Rams have significant holes to fill on defense
With linebacker Brandon Chillar headed for Green Bay, the Rams have lost another starter from a 2007 defense that ranked 21st overall in the 32-team NFL. Earlier, defensive end James Hall was released.So, who replaces them? At this point, Chris Draft or Quinton Culberson are the primary candidates to take over Chillar’s strongside spot. Still, the Rams are going to need to add to their linebacker personnel, considering the amount of 3-4 that coordinator Jim Haslett employed in the second half of last season.
Hall’s successor on the right side could come via the draft - perhaps Virginia’s Chris Long or Ohio State’s Vernon Gholston. But penciling in a rookie starter is always a bit of a gamble. Among the options currently on hand are Victor Adeyanju, Eric Moore and perhaps even Claude Wroten, although that has to rank as a remote possibility.
Bottom line: Haslett’s crew needs significant help. How - or if - that help arrives likely will go a long way toward determining how much of an improvement the Rams can reasonably be expected to make in ‘08.
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Draft had quite a scare recently. He lives on the 22nd floor of a high rise near the CNN Center in downtown Atlanta and had a too-close-for-comfort view of the tornado that struck March 15.
“I was on my balcony, and the tornado was right there,” Draft said. “I could see all the debris swirling around in it.”
Draft’s building was not damaged.
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Notes & quotes:
>>Head-scratcher: The Rams’ decision not to go hard after free-agent C Justin Hartwig. He wound up with the Steelers.
>>Just a guess: The Rams, who have the second overall pick in the draft, trade down. Too many needs to be addressed.
>>Long reportedly did only linebacker drills at Virginia’s pro day this week, a benefit for 3-4 teams such as Miami, which has the first overall pick.
>>Newly hired QBs coach Terry Shea, good Irishman that he is, converted the area that houses coaches’ offices on the second floor at Rams Park into a St. Patrick’s Day haven Monday. His decorations included an Irish flag, green balloons and doughnuts. Plus, he had Irish music pumped in throughout the day.
All for now…
The coach says that jlong, if drafted, will be put at rt. As ‘average’ as current rt abarron is, it would be a waste of talent to put him on the bench as a back-up to pace and jlong. And the rams dont have enough talent to waste it on the bench. Luckily for us, there is not much doubt ,to those who are following the dolphins, to see that they are positioning themselves to draft jlong. Thank God.
So the real question is: do the rams draft dorsey or long?. For a coach on a short leash, dorsey is the man. Although c.ryan deserves more playing time for his tackle work last year, he is no dorsey and might prove to be stop gap at best. With dorsey combined with carriker at the tackle spots, the rams run defense would be in the top five, which would secondarily improve their pass defense because teams would have to pass much more often against them. And the rams below average pass rushers could then be bolstered by linebacking blitzes, And their secondary players, while not (except atogwe) pro bowlers, arent as bad as the rams anemic pass rushers would lead one to believe.
clong is the better man for the long run as the rams will need two defensive ends in the next two/three years. Actually the rams biggest problem on defense was age. Half of their starting secondary is over 30. 3 of the rams 4 starting dlineman was over 30. The rams defense would fall apart in the 2nd halves of games. That was the problem with the pass defense.
If Long misses too much training camp holding out, he can come in and spell both hall and little and at some point this season take over for Hall and in the later years take over for little when he retires. He also gives c.ryan a year or two to develope into a solid nt or prove himself stop-gap. And he gives carricker the stability of playing just one position instead of 2 or 3. The rams can still screw up carrickers developement by playing him everywhere they need help. (they need help almost everywhere.) While it is rare for 1st round de’s to garner a lot of sacks as rookies-think mario williams-if c.long can, and thats a big if, this would be the rams best case scenario.
These statements are made assuming the consensus scouting reports on jlong, clong and dorsey are accurate. and unless jlong is another orlando pace,(which would be over and above what the scouts say) the rams would be idiots to draft him.