heavily favored Patriots.

The men in blue turned Tom Brady black and blue all day, stifling a record breaking passing game through defensive line depth and a savvy rotation orchestrated by Spags.

That game defined his potential as a head coach and is exactly why St. Louis should explore the New York pipeline first and foremost to find new front four talent as soon as labor peace begins.

The Rams’ defensive line was deceptively good last season, writes Kerry Byrne in SI, improving light years from a near bottom feeder showing in 2009.

St. Louis had the second rated third down defense in 2010 along with forcing 14 interceptions and 43 sacks. Chris Long had a breakout year as a run defender and produced 8.5 sacks while James Hall found the fountain of youth and brought down the quarterback 10.5 times.

However, the Rams can’t expect to sustain that type of success without reinforcements this offseason.

Robert Quinn will be a nice addition but sat out all of last season following NCAA infractions and between Hall and “seasoned” defensive tackle Fred Robbins, St. Louis could use an infusion of talent and depth.

Enter Barry Cofield and Osi Umenyiora. Both played under Spagnuolo and both would flourish with a change of scenery in St. Louis.

Cofield is in the prime of his career and will most likely be a free agent under the new league agreement. He had 54 tackles last season along with four sacks and would create a great run-stopping tandem with Robbins.

Umenyiora has reportedly become disenchanted with the Giants after a contract dispute and had 13 sacks under Spagnuolo in 2007. He also had 11.5 sacks and 48 tackles last season despite dealing with a few nagging injuries.

Imagine fielding a lineup of Long, Cofield, Robbins and Umenyiora with Quinn and Hall coming off the bench.

It would be a dream come true for Rams fans and a nightmare for the marshmallow-soft offensive lines in the NFC West.

Hopefully the Rams can bring these guys to St. Louis for a “Giant” reunion.

There's a rumor going around that the NFL lockout is about to end. No, really this time. And amidst that news comes the revelation that DeMaurice Smith is one crafty motherscratcher.

It is now known that the owners began preparing in earnest for this lockout more than two years ago, as they negotiated a $4.3 billion dollar emergency war chest of TV money -- to be paid whether or not games were played. This would cover any lease payments, salaries for key employees (read: coaches, GMs, and money-counters), harbor dues for the yacht, and groundskeepers to keep the topiaries looking sharp.

The owners' strategy was brutally simple: refuse to negotiate until the will of the players, eroded over time by missed paychecks and the inability to keep the champagne flowing in the VIP room (or however owners imagine players spend their free time), finally broke.

However, as SI's Jim Trotter reports, Smith had established his own secret lockout fund for the players in case of a lost season.

With talks reaching this critical juncture, Smith and his proxy, Dominique Foxworth, revealed the existance of this fund. "Want to go nuclear, bosses? We'll ride out the winter right with you." That was the message.

The price for peace among the ranks of the players? The price to keep them all in line, multi-millionaires and the horde of commoners alike? Two hundred grand apiece, or roughly half the rookie salary for an undrafted free agent.

A hidden message to the massive entourages and hangers-on that newly minted millionaire athletes attract like flies - the players would have been willing to sacrifice you, too. 

Fortunately for celebrity leeches and fantasy footballers alike, this knowledge might just have been enough to wear down the last bit of bravado the owners had, and get pens tantalizingly close to paper, ending this lockout once and for all.

Rams center Jason Brown signed the richest contract ever for a center in 2008. Says PFF's Khaled Elsayed, "he has yet to go any way toward earning that big deal."

Since Billy Devaney came to the Rams, St. Louis has committed more money to the offensive line than any other team in the division: a total of $145 million dollars in signed contracts.* Despite this heavy investment, Pro Football Focus still ranks our line as the worst in the NFC West, behind the decrepit Cardinals and the rebuilding Seahawks, and far behind the newly physical 49ers.  

While we may like to brag about having the best quarterback in the division (a claim that could only be made in the NFC West at this point, regardless of Bradford's sky-high upside), it won't do us much good if we can't keep him upright.

Improving the line

In 2007, the Rams line was pretty much bad all over. Pass protection sucked. Run blocking sucked. And we were among the most-penalized units in the league, thanks to the efforts of young Alex Barron, our supposed hope for the future.

