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znModeratorTop five needs
1. No. 1 receiver
2. Center:
3. Safety:
4. Cornerback:
5. Outside linebacker:
They don’t need a safety. I think the combo of Joyner and Alexander will be about the best safety tandem the Rams have had since Lyle and Wright and it could be better than that was. The draft is deep at safety so I can see them adding depth late.
I would scratch Center off that list too. They have a center and can add a developmental guy later. That’s of course assuming that they don’t think they have anything in Rhaney or Arkin (which they probably don’t.)
Their 5 needs IMO include (not in order) WR, CB, and OLB/edge rusher. So the Outsiders at CBS Who Don’t Know the Team Like We Do got those 3 right.
Add TE and DE. Right now they may not have a suitable LDE who can play across from the tackle in a 3/4 D. Unless they use Brockers there, in which case what they need is an NT.
znModerator2017 NFL Draft: Los Angeles Rams’ top five needs, best fits on the clock at No. 37
Who should the Rams take with their first pick? We break down all their optionsThis is one in a series that covers each team, offering viewers information for homework, suggestions and then the opportunity to make a draft pick.
When the NFL Draft begins selections in Philadelphia April 27, the Los Angeles Rams will wait until the next day to make their initial pick at No. 37 overall in the second round.
Here is an in-depth look at the team’s needs, offseason changes, potential best fit and the selections by NFLDraftScout.com’s experts.
Who would you pick and why?
Top five needs
1. No. 1 receiver: It’s a been a well-established problem for the Rams, but they just haven’t been able to uncover a game-changing wideout. And while they added veteran Robert Woods in free agency, he isn’t the elusive big-time downfield threat they sorely need.2. Center: The Rams released Tim Barnes during the early stage of free agency, and while they chased Buffalo restricted free agent Ryan Groy with a contract offer sheet, the Bills wasted little time matching the offer. That leaves the Rams still in the market for a starting center even after the signing of John Sullivan.
3. Safety: Veteran T.J. McDonald will not be brought back — he signed as a free agent with the Dolphins — leaving the Rams with only Maurice Alexanderas a starting safety. With precious few desirable free-agent possibilities, the Rams figure to address the position in a draft fairly deep at the position.
4. Cornerback: The Rams are open to locking up Trumaine Johnson to a long-term contract, but part of that is dependent on Johnson wanting to be in Los Angeles long term and whether he’s a good fit for Wade Phillips’ new defensive scheme. Point being, there is a chance Johnson might not be with the Rams beyond this season. Drafting a fill-in option — or a future starter opposite him — is a strategy they will consider.
5. Outside linebacker: The Rams signed veteran Connor Barwin as a 3-4 outside linebacker, but it remains to be seen if he’s a long-range answer. Even with defensive end Robert Quinn moving to the position, drafting and developing a future asset at rush linebacker is critical.
Best fit
Corey Davis, WR, Western Michigan: The Rams need to improve the infrastructure around young quarterback Jared Goff, and desperately need a big, fast, dependable receiver who can put fear into the heads of opposing defenses. Davis fits that bill, and if he is available at No. 37 the Rams should jump at the chance to bring him in. Davis is a four-year starter and one of the most productive players in the draft, having capped his impressive career with 97 catches, 1,500 yards receiving and 19 touchdowns in 2016.
The pick will be …
Rob Rang: Evan Engram, TE, Mississippi. The Rams still need to add more weapons to help quarterback Jared Goff and at 6-foot-3, 234 pounds, Engram has similar size and athleticism as Jordan Reed, who become a star under new Rams head coach Sean McVay in Washington.
Dane Brugler: Takk McKinley, OLB, UCLA. The Rams have needs all over the roster and might be able to steal McKinley at a discount due to the shoulder issue that might force him to miss training camp.
Jim Miller: Marlon Humphrey, CB, Alabama.
Frank Cooney, IMO: Plenty of needs here, but a pass-catcher will help ignite Jared Goff’s career. I’ll be surprised if wide receiver Corey Davis is still around, which might make Mississippi tight end Evan Engram a good addition to new head coach Sean McVay’s offense for Goff.
April 23, 2017 at 8:50 am in reply to: On Goff in 2017 (OTAs & post-draft articles etc) updated through 5/14 #67716znModerator‘Project Goff’ is underway at Rams headquarters
By Vincent Bonsignore, Los Angeles Daily News
http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/20170422/project-goff-is-underway-at-rams-headquarters
From the inner sanctum of his Fired Football Coaches Association office some 2,500 miles from Los Angeles, Jon Gruden scoured the key piece of evidence in the case of Rams rookie quarterback Jared Goff.
The game tape, football coaches maintain, always tells the truth.
And in Goff’s case, the images flickering from the big screen inside Gruden’s Tampa, Fla., based football think tank provided key clues to explain how Goff’s first NFL season deteriorated into a nightmare.
“That’s an offensive line that has struggled,” Gruden testified recently. “That’s a receiving corps that has struggled.”
Gruden could have added a flawed coaching staff short on both imagination and a proven track record of quarterback development, one that failed even the basic principals of providing support for a rookie quarterback. Like establishing a sound running game Goff could lean on – in spite of having reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Todd Gurley on the roster – or functional game plans, or a culture of discipline in which frustrating, drive-sabotaging penalties would finally be eradicated.
And while factually true, it would have been speculative considering the evidence at hand.
“I do think he went into a difficult situation,” Gruden summed up, politely.
The result being a rugged rookie season that left fans and pundits wondering if the Rams severely over-reached by relinquishing six draft picks to move to the top of last year’s draft to select the former Cal star.
But from Gruden’s vantage point, most of the dynamics involved were out of Goff’s control.
The Rams, it appears, agree.
And it has prompted them to devote almost every bit of energy and focus this offseason on improving the infrastructure around Goff and maximizing his chances of succeeding.
Their Thousand Oaks headquarters is now the home of Project Goff, with almost every decision they make – including the direction they take in this week’s draft – motivated by creating an environment that helps expedite the development and efficiency of a position around which their world revolves.
That includes building a coaching staff deeply rooted in quarterback development. And adding left tackle Andrew Whitworth, not only to help protect Goff but also to free up tight ends to be more active in the passing game and elevate Todd Gurley in the running game. And signing former USC wide receiver Robert Woods, a precise, dependable route-runner with sure hands who Goff can trust as a go-to target.
All of it is designed to create a better environment in which Goff can excel.
“Everything that we do starts with the quarterback in mind,” new coach Sean McVay said.
That doesn’t mean their draft board won’t dictate they go defense when their first pick arrives early in the second round.
But the Rams believe a pool of talent most analysts agree is the deepest in years will augment their Goff objectives.
“From the beginning, when we had our initial meetings in December, you’re starting to go, ‘Wow, there’s certain positions (of need) where there will still be quality on the board,” Rams general manger Les Snead said.
It’s an edict that began with the firing of long-time coach Jeff Fisher who, for all the laurels he rested on, could never figure out how to field a productive offense. And when presented with the responsibility of developing Goff, he woefully underestimated the importance of experienced coaching by surrounding the rookie with first-year offensive coordinator Rob Boras – a former tight ends coach – and a quarterbacks coach in Chris Weinke with exactly one year experience.
It was a confusing approach.
On one hand Fisher believed the Rams were a high-caliber quarterback away from being a playoff contender.
On the other, he completely neglected the support system needed to assist the very asset he considered the missing piece.
It was a recipe for disaster.
Goff struggled with the learning curve going from Cal’s spread offense offense to the NFL. The talent around him was either incapable or not yet ready to contribute at a sufficient level. And the inexperienced offensive staff was helpless to provide alternative answers.
The miscalculations eventually cost Fisher his job.
It also underscored the importance of finding a new football leader with a proven offensive track record who could lay out a plan how to develop Goff and the infrastructure around him.
The Rams quickly landed on McVay, who represents a complete reversal not only from Fisher, but the string of three straight defensive-minded head coaches covering the last eight seasons.
