Should Cowboys look into Nick Foles?

Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/cowboys/post/_/id/4752135/should-cowboys-look-into-nick-foles

OXNARD, Calif. — Nick Foles skipped the offseason workouts at the River Ridge practice fields with the Los Angeles Rams in the spring. Could he be on those fields this summer with the Dallas Cowboys?

The Rams released Foles on Wednesday, creating an opportunity for the Cowboys to potentially upgrade their backup quarterback spot behind Tony Romo.

Will they? Foles was on the Cowboys’ list of potential candidates earlier in the offseason, knowing the potential of his release. The Cowboys did not go after the higher-priced backups, such as Chase Daniel or Colt McCoy, when free agency began. They met with Matt Moore, but he opted to remain with the Miami Dolphins.

Nick Foles has more starting experience and more NFL success than current Cowboys backup QB Kellen Moore. L.G. Patterson/AP
They worked out all of the top quarterbacks entering the draft, and the Cowboys nearly traded back into the first round to take Paxton Lynch but opted against it. They ended up taking Dak Prescott in the fourth round, but he is not a candidate to be the backup just yet.

As the Cowboys get on the plane for Oxnard, California, on Thursday, they do so with Kellen Moore as Romo’s backup. He played in three games last year, starting two, and had four touchdown passes and six interceptions.

Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan has been Moore’s biggest backer. They worked together with the Detroit Lions. Linehan was a big reason why Moore ended up joining the Cowboys’ practice squad after the final cuts last September.

The Cowboys love his smarts and intangibles, but he’s just 5-foot-10, 200 pounds and does not possess a big arm.

Foles is 6-5, 244. He was a third-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2012. He has a 19-16 career record with 53 touchdown passes and 27 interceptions. The trade to the Rams in 2015 did not work out, even though he received a two-year extension worth $24.5 million. He had a 4-7 record with seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions and lost his job. When the Rams moved up to the No. 1 spot in the draft, his time with the Rams was through. The Rams took Jared Goff No. 1 overall to be their quarterback.

In 2013, Foles had 27 touchdown passes and two interceptions and made the Pro Bowl. He beat the Cowboys in a Week 17 winner-take-all meeting with Romo out because of back surgery.

The Cowboys went 1-11 without Romo last year. Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel and Moore were not part of the solution.

While they said the backup quarterback position was a priority for them in the offseason, they did nothing to truly address it.

After current head coach Jason Garrett became offensive coordinator in 2007, the Cowboys stocked their backup position mostly with veterans — Brad Johnson, Jon Kitna and Kyle Orton. The last two years, however, they went the relatively inexperienced route with Weeden, who was eventually released last season.

So far they are going with inexperience again in Moore, which many view as odd considering Romo’s recent injury history.

The Rams’ release of Foles, who would offer up more experience at a good age (he’s just 27) gives the Cowboys another opportunity to address the backup position.

"Goff has made significant improvements… he's making the NFL caliber throws."

–@wyche89 on Goff's progress pic.twitter.com/AD6Ky9ZOCZ

— NFL Total Access (@NFLTotalAccess) July 28, 2016

Arriving for camp atop Rams’ depth chart, Case Keenum not looking over shoulder

Steve Dilbeck

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/208005/arriving-for-camp-atop-rams-depth-chart-case-keenum-not-looking-over-shoulder

IRVINE, Calif. — He is the Los Angeles Rams’ No. 1 quarterback. Proclaimed right there on the team’s depth chart, in ink and everything.

But Case Keenum understands his situation as well as anyone, and everyone understands it clearly: The Rams made a dramatic swap of draft picks in order to select Cal quarterback Jared Goff in April as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft.

The next day, Rams coach Jeff Fisher flat-out called Goff their franchise quarterback.

But as Rams veterans began checking in Thursday at training camp, Keenum remained atop the depth chart. It’s the first time in his career he’s gone into camp listed at No. 1.

“Never done that before,” Keenum said. “A lot of firsts. The first time cameras have followed me into my dorm when I’m checking in at training camp.”

The attention is a mix of Keenum being the Rams’ current starting quarterback, the team’s historic move back to Los Angeles, and HBO selecting the team for its “Hard Knocks” documentary series.

