from Chiefs training camp report, Aug. 16: Nick Foles, Chris Conley shine

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/red-zone/article95961667.html#storylink=cpy

The offense

The Chiefs held a padded practice for two hours and 40 minutes. All highlights occurred in 11-on-11 play, unless otherwise noted.

▪ Another player who impressed was No. 2 quarterback Nick Foles, who has generally gotten better every day since his arrival in Kansas City two weeks ago. Foles threw some real beauties during the 11-on-11 red-zone period on Tuesday, including: a touchdown throw to Demarcus Robinson in the corner of the end zone; a touchdown throw to Rod Streater in the corner of the end zone; and a sidearm throw to James O’Shaughnessy in the end zone for a touchdown. Foles also threw touchdown passes to Streater, Ross Travis, Brian Parker and Tyreek Hill and another touchdown to Hill in 7-on-7.

http://www.espn.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/30125/rams-robert-quinn-heads-to-rio-for-olympics

Some additional notes from Tuesday’s practice at UC Irvine …

Jared Goff took all but a couple of snaps with the second-team offense and appeared to struggle a bit, fumbling a couple of snaps from under center and having a couple of other passes picked off. Fisher said Goff “had a couple of issues today that he learned from, but he’s improving.”

Fellow quarterback Case Keenum wowed the fans with a long touchdown connection up the sidelines with rookie wide receiver Mike Thomas, who has struggled with drops.

Linebacker Mark Barron and strong safety Maurice Alexander were held out of practice, but Fisher said it’s “nothing to be concerned with. They just needed a day off.”

http://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-training-camp-20160816-snap-story.html

Learning curve

Quarterback Jared Goff had a bit of a rough day.

The rookie had a pass intercepted by defensive back Marcus Roberson during seven-on-seven drills. Cornerback Lamarcus Joyner also picked off a pass during a team drill but the play appeared to have ended before the pass was thrown.

Goff also had a few snap-exchange challenges and tripped and fell.

“He had a couple issues out here today that he learns from,” Fisher said.

Most of Goff’s work came with the second-team offense. He did take one first-team series, and Fisher has said it was “quite likely” he would take first-team snaps against the Chiefs.

Making a run

Gurley is the star running back, Benny Cunningham his backup.

With Tre Mason absent from camp and his status in limbo, Malcolm Brown, Aaron Green and Terrence Magee are competing for roles.

Brown, a second-year pro from Texas, rushed for a team-best 66 yards in eight carries against the Cowboys.

“It’s only one game,” he said, “so I just have to stay consistent with it.”

The 5-foot-11, 224-pound Brown aims to contribute carrying and catching the ball, in pass protection and on special teams.

His said his confidence has grown since his rookie season.

“It’s crazy what confidence can do,” he said. “I feel like confidence is something I definitely have now as opposed to last year.”

Quick hits

Linebacker Mark Barron and safety Maurice Alexander did not practice. Fisher said they were held out to give them a day off. “Nothing to be concerned with,” he said. Offensive tackle Rob Havenstein remains sidelined because of a foot injury. Fisher said “we’re just waiting.” . . . . Rookie receiver Michael Thomas, who has dropped several passes during camp, caught a long touchdown pass from quarterback Case Keenum. . . . Cornerback E.J. Gaines, sidelined last week because of a hamstring issue, took a few snaps with the first-team defense and had good coverage on a deep sideline pass to Kenny Britt that fell incomplete. . . . Tight end Temarrick Hemingway made several nice catches for the second day in a row. . . . The Rams practice Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Running backs and wide receivers will sign autographs afterward.

Column Rams are counting on young left tackle Greg Robinson to serve, and protect, Jared Goff

http://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-robinson-hernandez-20160816-snap-story.html

On his third play from scrimmage as a professional quarterback, Jared Goff dropped back and . . .

BOOM!

He was driven into the ground.

That welcome-to-the-NFL moment Saturday against the Dallas Cowboys produced not only an interception, but also a critical reminder for the Rams.

If they can’t protect Goff, it won’t matter how talented he is.

This brings us to left tackle Greg Robinson, who will attempt to spare the No. 1 overall draft pick the pinata-like beatings that have traumatized and ruined countless other promising quarterbacks in this league.

Goff’s development will be directly linked to Robinson’s.

The second overall selection in the 2014 draft, the 6-foot-5, 330-pound Robinson was underwhelming in his first two seasons. He was the NFL’s most-penalized offensive lineman last year.

“It’s a big year for me and I have to approach it that way,” he said.