None of whom could field functional offenses, let alone figure out a long-range answer at quarterback.
“What you’re looking at right now, with the first offensive head coach since (Scott) Linnehan, is someone who is going to put a priority on quarterback and how you develop the position by putting the right pieces around him in order for it to function at its highest level,” said Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ vice president of football operations.
Groomed under Gruden and his brother – Washington coach Jay Gruden – and former Washington coach Mike Shanahan, McVay, 31, is largely responsible for Kirk Cousins’ assent from a fourth-round draft pick to a playoff-caliber quarterback.
And while Washington didn’t have All-Pro caliber players across the board during his three years as the offensive coordinator, they were among the most productive in the NFL.
McVay’s upbringing and the success he helped create in Washington – coupled with his dynamic personality – helped sell Demoff and the Rams on him.
But more than anything, it was the detailed plan he articulated on how to develop Goff and the infrastructure around him – be it internally or through free agent and draft acquisitions – that convinced the Rams that McVay was their guy.
“Did we hire Sean specifically for Jared? No. We hired Sean because we think he’s going to be a great head coach,” Demoff said. “But, we also recognize Jared is a significant asset for the franchise and we needed someone who could maximize him.”
The coaching staff McVay built backs up that conviction. He’s surrounded himself – and Goff – with assistants deeply rooted in quarterback development and coordinating offenses.
Combined, offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur, quarterbacks coach Greg Olson and offensive line coach Aaron Kromer bring more than two decades of experience building quarterbacks and offenses.
LeFleur spent the last two years coaching Matt Ryan with the Atlanta Falcons, and was Washington’s quarterback coach under Mike Shanahan from 2010-13. Olson helped transition Raiders quarterback Derek Carr from a spread offense in college to NFL stardom in Oakland.
That’s an incredible amount of experience and resources Goff can lean on.
“I think the truth of the matter is Sean’s entire world runs through the quarterback,” Demoff said. “Everything that’s been done, in Sean’s mind, is to give the quarterback the best chance to win.”
That was the benefit McVay gained being groomed under coaching mentors whose quarterback philosophies all trace back to former 49ers coach Bill Walsh.
“(Quarterback) is the most difficult position in all of sports, it’s the most important one for the football team,” McVay said. “So everything that we do starts with the quarterback in mind. And our job is to make the most difficult position as easy as we can.”
Of equal importance is improving the talent around Goff, which was painfully obvious after watching the Rams go winless in his seven starts to end the season.
Some of the blame goes to Goff, who struggled making the transition from a spread offense to a conventional NFL scheme.
But playing behind an offensive line that ranked among the worst in the NFL and with wide receivers that struck fear in no one, it was also impossible to get any sort of read on Goff given the amount of time he devoted to simply surviving from one play to the next.
The Rams hope McVay can help get Gurley and receiver Tavon Austin on track, but they aggressively went outside the organization through free agency intent on creating a safer, more functional environment around Goff.
Whitworth, a two-time All Pro, was brought in to protect Goff’s blind side, serve as a mentor to an extremely young offensive unit and anchor a line that, for all its bad play last season, still has potential.
“You really look at what we’re trying to do, and Andrew’s going to be a big part of running the football more efficiently as well,” McVay said. “We have to get Todd going, he’s a very important part of what we’re trying to do.”
Woods, while not the No. 1 wide receiver the Rams desperately need, is a precise route-runner with dependable hands and a willing blocker. Simply by being in the right place at the right time and consistently catching the ball, he can be a valuable addition.
Goff was a keen observer to the Rams’ offseason moves.
“Anytime they make any sort of investment on the offensive side of the ball, especially, it’s always helpful,” he said. “I think that all of the additions we made offensively and defensively were all great.”
…
Supporting cast for Goff
The Rams have retooled at numerous positions in an effort to facilitate the development of second-year quarterback Jared Goff. Here are the new faces:
• Coach Sean McVay: The grandson of John McVay, the architect of the great Bill Walsh 49ers teams, McVay was mentored under Jon Gruden, Jay Gruden and Mike Shanahan’s philosophy of creating the best possible environment for a quarterback to succeed.
• Offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur: Worked two years as the quarterbacks coach for Matt Ryan in Atlanta, and previously worked with Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins in Washington.
• Quarterbacks coach Greg Olson: A former NFL offensive coordinator, Olson helped transition Derek Carr from a spread offense quarterback in college to NFL stardom.
• Offensive line coach Aaron Kromer: A former offensive coordinator. Kromer was the offensive line coach of the Buffalo Bills the last two seasons. Under Kromer. the Bills ledt the NFL with 5.6 yards per rushing last year.
• Left tackle Andrew Whitworth: Signed as a free agent, the two-time Pro Bowl left tackle is a huge upgrade from Greg Robinson last year and should benefit Goff in pass protection and by helping running back Todd Gurley get on track.
• Wide receiver Robert Woods: Another free-agent signing, the former USC star isn’t a burner and won’t take the top off a defense. But he’s got dependable hands, is a precise route-runner and an able blocker. At 24, he still has upside.
April 22, 2017 at 6:59 pm in reply to: Rams Waive OL Tre’ Jackson With Failed Physical Designation #67711znModeratorMakes sense. Like a great offensive line prospect would just fall into our laps
Well, a quarterback did. Once. Almost 20 years ago.
znModeratorfrom Dream 2017 NFL draft scenarios for every team
Dan Graziano
ESPNPick No. 37: Los Angeles Rams
A first-round wide receiver tumbles into the second.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, teams get scared off by Corey Davis’ medicals. The Rams should pounce on the kind of offensive playmaker who’ll make QB Jared Goff’s life easier. They spent this year’s first-rounder trading up for Goff last year, so now all of their dreams are tied to his success. New coach Sean McVay is just excited to have a bunch of new players who are closer to his own age.
April 22, 2017 at 3:10 pm in reply to: Making science serve the people: the battle against biological determinism #67707znModeratorWhy March for Science? Because when it is attacked, only the elite benefit
Lucky Tran
Lucky Tran is a science communicator based in New York, and holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Cambridge. He is also on the steering committee of the March for Science. These words and views are his own.
I’m marching for science today because I’m mad. Yes, I’m a mad scientist. I became a scientist because I wanted to help people. In my career I’ve researched gene therapy, how to engineer new antibiotics and how to make better cancer drugs. But now what I do and care about has come under attack. I’m mad at politicians for hijacking science for their own selfish interests.
I know that many people just love debating whether science should be political or not. But personally I’m not really too interested in spinning my wheels in this pyrrhic war. Science has always been political ever since we first used it to show that the Earth orbits the Sun. And right now, we haven’t any time to waste.
The real question is who does science serve? When politicians are left alone to attack science with impunity, the answer is that science serves only the most elite, and is obstructed from helping all of us. As a result, real people get hurt, particularly our most vulnerable and marginalized communities. Look at lead poisoning in Flint. Or Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. Or the Dakota Access Pipeline. Or the rising seas of Tuvalu. Or the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Or the measles outbreak in Europe.
I’m marching because science needs to take a stand and fight for justice with the communities who are harmed by bad science policy.
And while we’re here marching, we scientists need to recognize that we are extremely late – science has been under attack for a long time, not just in 2017. Our scientific community has been sitting on the sidelines watching in horror, afraid to get involved and be called biased. This strategy of ceding the floor has failed us terribly, as those with private political interests have gone ahead and polarized scientific issues anyway.
I’m marching because democracy is not a spectator sport. Not even for scientists.
Young people get this. Many of my young scientist friends are reacting to the assault on science by leaving the lab to work in communications, policy and advocacy. And they’re organizing the March for Science. Our generation is standing up right now because we are the ones who will suffer the most from bad science policy decisions.
Donald Trump’s first 100 days as president – daily updates
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It’s our cities that will be wrecked by climate change, it’s our bodies that will suffer from the dismantling of public health, it’s our jobs that will be lost to automation. We’re leading the fight because our heads are on the chopping block.It’s also significant that the science justice movement is being led by the people. The march was started by strangers connecting over social media and has bloomed into a global movement, 600 cities and hundreds of thousands of participants strong.
