St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are in an interesting position heading into free agency.
Kenny Britt was brought to St. Louis last season and appeared to find his place on the offense as the season progressed. Britt was brought in on a one-year contract and is now expected to test the market after extension talks went no where. With Brian Quick coming back off of injury after a solid season, Britt could very well find more money elsewhere.
RT Joe Barksdale is also expected to test the market. Barksdale had a phenomenal first half of the season giving up just one sack through eight games. The second half of the season was a different story as Barksdale gave up six sacks in the final eight games and finished the season ranked number 48 on ProFootballFocus.com’s NFL tackle list.
This leaves the Rams with three offensive line positions to potentially fill. LT will be manned by Greg Robinson according to Jeff Fisher. LG expects to see Roger Saffold.
Two players on the offensive line have questionable futures in St. Louis. Jake Long ended his second season in a row on IR and Scott Wells is long past his days of being a Pro Bowl center. Davin Joseph also appears to be past his Pro Bowl days and has been pegged as one of the NFL’s dirtiest players according to multiple Rams 2014 opponents. Jake Long could be back and take over the RT spot. Saffold has also spent time at RT and could take over. Either way, the offensive line needs to be addressed in a big way in St. Louis.
Rams Needs:
The St. Louis Rams really have no defensive needs. The release of DT Kendall Langford is not too big of a deal for the Rams with Defensive Rookie of the Year Aaron Donald exploding onto the NFL scene in 2014. Starting safety Rodney McLeod will be a free agent, but is likely to walk after the Rams acquisition on Mark Barron in a trade during the 2014 season.
QB will be a big need for the Rams, not because Sam Bradford has so many question marks, but more so because Sam Bradford is about to be the only QB on the Rams roster. As we’ve seen in recent years, if the Rams just had a viable backup, they would be much better off. There’s plenty of speculation about how the Rams will address the need for competition in camp for Bradford, but that is one we will just have to watch. I do expect the Rams to draft a QB as well as sign a QB in free agency.
Offensive line is an obvious need for the Rams, but I’m not sold that the draft is the way to go. For one of the NFL’s youngest teams, it would behoove them to not overpay for a veteran past their prime, yet go after a guy around his mid 20’s and has shown consistency.
