Offensive Line

wv wrote:

Anyone want to say anything about the
Rams Offensive Line?
Anyone want to talk about what,
if anything, the
Rams need to do about the OLine?

Are we ALLLLL in agreement,
they need a new Guard and Center?
Yes? No?

w
v
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Ram43 reposting
BonifayRam
(on Barksdale)
…JB has large holes in his game….. Very limited athleticism for a OT! Not much can he do about that. OT’s in todays NFL have to have a good amount of this stuff & fact is JB does not have enough. This lack of athleticism @ OT causes JB to be a step late at times which we have seen a ton of this season against the speeders. Bottom line here JB has a terrible time dealing with double-moves or edge rushers. This is the problem!

The best about JB is he has proven UN breakable! Some other good is JB has the perfect frame & size for a ORT. JB is a very strong ORT. JB when he is effective uses his great strength to stop the bull rush in pass protection with ease. Another area of good stuff is his ability to get running room by walling off defenders also with ease. I also have seen JB staying home against stunts & stuff but Joseph usually fails to work well with JB in this area.

I have no doubt that teaming Saffold with JB next season on that right side would result in a much positive turnout. But now you have a king size hole next to a STILL very young & not that experienced Greg Robinson who had had his worse game of the season last Sunday. Even Saffold could not help Robinson. Playing a rookie or a WWC next to Robinson would not be advisable either. If JB can not hold his own @ ORT then we need to look elsewhere ASAP.

I thinking that it would be very wise to offer JB a nice One yr contract only. Buying the Rams some additional time in getting the OL back up to contention. I would NOT over pay JB period. If another team wants to overpay for JB then let it be so!

Yeah I want to say one thing about the OL, or rather OL discussions. Invariably, I read “tape” guys who focus on the play of individual players and then assume that adds up to a coherent picture. It doesn’t. It is genuinely true that OLs are more than the sum of their parts.

For example, if you just look at Barksdale, he played well for all of 2013 and approximately half of 2014. Now did he get “exposed”?

I doubt it.

I think like most ROTs he plays better when the OL is coherent as a unit. Which is why, for example, the Rams OL was fine in the 2nd half of 2012 even though their ROT, Richardson, had never played well before in any season in his career.

The issues with the 2014 OL, to my eye, are a rookie + banged up players and injuries. Long goes out, moving Robinson to LOT (which means a rookie LOT), and Saffold is not full strength, neither is Wells, and Joseph is playing because Robinson moved to tackle. Meanwhile Jones had back surgery over the summer and could not lift because of it–he himself says he has to get back in shape in the off-season.

What about 2015? Yes they need a guard and a center and quite probably a 3rd OT.

That;s not that hard to do. I think they will do it through their “all markets” approach…getting guys in every way it is possible to get them. I see this as completely fixable.

…

That looks like it covers everything, except Person is a FA next year like Barksdale.

TackleDummy wrote:

Others
C Demetrius Rhaney (IR) 2014 Round 7.
OT Steven Baker (Practice Squad)
OG Travis Bond (Practice Squad)

It is likely that these three will be on the Rams 80 man roster at the beginning of training camp. They will be given a chance to make the 53 man roster but I would think it would be very unlikely that they could earn a starting role in 2015.

Good post TD.

As for what I quote…Bond was getting some buzz last summer. Rhaney, too, though he was seen as more raw. Bond was not a draft pick or a UDFA…he was a young ronin, a bounce-around player without a team, same as Mike Person (Bond was with the Vikes and Panthers in 2013). Boudreau has made good use of that type before before (for example, Barksdale). I agree that IF Bond and Rhaney stick around, it won’t be as starters but as depth.

I also agree that it’s probably not likely that they would sign a high-market FA for the OL. More of a reclamation guy and/or another young ronin.

wv wrote:

Well I wonder if Roger Saffold will be able to
lift and train in the offseason if he’s
going to have surgery.

I think it will be minor surgery. Kinda a scope job on his shoulder, nothing like an ACL type thing. He can have the surgery in a couple of weeks and be ready to go in a month or so. At least conditioning stuff. No worries.

TackleDummy wrote:

I think it will be minor surgery. Kinda a scope job on his shoulder, nothing like an ACL type thing. He can have the surgery in a couple of weeks and be ready to go in a month or so. At least conditioning stuff. No worries.