In the past, the institutional structure of science advocacy has created a conservative bystander culture that has failed science abysmally. We need grassroots activists unfettered by protocol, and not content to just do better “outreach”. We need science advocates who can speak truth to power, organize in our communities, and to challenge problematic power structures with action. Scientists in the streets is a sign that politics as usual cannot continue.
And as march for science, we are also defending the people who do science, because they’re under attack. Scientists are being gagged from speaking about research like climate change online (at the National Park Service and Department of Energy), and being banned from the country because of their background. This is especially troubling given our history of erecting institutional barriers that prevent prevent certain groups from participating in science (see Hidden Figures, Rosalind Franklin, or Henrietta Lacks).
The attacks hit close to home for me because I was born in a refugee camp. I am only a scientist today because I benefitted from pro-refugee policies – why doesn’t the future generation have the same chance I did? When scientists face barriers, they can’t do their work in service of the public good, so we all suffer. That’s why the fight to stand up for scientists and science itself are one and the same.
We’ve been speaking to many historians and seasoned scientists, and they all tell us: the March for Science is poised to be the largest science event in history. That’s poignant because, right now, changing history is absolutely what is required.
We need another scientific revolution. The first scientific revolution transformed our understanding the natural world and changed civilization as we know it, making us healthier, happier and more productive. Today, we have huge scientific challenges ahead such as climate change, genetic engineering and automation. And yet we are stuck with the hand brake on and unable to act effectively as a society, because a few privileged people are blocking progress at the expense of the rest of us.
That’s why we urgently need to transform the relationship between science, politics and society: our collective futures depend on it. That’s why I’m marching, because we need to change history. It’s time to join the revolution.
znModeratorRams Probably Need to Eye More TE Depth in the Draft
The Rams are woefully thin at tight end right now. PFF shows some options for them come draft day, with a handful of names they might want to target.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/draft-rams-probably-need-to-eye-more-te-depth-in-the-draft/
After the Los Angeles Rams hired Sean McVay, they released their longest-tenured TE, Lance Kendricks. The Rams’ only listed TE with any receptions is Tyler Higbee, who saw just 26 targets in 2016, catching 11.
Since 2015, McVay’s offense in Washington targeted the TEs in the slot 80 times, which resulted in 58 catches for 620 yards and five touchdowns.
2016 saw Washington’s TEs targeted 18 times on deep passes 20-plus yards down the field, third-most in the league. Those targets went for nine catches and 273 yards.
McVay’s offense targeted TEs 148 times in 2016. In 2016, Evan Engram led the draft class with 92 targets. Gerald Everett was fourth with 75, David Njoku was seventh with 69, and Michael Roberts was 11th with 64.
Engram, Njoku, and Everett were all in the top five for yards per route ran in 2016, with Engram leading the draft class with 2.59, followed by Njoku with 2.34, and Everett rounding out the top five with 2.31.
znModeratorI was told he was gonna be more of a gap block scheme
Good stuff SB! Thanks. On gap blocking, I just hit the net with search terms and this stuff looks useful.
..
http://www.milehighreport.com/2010/1/30/1282956/mhr-university-offensive-line-gap
Gap Blocking versus Zone Blocking
“Gap blocking” is a rarely used term, but is the correct term for the standard blocking that we see from offensive lines in football. Some folks (including coaches and even myself) will use terms that aren’t technically correct from time to time. “Power running” is a running scheme that can be used with either a gap or zone blocking OL. In some cases, “power run” refers to a particular type of running play. “Power blocking” is an often used term, but refers more to individual technique than to a holistic OL approach. Some folks may even use “man blocking”, since they may assume this is the opposite of “zone” blocking.
Coaches that use the incorrect terms are likely to use “power” (rarely “man” if ever). This doesn’t mean they don’t know what they are talking about. In fact, I’ve read the term everywhere from a recent McDaniels press conference to multiple publications (including our own MHR and other major blogs and media outlets). While I may be a stickler for correct terminology, I give this term a pass (and not only because I’ve been guilty of it). Here’s why:
In gap blocking, the runner may use any number of techniques to effect yardage. He may run “downhill”, he may “power ahead”, he may “one cut”, he may sprint, dive, bounce, or any of a number of other approaches. However, “power running” is more likely to be used with gap blocking than with zone blocking. Power running is also the most common running technique. So amongst coaches and writers, it is understandable that the terms seem to go hand in hand. Most OLs use gap blocking, and most run plays use a “power run” approach (whether or not the play is an actual power run “play”).
For the purposes of this article, and to prevent confusion, we’ll use the term “gap block”. I’ll go ahead and define the different terms for both blocking and running to further simplify the concepts.
Zone Block- In the zone block (which we’ll call “zb”, not to be confused with “zone blitz”) each OLman stays shoulder to shoulder and starts to move in the direction of a run play. (We’ll discuss pass zone blocking a little later). They will either block an opposing player 1:1 or 2:1. On the 2 to 1 blocks one of the OLs will break off of the block to go to what is called “the second level”. Here, a LB is blocked. That is the simple idea behind the zb. The runners lane may or may not be predetermined.
Gap Block- The standard run blocking scheme of most football teams. In short, each OLman targets an opposing player and moves him away from a runner’s predetermined lane. Also, an OLman (or lead blocker) may target a gap and attempt to run through it to ensure a passable lane for the runner.
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znModeratorJuJu Smith-Schuster says Cowboys and Rams have shown the most interest
Posted by Mike FlorioJuJu Smith-Schuster says Cowboys and Rams have shown the most interest
As USC receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster prepares for the 2017 draft, he says two teams have shown the strongest desire to secure his services.
The Cowboys and the Rams have shown the most interest, Smith-Schuster said on Friday’s PFT Live.
While Smith-Schuster said he doesn’t have a wish list of teams for which he’d like to play (although he seems to believe players should be able to pick their NFL teams and not vice-versa), he said last month he’d like to play for the Chargers.
On PFT Live, he admitted that he has sent “a message” to the Raiders via his selection of them for the virtual JuJu in his Madden 2017 franchise.
In Madden 2018, Smith-Schuster will be assigned to one of the 32 teams, and he’ll be available to add to your Madden Ultimate Team, if that’s how you choose to play the game. Smith-Schuster and the rest of us will find out where that will be within the next week
znModeratorFuck Russia.
They need to be put on “Ignore”.
Fuck Exxon. Stick your drills up your ass holes you mother fucking greedy fucks.
That is all.
China. Russia. Now and then it’s a small but okay consolation to remember that even with everything we deal with, the other large militarized countries are actually worse than we are.
My parents used to say the same thing to me when I was a young teenage anti-war fanatic, but saying it after the cold war means something different.
Well except saying that doesn’t account for Exxon.
.
znModeratorRams' first two games — Indy and Washington — really will set a tone. Win those, and a winning record is possible. Lose both and, well…
— Rich Hammond (@Rich_Hammond) April 21, 2017
..
FYI: #Rams will switch up their London plans this year by spending week preceding game practicing in Jacksonville
— Vincent Bonsignore (@DailyNewsVinny) April 21, 2017
April 21, 2017 at 9:05 pm in reply to: Rams Waive OL Tre’ Jackson With Failed Physical Designation #67688znModeratorTre’ Jackson’s short stint with Rams ends
link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/04/21/tre-jacksons-short-stint-with-rams-ends/
The Rams waived Tre’ Jackson on Friday, only two days after they claimed the oft-injured guard off waivers from New England.
Jackson missed all of last season, and part of the 2014 season, with knee problems, and according to the NFL’s official list of transactions, Jackson failed his physical with the Rams.
The Rams were aware that Jackson’s health might prevent him from joining the team, but decided to take a chance on a former fourth-round pick who actually started nine games for the Patriots in his rookie season before his knee problems began.
