St. Louis Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo gets first look at rookies
The Rams’ second minicamp under new coach Steve Spagnuolo kicked off Friday morning under gray skies and with a few sprinkles falling on the outdoor fields at Rams Park. Some 90 players participated, including four who are here on a tryout basis.
Rookies and veterans are in attendance, and Spagnuolo is hoping that the youngsters “absorb the material real well. . . . With the volume we’re going to throw at them as we go here, if they can absorb that and spit it back out, that’s pretty impressive.”
Spagnuolo moved about the three fields, dividing his time between the offense and defense pretty equally. “I like to see them all,” he said. “That’s really one of the special things you get to do when you’re the head coach. You can go wherever you want. I’ll keep bouncing.”
Some observations:
*First-round draft choice Jason Smith worked at RT with the second team. Adam Goldberg was at that position with the first unit.
*Second-round pick James Laurinaitis worked mostly with the No. 3 unit at middle linebacker during team drills. Chris Draft was at MLB with the starters. “As this weekend goes, we’ll try to get (the rookies) in there a little bit more, just so we can get a little better feel for what they can do,” Spagnuolo explained.
*TE Daniel Fells caught just about everything thrown his way — much as he did last year in practice, but not so much in games.
*Ron Bartell struggled a bit in coverage, as did fellow CB Tye Hill.
*WR/KR Derek Stanley, who is coming off postseason knee surgery, is itching to go, but the Rams are being cautious with him. “We want to be a little bit careful,” Spagnuolo said. “I don’t know that he’ll do any of the team work throughout this spring.”
*Newly acquired WR Laurent Robinson dropped a couple of balls. “I was a little rusty,” he said.
*Mark Setterstrom worked at center with the second team.
All for now . . .
Wow…not really what I was hoping to hear from the first mini-camp. Not very encouraging!
FLRAMFAN- It’s May 1st in case you hadn’t heard. Not many games won in May.
Oh come on! You got to give us more than that! Where are the details? Who did the first team players consist of? Who are the 4 players here on a tryout? Was there any good news? This is a blog no? Dude, just type out what your seeing in your iPhone and hit send. You got to give us more information than this!
Sean from Fort Worth
I still say this is oa great draft, and when all a admitting this about late October, I promise not to say we told you so! Besides the draft is nly one piece of then team Spagnola * Co. is directing. plus the signees after the draft will occupy 3-4 positions on this team. YOUTH WILL REIGN!
Yes, can we find out who the 4 are that are getting tryouts?
Why was Smith working out at Right Tackle? Didn’t we draft him to be our LEFT TACKLE!?!?!?!?!? wtf
Something that impresses me is there are no name tags on the helmets of the players. I can’t say I’ve ever seen that in any mini camp pictures in the past. Coach Spags seems to take the time to personally know his player before they take the field and it seem he has his other coaches doing the same. Maybe I’m wrong, but if that’s so, Wow!
I know its only the first mini camp, but it doesn’t sound too encouraging. Both our starting CBs stuggling, and our new WR dropping balls IN PRACTICE, I hope this doesnt mean anything. I doubt its a big deal, but still, I would have like to hear some good news.
Anyone else get the idea that they are trying to scale down our expectations? Many more of these types of reports and it will no doubt do just that. Not asking them to paint a picture that makes the Rams out to be potential SB Champs in May but…. Hello?
I am totally with Sean from Fort Worth, this is nothing!
This is supposed to be a blog, give us more info!
Was barron at LT, who was at Rt, what corners loked good, what wideouts didn’t drop passes?
Come on
however they shouldn’t bother with adding the “tye hill stuggled in coverage” bit. How many practices do they have this season? Bill and Jim might get a bit tired of typing it…
The midget will struggle all season. Maybe Wade will make a splash..
Just chill out and enjoy football and be patient. This WILL take time but will be worth it. If not, we are still alive and can enjoy life. It is just a GAME!!!
Probably the only time I’ll get excited this year about the Rams was on draft day. Maybe we’ll go 8-8 this year with some luck..
If our two top draft picks are not good enough to start on this crummy team they are not good enough to be picked 1-2 in this years draft