Rams to take a pass on supplemental draft
The NFL will be conducting it’s supplemental draft this afternoon, but the Rams have said that they will not be putting a bid in for any player eligible. The players to be available today include BYU RB Harvey Unga, Illinois DT Joshua Price-Brent, Truman St. RB Vanness Emokpae and Northwestern State RB Quentin Castille.
The Rams selected 11 players in this years draft, and will need to create as much in their rookie salary pool as possible since they have to pay Sam Bradford.
Bradford, Rams to start talking
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Sources at ESPN are reporting that the St. Louis Rams and Sam Bradford are set to start discussing a contract on Friday. Bradford declined to sign a contract prior to the draft and it’s believed he will receive the most guaranteed money in NFL history.
Once Bradford signs, a cascade effect will ripple through the league and most all the first round picks will sign soon after.
Rams plug in vets on D-line
There was perhaps no team with more holes heading into this year’s NFL draft than the St. Louis Rams. The Rams used their first overall pick on Sam Bradford, a player who they hope will become their franchise quarterback for the next decade.
One position though the team didn’t address through the draft though was defensive tackle. Dan Arkush of PFW.com penned a column this week discussing this precarious position.
The Rams decided for the time being to use a stop gap approach to the defensive tackle position by acquiring two veteran players. Fred Robbins and Chris Hovan, both in their early thirties. Robbins, has a history with Steve Spagnuolo while they were both with the New York Giants. Robbins logged 78 tackles and 11 sacks in two years.
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Hovan was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the Tampa unit continued their youth movement and they drafted Gerald McCoy and Brian Price at the tackle position. Hovan was a decent run stopper with the Bucs, but has struggled the past few season while with Tampa.
The two players will simply be plugging a hole this season as the Rams won’t be heading to the playoffs and they start their rebuilding program. The Rams will most likely address the tackle position next year in the draft.
Bradford talks set to get underway
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The talks to sign St Louis Rams QB Sam Bradford are expected to get underway this week. The Rams camp will be opening on July 28th for rookies. Whatever the outcome, Mr. Bradford is poised to become a very, very wealthy man. Discussions are that Bradford will secure between a 45-50 million dollar signing bonus with his first contract.
I’m sure the Rams physicians poked and prodded Bradford prior to the draft but he does have a history of shoulder injuries. What happens if he goes down in a pre-season game and is out for the year? 50 million dollars right out the window and a season of AJ Feeley under center, that’s what.
The NFL draft was set up to help the worst teams in the league rebuild their teams through getting the best draft picks. It’s a great idea in concept until these rookie contracts started spiraling out of control. 50 million dollars? Really? For a player who has yet to take a snap in a regular season game? That’s simply ridiculous. There has to be a stop put to this insanity, if there isn’t, within a decade, the number one draft pick will be getting 100 million in guaranteed money. What incentive is there to play when that much money is guaranteed? See JaMarcus Russell. See Albert Haynesworth. Who suffers in the end? The fans as the cost of doing business by NFL franchises are passed along in the form of rising season ticket prices and concession costs.
I fear there will be a lock out in 2011, and with this issue of the rookie monies being paid out buy teams on unproven players, I have to side with the owners.
It remains to be seen if Bradford can be the savior for the Rams, but that is a hell of a lot of jing in his pocket after he inks a contract.
Atogwe is only playing for 4 million?
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At the end of June, the St. Louis Rams signed S Oshiomogho Atogwe to what was believed to be a 32 million dollar contract but as the details emerge, that’s not really the case and the Rams actually might only be renting Atogwe for 4 million for 1 year.
The St. Louis Globe Democrat reports that the deal, when broken down, amounts to nothing more than perhaps a 1 year 4.1 million dollar deal. Atogwe will earn 2.1 million base salary this year and receive a 2 million dollar roster bonus on July 1st. After that, all bets are off.
The Globe-Democrat reports that the Rams could void Atogwe’s contract the day after the Super Bowl or before an 8 million dollar roster bonus is due later in February. The paper also reports that the only money guaranteed in the contract is due this season.
One has to wonder why Atogwe would sign such a deal. Perhaps he is looking to play one more year and then move on to signing a huge deal with another team, but he received very little attention in June when he was a free agent this year. Either way it’s very unlikely he will remain with the Rams after this year as the terms of his deal as written right now would force the Rams to shell out more than 11million for Atogwe’s services in 2011.
