The stuff they have done has been ok. Just not up to expectations. It is like, they were going to throw in a lot of special effects, cause that is what they are good at and if the plot and story suffer, so be it.

https://www.therams.com/news/rams-sign-lb-ketner-kupp

Wednesday, May 15, 2019 02:25 PM

Rams sign LB Ketner Kupp
Clarence Dennis

The Rams added undrafted rookie linebacker Ketner Kupp to their roster just ahead of Phase III of the offseason program in Los Angeles.
ketner

Ketner, the brother of wide receiver Cooper Kupp, started in 13-of-33 games at both Kupp’s alma mater Eastern Washington University. As a senior captain at EWU, the younger Kupp posted 115 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, one interception returned 95 yards for a touchdown, and notched four passes defensed at linebacker. Ketner was a three-time member of the Big Sky All-Academic team.

Ketner and Cooper spent two years together at Eastern Washington in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, the brothers combined for a big game against Idaho State. Ketner, a sophomore, made six tackles and an interception in the win. On offense, Cooper caught 14 passes for 161 yards and two touchdowns.

The club waived wide receiver Justin Sumpter as a corresponding move, citing a non-football injury.

https://www.therams.com/news/rams-announce-signing-of-22-undrafted-free-agents

Tuesday, May 14, 2019 01:20 PM

Rams announce signing of 22 undrafted free agents
Myles Simmons

At the start of the week, the Rams have signed 22 undrafted free agents to bring the team to a full 90 players on the roster.

Los Angeles had previously agreed to terms with 19 undrafted free agents. Defensive back Jake Gervase, wide receiver Jalen Greene, and defensive tackle Bryant Jones are the three players who were not previously announced.

Below is the full list of 22 players:

WR Alex Bachman, Wake Forest
.
TE Kendall Blanton, Missouri
.
OT Chandler Brewer, Middle Tennessee
.
TE Romello Brooker, Houston
.
TE Keenan Brown, Texas State
.
RB Matt Colburn, Wake Forest
.
DT Marquise Copeland, Cincinnati
.
DE Landis Durham, Texas A&M
.
DB Jake Gervase, Iowa
.
WR Jalen Greene, Utah State
.
OT Brandon Hitner, Villanova
.
C Vitas Hrynkiewicz, Youngstown State
.
DT Bryant Jones, Mississippi Valley State
.
OT Matt Kaskey, Dartmouth
.
WR Johnathan Lloyd, Duke
.
LB Natrez Patrick, Georgia
.
OT Justice Powers, UAB
.
LB Troy Reeder, Delaware
.
DT Boogie Roberts, San Jose State
.
WR Justin Sumpter, Kennesaw State
.
DT Tyrell Thompson, Tarleton State
.
WR Nsimba Webster, Eastern Washington

Still got a few questions marks.

That would put the roster at 90.
Why do they not have Sumpter listed? Did he fail a physical? No, he is listed on ‘overthecap’, not on sportac.
and who is Greene? a kicker?

https://www.therams.com/photos/photos-rookie-numbers#493991a9-40e4-4a60-9ff4-06c7f97bc50e

For a better look at the numbers, go to the above link.

OK, It is “_3 Jalen Greene” and he is a WR.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Agamemnon.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Agamemnon.

So, what happens now? We find out that everyone is a Cylon. There are no humans left.

“If we feel like we’re more likely to lose @trapp07 here… let’s take Rapp.”

Got our guy. 👊

Watch full episode » https://t.co/blTIOiGFmB pic.twitter.com/qlu36CNrva

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) May 10, 2019

Had the pleasure of talking to Justin Sumpter (@Sumptin_just_in) of @KSUOwlNation about his path from Kennesaw State to the Rams as an UDFA 🦉 https://t.co/sY2yj1ORA2

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) May 9, 2019

Sumpter has a knack for making one-handed grabs. This catch was No. 1 on ESPN's Top 10 plays in 2017 pic.twitter.com/kYRwNLma9S

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) May 9, 2019

Some other highlights from my interview with him:
– He watches film of DeAndre Hopkins and Brandon Marshall
– His parents live in the same neighborhood as Calvin Johnson's parents
– He led the Owls in receiving all 4 years
– Wasn't a starter until senior year in HS

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) May 9, 2019

Rams UDFA Justin Sumpter hoping to put Kennesaw State on the NFL map

Rams UDFA Justin Sumpter hoping to put Kennesaw State on the NFL map

By: Cameron DaSilva | 23 hours ago

Making the transition from college football to the NFL is extremely difficult, regardless of position or talent level. Going from the FCS level to the pros is even tougher – especially when you’re a wide receiver coming from a triple-option system where receptions were tough to come by.