The Rams, who are in the early stages of offseason workouts in Thousand Oaks, have been looking to add depth to their offensive line. Rodger Saffold and Rob Havenstein are the early favorites to start at guard, with Jamon Brown and Cody Wichmann as primary backups.
April 21, 2017 at 6:00 pm in reply to: Rams Waive OL Tre’ Jackson With Failed Physical Designation #67684znModeratorThat knee injury must have been severe. Too bad.
Yeah. Or maybe he didn’t rehab it right.
znModeratorInside the Rams Schedule Call
Go behind the scenes at the Los Angeles Rams facility as the front office gets the NFL schedule release phone call with Sean McVay, Les Snead and Kevin Demoff.
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Rams video a fun glimpse into NFL schedule process
By Conor Orr
The Los Angeles Rams released a fun video on Thursday night of new head coach Sean McVay, general manager Les Snead and executive vice president Kevin Demoff receiving “the call” from NFL Senior Director of Broadcast Michael North revealing their 2017 schedule.
See Full Video HERE
The immediate sell on Friday was McVay’s I-can’t-believe-my-ex-girlfriend-showed-up reaction to learning that he’d play his former team, the Washington Redskins, Week 2. The 31-year-old goes from making an all-smiles joke about Tony Romo calling their Week 1 game to a bizarre 180-degree turn where he can only mutter “Oh, now that’s exciting.”
Either McVay at that moment remembered he was on camera or remembered that the Redskins were on their schedule. Snead and Demoff crack some jokes. McVay says “It’ll be a good game man, I’m looking forward to that.”
But like all of these peek-behind-the-curtain videos — more NFL teams should be doing this, by the way — there is richness in the minutiae. Outside of McVay’s reaction to playing the Redskins, here are a few of our favorite moments from the 4 minute and 41 second clip.
» Demoff calls the Redskins game the “Coach McVay bowl” upon the announcement. The joke is then painstakingly extended throughout the call. Snead calls the game against Houston the “Wade (Phillips) Bowl” and North asks with a hint of sarcasm, “does every game have a nickname?” Shortly after, Snead calls the Saints game the “Bill Johnson Bowl (the defensive line coach spent eight years in New Orleans). No laughter was recorded on the video at that point. Remarkably, seconds later, when the date for the Rams-Eagles game is set, Snead goes back to the well once more calling it the “Goff vs. Wentz Bowl.” McVay now also asks Snead if he’s going to see if he can come up with a nickname for every game. This feels like a second warning.
» North announces that he managed to secure the Rams a late-afternoon East Coast start against the Jaguars, meaning the game would be played at 4:25 p.m ET instead of 1:05 p.m. ET so it did not feel like the Rams were playing a game at 10 a.m. local time. Thinking he did a nice thing, North was immediately met with a half-joking retort from Snead, who says every East Coast game should be like that. North’s voice morphs into that of an exhausted parent who just wants to eat his cold supper. “We are WELL AWARE of the western team’s preferences,” he said.
» North appears to try to glide by the portion of the schedule when he says the Rams will have to essentially fly from L.A. to London to play the Cardinals at 10 a.m. PT before flying back to Los Angeles for the bye then back across the country to play the Giants.
“So we go Jacksonville, London, New York?” Demoff asks.
“You got it,” North says before quickly moving on.
» McVay, already the butt of countless bad millennial jokes, appears to take a cell phone picture of the schedule once it’s posted in full. Perhaps for Insta-Face.
In all seriousness, this was a fantastic piece of work by the Rams’ video team. The team is in uncharted waters with their very young head coach and the clip was a raw piece of drama that fans are rarely allowed to see. I’ve watched it a dozen times already and can safely proclaim that North has an excellent sense of humor, as does the Rams’ coaching staff. Here’s hoping to more of these down the road.
znModeratorThere’s 2 articles in this post. You have to scroll down past the footnotes of article 1 to find article 2.
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Russia and the Left
Stephen R. Shalom
link: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/russia-and-the-left/
What explains the enthusiasm in certain quarters of the left for Vladimir Putin and Russia? Why do some cheer on Russian bombing in Syria, dismissing out of hand the evidence from Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch1 that they are criminally targeting hospitals? Why do some try to justify Russia’s takeover of Crimea or its blatant intervention in Ukraine?
Apologetics for Moscow, of course, has a long and ignoble history on the left. There is no excuse for this betrayal of left values, but we can at least understand some of the reasons that people held these wrongheaded views.
In the past, many Americans who were committed to progressive causes — especially civil rights and labor rights — joined the Communist Party because it was an organization actively and powerfully engaged in these struggles. They were aware that CP membership required following the Soviet line on foreign policy questions, but many joined despite this, not because of it. Now in fact even their contribution to the civil rights and labor movements was compromised to some degree by their allegiance to a hierarchical party that was subservient to Moscow’s foreign policy. (How many honest radicals became alienated from the left because of the CP defense of the Moscow Trials or the Hitler-Stalin Pact? How much harm was done to the left by the CP supporting the trial and conviction of Trotskyists under the Smith Act in World War II?) Still, we can understand why many CPers believed that their participation was furthering the cause of social justice at home, and, hence, why they gave the Soviet Union a pass.
Another reason for leftists to be soft on the Soviet Union was that internationally it was generally on the side of the great anti-colonial struggles of the day. Its economic and military aid and its diplomatic support helped many Third World nations break from Western colonial or neocolonial rule. Now this was never as consistent or as selfless as Moscow’s acolytes suggested. Soviet opposition to the Eritrean liberation struggle, for example, was horrendous, and as early as 1921 the new Soviet state sold out communist militants in Turkey in order to maintain its relationship with Mustafa Kemal. Moreover, national liberation that was supported with Stasi agents setting up a security apparatus was hardly very liberating. Likewise, Soviet support to the Republic during the Spanish Civil War was such that even if Franco had been defeated, Spanish democracy was unlikely to survive. In addition, it should be noted that great powers often tried to weaken their rivals’ colonial empire without at all being progressive — think of the German Kaiser’s aid to Irish rebels. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the Soviet Union played an important role in hastening the end of colonialism, and so we can understand why many leftists were enamored of it. Soviet prestige was also enhanced by its role in the defeat of Nazi Germany (though this followed its pact with Nazi Germany).
A third reason that some leftists wrongly but understandably championed the Soviet Union is that the country was committed, rhetorically at least, to socialism. Principled socialists differ in their assessment of when the Soviet Union became a repressive state — I would date it from the crushing of the Workers’ Opposition and Kronstadt — but there is no doubt that by the mid-1920s there was no democracy in the Soviet Union and, because there can be no socialism without democracy, nor was there socialism. Beyond their rhetorical socialism, members of the Soviet bloc proclaimed their allegiance to social justice, and to some extent this was not all just words. Because social justice, like socialism, has to include democratic rights, the Soviet Union and other members of its camp were crucially deficient in social justice. But they did tend to have greater social and economic egalitarianism and more developed social welfare policies than many Western states. These accomplishments had the unfortunate effect of erroneously suggesting that we face a trade-off: we can have either economic justice or democracy, but not both. It is true that a resident of Brazil’s favelas might choose Cuba’s heath care over her own country’s formal democracy. But Costa Rica, no paragon of socialist enlightenment, offers both democracy and a life expectancy equal to that of Cuba’s. Still, to many leftists the fact that the “communist” countries, led by the Soviet Union, declared themselves to be pursuing socialism made it easier to overlook their misdeeds.
The question is, why do many leftists today close their eyes to Russian crimes given that each one of these lame but understandable reasons for Soviet apologetics no longer applies?.
Where the Soviet Union generally backed parties around the world and in the United States that were on the left, at the moment Moscow seems to be much more supportive of far right parties than of left ones.2 In the United States, Putin’s backing of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton was clear, whether or not it is confirmed that Russia hacked emails with the intention of helping the Republican candidate. So left apologists for Putin are not turning a blind eye to the crimes of a regime that at least is promoting the U.S. civil rights movement. No, their blind eye is to the crimes of a regime that favors the candidate who will preside over one of the most rightwing governments in U.S. history.