Robinson, 23, will be anchoring a young offensive line that also includes second-year guards Cody Wichmann and Jamon Brown. Robinson acknowledged that he feels burdened by the prospect of protecting Goff’s blind side, but thinks he was prepared for this by his hardscrabble background, which included two years in Houston after Hurricane Katrina ravaged his home state of Louisiana.

“It only made me stronger,” Robinson said.

Robinson was 12 when Katrina brushed by Thibodaux, a small town that was once known as the site of the New Orleans Saints’ training camp. In the wake of the storm, Robinson moved to Houston with his mother and six siblings.

“There was nothing we could really do about it,” Robinson said. “A lot of things were going wrong. There were a lot of times we really didn’t have hope. We just had to come together.”

Robinson said he battled homesickness.

“I just couldn’t really keep up with that city, being from a small town,” he said.

He eventually moved back to Louisiana to live with his grandmother.

In high school, he developed into one of the top offensive line prospects in the country. He went to Auburn.

Robinson was about to be dealt another setback. His father, Greg Blackledge, died in 2012.

“He was a diabetic all his life,” Robinson said.

Blackledge was absent for most of Robinson’s childhood. That changed when Robinson was a teenager. He described his father as a major spiritual influence in his life.

“Growing up in a black community, there’s not really much there,” Robinson said. “A lot of people are thankful just to have a father in their lives, even though he came into my life later. I just appreciated him so much because I was a young kid and needed that guidance.”

Robinson now has a tattoo of Blackledge’s face on his right shoulder. He recalled how his father spoke to him about the importance of taking care of his mother and siblings.

“We really didn’t have much and I always wanted to give back and help that out,” he said.

Robinson was in a position to do that shortly after he was drafted by the Rams. While he flourished as a provider to his loved ones, on-field success was slow to come.

“The speed of the game, it’s a lot different,” Robinson said. “There’s so much more complexity to it.”

When he was at Auburn, the Tigers used relatively simple zone-blocking schemes.

Robinson’s relative inexperience lengthened the learning curve. He played only two seasons of college football, declaring for the draft after his redshirt sophomore year. One Rams official pointed out that Robinson would have been a senior last year had he remained in school.

Robinson spent the off-season training with former NFL lineman LeCharles Bentley and said he returned to camp this year no longer feeling like a kid.

“Room for mistakes is out the window,” he said. “It’s time to really put the pads down and grind for real.”

Coach Jeff Fisher praised Robinson for his performance in the exhibition opener last week.

“He played hard, he finished blocks,” Fisher said. “His hands were good, his feet were consistent, his weight was down. This may have been the best preseason game that Greg’s played to date, which would imply that Greg’s getting better and had a great off-season.”

The Rams are hoping he did. Robinson’s future might not be the only one at stake.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems
Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump – neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Why has the left failed to come up with an alternative?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot

Imagine if the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. The ideology that dominates our lives has, for most of us, no name. Mention it in conversation and you’ll be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term before, they will struggle to define it. Neoliberalism: do you know what it is?

Its anonymity is both a symptom and cause of its power. It has played a major role in a remarkable variety of crises: the financial meltdown of 2007‑8, the offshoring of wealth and power, of which the Panama Papers offer us merely a glimpse, the slow collapse of public health and education, resurgent child poverty, the epidemic of loneliness, the collapse of ecosystems, the rise of Donald Trump. But we respond to these crises as if they emerge in isolation, apparently unaware that they have all been either catalysed or exacerbated by the same coherent philosophy; a philosophy that has – or had – a name. What greater power can there be than to operate namelessly?

Inequality is recast as virtuous. The market ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.
So pervasive has neoliberalism become that we seldom even recognise it as an ideology. We appear to accept the proposition that this utopian, millenarian faith describes a neutral force; a kind of biological law, like Darwin’s theory of evolution. But the philosophy arose as a conscious attempt to reshape human life and shift the locus of power.

Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that “the market” delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning.

Attempts to limit competition are treated as inimical to liberty. Tax and regulation should be minimised, public services should be privatised. The organisation of labour and collective bargaining by trade unions are portrayed as market distortions that impede the formation of a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Inequality is recast as virtuous: a reward for utility and a generator of wealth, which trickles down to enrich everyone. Efforts to create a more equal society are both counterproductive and morally corrosive. The market ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.

We internalise and reproduce its creeds. The rich persuade themselves that they acquired their wealth through merit, ignoring the advantages – such as education, inheritance and class – that may have helped to secure it. The poor begin to blame themselves for their failures, even when they can do little to change their circumstances.