Former Kennesaw State wide receiver Justin Sumpter is attempting to make that leap with the Rams after signing with them as an undrafted free agent. Heading into the 2019 NFL draft, he was hoping to become the first player selected from Kennesaw State – a football program that’s only four years old.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t one of the players selected in Nashville, but he still hopes to put his lesser-known school on the NFL map.

Only a few former Owls have reached the NFL, the first being Dante Blackmon, who signed with the Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2017. Sumpter was joined by Darnell Holland as two Kennesaw State products to sign after the draft this year as both try to make it in the NFL.

Sumpter knows it won’t be easy to make the team, but he feels he was fortunate to have gone to Kennesaw State where the football program was started his freshman year in 2015.

“I felt like it was a blessing,” Sumpter said in a phone interview with Rams Wire. “I was still kind of new to the game because I didn’t play in middle school and I didn’t play freshman year of high school. I played like three JV games my sophomore year, so my junior year I was a backup. I started my senior year, so I was still learning as I went. My freshman year at Kennesaw was their first year so as was learning new things about how to play football, the school and the team, we were still growing together. I feel like that fit me perfectly.”

Sumpter had offers from Ball State and Presbyterian, and was also recruited by Kentucky and Georgia Tech, but he doesn’t think going to a big program would’ve benefitted him because of his lack of football experience.

He chose Kennesaw State because of the proximity to home, and one of his closest friends got an offer from the Owls, too. Playing in front of the home crowd was something he loved.

“If I went somewhere else, I might’ve redshirted while I was trying to learn, and then they’re bringing in other guys who already know things, so I probably would’ve had to sit on the bench my sophomore year. Whereas at Kennesaw, everyone was on the same page, we were all learning together and growing together,” Sumpter continued. “So I wasn’t losing anything. Being in that program and seeing where it came from, when I first got there, we looked like a high school team. To see now, where it’s starting to become almost like a national powerhouse.”

Kennesaw State doesn’t get the attention that top programs get at the FBS level. However, the football team’s progress since its inception in 2015 has been remarkable.

In Sumpter’s freshman season, the Owls went 6-5. The following year, they finished 8-3. In 2017, they made real headway with a 12-2 record, making the FCS playoffs and reaching the quarterfinals. Last season, the Owls went 11-2 and made the playoffs again, unfortunately coming up short in the quarterfinals for the second straight year.

Sumpter led the Owls in receiving each year, including an impressive 2017 campaign when he caught 33 passes for 610 yards and five touchdowns. Seeing passes come his way wasn’t a frequent occurrence for Sumpter – or any other Owls receiver, for that matter – considering the team ran a triple-option, wing-type offense.

Making the transition to a standard drop-back offense may not be as seamless as most other receivers going to the NFL, but Sumpter is excited about the opportunity to run more routes and catch the ball more often.

“My first year, I’m still going to be learning a lot,” he said. “There might be some bumps here and there, just making the transition from blocking the whole time to now having to read coverages and stuff like that. But it shouldn’t be that bad. I feel like I’m a really quick learner. I don’t feel like it’ll be that bad, but it’s going to be a fun experience just being able to run other routes like posts and I get to go show I can run a quick out and run some double-moves, so I’m really excited about the opportunity.”

Sumpter’s route tree was limited with the Owls, given the type of offense they ran, but he hopes to show off his route-running ability with the Rams. As for his favorite pattern in college, it was the go route.

“That was my bread and butter. Hopefully they turn me into an out-route, slant guy because I’ve always wanted to do that,” he added.

Coming from a triple-option offense does have its benefits, though. Sumpter is no stranger to run blocking, having to do it often on the outside. The Rams, as we know, love for their receivers to be willing blockers with how often they run the ball – especially on outside zone plays.

He enjoys blocking, whether it’s getting up on a cornerback or cracking down on a defensive end. He’ll do whatever the Rams ask, and he’ll do it at a high level, too.