Where the Soviet Union generally stood against colonialism, in this post-colonial age Putin’s Russia is now one of the leading powers seeking to acquire or hold on to territory by force: Chechnya, South Ossetia, Eastern Ukraine, Crimea (the latter annexation condemned by a vote of 100-11 in the General Assembly, with 58 abstentions).
Some leftists like to claim that Russia, Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah constitute an “axis of resistance” that has heroically been challenging U.S. and Israeli imperialism. This account ignores the fact that in the 1970s Hafez al-Assad intervened in Lebanon against Palestinians and the Lebanese left, and more recently Bashar al-Assad partnered with Washington in torturing prisoners.3 Today, hundreds of Palestinians languish in Bashar’s torture chambers.4 If this is an axis of resistance, we might consider adding the European far right parties that have been supporting Assad.5 Indeed, given that Moscow has been a substantial purchaser of Israeli military drones6 and a leading supplier of its oil and has coordinated its bombing in Syria with Israel,7 perhaps Israel too should be considered a member of the axis of resistance? After all, Israel did absent itself from the UN resolution condemning the annexation of Crimea.8
And where the Soviet Union could boast some progressive social policies, these are things of the past. Putin has explicitly adopted a rightwing ideology, drawing on émigré and even fascist philosophers.9 Putin’s party, United Russia, with three-quarters of the seats in the Duma, has officially adopted “Russian Conservatism” as its position. As RT, the Russian-government sponsored news outlet, reported:
Having called themselves “conservatives,” the members of United Russia “have simply determined their place” as a right-wing party, political scientist Dmitry Travin said. That means that they are “politicians who defend values of the market economy based on national traditions,” Rosbalt news agency quoted him as saying.
At the same time, they “are not staunch defenders of freedom as liberals,” and they are not “followers of egalitarianism as social democrats,” he said.10
In terms of Islamophobia and anti-LGBT repression, Russia makes the United States look like Paradise. Male life expectancy in Russia is six years less than in Brazil and a decade less than in Mexico; its spending on education as a share of GDP is 80 percent that of Mexico and less than three quarters that of Brazil.11 In terms of the size of the public sector, Russian government spending as a percent of GDP is smaller than that of Japan, Greece, the UK, and Spain (and its military spending is a far greater share of its overall government spending than any of these countries).12 Neither in practice nor in inspiration nor even in rhetoric does current-day Russia reflect left values.
So why then the left enthusiasm for Russia?
For some, no doubt, it’s simply nostalgia. The U.S. Peace Council, a slavish Moscow tool during the Cold War, fondly recalls the Soviet alliance with the Baathist regime in Syria under Hafez al-Assad, and so perhaps it’s a simple move to glorify Russian support today for the successor to the Assad dynasty. (And thus the Peace Council’s awful propaganda trip to Damascus and subsequent participation in Syrian-government sponsored propaganda events.13)
But wistful longing for the glory days of the Soviet Union doesn’t explain most left attachment to Russia. Instead it’s the pernicious doctrine of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” that unfortunately has permeated large sectors of the left.
A civilian airliner is shot down over the Russian-backed break-away zone of Ukraine, the United States (among others) accuses the Russians of being responsible, and the automatic, reflexive response from some is that this was either a Western false flag operation (an intelligence concoction) or at a minimum a tragedy for which the United States and its allies bear primary responsibility. That Russian propaganda on the matter was so easily refuted merely confirmed for some how devilish the false flag operation really was.14
An aid convoy is bombed in Syria. Washington accuses Russia or Syria of being responsible. Given that Assad had a clear policy of forcing Aleppo to “surrender or starve,”15 Washington’s accusation was certainly plausible, but further evidence left little doubt as to Russian/Syrian responsibility.16 But to some on the left, the fact that the U.S. government said it made it false.
Now it is true that any time two imperial states contest for power each is going to try to push a one-sided, jingoistic narrative of the differences between them. Skepticism about the claims of one’s own government is certainly warranted. During the Soviet period, in the United States the official line tried to portray Moscow as wholly responsible for the onset of the Cold War, and as being in the wrong, the aggressor, in every single international dispute. It was and remains important to contest this dominant view. That doesn’t mean, though, that we should have dismissed the tendentious U.S. narrative only to adopt the equally tendentious Soviet counter-narrative — dismissing as Western propaganda such things as the gulag or the secret clauses in the Hitler-Stalin pact or the Katyn massacre or Soviet aggression in Hungary in 1956 or in Afghanistan in 1979-88. It was entirely possible — and right — to reject both the U.S. and the Soviet propaganda lines. The forerunner of the current Campaign for Peace and Democracy (www.cpdweb.org)– the Campaign for Peace and Democracy East and West — famously got Western Central America activists to sign on to a statement condemning Soviet policy in Eastern Europe and got East European dissidents to sign on to a statement condemning U.S. policy in Nicaragua and El Salvador. It’s this sort of rejection of both sides and their lies that ought to be key to any left politics.
If Russian hacking interfered in the U.S. election, it is not enough to point out Washington’s sordid record of interfering in foreign elections. The left condemns U.S. interference in foreign elections and we ought to condemn Russian interference as well (and not just in the United States). While some of the attacks on Russian hacking by the Hillary Clinton camp (“Ronald Reagan would be rolling over in his grave”17) do indeed smack of McCarthyism, there’s nothing wrong with the left denouncing Russian crimes. And all the U.S. crimes in the world don’t justify Russian crimes. Nor should U.S. crimes lead us to withhold our criticisms of the crimes of Moscow, any more than Russian crimes would lead us to withhold our criticisms of the crimes of Washington in Iraq, Honduras, and elsewhere.
Stephen R. Shalom is a member of the New Politics editorial board. Thanks to Joanne Landy for helpful discussions.
1. Physicians for Human Rights, “Russian Warplanes Strike Medical Facilities in Syria,” Oct. 7, 2015; Amnesty International, “Syrian and Russian forces targeting hospitals as a strategy of war,” March 3, 2016; Human Rights Watch, “Russia/Syria: War Crimes in Month of Bombing Aleppo,” Dec. 1, 2016. See also Medecins Sans Frontieres, “Review of Attack on Al Quds hospital in Aleppo City,” Sept. 2016.
2. Alina Polyakova, “Strange Bedfellows: Putin and Europe’s Far Right,” World Affairs, Sept.-Oct. 2014; Alina Polyakova, “Why Europe Is Right to Fear Putin’s Useful Idiots,” Foreign Policy, Feb. 23, 2016; Anna Nemtsova, “How Vladimir Putin Feeds Europe’s Rabid Right,” The Daily Beast, Oct. 4, 2016; Mike Lofgren, “Trump, Putin, and the Alt-Right International,” The Atlantic, Oct. 31, 2016; Fredrik Wesslau, “Putin’s friends in Europe,” European Council on Foreign Relations, Oct. 19, 2016. This is not to say that there are no left parties close to Moscow. See Péter Krekó and Lóránt Győri, “Don’t ignore the left! Connections between Europe’s radical left and Russia,” Open Democracy, June 13, 2016.
3. David Cole, “Getting Away with Torture,” New York Review of Books, Jan. 14, 2010.
4. Budour Youssef Hassan, “Syria’s disappeared Palestinians,” The Electronic Intifada, Feb. 18, 2015.
5. Wikipedia, Bashar al-Assad.
6. Patrick Hilsman, “Drone deals heighten military ties between Israel and Russia,” Middle East Eye, Oct. 3, 2015. There are reports that Washington has blocked further Israeli drone sales to Moscow.
7. Robert Zapesochny, “An Emerging Alliance: Russia and Israel,” American Spectator, Dec. 15, 2016.
8. Barak Ravid and Jonathan Lis, “Defense Official on Ukraine Policy: Israeli Interests Needn’t Be Identical to U.S.’,” Haaretz, Apr. 13, 2014.