Never mind structural unemployment: if you don’t have a job it’s because you are unenterprising. Never mind the impossible costs of housing: if your credit card is maxed out, you’re feckless and improvident. Never mind that your children no longer have a school playing field: if they get fat, it’s your fault. In a world governed by competition, those who fall behind become defined and self-defined as losers.

Among the results, as Paul Verhaeghe documents in his book What About Me? are epidemics of self-harm, eating disorders, depression, loneliness, performance anxiety and social phobia. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that Britain, in which neoliberal ideology has been most rigorously applied, is the loneliness capital of Europe. We are all neoliberals now.

***

The term neoliberalism was coined at a meeting in Paris in 1938. Among the delegates were two men who came to define the ideology, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. Both exiles from Austria, they saw social democracy, exemplified by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and the gradual development of Britain’s welfare state, as manifestations of a collectivism that occupied the same spectrum as nazism and communism.

In The Road to Serfdom, published in 1944, Hayek argued that government planning, by crushing individualism, would lead inexorably to totalitarian control. Like Mises’s book Bureaucracy, The Road to Serfdom was widely read. It came to the attention of some very wealthy people, who saw in the philosophy an opportunity to free themselves from regulation and tax. When, in 1947, Hayek founded the first organisation that would spread the doctrine of neoliberalism – the Mont Pelerin Society – it was supported financially by millionaires and their foundations.

With their help, he began to create what Daniel Stedman Jones describes in Masters of the Universe as “a kind of neoliberal international”: a transatlantic network of academics, businessmen, journalists and activists. The movement’s rich backers funded a series of thinktanks which would refine and promote the ideology. Among them were the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Centre for Policy Studies and the Adam Smith Institute. They also financed academic positions and departments, particularly at the universities of Chicago and Virginia.

As it evolved, neoliberalism became more strident. Hayek’s view that governments should regulate competition to prevent monopolies from forming gave way – among American apostles such as Milton Friedman – to the belief that monopoly power could be seen as a reward for efficiency.

Something else happened during this transition: the movement lost its name. In 1951, Friedman was happy to describe himself as a neoliberal. But soon after that, the term began to disappear. Stranger still, even as the ideology became crisper and the movement more coherent, the lost name was not replaced by any common alternative.

At first, despite its lavish funding, neoliberalism remained at the margins. The postwar consensus was almost universal: John Maynard Keynes’s economic prescriptions were widely applied, full employment and the relief of poverty were common goals in the US and much of western Europe, top rates of tax were high and governments sought social outcomes without embarrassment, developing new public services and safety nets.

But in the 1970s, when Keynesian policies began to fall apart and economic crises struck on both sides of the Atlantic, neoliberal ideas began to enter the mainstream. As Friedman remarked, “when the time came that you had to change … there was an alternative ready there to be picked up”. With the help of sympathetic journalists and political advisers, elements of neoliberalism, especially its prescriptions for monetary policy, were adopted by Jimmy Carter’s administration in the US and Jim Callaghan’s government in Britain.

After Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan took power, the rest of the package soon followed: massive tax cuts for the rich, the crushing of trade unions, deregulation, privatisation, outsourcing and competition in public services. Through the IMF, the World Bank, the Maastricht treaty and the World Trade Organisation, neoliberal policies were imposed – often without democratic consent – on much of the world. Most remarkable was its adoption among parties that once belonged to the left: Labour and the Democrats, for example. As Stedman Jones notes, “it is hard to think of another utopia to have been as fully realised.”

***

It may seem strange that a doctrine promising choice and freedom should have been promoted with the slogan “there is no alternative”. But, as Hayek remarked on a visit to Pinochet’s Chile – one of the first nations in which the programme was comprehensively applied – “my personal preference leans toward a liberal dictatorship rather than toward a democratic government devoid of liberalism”. The freedom that neoliberalism offers, which sounds so beguiling when expressed in general terms, turns out to mean freedom for the pike, not for the minnows.

Freedom from trade unions and collective bargaining means the freedom to suppress wages. Freedom from regulation means the freedom to poison rivers, endanger workers, charge iniquitous rates of interest and design exotic financial instruments. Freedom from tax means freedom from the distribution of wealth that lifts people out of poverty.

As Naomi Klein documents in The Shock Doctrine, neoliberal theorists advocated the use of crises to impose unpopular policies while people were distracted: for example, in the aftermath of Pinochet’s coup, the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina, which Friedman described as “an opportunity to radically reform the educational system” in New Orleans.

