Getting to the 53 man roster…. more cuts listed 9/5

wow. dunbar cut. i take this as a good sign actually. a sign of how deep the talent has become on the defense.

That sucks for Trinca-Pasat but there’s just no room. Not sure why they kept 6 wide receivers. They must really like all of them.

PA Ram wrote:

That sucks for Trinca-Pasat but there’s just no room. Not sure why they kept 6 wide receivers. They must really like all of them.

He and Battle are clearly PS guys. If others don’t pick them up first.

Agamemnon wrote:

Yeah, I am not sure either. I would have kept Battle. Let’s see who gets on the practice squad.

Fisher said other moves were afoot. Maybe they trade one of the receivers.

zn wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:

Yeah, I am not sure either. I would have kept Battle. Let’s see who gets on the practice squad.

Fisher said other moves were afoot. Maybe they trade one of the receivers.

Hmmmmm. But which one? I’d have to think Givens.

St. Louis Rams cut 21 players, including Barrett Jones

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra…s-rams-cut-21-players-including-barrett-jones

Most significant move: For most of the offseason and preseason, Barrett Jones looked poised to finally take the reins and become the St. Louis Rams’ starting center. He was given the opportunity to compete with Tim Barnes and Demetrius Rhaney, rotating with them throughout. Now, Jones is out of a job. The irony in it all is that one of the primary reasons Jones wasn’t kept was because of a lack of positional versatility, which was one of his hallmarks coming out of Alabama. But it never really translated in St. Louis as Jones struggled to move defenders in the run game and doesn’t possess Rhaney’s athleticism to get to the second level in the team’s zone blocking schemes. The Rams have been slow to let go of draft picks in the past but Jones had two injury-plagued seasons and a full offseason to get up to speed to make the starting job his own. Because he didn’t he’s now in need of a new one.

Final Roster Cuts

A surprise at linebacker: After signing veteran linebacker Akeem Ayers in March, the Rams looked like they finally had positioned themselves to have some veteran depth at linebacker. Jo-Lonn Dunbar, who had been a starter on the strong side figured to at worst become the primary backup at all three linebacker spots. Instead, Dunbar is gone and the Rams are light on depth once again at the position. Instead, the Rams opted to keep special teams leader Daren Bates, undrafted rookie Cameron Lynch and seventh-round pick Bryce Hager behind James Laurinaitis, Ayers and Alec Ogletree. The Rams do have safety Mark Barron, who can play a hybrid role as a linebacker but there’s not much depth here once again.

Loading up on O-linemen but with a twist: It was expected that the Rams would keep 10 offensive linemen and they did. But it’s not the ones many thought. Aside from Jones and Dunbar, the other name on the team’s list of cuts that might qualify as a surprise is rookie tackle Isaiah Battle. From the moment the team used a fifth-round pick in next year’s draft to add Battle in the supplemental draft this year, the Rams said that he would be a work in progress. It was clear from the preseason that Battle has a long way to go before he can contribute. That the Rams opted to keep undrafted rookie Darrell Williams instead of Battle is a testament to just how far off Battle is from being able to play. Now, the Rams will roll the dice that they can get him through to the practice squad. If they lose him, it will be the second pick they’ve surrendered in next year’s draft, along with the seventh-round choice they sent to Houston for quarterback Case Keenum.

What’s next: The Rams will have a walk-through Sunday and will have Monday off before beginning their practice week with a light workout Tuesday. They open the season at home against the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 13.

Rams cuts: QB Austin Davis, TE Alex Bayer, OT Isaiah Battle, TE Justice Cunningham, WR Emory Blake, WR Daniel Rodriguez, RB Malcolm Brown, S Christian Bryant, DT Marcus Forston, CB Montell Garner, S Jacob Hagen, DE Martin Ifedi, RB Zach Laskey, DE Matt Longacre, OL Barrett Jones, LB Marshall McFadden, CB Brandon McGee, CB Trovon Reed, DT Louis Trinca-Pasat, G Brandon Washington. RB Trey Watts was placed on the reserve/suspended list. LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar’s contract was terminated.

Rams cuts to get to the 53-man roster are announced

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-report/rams-cuts-to-get-to-the–man-roster-are/article_4e49b7d6-1790-56ac-b740-ff5193c2e1e4.html

The Rams finals cuts to get to the 53-man roster have been announced

New additions include quarterback Austin Davis, tackle Isaiah Battle, tight end Justice Cunningham, defensive tackle Marcus Forston, linebacker Marshall McFadden, cornerback Brandon McGee, safety Christian Bryant, wide receiver Daniel Rodriguez and defensive tackle Louis Trinca-Pasat.