9. Dan La Botz, “In Putin’s Head,” New Politics online, Sept. 25, 2016.
10. Sergey Borisov,“ROAR: United Russia ‘determined itself as a right-wing party,’” RT, Nov. 23, 2009.
11. See UN data here.
12. See UN data here and here.
13. See “Bashar Ja’afari (Syria) and US Peace Council Representatives on Syria – Press Conference,” Aug. 9, 2016.
14. Eliot Higgins, “How the Dutch Safety Board Proved Russia Faked MH17 Evidence,” Bellingcat, Oct. 15, 2015; Eliot Higgins, “The Russian Defence Ministry Presents Evidence They Faked Their Previous MH17 Evidence,” Bellingcat, Sept. 26, 2016; Aric Tole, “The Weird World of MH17 Conspiracy Theories – Part 1,” Bellingcat, Aug. 7, 2015.
15. Middle East Monitor, “UN warns of Syrian regime’s ‘surrender or starve’ policy to regain Aleppo,” Aug. 17, 2016.
16. Eliot Higgins, “Confirmed: Russian Bomb Remains Recovered from Syrian Red Crescent Aid Convoy Attack,” Bellingcat, Sept. 22, 2016; Anne Barnard and Somini Sengupta, “‘From Paradise to Hell’: How an Aid Convoy in Syria Was Blown Apart,” New York Times, Sept. 24, 2016.
17. See Adam Schiff.
====
Russia-linked fake news floods French social media
https://euobserver.com/foreign/137624
Almost one in four of the internet links shared by French users of social media in the run-up to elections were related to fake news, much of which favoured anti-EU candidates and showed traces of Russian influence, according to a new study.
The survey, by a UK-based firm, Bakamo, published on Wednesday (19 April), looked at 800 websites and almost 8 million links shared between 1 November and 4 April.
Of the links, 19.2 percent related to media that did not “adhere to journalistic standards” and that expressed “radical opinions … to craft a disruptive narrative” in what the study called the “reframe” category.
A further 5 percent of links related to “narratives [that were] often mythical, almost theological in nature” or discussed “conspiracy theories” in what the study called the “alternative” section.The sources shared in these categories favoured anti-EU candidates both on the far right and the far left: Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Melenchon, Francois Asselineau, and Philippe Poutou.
They also favoured Francois Fillon, a centre-right candidate who is friendly toward Russia.
Bakamo’s research found that one in five sources in the reframe section were influenced by Russian state media known for spreading anti-EU disinformation, such as RT or Sputnik, and that one out of two sources in the alternative section had Russian roots.
“The analysis only identified foreign influence connected with Russia. No other foreign source of influence was detected”, Bakamo said.
The study said that “established sources of political news” were “still driving public discourse” and were “being shared in greater proportion than all other non-traditional media sources”.
They also noted that while the far-left candidate Melenchon’s campaign team often shared bogus material, Le Pen’s team mostly propagated its own content on sites such as Twitter or Facebook.
But it added that social media users in the reframe category were “very prolific” and “very engaged”, sharing links almost twice as many times as those who followed mainstream sources.
Pierre Haski, a French journalist who took part in the research, noted that there was another “worrying trend as election day nears”.
He said there was a “growing gap among citizens” based on “news reliability and respect for professional and ethical [journalistic] rules” rather than on political affiliation.
The gap meant that people increasingly did not agree on basic facts as opposed to political opinions and that those who no longer trusted traditional media were impervious to debunking efforts, such as Les Decodeurs, a group of fact-checkers working with Le Monde, a French newspaper of record.
Bakamo’s study said the main political themes in the reframe category were those that championed French identity and attacked Islam.
It said the influence of Russian sources was the strongest in the French identity, anti-Islam, and anti-globalisation areas, as well as in the areas of “confusion” and “conspiratorial/anti-system” sources shared in the alternative segment.
znModeratorI would feel pleased if there were multiple arrests, and Chaffetz was among them. I’d be even more pleased if it included some people working in the White Supremacy House.
And WV, I just saw your post summarizing events, and I think you get an A+ for that work.
I actually disagree with WV’s assessment. In fact I think it ignores way too much. It doesn’t seem to deal with the real issues.
To me, any approach to this that assumes the following 2 things is way too partial and therefore, frankly, very unrealistic:
1. That the russia story is all about the dem party and the election. It goes way beyond that. It’s only one “the party is the issue” narrow approach to this issue that boils it down to that. That’s just some splinter left bloggers’s anti-dem narrow take on this and has been exploded. At least the old “it didn’t happen” routine has been dropped.
2. even given just the one narrow band of this whole issue that focuses only on the dem party email leaks (which again is just very selective), that the fact that only one party was targetted is INsignificant. Of course it’s significant. (And that’s from someone who does not believe for a second that the election was won or lost based on email leaks, no matter how partisan they were.)
I personally don’t see the point in ignoring thug oligarchic right-wingers who are in agenda cahoots with other thug oligarchic right-wingers and the coalition basically influencing policy in several countries (the USA and Russia being only 2 of them). Getting some more additional Hillary bashing out of this is just not worth having a blind spot THAT big.
The problem with this discussion IMO is everyone HERE keeps talking to outsiders instead of people HERE. So for example in looking at the narrowly unrealistic takes on russia, I keep encountering people who want to argue with dems who blame the election on email leaks. Except—no one HERE is saying that, or even cares about that. So it’s actually not relevant…HERE. I say save that stuff for the establishment dems you’re arguing with OTHER PLACES.
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znModeratorRams’ top five needs, best fits on the clock at No. 37
Who should the Rams take with their first pick? We break down all their options
Frank Cooney NFLDraftScout.com
This is one in a series that covers each team, offering viewers information for homework, suggestions and then the opportunity to make a draft pick.
When the NFL Draft begins selections in Philadelphia April 27, the Los Angeles Rams will wait until the next day to make their initial pick at No. 37 overall in the second round.
Here is an in-depth look at the team’s needs, offseason changes, potential best fit and the selections by NFLDraftScout.com’s experts.
Who would you pick and why?Top five needs
1. No. 1 receiver: It’s a been a well-established problem for the Rams, but they just haven’t been able to uncover a game-changing wideout. And while they added veteran Robert Woods in free agency, he isn’t the elusive big-time downfield threat they sorely need.
2. Center: The Rams released Tim Barnes during the early stage of free agency, and while they chased Buffalo restricted free agent Ryan Groy with a contract offer sheet, the Bills wasted little time matching the offer. That leaves the Rams still in the market for a starting center even after the signing of John Sullivan.
3. Safety: Veteran T.J. McDonald will not be brought back — he signed as a free agent with the Dolphins — leaving the Rams with only Maurice Alexander as a starting safety. With precious few desirable free-agent possibilities, the Rams figure to address the position in a draft fairly deep at the position.
4. Cornerback: The Rams are open to locking up Trumaine Johnson to a long-term contract, but part of that is dependent on Johnson wanting to be in Los Angeles long term and whether he’s a good fit for Wade Phillips’ new defensive scheme. Point being, there is a chance Johnson might not be with the Rams beyond this season. Drafting a fill-in option — or a future starter opposite him — is a strategy they will consider.
5. Outside linebacker: The Rams signed veteran Connor Barwin as a 3-4 outside linebacker, but it remains to be seen if he’s a long-range answer. Even with defensive end Robert Quinn moving to the position, drafting and developing a future asset at rush linebacker is critical.
Best fit
Corey Davis, WR, Western Michigan: The Rams need to improve the infrastructure around young quarterback Jared Goff, and desperately need a big, fast, dependable receiver who can put fear into the heads of opposing defenses. Davis fits that bill, and if he is available at No. 37 the Rams should jump at the chance to bring him in. Davis is a four-year starter and one of the most productive players in the draft, having capped his impressive career with 97 catches, 1,500 yards receiving and 19 touchdowns in 2016.