Where neoliberal policies cannot be imposed domestically, they are imposed internationally, through trade treaties incorporating “investor-state dispute settlement”: offshore tribunals in which corporations can press for the removal of social and environmental protections. When parliaments have voted to restrict sales of cigarettes, protect water supplies from mining companies, freeze energy bills or prevent pharmaceutical firms from ripping off the state, corporations have sued, often successfully. Democracy is reduced to theatre.

Neoliberalism was not conceived as a self-serving racket, but it rapidly became one
Another paradox of neoliberalism is that universal competition relies upon universal quantification and comparison. The result is that workers, job-seekers and public services of every kind are subject to a pettifogging, stifling regime of assessment and monitoring, designed to identify the winners and punish the losers. The doctrine that Von Mises proposed would free us from the bureaucratic nightmare of central planning has instead created one.

Neoliberalism was not conceived as a self-serving racket, but it rapidly became one. Economic growth has been markedly slower in the neoliberal era (since 1980 in Britain and the US) than it was in the preceding decades; but not for the very rich. Inequality in the distribution of both income and wealth, after 60 years of decline, rose rapidly in this era, due to the smashing of trade unions, tax reductions, rising rents, privatisation and deregulation.

The privatisation or marketisation of public services such as energy, water, trains, health, education, roads and prisons has enabled corporations to set up tollbooths in front of essential assets and charge rent, either to citizens or to government, for their use. Rent is another term for unearned income. When you pay an inflated price for a train ticket, only part of the fare compensates the operators for the money they spend on fuel, wages, rolling stock and other outlays. The rest reflects the fact that they have you over a barrel.

Those who own and run the UK’s privatised or semi-privatised services make stupendous fortunes by investing little and charging much. In Russia and India, oligarchs acquired state assets through firesales. In Mexico, Carlos Slim was granted control of almost all landline and mobile phone services and soon became the world’s richest man.

Financialisation, as Andrew Sayer notes in Why We Can’t Afford the Rich, has had a similar impact. “Like rent,” he argues, “interest is … unearned income that accrues without any effort”. As the poor become poorer and the rich become richer, the rich acquire increasing control over another crucial asset: money. Interest payments, overwhelmingly, are a transfer of money from the poor to the rich. As property prices and the withdrawal of state funding load people with debt (think of the switch from student grants to student loans), the banks and their executives clean up.

Sayer argues that the past four decades have been characterised by a transfer of wealth not only from the poor to the rich, but within the ranks of the wealthy: from those who make their money by producing new goods or services to those who make their money by controlling existing assets and harvesting rent, interest or capital gains. Earned income has been supplanted by unearned income.

Neoliberal policies are everywhere beset by market failures. Not only are the banks too big to fail, but so are the corporations now charged with delivering public services. As Tony Judt pointed out in Ill Fares the Land, Hayek forgot that vital national services cannot be allowed to collapse, which means that competition cannot run its course. Business takes the profits, the state keeps the risk.

The greater the failure, the more extreme the ideology becomes. Governments use neoliberal crises as both excuse and opportunity to cut taxes, privatise remaining public services, rip holes in the social safety net, deregulate corporations and re-regulate citizens. The self-hating state now sinks its teeth into every organ of the public sector.

Perhaps the most dangerous impact of neoliberalism is not the economic crises it has caused, but the political crisis. As the domain of the state is reduced, our ability to change the course of our lives through voting also contracts. Instead, neoliberal theory asserts, people can exercise choice through spending. But some have more to spend than others: in the great consumer or shareholder democracy, votes are not equally distributed. The result is a disempowerment of the poor and middle. As parties of the right and former left adopt similar neoliberal policies, disempowerment turns to disenfranchisement. Large numbers of people have been shed from politics.

Chris Hedges remarks that “fascist movements build their base not from the politically active but the politically inactive, the ‘losers’ who feel, often correctly, they have no voice or role to play in the political establishment”. When political debate no longer speaks to us, people become responsive instead to slogans, symbols and sensation. To the admirers of Trump, for example, facts and arguments appear irrelevant.

Judt explained that when the thick mesh of interactions between people and the state has been reduced to nothing but authority and obedience, the only remaining force that binds us is state power. The totalitarianism Hayek feared is more likely to emerge when governments, having lost the moral authority that arises from the delivery of public services, are reduced to “cajoling, threatening and ultimately coercing people to obey them”.

***

Like communism, neoliberalism is the God that failed. But the zombie doctrine staggers on, and one of the reasons is its anonymity. Or rather, a cluster of anonymities.