Zooey wrote:

Why do you think that? Is that a hunch, or did you read something I missed?

I am not TD, and I haven’t even played TD on tv, but I read around on it real quick just now. Based on what I read, Shoulder dislocations can lead to labrum tears, and the surgery on that has been perfected. It is true that the player has less risk of recurrence than with an ACL and that it takes less time to rehab. It can be 3-6 months from surgery to full participation. If he has the surgery in January, then, that means he’s back 100% somewhere from March to June. It would be before camp at the latest.

http://www.stlouisrams.com/fans/health-and-wellness/shoulder-dislocation.html

Surgery is recommended for the player who experiences multiple dislocations or who chooses to undergo surgical stabilization following the first episode. Historically, surgical repair was done through an open incision. Now, this procedure is most commonly performed arthroscopically. The labrum that is torn is repaired back to the bone socket using a variety of either metal or plastic anchors in order to reestablish stability of the joint. Following surgery, the athlete is kept in a sling for four to six weeks. Physical therapy is prescribed to regain shoulder motion, strength, and return to football-related activities. …. The success rate of surgical repair of a dislocated shoulder is reliably greater than 90%. This success is defined as no further episodes of instability with the ability to resume strenuous activity.

http://www.uwbadgers.com/genrel/051910aac.html

How long? After surgery to repair a torn labrum, a rehabilitation program can take several months to return the athlete to 100 percent. Depending on the sport and the severity of the injury, it may take anywhere from three to six months to bring the athlete back to full participation.

Rehab? Recovery from this surgery requires a lot of patience. The athlete will take as much as eight weeks to regain their full range of motion. Return of full strength may take another four to eight weeks after that. During the rehab, it is important to limit several motions of the arm in order to prevent the labrum from being re-torn. During the early stages of rehab, it is important to keep the muscles of the shoulder in shape without actually moving the arm.

Just some speculations.

Barksdale kind of fell off in 2014. But my bet is, you can map his fading in conjunction with losing Long and Saffold getting hurt.

As many here have said, including notably RFL, no lineman can stand out and play well if the rest of the line is subpar. Everything about football teaches you that the OL is a sum, not parts. It is next to impossible for one player to stand out and be consistent when the rest of the line is struggling.

In the 2nd half of the season, Barksdale was the ROT on a line with a rookie LOT who was supposed to be a guard, an injured Saffold who was playing hurt, a banged up Wells, and Joseph–who was never supposed to start.

So I bet they try to keep JB, and count on a return to form. Letting him walk would just mean you have to replace 3 linemen, not 2. That doesn’t fix things, it makes them worse. And IMO there is no way in hell the Rams are going to start 3 rookie linemen together with a 2nd year Robinson. You might as well just light a giant bonfire and burn the entire season down in advance.

So my bet is that they make every effort to sign him. I also bet that typical of most signings of this kind, he will get more or less what the avg. is for starters at his position in their 2nd contract.

If as I expect they do sign JB, and replace the center and one guard, then the line as a whole will be fine and JB will return to form.

I want Barksdale back. I feel it might be better to move Saffold to RG, and look for an LG in Free Agency, and hope for Barnes or Jones can take over at Center nextyear.

I do wonder if the Rams think Long is in their plans in 2015. I tend to believe the Jake Long Era has ended.

Agamemnon wrote:

It was a gamble. A lot of decisions are probabilities. I think it was the best play the Rams had at that time. Whether it works out or not has to be factored in before you make the play. Then you hope things go your way. If it was a good bet, it goes your way often enough to pay off. If it doesn’t work out, doesn’t always mean it was a bad bet, or visa versa, a good bet. In Long’s case, it was the best bet that they had to make. They sort had to make it and hope it worked out. There was no other play close and they could afford it.

Yeah, I agree. I think it was one of Snisher’s “win now” moves. They could afford it, and it was the teams best shot at getting (what they hoped would be) a high quality LT.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by zn.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by zn.

I didn’t like the Jake Long signing much, because it seemed obvious that he came with a lot of wear and it seemed likely he was on the downswing of his career. I wish he proved me wrong.

I thought Saffold was fine at LT, even if he was an injury risk, too. I don’t know what else the team could have done … maybe concentrated on getting a free agent guard. Drafted an LT earlier. There were some other options.