“I’m a big, physical receiver. Brandin Cooks is probably one of the fastest guys in the league, you got Todd Gurley in the backfield, so you need someone to block on the outside for him. And being around the edges, that’s what I really took pride and joy in. Not really getting the ball that way, I was like, ‘At least I could be one of the reasons we score a lot of touchdowns.’ My main thing was just stay in the pathway on the outside for our running backs.

“I’m going to make a block they need me to make, no matter if it’s a linebacker, a crackdown on the D-end or a safety or corner. I’m going to make sure I block for them.”

That might be Sumpter’s best asset, but receivers in the NFL have to, well, catch the ball. In college, he only caught a total of 111 passes in four years. But he brings something to the table that not many other Rams wideouts possess: size.

“Being a big-bodied receiver, I probably have one of the highest red zone percentages in the nation, in the whole draft class,” Sumpter said. “A lot of people say, ‘He’s got the 50-50 jump ball.’ But for me, I’ve got the 80-20, so I feel I bring that to the table, as well – being a bigger asset. Because most of the guys aren’t that big or tall.”

Leading up to the draft, Les Snead said the Rams would consider taking a wide receiver late on Day 3 if he was a “red-zone threat.” Sumpter has the potential to be exactly that, as he showed in college.

Sumpter has a knack for making one-handed catches. His most famous one came against Liberty, which landed him on SportsCenter and ESPN’s “You Got Mossed.” Sumpter had to go off the grid for a few days after that catch landed him in the national spotlight.

“I had to turn my phone off for a couple days because it was on SportsCenter that night and then the following Monday, it was on ‘You Got Mossed.’ That whole weekend it was just blowing up,” he said. “People were mentioning me. Even people I went to elementary school with were like, ‘Hey I know that guy, we went to elementary together.’

“It was fun getting that exposure. It really helped the team out because people didn’t realize who Kennesaw State was and we went on a little run after that – that was the year we made the playoffs and made a deep run.”

As for the one-handed catches, it’s just reactionary for the 6-2 receiver. However, it is something he practices – not to be flashy, though.

“It’s really just a reaction thing. I do practice it a lot in practice, just like worst-case scenario situations,” he said. “Thursday is our perfect practice day, so sometimes while special teams was going on, me and the quarterback would practice fade balls because that’s usually what we’d be running. So sometimes I would just go up there with one hand in case someone was grabbing my arm, I want to be able to know I can adjust quickly and come down with it.”

DeAndre Hopkins has made some highlight-reel grabs with the Texans, coming down with passes using just one hand. He’s also one of the best wideouts in the NFL and someone Sumpter’s watched a lot of film on.

“I’ve been watching a lot of film recently and two guys that I mainly watch are DeAndre Hopkins – he’s not the fastest guy out there but he finds ways to get open and uses his hands well – and the other guy I like to watch is Brandon Marshall, just because me and him have a similar body type. He’s a big-bodied receiver, strong hands and I like the way he plays the game,” Sumpter explained.

So how did he land with the Rams? Strangely enough, they weren’t a team on his radar throughout the pre-draft process. In fact, they were one of the only teams he hadn’t heard from leading up to the draft.

“The Rams were probably one of the only teams that throughout this whole process, I didn’t have a workout with, I don’t remember them coming to see me at the school,” he said. “I think it was one scout that was at the College Gridiron Showcase that said something to me as I came off the field. That was the only interaction I had with the Rams throughout this whole process. So when I heard they were calling to sign me, it kind of caught me off guard.”

Sumpter was originally going to join the Titans on a tryout basis, but the Rams called 20 minutes after Tennessee. The Rams wanted to sign him as an undrafted free agent rather than bringing him in as a tryout player, which made it the better landing spot for Sumpter.

After talking to his family and agent, he picked L.A. over the Titans.

“We talked it over and felt like it was a better opportunity for me to go to L.A. They both called at the same time – the Rams called like 20 minutes after the Titans called,” Sumpter said. “At first, I was going to go to the Titans but they called the next day and I talked to my agent and that’s when they called back and said they were going to sign me for a minicamp tryout, so it was a win-win.”

if Sumpter makes it in the NFL, he’ll have something in common with Calvin Johnson. Both attended Sandy Creek High School in Georgia. Coincidentally, his parents live in the same neighborhood as Johnson’s parents, so Sumpter sees the retired Lions receiver “all the time.”