The invisible doctrine of the invisible hand is promoted by invisible backers. Slowly, very slowly, we have begun to discover the names of a few of them. We find that the Institute of Economic Affairs, which has argued forcefully in the media against the further regulation of the tobacco industry, has been secretly funded by British American Tobacco since 1963. We discover that Charles and David Koch, two of the richest men in the world, founded the institute that set up the Tea Party movement. We find that Charles Koch, in establishing one of his thinktanks, noted that “in order to avoid undesirable criticism, how the organisation is controlled and directed should not be widely advertised”.

The words used by neoliberalism often conceal more than they elucidate. “The market” sounds like a natural system that might bear upon us equally, like gravity or atmospheric pressure. But it is fraught with power relations. What “the market wants” tends to mean what corporations and their bosses want. “Investment”, as Sayer notes, means two quite different things. One is the funding of productive and socially useful activities, the other is the purchase of existing assets to milk them for rent, interest, dividends and capital gains. Using the same word for different activities “camouflages the sources of wealth”, leading us to confuse wealth extraction with wealth creation.

A century ago, the nouveau riche were disparaged by those who had inherited their money. Entrepreneurs sought social acceptance by passing themselves off as rentiers. Today, the relationship has been reversed: the rentiers and inheritors style themselves entre preneurs. They claim to have earned their unearned income.

These anonymities and confusions mesh with the namelessness and placelessness of modern capitalism: the franchise model which ensures that workers do not know for whom they toil; the companies registered through a network of offshore secrecy regimes so complex that even the police cannot discover the beneficial owners; the tax arrangements that bamboozle governments; the financial products no one understands.

The anonymity of neoliberalism is fiercely guarded. Those who are influenced by Hayek, Mises and Friedman tend to reject the term, maintaining – with some justice – that it is used today only pejoratively. But they offer us no substitute. Some describe themselves as classical liberals or libertarians, but these descriptions are both misleading and curiously self-effacing, as they suggest that there is nothing novel about The Road to Serfdom, Bureaucracy or Friedman’s classic work, Capitalism and Freedom.

***

For all that, there is something admirable about the neoliberal project, at least in its early stages. It was a distinctive, innovative philosophy promoted by a coherent network of thinkers and activists with a clear plan of action. It was patient and persistent. The Road to Serfdom became the path to power.

Neoliberalism’s triumph also reflects the failure of the left. When laissez-faire economics led to catastrophe in 1929, Keynes devised a comprehensive economic theory to replace it. When Keynesian demand management hit the buffers in the 70s, there was an alternative ready. But when neoliberalism fell apart in 2008 there was … nothing. This is why the zombie walks. The left and centre have produced no new general framework of economic thought for 80 years.

Every invocation of Lord Keynes is an admission of failure. To propose Keynesian solutions to the crises of the 21st century is to ignore three obvious problems. It is hard to mobilise people around old ideas; the flaws exposed in the 70s have not gone away; and, most importantly, they have nothing to say about our gravest predicament: the environmental crisis. Keynesianism works by stimulating consumer demand to promote economic growth. Consumer demand and economic growth are the motors of environmental destruction.

What the history of both Keynesianism and neoliberalism show is that it’s not enough to oppose a broken system. A coherent alternative has to be proposed. For Labour, the Democrats and the wider left, the central task should be to develop an economic Apollo programme, a conscious attempt to design a new system, tailored to the demands of the 21st century.

Last year the Chiefs defense was 7th in yards, 3rd in points, 9th against the pass, and 8th against the run.

The offense was 27th in yards, 29th in passing attempts, 30th in passing yards, and 6th in rushing yards.

They are what the Rams will be except the Rams version will be better.

Last week they played Seattle tough in a close game and lost by 1.

bnw wrote:

You would have to be the size of a planet or much larger to sense a gravitational wave. So eat up and definitely bring your ego.

The actual sensors for gravitational waves are far smaller than a planet. Or we would never have detected them.

Either way you are taking a joke far too literally.

That’s a supervillain power. Over-literalization.

So enough. It’s boring.

Agamemnon wrote:

I read somewhere that the NFL channel is a joined in broadcast thing. Notice the start time is later there than the actual start time.

Well yeah I see that some schedules (including the Rams official site) have it at 9 PM ET. So maybe there is an hour delay? When I went to set it up for tivo it was a normal 3 hour game on at 10 PM ET.

That may mean some of us get it at different times.

Practice Report 8/15: Mannion Steady as Preseason Unfolds

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Practice-Report-815-Mannion-Steady-as-Preseason-Unfolds/03991edc-26f6-4edb-af95-1eb5988880dc

When it comes to the Rams’ quarterbacks, the lion’s share of attention has been placed on No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff — and rightfully so. Pundits (including this one here) seemingly hang on his every move, asking head coach Jeff Fisher how he looks on a day-to-day basis to glean when the signal-caller may move into the starter’s role.