To his credit, Devaney acted swiftly, clearly prioritizing this area while other teams (the Lions and Bears come to mind) chase big-ticket skill players while their interiors crumble.

The Rams signed LG Jacob Bell from Tennessee and C Jason Brown from Baltimore to big-money contracts, and drafted tackles Jason Smith and Rodger Saffold with 1st and 2nd round picks. (Supposedly, Devaney's first ever draft pick as GM would have been LT Jake Long in 2008, but the Dolphins beat him to the punch.)

Among these acquisitions, a pattern becomes clear: none of these players are big, physical brutes for their positions. Rather than send his scouts to the weight bench, counting reps, the Rams appear to prioritize foot speed, athleticism, and versatility.

Smith was a former big-framed tight end who has been a project as a conversion to tackle. Brown can play center and guard, and did both at times in the preseason. Saffold has shown an ability to play equally well on the left or right side of the line, and Adam Goldberg, the lone survivor from the pre-Devaney era, is basically a super-sub that has filled in at right tackle, left guard and right guard over the past three seasons.

We're happy that the line has received this much attention. But are the Rams getting their money's worth?

Grading their performance

Pro Football Focus has developed a rating system that is entirely based on scouting. They have assembled a small army of analysts who watch game tape and grade every player on every play - a herculean task that results in a set of decimal numbers ranging from positive to negative. And they split out those grades on discrete areas of game play. In particular, offensive linemen are judged on "pass protection," "run blocking" and "penalties."

As you can see from this chart, the only area that our offensive line's performance doesn't totally suffer is in penalties. Even there we rank 20th among NFL teams. Moreover, each of the other teams in our division has at least one element of the game in which they grade far superior to our unit. 

However, an alternate grading metric by Football Outsiders -- which focuses only on statistical measures, not on scouting -- gives the Rams a much more pronounced rise in pass protection:

The FO stats show a huge and sudden jump in improvement in sack rate, a sign that Devaney's investments are finally paying off, right? Or, it could be that Sam Bradford is much more elusive than Marc Bulger was, and that for a rookie, his decision-making with the football was exceptionally fast, thus bailing out his line.

Two seasons ago, the Rams line graded near the bottom of any reasonable analyst's rankings. But there were reasons to believe that big improvements were on the way. Heading into 2011, though, our line has been invested in heavily, with little immediate returns to show for it.

Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith together in a rare show of positive spirits. Photo by Brian Blanco, AP.

On a Monday, a blazing hot summer sky ripped open with explosions, the symbolic fires of war lighting up peaceful landscapes filled with the aromas of hot dogs and warm beer. Such began a week of paradox in the world of football. 

The business week began on Tuesday with unprecedented optimism in the ongoing lockout talks. The true leaders of each camp had taken over talks from the lawyers, who speak only in fire and brimstone, and the framework of a deal seemed to be in place.

The formula suggested last month by the players, which ties their take to the concept of “all revenue,” instead of “adjusted revenue,” is a simple and reasonable one that should appeal to both sides. Rather than squabble over an altered business model, cost credits or whether owners should open their books, the all-revenue approach frees up the respective parties to craft a cut-and-dried, mutually beneficial business partnership.

As Mike Silver suggested, all the owners and players had to do at this point was forget about the squabbling of the last four months, and "hug it out."

However, the concept of "all revenue" is a decidedly tricky one for Goodell and his 32 bosses, especially those like Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder who specialize in creating new revenue streams that sit outside the revenue sharing model -- and sit outside the purview of their fellow owners.

As the financial stakes grow higher, even simple solutions are far from simple to execute.

What was once a weakness for the St. Louis Rams is steadily becoming one of their strengths.  Spagnulo and company still have work to do but coach Spags’ defensive pedigree is showing. After years of just flat out blowing high draft picks on defensive busts the likes of Claude Wroten, Jimmy Kennedy(bust at least for Rams), Tye Hill, Adam Carriker and  others. A strong (and young) defensive core is in place. With the selection of Robert Quinn in this years NFL Draft the Rams showed a commitment to their Defense and made a promising unit that much stronger.

