Peter King, 2/29…Rams related stuff from MMQB

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/02/28/carson-wentz-nfl-draft-combine-north-dakota

Peter King

The Rams’ move is going to be an odyssey

I’m not saying the Rams have a built-in excuse to struggle in 2016, but …

Well, come to think of it, maybe I am.

On Friday, in Los Angeles, the Rams’ braintrust and human resources people will gather players in a hotel ballroom to explain what’s about to happen logistically with the team’s move to California. I say California, because the Rams are moving to four places this year:

• To Oxnard, 61 miles up the 101 from Los Angeles, for off-season minicamps and training.

• Then from Oxnard to Irvine, 105 miles south, for summer training camp. (It’s likely the team will have training camp at UC-Irvine.)

• Then from Irvine to Thousand Oaks, 84 miles north, for their in-season practice facility and offices, beginning in late August and running through the season. (The Thousand Oaks details are being finalized.)

• Then, on game days, from Thousands Oaks to the Coliseum in Los Angeles, 43 miles southeast.

And one more thing: The Rams will play a home game in London on Oct. 23 against the Giants. That’s a nice little commute of 5,437 miles, each way.

“Thirty-one other teams in the league right now are staying put, and they’re going through an offseason program and there is stability there,” Rams GM Les Snead said at the combine. “It’s how quickly can we bring stability, from a player perspective, into this offseason program? Because we’re going to kick the season off like everyone else.”

Other notes about the move: The Rams can’t stay in Oxnard for training camp, though it would have been perfect, because the Cowboys have a contract for the site … The Rams would like to entice Orange County fans back to the fan base; the last time the Rams played in Southern California was in 1994, in Anaheim, in Orange County … The schedule at the Coliseum will be interesting from a couple perspectives. Don’t expect the team to play at the Coliseum on back-to-back days with University of Southern California football, and don’t expect Rams games to be scheduled at the Coliseum on weeknights while school is in session at nearby USC.

Because of that, it’s likely the Rams will open the season on the road, because USC is home to Utah State on Saturday Sept. 10, and the opening Sunday of the season is Sept. 11 … The Rams will have a tough time playing home prime-time games then, because USC finals in fall semester don’t end until Dec. 14. That would leave just three weeks to play Thursday or Monday night at home at the storied Coliseum. Of course, we’ll see if the prime-time thing becomes a hard-and-fast rule or a suggested practice. Could be the league or the team will appeal to the Coliseum to play one prime-time game earlier in the season.

Can you imagine, too, if in midseason the Chargers’ attempt to get a new stadium in San Diego falls through, and it’s announced the Chargers will be moving north to Los Angeles for 2017 and beyond? There’s another layer of distraction for the Rams. (And, by the way, I still haven’t heard one person, in the L.A. area or outside of it, who thinks a Chargers move to Los Angeles is a good idea. Because it isn’t.)

After hearing all the details and potential difficulties about this first season of the team in Southern California, two thoughts came to mind: The Rams haven’t finished above .500 in 13 years, have a revolving door at quarterback with no obvious starter now, and are in a division with two legitimate Super Bowl contenders, Arizona and Seattle; how can they expect to be a serious contender for the playoffs this season? And how endangered is Jeff Fisher’s job if he is sub-.500 for the fifth straight season, even with the logistical nightmare? In many ways, it’s a huge year for the Rams, and it can’t be a honeymoon.

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Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

On Jan. 3, the Giants and Eagles met on the last Sunday of the regular season. The winner would finish second in the NFC East, the loser third. The outcome of the game would put the final piece in the NFC West scheduling puzzle. The second-place team would be matched with Seattle, at Seattle, in 2016. The third-place team would play St. Louis, in a “home” game for the Rams in London in 2016.

The Eagles rallied from a 27-21 deficit with two late touchdowns to beat the Giants, 35-30.

Nine days later, the Rams were approved to move from St. Louis to Los Angeles.

So, late in the third quarter of Week 17, the London matchup was lining up to be Philadelphia-St. Louis.

Nine days later, the game actually was New York-Los Angeles.

Think, too, of the angst of FOX, which could have had a big late-window doubleheader game in 2016—the first New York-Los Angeles football game since 1994, at Los Angeles in the classic old Coliseum, site of Super Bowl I.

Philly-St. Louis would have been a decent candidate to live-stream at 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast, the way the NFL did last year on Yahoo with Bills-Jags. Now it seems unlikely the league would start Rams-Giants at 6:30 a.m. Los Angeles time. I was told the league hasn’t made a decision yet on either the live-streaming aspect of this game or on the start time. I’ve got to think the league won’t schedule it for an ungodly hour on the West Coast.

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I think one personnel move last week got lost in the combine shuffle: Billy Devaney, the former Rams GM who made Sam Bradford the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft, resigned as a Falcons’ scout to take the job as director of football operations for coach Mike Riley and the Nebraska football team. Interesting move. The Huskers must have made it very much worth Devaney’s while to make the switch. This follows a trend being set by Nick Saban at Alabama, putting football people with strong résumés in important off-field positions.