But Goff, of course, is not the only quarterback on the roster. And between Goff, Case Keenum, Sean Mannion, and Dylan Thompson, Fisher said Monday he feels the QBs room is in a better spot than it has been in the past.

“I’m happy with that right now and now it’s just a matter of Case leading this football team, Sean positioning himself to come in and back up if need be, and then Jared just pushing himself to where he eventually becomes ‘that guy’ for us,” Fisher said.

At this point, it feels safe to say everyone has firm expectations for how the QB roles will eventually shake out among the top three signal-callers — especially since Fisher laid it out so plainly to the media. And since there is a clear plan, the head coach said patience is a key virtue.

“We’ve done this before. We have a plan and the plan is basically, it’s all around being patient, you have to be patient with it,” Fisher said. “Certainly, as I said numerous times, it’s unfair to Jared, and to Case, and to Sean to say ‘alright, here’s the date.’ It’s not fair.

“They’re having fun, they’re learning,” Fisher continued. “You take the pressure off them, you’re patient and I think, after Week 1, we could basically say that all three of them have gotten better.”

Given that Keenum is the incumbent starter and Goff is due to take over as QB-1 sooner than later, you might expect Mannion to feel a little left out of the conversation. But when you ask the Oregon State product, that’s not the kind of answer you get.

“I don’t worry about attention, really. That has nothing to do with the way you play on the field,” Mannion said on Monday. “I think if you need to look outside at the attention to be motivated or feel motivated, then there’s something wrong with you, frankly.

“I feel like I’m a pretty self-motivated guy,” Mannion added. “I want to do well for myself, do well for my teammates. But I don’t let any attention bother me — I don’t even pay attention to it. All I concern myself with is becoming the best player I can be and doing whatever I can to help the team and play good football.”

Mannion undoubtedly made some good plays on Saturday, helping engineer the Rams’ fourth-quarter comeback victory over Dallas. The quarterback played the entire second half, completing 18 of his 25 passes for 147 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception.

“Sean’s numbers were really good,” Fisher said.

“I think having had a chance to look at the film, really just the one ball on the interception [is what] I’d like back,” Mannion said. “I think for the most part, I felt like I made good decisions — again, outside of that one.”

The young signal-caller said he feels like his next step is to play faster.

“Everyone talks about the speed of the game and I definitely felt much more comfortable in this preseason than last year — being a rookie last year,” Mannion said. “But any time you can just keep speeding up the way you play, keep playing faster, keep spitting the ball out, I think it’s always a good thing.”

And Mannion will continue to work on his craft focused solely on what he can control — his own performance.

“I just want to come out here and play my best football. And I think I’ve been playing well since OTAs started, and I think I’ve been playing well in training camp,” Mannion said. “And I don’t worry about anything else. I just worry about playing my best football and I feel like, for the most part, I’ve been stacking together a lot of good practices all the way since April.”

EXTRA POINTS

— Fisher liked what he saw on Saturday’s film from left tackle Greg Robinson, saying he played decisive and well.

“He played hard, he finished blocks, his hands were good, his feet were good, he was consistent, his weight was down,” Fisher said. “As a matter of fact, that was one of the things that came out of our personnel meeting last night – that this may have been the best preseason game that Greg has played to date, which would imply that Greg’s getting better and he’s had a great offseason.”

A good start to what Robinson himself has acknowledged is a big year.

— For your daily Goff update, Fisher said there were no issues with the quarterback’s non-throwing shoulder.

“Jared was fine. He got in there and made the throws,” Fisher said, specifically pointing out a few throws Goff made to rookie tight end Temarrick Hemingway. “Again, this was kind of [an] ease-yourself-back-into-the-week day, but it was good for him to be able to overcome the shoulder soreness and get out there and throw the ball around.”

— Both offensive lineman Isaiah Battle and cornerback E.J. Gaines made their way back to practice on Monday. Fisher has said he expects both to be available for Saturday’s game.

“Today he was cleared to go full speed,” Fisher said of Gaines, “so we’re going to give him a good week of practice. Barring any setbacks, he’ll play this week.”

— For a Monday roster move, the Rams waived/injured safety Brian Randolph, who suffered a torn ACL against the Cowboys on Saturday. Fisher said Monday the Rams intend to bring Randolph back to compete for a roster spot next year.

