Countdown to Camp – Quarterbacks – Myles Simmons Rams

St. Louis Rams

Countdown to Camp – Quarterbacks

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Myles Simmons Rams Insider @MylesASimmons

In today’s final edition of Countdown to Camp, team insider Myles Simmons takes a look at the Rams’ quarterbacks. If you’ve got a question on the 2015 Rams, send it over to @MylesASimmons on Twitter.

QUARTERBACKS

Newcomers: Nick Foles, Sean Mannion

With a blockbuster trade at the start of the free agency period in March, the Rams brought in a new signal-caller to take their offense to the next level.

Nick Foles had plenty of success with the Eagles, as evidenced by his 14-4 record over the past two years as a starter. In 2013, he threw 27 touchdowns to just two interceptions — good for a league-leading quarterback rating of 119.2. St. Louis’ new QB made quite an impression during OTAs, and has stressed the value of developing strong relationships with his teammates.

Back for another year with the Rams are Austin Davis and Case Keenum. Davis started half of the club’s games last year, amassing 2,001 yards passing with 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Keenum spent time on both the active roster and the practice squad in 2014, until the Texans signed him off of the latter to start their final two games. St. Louis re-acquired Keenum in March for a 2016 seventh-round draft pick.

In this year’s draft, the Rams selected Sean Mannion in the third round out of Oregon State after netting an extra pick through a trade with the Panthers. Coming from the Beavers’ pro-style system, Mannion may have a slight edge over some of fellow rookie QBs when it comes to acclimating to an NFL playbook.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

In each of our Countdown to Camp posts, we’ll feature one of your Twitter questions on the position group. Today’s Q comes from @wxman62.

@MylesASimmons Do Rams see Mannion as a possible #2 this year, or is he strictly in a learning mode and buried at the bottom of the QB list?
— Kenneth Phelps (@wxman62) July 29, 2015

From what the coaches have said about Mannion so far, it sure seems like the rookie will have his chances to prove he can be the backup quarterback for the Rams this year.

During OTAs, head coach Jeff Fisher pointed to how well Mannion was picking up the offense as a positive sign for how new offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti was coming along in his new position. Then Cignetti himself mentioned Mannion as one of the competitors in the backup quarterback battle.

As noted earlier in the post, Mannion playing his college ball at Oregon State aids his development in that he’s already used to many of the offensive concepts St. Louis employs. Upon being drafted, Mannion said that he didn’t feel like anything was completely new to him when he had his private workout with the Rams. While there was clearly much more for Mannion to learn at that time, the quarterback’s comfort level seems to bode well for the upcoming season.

Given all that, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Mannion could move into that backup role at some point in 2015. Whether that happens in training camp or a little further down the road remains to be seen.

Thanks for the question, Kenneth, and a big thank you to all of you who submitted questions for the series. If you’ve missed any installment of Countdown to Camp, or just want to take another look, you can find each of the posts in the links below. We hope to see you out at Rams Park for one of this year’s open training camp practices!

COUNTDOWN TO CAMP – PREVIOUS POSTS

JULY 29 – OFFENSIVE LINE
JULY 28 – RUNNING BACKS
JULY 27 – DEFENSIVE LINE
JULY 26 – SAFETIES
JULY 25 – TIGHT ENDS
JULY 24 – CORNERBACKS
JULY 23 – WIDE RECEIVERS
JULY 22 – LINEBACKERS
JULY 21 – SPECIAL TEAMS

The Rams will begin training camp with a 3:30 p.m. practice at Rams Park on Friday, July 31. For more information, visit our official training camp page.
http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Countdown-to-Camp—Quarterbacks/cc121fbf-b8d3-4aac-9f1b-29cb5159279e