 RAMS MOVES MAKE SENSE, BY RANDY KARRAKER (Feb
21) |
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THE OL. A couple of quick OL
notes... First of all, Armey had Frohbeiter rated as the best tackle in college football in his junior year. The Rams love him, and in fact think that if they had signed Miller, Frohbeiter would have replaced him by the end of the '00 season anyway. Secondly, Gruttadauria and Miller may have improved in '99. But how much of that had to do with Warner's poise and sack avoiding ability, and with Faulk? If Banks were the QB and Henley the RB, would the Rams have been 13-3 and Super Bowl champs, even with that O line? My read is that the Rams go 7-9, those guys are still Rams at $1 mil per. Thirdly, historically... The Cowboys win the Super Bowl after the '92 and '93 seasons. Then they lose key guards John Gesek and Kevin Gogan after '93, Mark Stepnoski after '94 (Niners won). Keeping their skill players intact, and with the likes of Derek Kennard and Larry Allen on the OL, they win again after '95. They fall off when Irvin's legal troubles (among other players) start and Emmitt drops off a bit. The Packers win Super Bowl XXXI with Bruce Wilkerson starting at LT. He leaves, they draft Jon Michels, and go to SB XXXII. They drop off when Robert Brooks and Levens get hurt, and of course Holmgren leaves and Favre regresses... The Broncos win SB XXXII with a line of, left to right, Gary Zimmerman, Mark Schlereth, Tom Nahlen, Brian Habib and Tony Jones. After winning, Zimmerman retires and Habib leaves as a FA. Jones moves to LT, Harry Swayne is inserted, Dan Neil is inserted, and with a line, left to right of Jones, Schlereth, Nahlen, Neil and Swayne, they win again. They fall off when Elway leaves and Davis gets hurt. Moral of the story? Good teams are going to lose players in free agency, but the players to lose are OL, not skill guys. Backs and receivers are born, linemen are made. One other note...those particular O-linemen haven't won a thing since. Vermeil never talked about building "a team." He always talked about building "a program," so that if anyone left, coach or player, there was a defined role to fill, and at the player level, someone in house to fill the position. If they go into next year with Pace, Spikes, Nutten, Timmerman and Tucker/Frohbeiter, they'll be OK. And I have to say...Aaron Graham and Mark Gruttadauria are the same guy. Not that Grut isn't solid, but the only difference between them is that Grut has played in a Super Bowl. Gruttadauria's signing, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with the Cardinals. They lose Jamir Miller, L. Brown, and Centers. They have trouble with R. Moore, are having trouble with Rice, and go spend $2 mil a year on Gruttadauria. That's why they'll never win. 2. UPCOMING CONTRACTS. What about Lyght-Carter-Bruce-Warner contracts? I would be shocked if the Rams would structure those deals with large cap numbers in '00. If Warner is on a one year deal, he may get $2.5 with incentives to go to 4.5... but a cap number of $2.5. If Lyght signs long term, they're probably looking at a $5 mil bonus and something like a $1 mil salary in '00, so on a five year contract, a $2 mil cap number. The tough one is Carter, who'll probably command a $10 mil bonus on a 7 yr, $50 mil deal. So you're probably looking at about $1.5 for the bonus and $2 mil salary, for a 3.5 hit in '00. That's why they really can't do Bruce until next year. They do have "future" transition tags on Carter and Bruce, put on back in '96, so the Rams can match any offer to those two if they don't sign before next winter. |
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