For a corresponding signing, Los Angeles added safety Michael Caputo to their roster. The former Wisconsin Badger initially signed with the Saints following the draft but was subsequently waived in mid-May.

“We worked him out a few weeks ago,” Fisher said of Caputo. “He’s in good shape, so he’ll give us some depth.

‘Game is slowing down’ for Jared Goff

Alden Gonzalez

http://www.espn.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/30098/rams-wr-game-is-slowing-down-for-goff

IRVINE, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams were emphasizing the red zone late Monday afternoon, so Jared Goff lined his offense up at around the 10-yard line and positioned himself under center. Bradley Marquez was in the slot. When Goff dropped back, the second-year wide receiver ran a corner route towards the back of the end zone. And after Goff set his feet, he delivered a perfect ball, just over the reach of two defenders and into Marquez’s hands for a practice touchdown.

“I knew pre-snap that we were going to have a chance to complete that,” Marquez said. “Me and him, we both knew that.”

Marquez has spent most of his offseason working with Goff, beginning during organized team activities from late May until mid-June. In the month that followed, the two remained in Southern California and played catch up to three times a week. And since the start of training camp 17 days ago, Marquez has caught several passes from Goff while running with the second-team offense.

“He’s gotten a lot better,” Marquez said of Goff, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft. “I feel like the game is slowing down for him a little bit.”

Goff returned to the field for the first time since suffering a sore non-throwing shoulder in Saturday’s 28-24 win over the Cowboys and basically navigated through practice without restrictions. Rams coach Jeff Fisher said Goff’s shoulder is “no concern” and felt the rookie quarterback “was fine” in a limited workout.

“This was kind of ease-yourself-back-into-the-weekday,” said Fisher, who will have his players practice in full pads on Tuesday and Wednesday. “But it was good for him to be able to overcome the shoulder soreness, get out there and throw the ball.”

Fisher once again touted the play of his other quarterbacks, who continue to operate under the shadows. He raved about Case Keenum, who would’ve gone 7-for-7 in the exhibition opener if not for a dropped pass by Tavon Austin. He was sure to mention third-string quarterback Sean Mannion, who threw for 147 yards and three touchdowns in the second half. And then he preached patience with his quarterback situation.

“We’ve done this before,” Fisher said. “We have a plan. And the plan basically revolves around being patient. You have to be patient. It’s unfair to Jared, and to Case, and to Sean, to say, ‘All right, here’s the date.’ That’s just not fair.”

Marquez says Goff is “getting better every day” at operating under center, but noted that his biggest improvements have come with the subtleties of relaying plays from the huddle.

“From then to now,” Marquez said, “just with him being comfortable and the confidence he portrays in the huddle, and the confidence to repeat the play, it’s been a big difference.”

Marquez is part of a receiving corps that racked up the fewest yardage in the NFL last season. The group — headlined by Austin and Kenny Britt, with rookies Pharoh Cooper and Tyler Higbee joining the mix — amassed a mere 2,931 yards and hauled in a league-low 11 touchdowns.

On Saturday, only two of the 10 first-half completions — from Keenum and Goff — went to wide receivers.

“We have tremendous talent in the receiving group, from top to bottom,” said Marquez, competing with the likes of Cooper, Brian Quick and others for playing time. “We just need to go out there and we need to perform now, because in past years, our receiving group hasn’t been up to expectations.”

That’s why plays like Monday’s stand out — a beautifully thrown ball by a promising rookie quarterback being counted on to enhance a listless passing offense.

“He can make every throw on the field, regardless of where it is,” Marquez said of Goff. “That is just something I’ve seen over the last few months from him, so it doesn’t really surprise me or surprise anybody else. He’s been doing it, and he’s going to continue to do it.”

Not sure this was part of #Rams practice but Jeff Fisher just ordered team to sidelines to run wind sprints (practice was lethargic)

— Vincent Bonsignore (@DailyNewsVinny) August 16, 2016

"This may have been the best preseason game that Greg (Robinson) has played to date."
-Fisher breaking down #Rams LT performance vs Dallas

— #RamsRadio (@JB_Long) August 16, 2016

"It's been a point of emphasis for us…a culture change."
-Jeff Fisher on #Rams being least-penalized team opening weekend of preseason.

— #RamsRadio (@JB_Long) August 16, 2016

2/2 Getting Gaines back is pretty big. Lamarcus Joyner better suited inside in the slot & Sensabaugh can add quality depth

— Vincent Bonsignore (@DailyNewsVinny) August 16, 2016

Jared Goff threw without any restrictions today and Fisher said his sore left shoulder is "no concern." They'll be in pads next two days.