The pick will be …
Rob Rang: Evan Engram, TE, Mississippi. The Rams still need to add more weapons to help quarterback Jared Goff and at 6-foot-3, 234 pounds, Engram has similar size and athleticism as Jordan Reed, who become a star under new Rams head coach Sean McVay in Washington.
Dane Brugler: Takk McKinley, OLB, UCLA. The Rams have needs all over the roster and might be able to steal McKinley at a discount due to the shoulder issue that might force him to miss training camp.
Jim Miller: Marlon Humphrey, CB, Alabama.
(Pat Kirwan, Miller picks based on last Friday’s mock on SiriusXM Radio. Listen to their next mock Friday, April 21, on SiriusXM NFL Radio channel 88).
Frank Cooney, IMO: Plenty of needs here, but a pass-catcher will help ignite Jared Goff’s career. I’ll be surprised if wide receiver Corey Davis is still around, which might make Mississippi tight end Evan Engram a good addition to new head coach Sean McVay’s offense for Goff.
znModeratorIntel source: FBI discovers Kremlin is blackmailing Jason Chaffetz over Donald Trump and Russia
Intel source: FBI discovers Kremlin is blackmailing Jason Chaffetz over Donald Trump and Russia
For months, onlookers have wondered why House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz has done his best to protect Donald Trump from his Russian collusion scandal. Has it been merely partisan hackery, or has Chaffetz had a more specific reason? According to an intel community source, the FBI has learned that Russia has “kompromat” blackmail material on Chaffetz and has been using it to keep him in line with regard to Trump’s Russia scandal.
The intel source comes by way of political pundit Louise Mensch, whose inside sources have a history of being correct about FISA warrants and other matters. Here’s how she phrases it: “Sources say there is kompromat on Jason Chaffetzl that this is why he turned and that FBI know it” (link). She does not go on to reveal what that blackmail material is, but the key phrase here is that “he turned.”
Chaffetz is in a powerful position as the chair of one of the committees that should be investigating the Donald Trump campaign’s Russian collusion. But he’s managed to keep that off the table, forcing other Congressional committees to pick up the slack. Mensch is suggesting that Russia has “turned” Chaffetz to the point where it controls him, ostensibly ensuring that his committee will never investigate Trump-Russia. However, with other sources saying the FBI investigation into Trump-Russia is so far along that the first big arrests could come as soon as next week (link), and that Rudy Giuliani’s request for a deal has been denied because his cooperation is no longer even needed (link), Chaffetz doesn’t appear to be in a position to hold up the works.
Palmer Report has previously determined that the largest donor to Jason Chaffetz is an illegal pyramid scheme which does business in Russia (link), but it’s not clear if the two storylines are connected.
Now comes the question of just what the FBI will do with the apparent knowledge that Jason Chaffetz, a sitting Congressman, is a traitor acting on behalf of Russia. Will Chaffetz eventually end up among the arrests?
znModeratorEarly home games, winnable matchups on Los Angeles Rams schedule
Alden Gonzalez
The NFL has released its 2017 regular-season schedule. Here’s a look at what’s in store for the Los Angeles Rams.
Breakdown: The Rams won’t have as much of a back-loaded home schedule this year. The 2016 season featured only two games at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum within the first eight weeks. This year starts with back-to-back home games and three of them within the first five weeks. There seem to be a lot of winnable games here, too. And it starts with the NFC West, where the Cardinals have seemingly taken a step back and the 49ers are in the initial stages of a rebuild. It looks like only four games (on the road against the Cowboys and Giants, and twice against the Seahawks) will come against what many consider legitimate playoff contenders. Two others (on the road against the Jaguars and Titans) will come against teams that are seemingly on the rise.
All the feels for Sean McVay: The Rams’ 31-year-old rookie head coach will get an interesting test early. In Week 2, he will host his former team, the Redskins, after spending the last three seasons as their offensive coordinator. That Sunday, on Sept. 17, he will reunite with his former quarterback, Kirk Cousins, and one of his key mentors, Jay Gruden. And then, a mere four days later, McVay will match up with another one of his key mentors, Kyle Shanahan, when the Rams travel to face the 49ers on Thursday Night Football. It accounts for the Rams’ only nationally televised regular-season game.
A tough stretch: If you’re looking for a make-or-break stretch in the Rams’ schedule, look towards the middle. That window between the start of Week 4 and the end of Week 9 looks especially tough. It begins on the road against the Cowboys for what will probably be the Rams’ most difficult game all season. Then they host the Seahawks, who are still favored to win the NFC West, then travel to face what should be a much-improved Jaguars team in Florida. From there, they fly to London to face the Cardinals. Then, after the bye, they travel to face a good Giants team. The London game will kick off at 10 a.m. PT, by the way. Much easier viewing for locals.
Fight for LA: That’s the slogan the Chargers adopted when they moved north from San Diego. And though they won’t face the Rams in the regular season, they’ll compete against them in a different way. The NFL has scheduled three dates — Sept. 17, Dec. 10 and New Year’s Eve — when the Rams and Chargers will host games at the same time, all of them at 1 p.m. local. The Rams will be hosting the Redskins, Eagles and 49ers, respectively. The Chargers will host the Dolphins, the Redskins and, in a highly anticipated matchup, the Raiders. The Chargers will play out of the 30,000-seat StubHub Center, located 12 miles from the Coliseum.
Goff vs. Wentz: This will be fun. For the first time, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft, Jared Goff, will match up against the No. 2 overall pick from the 2016 draft, Carson Wentz. It’ll take place Dec. 10, when the Rams host the Eagles at the Coliseum in Week 14. Question is: Whose team will be in better shape by then? Wentz started his rookie season off well, but tapered off towards the end. Goff sat through the first half, then struggled mightily in the second half. Since then, Goff got a new, offensive-minded coach, while Wentz got a new weapon in Alshon Jeffery. These two will be linked for their entire careers. And they’re also good friends.
znModeratorI am sure we all find it very revealing that you chose the Seahawks’ colors for this schedule.
Yeah sorry I didn’t even think of that. (Sometimes brain not work good.)
So, I will change it via edit.
Because, an abomination is an abomination.
znModeratorRams open season at home against Indianapolis Colts
link: http://www.ocregister.com/2017/04/20/rams-open-season-at-home-against-indianapolis-colts/
The Rams’ era under new coach Sean McVay will begin Sunday, Sept. 10, when they open their 2017 season at home against the Indianapolis Colts.
McVay, the youngest coach in NFL history when the Rams hired him at age 30 in January, faces his former team, Washington, the following week, on Sept. 17 at the Coliseum. McVay spent seven seasons in Washington, including the past three as offensive coordinator, and now he will coach against his former boss, Jay Gruden.
The Rams’ schedule isn’t exactly daunting, as only four of their 13 opponents made the playoffs last season: Dallas, Houston, the New York Giants and Seattle.
The most volatile part of the Rams’ schedule comes near mid-season. The Rams play at Jacksonville on Oct. 15, then travel to London for their Oct. 22 “home game” against Arizona. After a bye week, the Rams must return to the East Coast for a Nov. 5 game against the New York Giants.
The Rams finish the season with two of their last three games on the road, at Seattle (Dec. 17) and Tennessee (Dec. 24) before the Dec. 31 finale at home against San Francisco.
znModeratorThis will be the first time since 2007 that the Rams open the season with back to back home games.
— Rich Hammond (@Rich_Hammond) April 21, 2017
znModeratorPatriots, NFL may still have to pay Aaron Hernandez’s family after death
Patriots, NFL may still have to pay Aaron Hernandez's family after death
Aaron Hernandez’s suicide Wednesday could impact the amount of money he’s owed by the NFL and the New England Patriots.
Hernandez, who played for the Patriots for three seasons, apparently hanged himself during the appeal process of his conviction of murdering Odin Lloyd as well as a gun-related conviction in a double-murder case. Because Hernandez will not be able to take part in the appeals process, the court will vacate all charges, per Massachusetts and federal law.
That could have ramifications for whether his estate gets money from the NFL and his former team. What do they owe him? Do they owe him anything?