Keenum’s hold on the starting spot is more tenuous than teenage confidence. No one is certain when Goff will become the starter, only that given everything the Rams gave up to get him, at some point it will happen.

“There’s a lot of scenarios,” Keenum said. “That’s kind of training camp. It’s a time to compete. Time to compete against your position group, time to compete against the defense.”

Through early workouts, Keenum has already developed a relationship with Goff, if not an admiration.

“He’s a great guy,” he said. “I really like Jared. He’s a great football player, but a great person too. I’m excited to see what he brings to the team, to the quarterback room.

“He’s very, very talented. He came in that way. I’m excited to see where he’s going to grow and what he’s going to be able to accomplish. He’s going to play for a long time.”

In the interim comes the NFL’s summer grind. Drills and reps and near-daily practice. And daily competition, whether it’s to start the season opener or more.

Keenum sounds convinced that competition with Goff will not sour their relationship.

“I don’t think so,” the 28-year-old said. “When it’s good people, it really makes it a lot easier. And he’s good people. We’re trying to make each other better. The way I’ve always seen it, I don’t want him to do bad. I want him to do good. When I’m competing against somebody, I want my best to be better than his.

“Anytime anybody is doing well, it’s exciting for our team. It makes our team better. He’s doing well, it pushes me. I’m doing well, it pushes him. That’s what competition is about. Making each other better and, in turn, making the team better.”

Keenum was an undrafted 6-foot-1 quarterback out of the University of Houston who signed as a free agent with the Houston Texans in 2012. He started eight games the next season and lost them all.

He was traded to the Rams prior to last season to back up quarterback Nick Foles. When Foles struggled, Keenum took over. He went 3-2 as a starter, completed 60.8 percent of his passes, and threw four touchdowns to one interception. At the team’s season-ending press conference, Fisher said Keenum would enter the offseason as the team’s No. 1 quarterback.

Which is where he remains today, even if his name at the top of the depth chart should be written in careful pencil.

Foles, well-aware of the Rams’ quarterback landscape, asked for his release and was given it Wednesday.

“A great player and an even better person,” Keenum said of Foles. “I wish him nothing but the best. I know whatever team he lands with is going to land a really good quarterback and a great teammate. I know it’s been kind of a weird situation for him. But it’s a business and you have to handle a lot of that stuff before you go play.”

Just as Keenum is trying to handle it now.

Statement from @RamsNFL head coach Jeff Fisher on the release of QB Nick Foles. pic.twitter.com/7CPtivgmG1

— Myles Simmons (@MylesASimmons) July 27, 2016

Nick Foles, LA Rams do each other a favor

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20160727/nick-foles-la-rams-do-each-other-a-favor

IRVINE >> The Rams cut quarterback Nick Foles on Wednesday in a move that, apparently, can be considered an act of mercy.

Oh, no, not for Foles, who reportedly asked for his release. Rather, the team evidently was looking out for the rest of us, the Rams already showing how deeply they care about their new fans.

Even before the veterans officially began checking in for the start of training camp here, the team sliced its roster by one, slicing being among the most effective ways to remove a wart.

Personally, I have only limited knowledge of how Foles played last season, since last season for the Rams happened in St. Louis.

But Kevin Patra, who writes for the NFL’s website, had a better view, and he definitely didn’t like what he saw.

In his report on the Foles transaction, Patra detailed how inaccurate the quarterback was in 2015, how Foles struggled reading defenses and how he “made mind-numbingly terrible decisions and was annoyingly obnoxious to watch.”

And I ask you, would a responsible professional sports franchise subject an otherwise wholesome market to such offensive images?

The Rams, more than six weeks before their first real game, should receive some sort of civic services award.

Patra concluded his story by predicting that, given the NFL’s lack of quality quarterbacks, “even Foles’ terrible game tape won’t stop him from finding work.”

Though it wasn’t specifically noted, I think we can safely assume that Patra then vomited on his laptop.

As a columnist, I have to admit I’m a little saddened by the Rams’ latest personnel decision. Sounds like Foles could have provided fodder for a season’s worth of epic rip jobs.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had the chance to describe someone was being “annoyingly obnoxious to watch,” and I witnessed nearly every one of Josh Hamilton’s at-bats with the Angels.

