Anyone know the story on Pat White? I hear he’s sitting the season out for ‘non-injury’ reasons. Does that mean playing baseball?
That story was false, he was at camp yesterday.
One day excused absence for “personel medical issues”.
Cubit
1643
Yet more training camp injuries:
Denver Broncos running backs Knowshon Moreno was carted off the practice field with a serious hamstring injury.
Hah – I should’ve said “The Detroit News is reporting that ESPN is reporting…” – I forget which ESPN analyst they fingered, but they’ve since updated the story on their site to say “rumors abound about his contract demands” :)
Edit: here’s the source of the earlier rumor – http://twitter.com/mortreport/status/20065391814
Lorini
1645
QB’s need rhythm and experience. Holding out a QB will ruin his rhythm and give him no experience. He needs to see how he does on film, and the only way to do that is to get him into games. If the OL sucks, then he’ll learn to get rid of the ball fast, a great ability. Anything he gives the Rams will make them happier than what they had last year, so it’s not like he’s under any real pressure, particularly this year. So what if he loses games? Without seeing him in action, the Rams can’t figure out what they can do to help him. Defenses tee off on all QB’s, it’s something that he needs to learn. Lastly, they are paying him $50M. They aren’t paying him $50M to sit down.
dwolfe
1646
They aren’t paying him $50M to get injured and ruin his career, either.
The Rams aren’t playoff contenders this year, come on, let’s be realistic. Let him take over mid-season, or come in for a few plays per game, if at all. Don’t make him feel that crushing weight of expectation as a rookie. Plan for the future of the franchise.
Lorini
1647
But he can always get injured. His rookie year, his next year, and his year after that too. So what, don’t play him all those years?
The fact that the Rams aren’t contenders this year should be the motivation to play him. If he loses, they were going to lose anyway. If he wins, they can be happy he exceeded expectations. It would be nuts to throw him into a situation where they had already set everything up without him and then expect him to perform to win. He won’t have had any experience, any film, nothing. But he’s supposed to win games that way? That’s crazy.
We’ll see what they do. He has to get film so he and the coaching staff can start analyzing what the team needs to do to help him. This I think is vital.
Again, you don’t sit him because you have a team here. How do you tell SJax: “Dude, I know you’re leaving little bloody chunks of yourself out here every Sunday and desperately need some help to take some of this pounding off you–and we’ve got that help right here–but we don’t think this team, the team you’re killing yourself for, deserves to have our bonus baby play for just yet.”
Doesn’t work that way.
And, again, this isn’t a helpless offensive line. There are some questions to be answered, to be sure. There’s more pressure on OC Pat Shurmur to call a gameplan for Bradford that doesn’t put his prize QB at risk on deep drops and such.
Shadarr
1649
It must be a stone-cold miracle that guys like Aaron Rodgers and Matt Hasselbeck ever managed to learn anything then. Maybe they played a lot of Madden.
If the OL sucks, then he’ll learn to get rid of the ball fast, a great ability.
Okay, that is just flat-out idiotic. The list of high first rounders who have been ruined by playing behind bad lines goes on for yards. The Rams aren’t paying him $50 million to play this year, they’re paying for future potential. Getting him beat up will not maximize that potential. If they can protect him, playing will help him develop faster. If they can’t protect him, he’s not going to be learning how to read defenses and work through his progressions and pass in rhythm, he’s going to get jittery and lose his confidence.
Having said that, I think it’s pretty clear Bradford will be a day one starter. If they were going to have him sit, they would’ve brought in a veteran to mentor him for a year or two. If they go out and sign Jeff Garcia, that would say that they want to bring him along slowly. But no way is Bradford sitting behind Boller and Null.
dwolfe
1650
QB isn’t a position where you play 5 years and are worn down at the end (unlike your RB example). See also: Payton Manning, Tom Brady, etc.
I’d love to see SJ get some help, but a rookie QB probably isn’t the help he needs this year.
If the Rams are committed to making SB a franchise QB, they will make their own call on when he’s ready to take the field; our opinions don’t matter.
I just hate to see a young athlete get injured from inexperience, as opposed to playing behind a bad offensive line. QB is a difficult position to play well in the NFL, give Sam a chance to learn it! Aaron Rodgers is the best example of letting the rookie QB learn, but he had the advantage of replacing a very good QB. Bradford…yeah, good luck there.
Sarkus
1651
While the Suh situation is getting more national attention, Russell Okung not yet being signed by the Seahawks is making people nervous around Seattle. To the degree that the team might improve this year, they really need Okung to be ready to carry the load at left tackle. What’s odd is that it’s pretty obvious where his contract slots in, especially with the other first round OT’s already signed, and that has been true for a few days. So the question is what is holding it up.
Yeah, I don’t know who is agent is, but I don’t see the holdout need either. Take your millions, come guard Hasselbeck, or he’s going to fall down and not get up this year. Please, Okung, won’t you hear our pleas!
Rimbo
1653
The last time Bradford played behind a questionable OL, he got knocked out for the season (twice). So I personally think that waiting until his OL is ready is a good idea.
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Shadarr
1654
I’ll never understand it, but there’s usually one or two who try to break the slotting system. Last year Michael Crabtree tried to argue that because he was better than Heyward-Bay, he should get paid more. So he held out all through training camp and into the sixth week of the season. And despite being right about Heyward-Bey, he still got exactly what you would’ve expected based on what the guys ahead and behind him got. Except presumably he screwed himself out of six game cheques.
The Rams line–if healthy–is in the top third of the NFL. They’re very talented, but paper-thin. Any injuries along that top five really, really hurt them, there’s no depth behind the starters.
I don’t follow the Rams, so I’m curious if you believe it’s a good line based on the talent of the individuals involved or because they have a long track record together and good results to show for it when all the first teamers are healthy?
I’m under the impression that consistent experience together was more important to the overall performance of an O-line than the individual talent of any one member.
I’m going to continue disagreeing with triggercut on the quality of the Rams line – they have been steadily atrocious, among the worst five lines in football. Steven Jackson is succeeding in spite of that line, not because of it. They’ve been absolutely terrible in every facet of the game. I’m going off of the few games I’ve seen of theirs and the advanced metrics used by Football Outsiders, documented by people who’ve seen every game.
On Kraaze’s point, the Football Outsiders have done studies that point to offensive line continuity being a very underrated part of how well a line plays. It’s still no substitute for talent, but the best lines are ones that are healthy and all start together.
The problem is, the two teams I can think of to illustrate this point prove it in other ways – the recent New York Jets, and the early 2000s Kansas City Chiefs, both of which had fantastic offensive line continuity. THe Jets, though, have one of the best young left tackles in the game (D’Brickashaw Ferguson), a great road grader at left guard (Alan Faneca, though he is now gone thanks to liabilities in pass protection), and the best center in the league (Nick Mangold). The Chiefs of the Vermeil era had two Hall of Famers on the line in Willie Roaf and Will Shields, along with (I believe) the only lineman ever named Player of the Week in Brian Waters.
That’s less an example of my point and more an example of “Hall of Famers are good players.”
I firmly believe that David Carr will relish the challenge of playing for a lackluster team like the Rams.
Shmtur
1659
I’m just going to cross my fingers now.
That would be utterly beautiful, if true.
You beat me to it!
I share your happy thoughts in hoping this is true.