It started back in 2008 with the pick of Chris Long.  Then in 2009 James Laurinatis came along and turned a group of players into a cohesive unit. From there with the emergence and addition of James Hall, Fred Robbins, Ron Bartell, Bradley Fletcher….etc. the Rams have morphed from a push-over defensive unit to one that has the ability to step up and change a game. Now of course no one is going to confuse this Rams until with the Steel Curtain of the 70’s, 85 Bears or 2000 Ravens. But the point is this defense is improving (that is not just my opinion, I actually have facts to back it up this time) and for a team that won only 6 games the three seasons prior to 2010 that is a great thing.

Pro-Football-Reference.com ranks Team Defenses based on DSRS or Team defensive quality relative to average (0.0) as measure by SRS (Simple Rating System)…..yeah. I’ll just go ahead and say the group at PFR.com is on a whole other level of statistical research than I am. Based on that I am just going to take their word on where and how they set up the rankings. Here is how the Rams fared the previous four seasons

Pro-Football_Reference.com Rankings

2010 Rams DSRS -0.4 8th in NFC (Movin on Up!)

2009 Rams DSRS -5.8 15th in NFC

2008 Rams DSRS -7.0 15th in NFC

2007 Rams DSRS -6.4 Dead last in NFC

Some other opinions in line with mine

Who says the Rams D will dominate in 2011…SI does that who

On our way to having a shut down corner to call our very own.

Adding Quinn only makes it stronger

Analyze This...!

Fact… James Laurinatis is a beast

Replacing a favorite is never easy but it can be fruitful

The Rams do have a few holes to fill, but let’s start with their area of strength.

Flying under the radar can be helpful

Ready for a breakout year

A Rams fan's perceptions of Danny Amendola get turned upside down

The St. Louis Rams, newly energized by the Josh McDaniels offense, will be a very hot topic for fantasy football players looking for those ever-elusive sleepers. Logically, Danny Amendola, the Rams’ leading pass catcher (85 receptions and 3 TDs on 114 targets, all team highs) and a Wes Welker clone, should be primed for a big breakout, right?

Not so fast, says a senior fantasy writer for NBCSports.com and RotoWorld.

ChrisWesseling
#Rams WR Danny Amendola's 8.1 yards-per-catch was the lowest average ever for a receiver with at least 60 receptions. Purely PPR material.

Okay, a little savvy, if pessimistic, fantasy advice there. The Rams haven't been fantasy relevant for some time, outside of IDP leagues, and each has their own view of upside. We could leave it at that. But as observers from Pro Football Focus and this site both presented arguments to the contrary, a far different view emerges, one that deserves commentary.

Wesseling went on to say that Amendola was used heavily “only because Bradford had no one else after Clayton went down”... that he “just isn’t talented enough” to hold off the added competition on the roster, that “NFL coaches want more play-making ability out of their receivers,” and that his production in the league “has nowhere to go but down.”

While trying to keep the homer hat off, I have to beg to differ.

There's no doubt that Rams fans have fallen for Amendola. The debate hinges on a central point of contention: is there a "Wes Welker" mold in the McDaniels offense, and is Amendola a sufficiently dynamic player to fill it?

One of the best new reads on the interwebs right now for hardcore film study is from Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman on Twitter). His new website, http://mattwaldmanrsp.com, offers Grantland-length features, but with none of the snark, fluff, or self-importance. Instead, you get the attention to football detail that you might expect from a seasoned NFL analyst like Ron Jaworski or Pat Kirwan.

His latest offering is a must-read for all those who talk about the Rams' receivers and their ability to "get separation." Most of us who trout out that line stopped being competitive at the varsity level, when raw speed or height were plenty enough to create mismatches all over the field. Hence we look at the current crop of Rams receivers and note a lack of height (except for DX), lack of speed (except for Donnie Avery), and think "these bums don't have a chance."

Waldman tells us otherwise. Or rather, he shows us the story of a receiver named Isaac Bruce who stood only 6 feet tall and was never known for his 40 time, but whose physical and technical mastery of the position allowed him to achieve staggering results.

Here's Waldman, dissecting the 77-yard Warner-to-Bruce touchdown that started the fireworks in the Rams' 1999 NFC Championship blowout of the Vikings (emphasis mine):

There's plenty more gold where that nugget came from. The entire article is well worth a read, as Waldman gives us examples from such luminaries as Tim Brown and Sterling Sharpe. But the importance of the lessons to the Rams' current crop of receivers cannot be overstated, especially with as much emphasis as the McDaniels offense places on the slot receiver position, and stressing the entire field.