Gado’s injury might have Rams scrambling to find a RB
You can bet St. Louis Rams GM Billy Devaney and coach Steve Spagnuolo will be scouring the waiver wire this weekend after final cuts are made, looking for a running back. The Rams gambled by not bringing in a back during the offseason, and it might have backfired on them Thursday night.
Samkon Gado, who had clearly distanced himself from Kenneth Darby and Antonio Pittman, the other primary contenders for the backup job behind Steven Jackson, suffered cartilage damage to his ribs in the 17-9 preseason win over KC. Although X-rays showed no fracture, that’s still a significant injury for a running back.
Spagnuolo said Friday that Gado probably was questionable for the regular-season opener Sept. 13 in Seattle. Beyond that, no one knows yet. Gado’s a tough cookie, and he might bounce back quickly. But this is also the kind of injury that could lay him up for a while.
Besides Gado and DT Adam Carriker, who suffered a major shoulder injury and will need surgery, Friday’s injury report was relatively encouraging:
*S Craig Dahl tweaked the hamstring that kept him out earlier and is day-to-day.
*DE Eric Moore’s wrist was not broken, as originally feared. It’s a sprain, and he also is day-to-day.
*CB Jason King has a minor knee sprain and is expected to practice Monday.
*S David Roach suffered heel and shoulder injuries. He was undergoing further examination Friday.
Final cuts must be made by 3 p.m. Saturday (St. Louis time). Several teams have announced at least some of theirs, but the Rams still are mulling.
“We’re still working through the roster moves,” Spagnuolo said. “There’s no names I can give you right now. It’ll probably be all wrapped up some time tomorrow midday.”
The players are off today, Saturday and Sunday. Practice resumes Monday.
What’s with all the Monday reports? Hello, its Friday.
This is football, but so stressful for players and fans. I was at the game last night, and it’s frustrating to go through this over again. I don’t think a new coach and a new scheme are enough, we need new parts still. Soon we’ll be in need of a young OB,HB,DE…….we need to compete with the leagues best, 2 or 3 wins don’t do anything but show we were in the league. If this was the English Premier League we wold have been ousted to the lesser league. Now i know that was a soccer reference but the point is made. I am a ride or die fan for the Rams and seem to die a little more every year….i think i’m on life support.Please let the football gods have mercy on our Rams, please.
Don’t be surprised to see the Rams go out and get Shaun Alexander as a Back Up I heard he is in real good shape and “just looking for another shot” = “cheap”
It looks like the SD Chargers will be releasing Michael Bennett today. Bennett, 29, was great filling in for LT in the playoffs last year and is having an excellent preseason, showing speed and moves. The Chargers have to decide to keep Bennett or Mike Tolbert, a fullback and special teams Monster. All indications are they will keep Tolbert for special teams because they don’t have the luxury or keeping Bennett as an insurance policy for LT. The Rams could use either player but Bennett would automatically be the number two back in STL. SD is loaded with talent and will release at least 5 players that will play in the league.
I hope the Rams can find some solid waiver wire players in other positions as well. The Vikings will be forced to release at least on solid RB and several solid young players on D. The top teams in the NFL will be releasing players that are superior to our backup players and can provide depth. Fingers crossed we can find them.
I know the Rams have some good young receivers but don’t you think we need to get a good veteran one as well, maybe 2! Donnie Avery will be ok, Laurent Robinson showed some promise this preseason but after that we had nobody that was special. Try to get 1 WR from the waiver wires, there should be some!
Some Ram fans right now are losing faith in the new GM/Spags team to lead the Rams from the past to a better place, questioning every breath Spags takes, expecting a genini to pop out. It will take more time and surgery to do that than the 2009 draft, a new head coach with a phonetic intensity or the depth of his playbook to transform the Rams from an ugly duckling, left over from the glory days of Vermeil/Martz, to one that is just starting to pass though the 300 miles of the Rub’al Khali desert to a refreshing oasis.
It will take time too. Ugly to beautiful is major surgery, not a band-aid here and there.
It seem to me those operations that are needed to cross-over to beauty are in the right hands, at least until their window of opportunity-for change has passed. That moment, in its worse playbook approach is this time of year after the 2011 draft. D&S needs that window of whiners silence to bring the team to a true target place as a winner.
After all, we gave a fake like Linehan 3 years. Those days of traveling in a desert circle with no water have passed. I like the D&S team in place now. August of 2011 is not that distant, especially with some strong wins along the path.
Roach looked completely LOST against KC. Roach’s issues extend well beyond physical injuries.
Wouldn’t mind seeing the Rams pick up D. Rhodes, just released by the bills
Bus83, the Chargers were able to keep Bennett by putting another player on IR.
CaRam, couldn’t have put it better myself except I think that BD and Spags get a little more time than 2011. It took Linehan/Shaw/Zygmutt 3 years to tear down this roster along with the last 2 years of Martz. That being the case we are looking for quite a few starters and then their b/ups. 2 or 3 drafts, assuming we hit on every pick even down to the 7th round, it’s still going to take time.
Don’t forget that some of the pieces that we are counting on now are getting up there in years. Hall, Little, Bulger, and even SJ will be 30 or well above in 3 years. By the time this team finally “arrives” SJ will not be the centerpiece of the team anymore, unfortunately.
We need help in so many places, especially the d-line, RB, and WR. Our secondary should be coming into it’s own by the time 2011 hits and the same with our o-line, assuming we keep what we have for continuity and improve the depth.
Then you have the issue of a QB. If we keep Bulger he will be 36 by then. If we get another QB we will have the growing pains of one. A Flaco or Ryan doing what they did in their first year is rare, look at Campbell, Edwards, or even Romo in their first year. And that’s assuming we hit on the pick and not end up with a Grossman, Orton, or Jackson. Of course, I’m sure we could lure Favre out of retirement again. LOL.
A lot of the starters for this team would be marginal starters for a lot of other teams so the key here is patience, like you said. Our o-line needs to gel to keep our QB upright and open holes for our RB. Our young WRs need to be in the proper place when the ball is thrown or it will make our QB look that much worse. Then they have to catch the ball and run with it because that’s what the WCO is built around - YAC.
Then we have the other side of the ball of which our d-line is held together with an old man (Thomas), a journeyman (Gibson), a rookie (Scott), and a 3rd year man who seems to have peeked (Ryan). Our DEs are either over 30 (Hall and Little) or unproven (Long and Ah You).
Our LBs need to be there when the DL misses their gap assignments but their is a lot of youth their so maybe they can do it. Our safeties are a strength and although Atogwe occasionally takes bad angles, I hope for his continued improvement. Our CB’s are even younger with Hill gone but they have a lot of enthusiasm and with Spags having taught DBs for most of his NFL career I have a lot of faith in their improvement.
This team has shown resiliency over the preseason and some toughness along with discipline. These all come directly from the coach which is an attribute to Spags and his staff. We might not win right away but I think we are going to surprise some people and play tough right up until the final buzzer which would be completely different from the last few years.
Let’s just be willing to give Spags and co. time to fill this team with the talent it so desperately needs. With an uncertain future in probably having no CBA next year, it’s going to be a whole new world. I’m willing to give Spags that extra year as long as this team continues to head in the right direction. Next year we should have a whole lot of money coming off the books which should allow us to pick up some FAs, assuming the uncapped year and lack of CBA allows us to do so.