“I actually went to his camp two times when I was in high school because it was at the high school. But it’s actually funny because his parents and my parents live in the same neighborhood, so I see him all the time,” Sumpter chuckled. “But I don’t really try to reach out, I know he’s enjoying his whole retirement life. Eventually I might try to contact him, but for right now I haven’t really reached out to him or anything.”

There’s a lot riding on rookie minicamp and offseason workouts for Sumpter, who reports to the Rams on Monday. If he makes the team, he’ll be the first Kennesaw State product to earn a spot on an NFL roster.

That’s likely on his mind, but right now, he’s just focused on the task at hand: rookie minicamp.

“Only three people have actually been close to being in the NFL out of our whole program,” he said. “But overall, it’s really a blessing to be able to be one of the guys that they’re considering at the next level.”

Patriots have met with EWU WR Nsimba Webster, per source

5-10, 180 — ran 4.4 40, 6.7 3 cone at Wash. St pro day

— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) April 5, 2019

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-pff-data-study-coverage-vs-pass-rush

PFF Data Study: Coverage vs. Pass Rush
By Eric Eager and George Chahrouri • May 7, 2019

We are now fully into the dull days of football, with free agency and the NFL draft fully in the rearview mirror. As such, it is high time to discuss some topics that have been on our collective minds while our favorite teams have made decisions about where to allocate capital. For example, half of the players in the first 10 picks of last month’s draft were defensive linemen, while it took until Pick 21 for a player from the secondary to be chosen, and it took until Pick 30 for a team to pick a cornerback. The Kansas City Chiefs decided to trade their first-round pick and a 2020 second-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for Frank Clark, and then give him a five-year, $105-million deal. The Chiefs internally felt that Clark was worth the second-biggest contract among edge defenders, while many analysts, including us, were less bullish on the move, in our case because we value coverage very much relative to pass rush.

Really?

Coverage over pass rush? This seems to upend everything we think we know about football. For example, the league’s last defensive player to win league MVP, Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor, generated 20.5 sacks and propelled the 1986 Giants to a Super Bowl title the very year I was born. His crushing hits literally ended the careers of quarterbacks like Joe Theismann and struck fear in the eyes of both opposing players and fans. I don’t know about you, but for every Deion Sanders or Darrelle Revis, I seemingly remember the exploits of four or five elite pass rushers while growing up watching football.

Our perception that pass rush is king on defense is due to a few factors. First, the pass rush absolutely does affect the offense. In any measure, pass rush decreases not only the effectiveness of an offense but also our ability to reliably predict they and their quarterback’s effectiveness.

Second, the game has changed in substantial ways since many of us started viewing it. During the PFF era (2006-present) alone, first-down passes have increased from 47% of plays to almost 52% of plays. Time to throw and play- action percentages have gone down and up during this stretch, respectively, in many ways mitigating the effect that the pass rush can have on an offense. Passing plays are no longer just third-and-long, mano y mano battles between pass rushers and the offensive linemen trying to block them long enough for the quarterback to execute a deep drop and a 10-plus-yard completion.

Lastly, the way the game is broadcast has a big effect on the way we perceive the relationship between coverage and pass rush. Before that proliferation of All-22, we only saw the relationship between coverage and pressure in one direction – the pass rush affecting the integrity of a quarterback’s delivery and, in turn, enhancing the coverage on the back end. We are less inclined to view the other direction as equally meaningful – the one where the quarterback has to go to his second read gives the pass rush more time to get home, often further helping coverage.

…………………………………………………………………………>>>>

Conclusions

PFF coverage grades both explain and predict defensive success better than pass rush, but they come at the expense of year-to-year stability at both the player and team level. Next year’s Aaron Donald is likely to be Aaron Donald, but if a team is going to have a ton of success as a result of strong play by their defense, they will likely need to have next year’s Stephon Gilmore on their team (who is probably not going to be Stephon Gilmore himself). As I said on Kevin Cole’s podcast a few weeks back: during the PFF era, teams with elite coverage (67th percentile or better) and a poor pass rush (33rd percentile or worse) win, on average, about a game and a half more than teams with the reverse construction. Thus, is the correct conclusion that coverage > pass rush?