“And that’s the question that’s starting to be raised with respect to the bonus provisions in his contract and his NFL pension,” lawyer Michael Coyne told CSNNE’s “Toucher and Rich” Wednesday. “If these convictions are ultimately vacated — both his conviction with Odin Lloyd and his conviction on the gun charge — because of his failure to appeal, will his estate, will his child and his wife be able to recover either some of the bonus that’s still due to him under the Patriots contract or any of his pension benefits that the NFL might owe him?”
In June 2013, the Patriots withheld $3.25 million of Hernandez’s signing bonus. They also refused to pay him his $2.5 million in his guaranteed base salary. New England cited the collective bargaining agreement as their reason for withholding that guaranteed money. That’s the money Hernandez’s lawyers will likely pursue.
Coyne added: “The question is then: If he’s no longer criminally liable, has he violated the provisions of any of his contractual terms? And you know, where there’s money like this involved, the lawyers will have a field day.”
In other words, the legal loophole could result in some income, paid by the Patriots and the NFL, for Hernandez’s family. And lawyers will explore how much money, if any, they can recoup for their client’s family by scrutinizing his contract with the Patriots.
znModeratorit seems like Jackson is the kind of guard Kromer likes. I am also betting that Wichman isn’t.
And to be fair, …I didn;t account for Wichmann’s injury last year:
—
BonifayRam wrote:
I suspect Wichman is a little better than Havenstein. We’ll see in training camp.
[He had] issues with back to back high ankle sprains the last two seasons. Cody suffered that second high ankle sprain in game 5 against the Bills & was never the same. I must stress that he was playing injured .
Cody is a large & may be still growing man. Cody is close to 6-6 & was filling out nicely over 325 pounds.
I would not write him off so fast just because he looked so bad late last season. Cody was Boudreau’s top OG in pre season last season & won the LG post early in camp. It was Boudreau that flipped Cody back to starting RG when Brown was in “Fall Mode” in pre season @ starting RG.
If we went back to Cody’s rookie season after missing all of OTA’s/Training Camp & Pre season with a injured ankle Cody fought back & secured to win the starting RG post & held onto it through out his rookie season.
I went looking for additional information on Tre Jackson previous center action. Tre Jackson has the size that Kromer desires & the fact that he has some history @ center makes this new signing very interesting.
znModeratorLMU93 wrote:
I believe Jackson was primarily considered an excellent run blocker. His experience at FSU (42 starts) was ideal. Not a great combine performer and a better player than athlete.
He genuinely played well as a rookie. I think he was allowed to leave New England because (1) his replacements Mason and Thuney played so well last year and (2) his injury. There’s never been any rumors about his attitude, work ethic, etc.
It’s a low risk move for a young player that was well-regarded two years ago coming out. He had arthroscopic (not major) knee surgery last August so you would think he’s ready to roll. On talent alone he’s at minimum a top backup.
znModerator
znModeratorIMO the Rams probably looked at Jackson in that draft (I got this idea from another board out there). Interesting that Donnal was picked about 8 picks after Jackson in 2015. Both 4th rounders. And also IMO Donnal was the most (if not the only) improved Rams lineman last year. Not at left tackle but still. Initially I didn’t like the pick but last year he changed my mind.
I don’t know if Donnal fits what Kromer wants and likes, but if he continues to develop, then, they have BOTH Jackson and Donnal now. Donnal has some potential at both tackle and guard and Jackson looks more like a Kromer guard, but who knows. Either way it would be a nice touch if both came through–as depth, as starters, as future starters, whatever.
Just from a quick description it seems like Jackson is the kind of guard Kromer likes. I am also betting that Wichman isn’t.
znModeratorHe wants a Marshall Plan for Russia. And then says Russia’s own aggressive involvement in things like the election don’t matter, that’s over, it’s done, move on. Problem is, that’s not over for the people here who resented it. So who would ever support a Marshall Plan type policy? The only thing he’s left with is cajoling about war. Russia backed into a corner, lashing out. Now he was speaking his mind, and not offering a speech or an essay, but as such he does what we all do when we speak our minds passionately—he is allowing contradictory ways of seeing to co-exist in his mind. So he talks of the Russian threat and says forget about that and just make up and give them some economic assistance and hope, or they just might kill you. (Deliberate hyperbole on my part.) So to me that interview was a big collection of clashing and contradictory perceptions.
znModerator2015 draft report
OG TRE’ JACKSON
6’4″
330LBSOVERVIEW
Played in 49 games, starting 42. Captured South Team MVP honors at 2015 Senior Bowl. Named unanimous All-American in 2014 and was tabbed first-team All-ACC for two years in a row (2013-14) while helping lead Florida State to a 27-1 record and 2013 BCS national championship. In 2013, missed one game due to ankle injury. In 2012, named second-team All-ACC while starting 14 games at right guard. Played in the final eight games as a freshman, and started in bowl game against Notre Dame. Played both offensive and defensive line at Wayne County High School (Ga.). Missed his junior season with an ACL tear.
PRO DAY RESULTS
20-yard short shuttle: 5.3 seconds
Three-cone drill: 8.4 seconds
Bench press: 20 reps of 225 poundsANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
Leverage and strength to stand and steer defenders in confined spaces. Stays flat-footed and balanced at point of impact in pass pro. Deliberate, controlled climb to second level. Power to jolt in his hands. Shows recovery ability when beaten in run game. In short pull, can find target, engage and seal. Aggressive play demeanor. Can take a stand when being bull-rushed.
WEAKNESSES
Fleshy midsection with excess weight potentially affecting foot quickness. Loses feet sliding to pick up rushers. Will duck head into block on contact. Limited effectiveness in space. Inconsistent performer this season. Too reliant upon size over skill and failed to show improvement this season. Struggles to get feet into winning position when blocking laterally.
DRAFT PROJECTION Round 2 or 3
SOURCES TELL US “He’s got everything you want in a guard, he just needs to work on technique. I did my homework on the person and I think he’ll be coachable. He would start right away for us.” – NFL offensive coordinator
NFL COMPARISON Justin Blalock
BOTTOM LINE Three-year starter on a line full of wide-bodies, Jackson entered the 2014 season as one of the top-rated guard prospects, but failed to distinguish himself. Has the talent to be a dependable, quality NFL starter, but he needs to work on weight and conditioning in order to improve his feet and reach his potential.
Lance Zierlein
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2015/profiles/tre-jackson?id=2552349—
from Five prospects that will be steals in 2015 NFL Draft
By Charles Davis
Tre’ Jackson, G, Florida State
The skinny: Jackson will probably go in the third round, but he’ll likely be a plug-and-play guy and start in the NFL for a decade. He’s a tough, physical player who is proficient in just about everything he’s asked to do.
znModeratorRams Claim OL Tre’ Jackson Off Waivers
https://www.profootballrumors.com/2017/04/rams-claim-ol-tre-jackson-off-waivers
The Rams have claimed guard Tre’ Jackson off waivers from the Patriots, according to Field Yates of ESPN.com
Los Angeles can use reinforcements all along the front five after finishing as a bottom-five unit in both pass protection and run-blocking, per Football Outsiders. Veteran Rodger Saffold is projected to start at left guard, while Rob Havenstein is moving from right tackle to right guard, paving the way for former No. 2 overall pick to take over at tackle. Jackson, then, will likely start his Rams career as a depth option on the interior.
Jackson, 24, was a fourth-round pick in 2015, and played a significant amount of snaps during his rookie campaign as he started nine games for New England. According to Pro Football Focus, Jackson was roughly average in 2015, grading as the NFL’s No. 47 guard. Knee injuries knocked Jackson out at the end of that season, however, and forced him to spend the entire 2016 campaign on the PUP list.
The Rams will now assume the two remaining years on Jackson’s rookie contract. They’ll take on Jackson’s base salaries of $615K and $705K over the next two respective seasons, leaving the Patriots with only Jackson’s accelerated bonus money (roughly $260K) as dead cap space.
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