Rams News Recap: May 21

[RamBill]

NFL’s market assessment complete for St. Louis –PD
The results are in. But the St. Louis task force has yet to see them.

Bernie: Goodell and the NFL Are Taking the St. Louis Stadium Plan Seriously --Audio

Bernie: Goodell’s STL Comments are Good Sign
At the NFL owners’ meeting Wednesday in San Francisco, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was asked to assess the situation in St. Louis, where efforts continue to secure funding for a proposed football stadium on the north riverfront.

Projected 2015 starters: St. Louis Rams –NFL.com
Around The NFL predicts the Week 1 starting lineups for all 32 teams, analyzing the potential impact of each rookie class. See every breakdown here.

Out of the Cellar and into the Playoffs for the St. Louis Rams?
The Sam Bradford era in St. Louis is over and the Rams’ era in the city may soon be ending as well. With so much uncertainty regarding the future, the Rams are focused on ending their ten year playoff drought this season.

Will The St. Louis Rams Be Ok Without Joe Barksdale? –Grisak
Earlier this week, former St. Louis Rams right tackle Joe Barksdale signed a one year contract with the San Diego Chargers in what left many disappointed.

Can Brian Quick Regain His Momentum From Last Season With the Rams in 2015?
First came fellow draft classmate Chris Givens in 2012. Then came Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey in 2013. And after a quiet year at the wide receiver department in the draft, the Rams continued their search in free agency by signing Kenny Britt in 2014.

Early Predictions for St. Louis Rams’ 2015 Training Camp Battles –Gerwel
The St. Louis Rams have basically finalized the 2015 training camp roster, but we’ll have to wait for the numerous head-to-head battles before knowing the official depth chart.

St. Louis Rams Rank 170th in ESPN Salary Survey –Wagoner
The St. Louis Rams rank 170th out of 333 international teams surveyed in an ESPN/SportingIntelligence report revealing the sports franchises that spend the most on their players. That represents a drop of 24 spots from their rank of No. 146 a year ago.

Roger Goodell Pleased with St. Louis Stadium Progress –Wagoner
While the two proposed Los Angeles-area stadiums look to be well ahead of the curve in their potential of becoming reality

For Most Part, Greg Zuerlein Should be Unfazed by Extra Point Changes –Wagoner
One of the pieces of business that was taken care of at the owners meetings this week in San Francisco was the league’s decision to officially change the extra-point procedure.

Morning Ram-blings: Rams Get Varied Offseason Grades –Wagoner
The ESPN NFL Insider group handed out grades Wednesday for every team for their work this offseason. With Organized Team Activities underway, most of the roster -uilding phase is over, which provides a golden opportunity for our experts to break it down.

NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport Talks LA Stadium Projects, Rams’ Future –Audio

Bernie Discusses the STL/LA Developments from the NFL Owner’s Meetings –Audio

Kevin Demoff on Rams Current Priorities, Future –Video

Jim Thomas Report from the NFL Meetings –Audio

Eric Grubman Talks About Keeping the Rams in St.Louis –Video

 

[RamBill]

Morning Ram-blings: Projecting the starters
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/18658/morning-ram-blings-projecting-the-starters

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- With rosters mostly set, the folks over at NFL.com began the process this week of taking an early stab at what starting lineups around the league could look like as we head toward training camp.

On Thursday, they unveiled their best guess at what the St. Louis Rams plan to do. Most of the projected starters for the Rams are pretty much by the book, with few surprises. In fact, most of the starters seem to be obvious with so many pieces returning.

But there were a couple that I would disagree with and in those cases, NFL.com did account for the possibility of something different below the basic list of starting 11.

On the offensive line, it's entirely possible that the Rams will start two rookies and Tim Barnes at center, but think it will look something different as we project it this far out. I believe the Rams would like to see Barrett Jones win the center job but it's not outrageous to project Barnes there, especially this far out, as he's actually started some games at that position.

Elsewhere, I wonder if the Rams would go with rookies Jamon Brown and Rob Havenstein together on the right side. If indeed they plan to start Brown at guard, I'd think he would move to the left side with Rodger Saffold on the right. And because these are projected Week 1 starters, it's possible the Rams might lean on Garrett Reynolds for a guard job early on to provide some veteran presence.

On the defense, there's not much to disagree with, assuming E.J. Gaines and Janoris Jenkins are the starting outside corners (and I believe they will be), then I'd lean toward penciling in Lamarcus Joyner as the nickel corner with Johnson as the primary backup. Of course, the Rams could also use Gaines in the slot with Johnson coming in on the outside when they go to the nickel.

Aside from that, most of the rest of the starters should be fairly obvious, even this far out.

I.C.Y.M.I.

A roundup of Thursday's Rams stories appearing on ESPN.com. ... In the Ram-blings, we began the day with a look at ESPN Insider's grades for the offseason. ... By the numbers, Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein shouldn't have many problems with the new extra point. ... NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seems pleased with the St. Louis stadium task force's progress to this point. ... Finally, the Rams checked in at No. 170 on the latest ESPN salary report.

Elsewhere:

Former Ravens running back Ray Rice's domestic violence case has been dismissed.
John Clayton lists the teams that could be landing spots for Rice, though as you'd expect the Rams aren't one of them.
NFL Nation columnist Kevin Seifert has an interesting look at a quarterback's efforts to transition from a spread offense to the NFL.
At 101sports.com, Bernie Miklasz discussed how Goodell is taking St. Louis' stadium efforts seriously.
At stltoday.com, Miklasz expounds on those thoughts in this piece.