— Alden Gonzalez (@Alden_Gonzalez) August 16, 2016

An example of how the Rams use the preseason. 14 different DBs got time during the game, and that’s not even counting Gaines, who sat this one out. They are not going to keep 15 FBs, obviously. They would keep 10 at most, though 10 might be stretching it. More like 9? I forget how many they kept last year.

Troy Hill btw was one of the leaders in snap counts.

Lamarcus Joyner CB 30 52.63%
Troy Hill CB 28 49.12%
Coty Sensabaugh CB 27 47.37%
Michael Jordan DB 23 40.35%
Jabriel Washington DB 19 33.33%
Cody Davis FS 16 28.07%
Christian Bryant S 16 28.07%
Maurice Alexander SS 16 28.07%
Marcus Roberson CB 15 26.32%
T.J. McDonald SS 14 24.56%
Jordan Lomax DB 14 24.56%
Brian Randolph DB 13 22.81%
Jordan Kovacs DB 13 22.81%
Rohan Gaines DB 12 21.05%

Rams Waive/Injured S Brian Randolph, Sign S Michael Caputo

link: http://nfltraderumors.co/rams-waiveinjured-s-brian-randolph-sign-s-michael-caputo/

The Los Angeles Rams waived S Brian Randolph with an injury designation on Monday and signed S Michael Caputo to a contract, per Myles Simmons.

Should Randolph clear waivers tomorrow, he would revert to the team’s injured reserve list.

Rams HC Jeff Fisher announced Sunday that Randolph suffered a torn ACL and would subsequently miss the entire 2016 season, so this shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

“It’s very unfortunate for him,” Fisher said of Randolph, via TheRams.com. “Fortunately for him, he’s gone through it before. So we’ll tuck him away, we’ll give him an opportunity to compete next year.”

Randolph, 23, went undrafted out of Tennessee before signing a three-year, $1.62 million contract with the Rams. He was set to make a base salary of $450,000 for the 2016 season.

During his college career at Tennessee recorded 306 tackles, four forced fumbles, a recovery, eight interceptions and 13 pass defenses.

Caputo wound up going undrafted out of Wisconsin back in May before signing on with the Saints a few days later. Unfortunately, Caputo lasted just a few weeks in New Orleans before he was waived.

During his four-year college career at Wisconsin, Caputo recorded 244 tackles, 1.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, five recoveries, three interceptions and 17 pass defenses.

off the net from Dick84

Boras and Groh seem to be working together well. Incorporating Goff’s college concepts shows that they are flexible and smart. Looking forward to seeing what they can do. Goff will be more comfortable in the offense sooner than you think.. because they’re incorporating a bunch of Cal stuff and, as he said, the concepts behind the Rams shotgun and what they did at Cal are similar. That deep route to Cooper is also something that takes advantage of a pass Goff threw *very well* in college. They didn’t look like they’re developing a one-dimensional offense.

Having Gurley out there and Goff and Higbee will make this a functional unit. Oline is looking a little better to me… I saw push on several running plays on the right side.

The issues the offense had were with execution (drops), not scheme. They actually got guys open. … the Rams have paid attention to what has and hasn’t worked for QBs coming from spreads. They’re integrating aspects of Goff’s college offense that work with what they are doing to *ease* his transition. Pretty obvious and it’s pretty obvious that’s one of the reasons he looked comfortable. Good work by the staff on that one.

Goff’s *performance* didn’t show me anything that makes me believe he’s overwhelmed in any way and his *talent* is obvious. Goff seemed to be completely in control of the offense.. no issues getting plays in, lining guys up and getting plays off. No penalties.. no confused looks to the sideline.. and when Cooper was lining up incorrectly, *instantly* and jumped on him, getting him in position *and* got the play off well in time. His reads on progressions were very solid.

So Goff looked prepared to me, and they integrated more shotgun. That throw isn’t in there for Keenum. Unlike Prescott, Goff had to go through progressions. Looked like Prescott was making single reads. Prescott had a delay of game penalty and had the ball snapped while two players were still in motion. He also started to look very average as they got deeper into it.

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Westbrooks is way more likely to be the 4th DE than Coples. Westbrooks has more “get off the line” and more bend getting around a corner. It’s not a criticism of Coples, btw. Maybe he’s just miscast as a DE. Coples is still pretty athletic and very large.

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Quick’s not going anywhere. Made the catch on the only ball on target to him.. .threw a solid, solid block to spring Benny.. stripped a defender after the int. He’s going to get a shot this season. We’ll see if he can take it.