Of course, Foles wasn’t likely to play for the Rams this season, coach Jeff Fisher having benched him last year and the team using the No. 1 pick in the draft on Jared Goff.

In an ideal world, Goff will emerge this summer as the Rams starter, lead the team to an undefeated season and then win the Super Bowl by throwing for 600 yards and eight touchdowns, a performance made all the more amazing by the fact that, en route to being named the title game’s MVP, Goff never stopped playing Pokemon Go.

Naturally, things are unlikely to unfold so ideally for the Rams, although the questions about the pressure to succeed immediately arrived at training camp this week only minutes after the players did.

It was the second question, to be precise, to the first player the team made available to the media on Tuesday afternoon, when the Rams’ rookies reported to UC Irvine.

“This is my (first) year, so I can’t really say too much about all that,” wide receiver Pharoh Cooper explained. “We’re just going to go out there and try to win as many games as we can.”

I love this parochially charming notion that the Rams, by moving from St. Louis to Southern California, somehow now face the burden of immensely increased expectations.

Yeah, around here we never would stand for the Dodgers going without a World Series title since 1988. Or the Lakers being worse than they’ve ever been. Or the Angels having their poorest season in years.

Or the Clippers never advancing beyond the second round of the playoffs. Or the Ducks annually failing to win a Game 7 at home.

In St. Louis, the Rams only had to worry about being compared to the NHL’s Blues and baseball’s Cardinals, a franchise that hardly ever wins in the postseason, particularly against the Dodgers.

Yet, win-now will be a popular theme for the Rams with the local media, just like the suggestion that — with this being glitzy, star-driven L.A. — Goff absolutely has to be the starter sooner than later.

See, we’re entirely too sophisticated and demanding to accept faceless, boring Case Keenum as our quarterback, an idea that conveniently forgets that, the last time the Rams played locally, their starter was Chris Miller.

As it is, at least one of the Rams is entering training camp talking like a potential glitzy star. Rookie wide receiver Mike Thomas certainly didn’t sound like a sixth-round pick this week.

“I’m very confident, 100-percent confident,” he said. “You gotta be 100-percent confident in this game. If you don’t have enough confidence, you’re going to play like you have no confidence.”

Or, maybe even worse, you’re going to play like Nick Foles, whose “mind-numbingly terrible decisions” are mercifully and rightly someone else’s problems now.

This is Southern California, you know, where, whenever necessary, anything lacking can be surgically enhanced. Even our expectations.

Countdown to Camp 2016 – Defensive Line

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Countdown-to-Camp-2016—Defensive-Line/5eebbe6e-f912-48c2-8be8-9dbcb456e303

We’re down to three days in our Countdown to Camp series and today we’re taking a look at Los Angeles’ defensive line. If you’ve got a question about our next position group, running backs, be sure to submit it via Twitter, Facebook, or in the comments below.

DEFENSIVE LINE

Newcomers: Quinton Coples, Dominique Easley, Cam Thomas, Morgan Fox, Ian Seau

The Rams’ defensive line is home to a man quickly emerging as one of the league’s most impactful players in Aaron Donald. While there have been some departures in the club’s D-line rotation, Los Angeles has reloaded its depth in order to continue to have one of the most ferocious lines in the league.

Donald’s 2015 campaign was, in a word, outstanding. He led all defensive tackles with 11.0 sacks — just a half-sack away from tying the Rams’ DT franchise record. He also led the team with 49 QB pressures and 29 QB hits. His first step is arguably faster than anyone else, which allows him to make so many plays behind the line of scrimmage. Expectations for Donald’s third year probably couldn’t be much higher, but he still has a chance to exceed them.

Defensive end Robert Quinn will look to bounce back from an injury-plagued 2015, finishing the season on IR. Despite issues with his hip and back, Quinn recorded 5.0 sacks in just eight games. He mainly did work on the side and in individual drills during OTAs. Los Angeles may continue to bring him along slowly to ensure there are not setbacks before Week 1.

Michael Brockers often does the dirty work along the interior of the line by taking up double teams, freeing up Donald next to him and the linebackers behind him to make plays on the ball. Because of that, much of Brockers’ value as a defensive tackle can’t necessarily be seen in box scores. Still, Brockers has 14.5 career sacks, including 3.0 last year.

