Thomas: Rams crowded backfield

Crowded house in Rams backfield
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/crowded-house-in-rams-backfield/article_a24bcd6c-73ed-55a5-8570-bb5110e73a98.html

Last year at this time Zac Stacy said he felt like the proverbial chicken with his head cut off.

“As a rookie, you don’t know what to expect,” Stacy said. “Everything’s fast.”

With a surprisingly good 2013 under his belt, things are different this year for the second-year running back from Vanderbilt.

“I guess I’ll just say I’m a rooster, running around the yard like back home in Alabama,” Stacy said. “Just ready to go. With his head. We’ll just leave it at that.”

There’s no doubting that Stacy rules the roost in the Rams backfield after gaining 973 yards a year ago, with 969 of them in the final 12 games of the season.

“It’s good to have the experience under your belt, know the expectations, and just know your role, really,” Stacy said. “So I’m just really excited about that.”

One thing’s for sure: Stacy won’t have to wait until Game 5 before getting meaningful playing time, as he did last year.

“Let’s hope not,” Stacy said, laughing.

But in a young and talented Rams backfield, Stacy is surrounded by a group of hungry backs eager to cut into his playing time.

At the NFL owners meetings in March, coach Jeff Fisher told reporters that he’d like Stacy to be the team’s “70 percent” back. In other words, get 70 percent of the touches at running back.

But that was before the Rams selected Heisman Trophy contender Tre Mason of Auburn in Round 3 of the May draft. Throw in returnees Benny Cunningham, and even Isaiah Pead and Chase Reynolds, and there’s plenty of competition on the practice field.

And if those five weren’t enough to consider, the Rams also have an intriguing undrafted rookie in Trey Watts, who sat out the preseason opener against New Orleans with a hamstring injury. So yes, it’s a crowded house at the position.

“The running game looks good,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said earlier in camp. “We’ve got a really good young stable of backs. I don’t think I’ve ever been around a group of three, four, five guys with this much ability.”

Even with his new-found, uh, rooster status, Stacy knows he’s getting pushed by those behind him on the depth chart.

“Absolutely,” he said. “My mentality going into the season, this training camp, was to be an undrafted free agent and compete for a job. So there’s no guaranteed spots, there’s no doubt about that.”

Stacy’s approach sounds similar to former Rams receiving great Torry Holt, who throughout his years of thousand-yard seasons and Pro Bowl berths said every training camp that his goal was to make the club.

Against the Saints, Pead (bruised hand) joined Watts on the sideline, but the rest of the group saw duty, especially Mason, who had 15 carries for 51 yards. Mason had a long run of 20 yards and also had an 11-yard gain negated by a holding penalty early in the fourth quarter.

Mason, Stacy and Cunningham all had at least one run of 10 yards-plus in the game. The longest run Friday occurred on special teams, with Reynolds rambling 38 yards on a fake punt. Take that play away, and the Rams’ rushing totals for the day were a more modest 112 yards on 31 carries, or 3.6 yards a carry.

Even so, Fisher saw enough that he liked after looking at film.

“We didn’t game-plan, so on occasion there’s an unblocked defender and there was penetration or something like that,” Fisher said. “But Tre ran well. Zac ran hard. … Good efforts from the backs in the passing game as well.”

Mason in particular threw an effective block on a blitz pickup during the game.

“We ask a lot of our backs in protection, in some of the things we do in the passing game,” Schottenheimer said. “Coming from a situation where he didn’t do a lot of that in college, (Mason) has done a great job.”

Stacy and Mason were rivals in the Southeastern Conference for a year or two; now they’re rivals for playing time.

“Actually, at the end of the day we’re here to get each other better,” Mason said. “We’re here to stir up some competition so everybody can work on their skills and pick up what they need to work on. Me and Zac have a good relationship. We help each other out on certain things.”

Not to be overlooked in the conversation is Cunningham, who performed well in spot duty last season (47 carries for 261 yards), and is now fully recovered from the season-ending knee injury he suffered at Middle Tennessee State in 2012.

“Towards the end of last season, I kinda started to feel like myself,” Cunningham said. “I feel like I got my burst back. And then having a full offseason to kinda train and do more rehab on my knee. So it’s most definitely back under me. I’m full of confidence and just ready to get the season started.”

During the offseason, Cunningham also worked on getting bigger without losing any speed. He’s at 223 pounds this season, about 10 pounds heavier than his rookie year, and if anything looks a little quicker.

“I most definitely feel faster,” Cunningham said. “I feel like I can cut faster, come in and out of breaks faster. Just a great offseason for me, and now I feel like I’m ready to showcase it.”

Cunningham did a little showcasing Friday, when he spun away from two would-be Saints tacklers in the backfield, then gained 19 yards before being brought down. Obviously, he wants to stay in that conversation at running back.

“I feel like it’s a great competition between us,” he said. “A great friendly competition at that.”