Rams’ poor drafts add up
St. Louis has fallen on hard times lately
The St. Louis Rams still have three players from their Super Bowl championship season of nine years ago.
Unfortunately for the Rams, those aging stars still are three of their four best players.
Tackle Orlando Pace, receiver Torry Holt and defensive end Leonard Little are all that remain from “the Greatest Show on Turf” club that won the NFL title in the 1999 season.
“Those years? Those great years?” Pace told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this week. “That was light-years ago, man. Light-years.”
An inability to replenish the roster with quality draft picks is one of the big reasons the Rams are reeling heading into Sunday’s home game against the Buffalo Bills.
The last eight drafts of the once-mighty Rams have produced just one Pro Bowler. From 2000 through 2004, they picked 42 players but just three still are on the team. They got just three quality starters out of the five drafts from 2002 through 2006.
The result has not been pretty of late. The Rams have scored only 29 points in three games. They have scored 16 or fewer in 12 of their last 19 games. They have ranked in the bottom five in the league in points allowed the past three years.
The Rams are shaking up the lineup this week to try to find some answers.
Quarterback Marc Bulger has been sacked 201 times since the start of 2003, more than any QB in the league. He has been benched in favor of 38-year-old Trent Green, who suffered season-ending concussions each of the past two years. Green, however, is well-versed in the schemes of new Rams offensive coordinator Al Saunders. Green made the Pro Bowl in 2003 and 2005 while working with Saunders in Kansas City.
“He’s still got great talent and great experience,” Rams coach Scott Linehan said of Green. “But he brings a lot of intangible qualities to the table. And he’s one of those guys that people rally around. So that’s my hope.”
The move, however, is controversial. Rams star running back Steven Jackson on Thursday night defended Bulger, saying “He’s our general,” and you don’t pay someone “$60-something million” and then sit him on the bench. (Bulger signed a six-year, $65 million contract extension in July 2007.)
Jackson added, “I’m not the only one [on the team] who feels this way.”
The Rams’ offense has talent. Jackson, the Rams’ top pick in 2004, led the NFL with 2,334 yards from scrimmage in 2006. Holt, a 10th-year veteran, has produced eight straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons. Pace remains an elite player, and right tackle Alex Barron is capable.
The middle of the offensive line was shaky the first two games of the season. And the Rams are searching for receiving weapons besides Holt. Drew Bennett, projected to start, is out two to four more weeks with a broken foot. Rookie second-round pick Donnie Avery, from Houston, will start ahead of veteran Dane Looker against the Bills.
The Rams’ offense has been playing from behind most of the first three games.
St. Louis did not do much over the offseason to revamp its defense, which ranked 21st in yards allowed and 31st in points allowed last year.
The only new starting addition is Virginia defensive end Chris Long, the second overall pick in the draft.
Adam Carriker, the 13th overall pick last year, is starting at defensive tackle. Clifton Ryan, a fifth-round pick last year, will replace aging La’Roi Glover this week and play nose tackle.
The Rams’ defensive front is on the small side. St. Louis has yielded 108, 200 and 245 rushing yards in three games.
Cornerback is not a strength either, as Tye Hill (a first-round pick in 2006) and Ron Bartell (a second-rounder in 2005) have not excelled.
Nevertheless, the Rams are surprised that their performance has fallen so far off last year’s level.
“We’re at the no-excuse time,“ Linehan said on Monday. “It’s time to perform. I don’t think anyone has ever made excuses, but it’s easy to say first-year this and second-year that. We’re in the third year of a system with players that we’ve picked to play within the system. We have to go out and perform and play.”
Holt said he thinks his team is ready to play a good game against the Bills.
“We’re trying to keep our morale and our confidence and our passion for this game,” Holt said. “Eventually, we’re going to get a win here somewhere, man. . . . I don’t think anybody’s lost confidence.”
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Bills fullback Darian Barnes practiced on Friday. Coach Dick Jauron said Barnes’ participation will be a game-time decision on Sunday. . . . Little, out the past two Rams games with a hamstring injury, is expected to play in passing situations. But Victor Adeyanju, a fourth-round pick in 2006, is expected to start at defensive end. Jason Craft is expected to be the Rams’ third cornerback.