At age 31, William Hayes is one of the oldest Rams — one of the few over the age of 30. Los Angeles re-signed the defensive end to a three-year deal in March. While he’s been a key rotational piece in the past, he’s started 21 games over the last two years, including the final 11 in 2015. Hayes was the most productive defensive lineman not named Donald last year with 5.5 sacks, 41 quarterback pressures, and two forced fumbles. He was particularly a force in the Week 16 victory at Seattle, in which he racked up two full and two half-sacks.

Eugene Sims filled in admirably for Quinn in 2015, starting nine games. He totaled 45 tackles, 1.5 sacks, two passes defensed, and an interception in Week 17 at San Francisco. If Quinn is healthy, Sims slides back into being a key rotational piece for the defensive line, helping keep everyone fresh.

Two years after making the team as an undrafted free agent, Ethan Westbrooks returns for his third season with the Rams. He appeared in 13 games in 2015, registering 33 tackles and 2.0 sacks.

Defensive end Matt Longacre signed on with the Rams’ practice squad following the roster reduction at the end of the preseason, and was promoted to the active roster prior to the Rams’ Nov. 18 contest at Minnesota. He made 28 total tackles with six quarterback pressures and five QB hits.

Los Angeles signed three unrestricted free agents to bolster the depth along the line, two of whom are former first-round picks. In March, the Rams signed defensive end Quinton Coples, who spent his first few seasons with the Jets. New York selected him No. 16 overall in 2012, but cut Coples midway through 2015, and Miami claimed him. He’s registered 16.5 career sacks.

The Patriots cut 2014 first-round pick Dominique Easley in mid-April, and the Rams signed him about a month later. Easley has faced his share of injuries early on in his career, as he finished the season on IR for both his rookie and sophomore campaigns. But if he’s healthy, Easley can be a strong pass rushing force as a defensive tackle.

L.A. brought in defensive tackle Cam Thomas midway through OTAs on June 6. Originally selected by the Chargers in the fifth round in 2010, Thomas spent the past two years with the Steelers. He’s best described as a very large human — he’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 335 pounds — and looks like someone who can have success taking up double teams.

As for this year’s class of undrafted free agents, the Rams added Morgan Fox and Ian Seau to compete for roster spots. And while Louis Trinca-Pasat was on the practice squad last year, he was placed on IR during OTAs with a season-ending knee injury.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

@MylesASimmons Who will have the most sacks this year? Donald, Quinn, or even Hayes?

— Bruce Boyer (@pboss100) July 27, 2016
For the purposes of this hypothetical, let’s assume Quinn is completely healthy heading into the season.

It’s been a few years since Quinn recorded 19.0 sacks and seven forced fumbles. But because of his position, I’d say he’s the one poised to have the most sacks this year. What I mean by that is he’s someone who has the special skills to beat O-linemen and go after quarterbacks from the outside. Going against left tackles in one-on-one situations like he often does puts him at an advantage.

Now, Donald’s unique skill set makes this a legitimate question. He racked up 11.0 sacks from the inside, and that was largely without Quinn on the outside to garner attention from opposing offenses. Donald is so fast off the line and so good at using his leverage to split double teams that he can easily get in the face of quarterbacks before they’re ready to throw. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has also made a concerted effort to put Donald in more one-on-one pass-rushing situations. So while Quinn is probably best poised, Donald’s talent and work ethic mean there’s definitely a competition there.

As for Hayes, he can get after the passer, too. Last year, he was second on the team with 41 quarterback pressures and 5.5 sacks. The advantage of having a healthy Quinn and Donald would be that teams must focus on preventing those two from wreaking havoc in the backfield. And when that happens, then Hayes should get more opportunities to go one-on-one with offensive linemen. And many times, Hayes can win those matchups to get sacks.

It’s should be fun to watch Williams juggle the many pass rushers on his unit to get the most out of them.

—

I don’t know what if anything this means.

—

Nick Foles agreed to accept a lower guaranteed salary from the #Rams in 2016 to win his release and be free to sign with any team

— Ed Werder (@Edwerderespn) July 27, 2016

wv wrote:

What are the ‘swing states’ btw? Ohio, Florida….what else?

w
v

Delaware. I think. Or…maybe it’s Puerto Rico?