I think that it is more nuanced than this. For one, while what happens in coverage is indeed the definitive final step in most pass plays — the pass is complete or it is not, the tackle in the open field is made or missed — it’s also extremely reactionary. DeAndre Hopkins and Josh Doctson are two different players at the catch point, so a corner facing the former player two games a year in the AFC South is likely going to have fewer successful pass breakups than someone facing the latter player twice in the NFC East. Furthermore, these pass breakups are (on average) far higher-leverage actions than those in which Donald destroys a left guard on a quick pass to the outside. EPA gained by a passing offense is a great deal more stable year to year than that prevented by a defense (r = 0.48, r-squared = 0.23). So, as our friend Josh Hermsmeyer has said on Twitter, much of what happens to a defense is controlled by the performances of the offenses it faces in these high-leverage actions.

That our coverage grades have some predictive power in subsequent years is comforting, but the fact that pressure negatively affects offenses and is far more stable year to year leaves my stance far weaker than the “running backs don’t matter” stance that I hold so dear. What this work shows is that it is difficult to have a successful defense without players that can cover. While a pass rush certainly helps, offenses can scheme away from it pretty easily (a la the Patriots in the AFC playoffs) and readily exploit weaknesses in coverage if their quarterback is good enough to do so. Thus, would I have used substantial resources to buy the services of Frank Clark when my secondary was betting on two huge question marks at cornerback? Probably not.

However, I think this research falls short of saying “if you invest heavily in great secondary play, you will have a great defense,” for a few reasons. First, we’re not as good as we’d like to be (yet) at reliably identifying, year to year, who great coverage players are – as demonstrated by the stability analysis above. Coverage players who grade well one year are more likely to grade well the next year than those who do not, but the uncertainty is substantial. Second, and likely more importantly, your defensive success is largely a function of the offenses (and, more specifically, the quarterbacks) your team faces – something it has little control over even when sound personnel and scheme decisions are made. Playing off this second note is the simple fact that a coverage unit with one or two weak links may be a pretty bad coverage unit because an offense dictates where the ball goes while a pass rush requires less continuity.

So, we have ruled out the extremes of “get an elite edge first and at literally all costs” (I’m looking at you, Kansas City) and “only invest in the secondary, pass rushers don’t matter” (I’m looking at you, literally no one). What would be a good way to implement these findings? The instability but importance of coverage means that teams will have to take repeated chances to find collective brilliance there. We saw this, for example, with the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles, who after taking Derek Barnett (an edge) with their first-round pick, selected cornerbacks with their second- and third-round picks. They also signed Patrick Robinson and traded for Ronald Darby before the regular season, a year after signing safety Rodney McLeod from St. Louis. That one of their two draft picks missed a great deal of time (as did Darby) and they still had success underscores the instability in projecting coverage year to year but, more importantly, the importance of quality depth. The addition of Barnett to a front including Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham and company helped what was always a good pass rush for the birds (second in PFF grades in 2016, first in 2017), but plus coverage (improving from 15th in 2016 to third in 2017) lifted them over the top.

Since 2008, the only two expensive, big-name free agents the Patriots have signed have been cornerbacks (Darrelle Revis and Gilmore), but they’ve also stocked up on unheralded players to play roles (e.g., Patrick Chung and Duron Harmon) while famously manufacturing pass rush with undervalued players. Additionally, when faced with two very tough pass rushes in the AFC playoffs in the Chargers and the Chiefs, Tom Brady’s time to throw was 2.18 seconds – by far the fastest in the NFL. The Chiefs were terrific at generating quick pressure in 2018, ranking fourth in pressure rate in less than 2.5 seconds, while the Patriots struggled in that metric, ranking 25th. However, the success of each pass defense is, of course, completely reversed: the Patriots ranked fifth against the pass (using EPA per pass play) while the Chiefs were 21st and felt the brunt of this incongruence on their home field in January.

Looking forward, the 2019 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as we talked about on the PFF Forecast this week, took coverage players with their first four picks this year, after struggling to the second-worst EPA allowed per pass play last year. While it is unlikely that all four of these players will work out, the Bucs’ chances of having enough players play well enough for them to improve defensively are, by definition, higher (it’s also worth noting that they signed the underrated edge Shaquil Barrett this offseason). This was a sound sequence of moves for the Bucs, a team we like going into this season in an NFC South changing complexion.

That we are even open to this discussion is a great win for the open-mindedness of the community as a whole. That the initial conclusions upend some of our preconceived notions but leave a ton of space for new and existing data to be collected, analyzed, and interpreted, makes me excited for what’s next.