St. Louis Rams Sign Center Hank Fraley

The St. Louis Rams continued with their "so what" free agent signings, by adding 32 year old center Hank Fraley to their roster. Fraley was the back up center in 2009 for the Cleveland Browns, starting only four games. Fraley has been very durable for an interior lineman starting 123 games of the 135 that he has played in over his 10 year career. Steve Spagnuolo again has ties to this free agent pickup. Coach Spagnuolo was with the Philadelphia Eagles while Fraley was playing in Philadelphia. First we had the FOSL's with Scott Linehan, then ex-Saints players coming to town for Jim Haslett and now Spagnuolo continues to focus on Eagles and Giants retreads. Sure their may be an advantage to knowing these players or having a relationship with them but are they the top players to help the St. Louis Rams in 2010?

St. Louis Rams Complete The Perfect Season

The St. Louis Rams completed their perfect season today with a 23-20 Overtime loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of the St. Louis Rams stunning 34-14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. That is one calendar year folks, without watching our beloved Rams win a regular season football game. When the salary cap and parity have made it so easy to compete the Rams have found a way to lose 16 straight games. Scott Linehan has been gone for a while now, and the Rams have still managed to lose under Jim Haslett and Steve Spagnuolo as well. Although the Rams were only 9 yards away from winning the game late today, you just never had a feeling they will pull it out. If we feel that way how must they feel in the locker room?

The Rams have been perfect, 16 straight losses. The Rams are 0-9 in their last nine road games and 0-7 in their last seven home games. To put things into perspective the Rams have been outscored 456 to 190 points in those 16 games. The Detroit Lions who went 0-16 in 2008 scored 268 points while allowing 517. The Lions were the laughing stock of the country the only difference between the 2008 Lions and our Rams is the calendar year. The Rams have lost 9 of those 16 games by at least 19 points. We have been routinely blown out like a college team.

Today's loss was almost worse than being blown out. The Rams took the opening kickoff and marched down to take an early 7-0 lead on a pass from Marc Bulger to Donnie Avery. The Rams led from that point on until only 8 minutes and 5 seconds remained in the game. Then just when you thought it was over Leonard Little made a fantastic play, on an awful pass by David Garrard and intercepted a pass and took it 36 yards for what looked like the winning TD. However nothing is that easy for the Rams. The Jaguars went 75 yards on 9 plays to take the lead back 20-17. The Rams had one last chance and after an unbelievable screen pass catch and run by Steven Jackson the Rams were able to move down the field. When Randy McMichael caught a 13 yard pass and took the ball to the Jags nine yard line with only 30 seconds left, a win was finally in our site.

The Rams that are 5-33 in their last 38 games then took over. The Rams who wasted 2 timeouts earlier in the half only managed two incomplete passes and never once threw a pass into the end zone and were still left with 1 time out when time expired. The Rams never saw the ball in OT as the Jags went 62 yards in 13 plays and capped off the game and the Rams perfect season with a Josh Scobee 36-yard field goal.

Thanks to the Rams for our special season

Chris Long Has The Moves

I have to admit that I am a little worried that Chris Long has still not signed a contract with the St. Louis Rams yet. However it is only late June and we still have a few weeks before training camp opens in Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin. Yahoo sports has a short article this week called Inside Slant which talks about how well Chris Long is doing in camp, and how the St. Louis Rams might be able to use his abilities in the 2008 season.

Said coach Scott Linehan, “We’ve thrown a lot at Chris, and that was the objective. He’s seen a lot of offense since he’s been here. Once that starts to click in with him, I know he’s going to really take off.”



Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett has been impressed and looks forward to the different ways he will able to utilize the rookie.

Haslett said, “I think he’s very good in run defense. He does a great job in hand placement and getting off blocks. He looks like his father from that standpoint. You can tell his dad coached him when he was young because he’s got the Howie moves.”

The Rams will need Chris Long to have an impact on the overall play of the defense. A pass rush will do nothing but help the lack of depth at linebacker, and help the secondary play a little more aggresive. Chris should be able to provide a pass rush while playing the 3-4 because he will be lined up over a TE from time to time. When Jim Haslett switches to the 3-4 Chris should be even more comfortable. I expect much more impact from Chris Long than the Rams were able to get from Adam Carriker.

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