The team also terminated the contract of linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar, an eighth-year pro who joined the Rams in 2012 and made 36 starts over the last three seasons. In addition, running back Trey Watts was placed on the reserved/suspended list and does not count against the 53-man roster; he’s sitting out the first four games of the regular season for violating the league’s policy on substance abuse.

Davis, who lost out to rookie and third-round draft pick Sean Mannion, started eight games and led the Rams to a pair of wins a year ago.

The team selected Battle, a 6-foot-7, 290-pounder from Clemson in the supplemental draft, surrendering a fifth-round pick in 2016.

Cunningham spent most of the last two seasons on the Rams’ practice squad. He saw action in one game in 2014.

Forston, a Miami native who played for the U., was signed during training camp. He had been out of football for nearly a year.

McFadden, who’d previously played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders, played in five games with the Rams a year ago.

McGee, a fifth-round pick in 2013, played in 15 games as a rookie but was limited to two last year before spending the rest of the season on injured reserve with a foot injury. That lingering foot injury limited him to just one practice in training camp.

Bryant, from Ohio State, spent last year on the practice squad after being selected by the Rams in the seventh round of the 2014 draft.

Signed after a tryout, Rodriguez walked on at Clemson after serving in the Army and earning a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his heroism the Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan in October 2009. He served mainly as a kick returning in the preseason.

Trinca-Pasat, signed as a rookie free against out of Iowa, played well in the preseason, tying for the team lead in tackles, but was unable to find a spot on the team’s strongest positional unit.

Also cut Saturday were TE Alex Bayer, WR Emory Blake, RB Malcolm Brown, CB Montell Garner, S Jacob Hagen, DE Martin Ifedi, C Barrett Jones, FB Zach Laskey, DE Matt Longacre, CB Trovon Reed and G Brandon Washington.

After a stellar career at Alabama, Jones was the Rams fourth-round draft choice in 2013. He joined the team with a seriously injured foot and never was able to capture the on-field success he enjoyed with the Crimson Tide. In two seasons here, he played in just 10 games and came up short in a three-man battle Mizzou product Tim Barnes and second-year pro Demetrius Rhaney for the center spot in training camp this year.

Ifedi, from the University of Memphis, was a seventh-round draft choice in May.

Bayer was signed as an undrafted free agent a year ago and played six games on special teams a year ago. The son of longtime NFL QB Jeff Blake, Emory Blake spent most of the last two seasons on the Rams’ practice squad.

Brown, Garner, Laskey, Hagen, Laskey and Longacre (Northwest Missouri) were signed as free agents shortly after the draft in May. Reed, an Auburn product, joined the team during camp while Washington, played in just one game since joining the Rams in 2012.

— EARLIER STORY —

The Rams submitted their 53-man roster to the NFL offices by the 3 p.m. deadline on Saturday. But in a press conference an hour later at Rams Park, head coach Jeff Fisher said the final cuts would not be released publicly until this evening, citing “competitive reasons.”

“Well it’s been a challenging couple of days,” Fisher said. “We’re getting closer to the final roster. Really not going to confirm anything at this point for competitive reasons with respect to the practice squad. We’re close. There’s some pending moves out there, but we’ll get the information to you as far as the final cut downs are concerned as soon as we release it to the league and it gets out.”

Fisher stressed that this would be the first 53-man roster but maybe not the final one.

“As we speak right now, we’ve gone to 53 (players) with the potential for a move here and there,” he said. “We’re probably more concerned about our 46 (players) going into the game and then getting our practice squad players back because we have a good group. We potentially have an excellent group of practice squad players.”

He continued: “I think there are potentially, competitively, maybe a difference in three or four hours as far as…from a competitive standpoint where clubs have a chance to go out and look at your players that you released. So that’s kind of where we’re at. You’ll get the information, but we want to buy as much time as we possibly can.”

Fisher also said that rookie running back Todd Gurley, the 10th overall pick in the draft, would not play in the season opener against the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 13 and that he would announce his starting center after Wednesday’s practice at Rams Park.

The Post-Dispatch has reported the following cuts Friday and Saturday: RBs Malcolm Brown and Zach Laskey, WR Emory Blake, TE Alex Bayer; C Barrett Jones; OG Brandon Washington; DEs Martin Ifedi and Matt Longacre; LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar; CBs Montell Garner and Trovon Reed; and S Jacob Hagen.

In addition, RB Trey Watts begins his four-game suspension and does not count on the 53-man roster.

Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet

A team that claims #Rams supp pick OT Isaiah Battle has to pay $80k in bonus guarantees. STL split up SB into multiple bonuses after cutdown.