Gordon: Decimated Rams start 2015 Build-Up

Gordon: Decimated Rams start 2015 build-up
• By Jeff Gordon

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/gordon-decimated-rams-start-build-up/article_51830c89-f054-576f-9cfb-25150eca1532.html

The Rams will absorb some gruesome beatings from here on out and everybody knows it.

They just lost left tackle Jake Long and top receiver Brian Quick to season-ending injuries. Roughly a fourth of the surviving Rams made the official injury report Wednesday.

New Rams safety Mark Barron made it onto the practice field during Wednesday’s light walk-through at Rams Park. He didn’t miss much because this battered team couldn’t do much while bracing to play the San Francisco 49ers for the second time in three weeks.

Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Strauss asked coach Jeff Fisher about this vexing scenario.

“We’re going to bounce back this week and go out and we’re going to play as hard as we possibly can against a good football team that we had a chance to beat here but we let slip away,” Fisher said. “I’m not blaming anything on the injuries or anything.

“We’ll have some people come back as the week goes on, but the big thing for us is . . . when you play an opponent twice in three weeks, you run the risk of taking for granted, ‘Oh, we’re familiar with them. We played them a couple weeks ago.’ We’ve got to get to know them even better right now. That’s our focus. That’s their challenge.

“Learn from the mistakes that happened in that ballgame. Carry a respect in for your opponent and go play hard. That’s our focus right now.”

That is mandatory brave coaching talk from Fisher, right out of the manual. He can’t come out and say this season is ruined, but it is.

The Rams are 2-5. After playing at San Francisco, they play at Arizona, return home to face Denver (gulp) and then head West again to play at San Diego.

As we noted earlier this week in Tipsheet, the football operation must shift its focus forward.

Playing top draft pick Greg Robinson at left tackle will be part of that process. Jake Long’s demise makes it mandatory, but this is an opportunity to speed the big fella’s development.

Robinson will have to take charge at left tackle when the Rams scrape Long’s contract off the books this winter.

Integrating Barron into the secondary will be part of that process, too. Acquiring him for fourth- and sixth-round picks was an interesting move for a franchise that has been stockpiling picks, not trading them.

“It’s an opportunity to get a good player on this roster for the future,” Fisher said. “Whenever and wherever he plays, I can’t answer that right now. But we’ve got a good player.”

Barron, who just turned 25, made the NFL all-rookie team for the Buccaneers and established himself as a durable, hard-hitting strong safety.

At a glance, he seems to be the sort of young veteran the Rams should welcome. It beats adding pricey, twilight-age veterans via free agency.

But the Rams already have a young strong safety in T.J. McDonald. Although McDonald is stronger in run support than in coverage, perhaps he will slide over to free safety. And Barron insisted that he, too, could play free safety.

With Rodney McLeod and Cody Davis sidelined Sunday, rookie nickel back Lamarcus Joyner ended up playing there. That wasn’t good for anybody. Barron’s arrival could be quite timely.

Then again, Barron struggled in coverage in Lovie Smith’s “Cover-2″ defense. So now the Rams could start two hard-hitting safeties who aren’t great in coverage, playing behind a bunch of really young cornerbacks.

That could get interesting. Odds are we will see a lot of interesting things as the Rams get a head start on another roster overhaul.

Not only did Robinson have to slide over to tackle in Kansas City, redshirt freshman Barrett Jones had to step in at center and veterans Mike Person and Davin Joseph had to come off the bench to play guard.

What will the offensive line look like in San Francisco?

“I don’t think it’s crystallized,” quarterback Austin Davis said. “We’ll see who recovers and who doesn’t. Just kind of as the week goes along we’ll get a better idea of what the plan is. We’ll be ready to go by Sunday. We don’t have to be ready today.”

Players are coming and going from this roster. Quarterback Case Keenum exited on waivers and returned as a practice squad player.

He gained some more time to develop. Could he become a back-up caliber quarterback at some point?

Perhaps. He has the acumen for it and some experience playing at the NFL level under adversity. He shares some qualities with Davis, who is making his case for further employment.

Keenum bumped Garrett Gilbert, who had no chance to make it. Gilbert was brutal in training camp. He appeared utterly lost. He was a living, breathing example of just how little value late-round draft picks have.

So, sure, moving a sixth-round pick to Tampa Bay in the Barron package was no big deal.

Suddenly the Rams are awash in linebacker hopefuls. Will Herring, Marshall McFadden and Korey Toomer are all on the active roster now as the team soldiers on without Ray Ray Armstrong.

Could one of those guys become less of a liability than Alec Ogletree at outside linebacker? Ogletree has regressed from Emerging Playmaker to Accident Waiting to Happen in a hurry.

There is so much to do between now and next season. Once again Fisher is forced to take a pragmatic approach, turning a crisis into a player development opportunity.

Let training camp begin.