Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Son, ghostwriter of late senator say Trump intervened to stop probe of Patriots' Spygate scandal

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By Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham







IN THE SPRING of 2008, the NFL was in crisis. A hard-charging United States senator from Pennsylvania named Arlen Specter had launched an investigation into the Spygate scandal. He tried to determine how many games the New England Patriots' illegal videotaping operation of opposing coaches' signals had helped the team win and learn why the NFL, under the orders of commissioner Roger Goodell, had destroyed all evidence of the cheating. By May, Specter -- a former Philadelphia district attorney and a lifelong Eagles fan -- was so angry at the "stonewalling" of his inquiry by the league and the Patriots that he called for an independent investigator, similar to the Mitchell investigation of steroid use in professional baseball. League executives and coaches might be forced to testify under oath. The prospect sent the league, and its new commissioner, into panic. "If it ever got to an investigation," Goodell said at one point, "it would be terrible for the league."

The NFL tried to combat the Specter inquiry with public statements from teams that were the primary victims of New England's spying saying the league had done its due diligence. It wasn't working.

But there was one man, a mutual friend of Specter and Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who believed that he could make the investigation go away. He was a famous businessman and reality television star who routinely threw money at politicians to try to curry favor, whether it worked or not. He had been a generous political patron of Specter's for two decades.

One day in early 2008, Specter had dinner with the man in Palm Beach at his palatial club, not far from Kraft's Florida home. A phone call followed. The friend offered Specter what the senator felt was tantamount to a bribe: "If you laid off the Patriots, there'd be a lot of money in Palm Beach."

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IN OCTOBER 2017, an ESPN reporter visited the University of Pittsburgh's Archives & Special Collections, housed in a five-story brick building in a neighborhood of warehouses and auto repair shops. For two days, the reporter sifted through Sen. Arlen Specter's letters, speeches, memos, notes and calendars, accumulated across a half-century career in public life, searching for evidence identifying the friend who had offered cash if the senator would shut down his pesky Spygate inquiry.



Two autumns earlier, the reporter had received a tip about the mutual friend's name. At the time, the man had just launched an outside and underdog campaign for president. But the tip was hard to confirm. Among Specter's papers, the reporter found a few clues but nothing conclusive. Before and after the visit to Pittsburgh, the reporter made more than a dozen calls to confidants of Specter, who died in October 2012 of complications from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but had failed to turn up anything definitive. Another ESPN reporter visited Washington, D.C., meeting with Specter's former staffers at fashionable Beltway gossip venues BLT Steak and Off the Record. Nothing conclusive turned up.

But recently and unexpectedly, there's been movement in the quest. Follow-up conversations with the people closest to Arlen Specter -- his oldest son, Shanin, a Philadelphia personal injury and medical malpractice attorney, and Charles Robbins, Specter's trusted longtime communications aide and the ghostwriter of two Specter memoirs -- revealed this: The man who dangled campaign cash if Specter were to drop the Spygate inquiry was none other than Donald J. Trump.

Not only that: Trump had told Specter he was acting on behalf of Robert Kraft.

Kraft and Trump, both responding to ESPN through spokespeople, denied involvement in any effort to influence Specter's investigation.

"This is completely false," said Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump. "We have no idea what you're talking about." Miller declined to answer a series of follow-up questions. A Patriots spokesman said Kraft "never asked Donald Trump to talk to Arlen Specter on his behalf."

"Mr. Kraft is not aware of any involvement of Trump on this topic and he did not have any other engagement with Specter or his staff," the spokesman said via email.






THE ALLEGED SPYGATE connections among Arlen Specter, Donald Trump and Robert Kraft came up almost by accident. On July 1, 2010, Specter sat down with Robbins for one of their tape-recorded discussions to prepare for the writing of Specter's third and final book, a memoir titled "Life Among the Cannibals." Only six weeks earlier, Specter, who famously switched parties from Republican to Democratic, had lost a hard-fought Democratic primary to Congressman Joe Sestak. The defeat effectively ended Specter's five-term tenure in the U.S. Senate.

That evening, during a three-hour conversation inside the dark-hued den of Specter's Georgetown condo, the senator was in an expansive mood, discussing what he had considered his noble crusade for fairness in professional sports. For two decades, Specter was a frequent, loud critic of the NFL. It galled him that franchises extorted cities for new, mostly publicly financed stadiums. More than once, Specter had threatened to file legislation that would revoke the NFL's invaluable antitrust exemption. "This is part of Arlen Specter's thesis that the NFL owns America," Specter told Robbins that night, according to a transcript of their conversation. "They're addicted to pro football in a way they have never been addicted to baseball. Or heroin."

Specter then raised his quixotic inquiry into the Spygate scandal, a source of great frustration because, for one thing, he wondered whether the Patriots cheated to beat his beloved Eagles 24-21 in Super Bowl XXXIX in February 2005. And for another thing, he felt the NFL and the Patriots had stymied his bid to get the truth.

Specter's interest in Spygate began in late 2007. Then the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter wrote two letters to Goodell raising questions about the NFL's lightning-quick investigation. In September 2007, only four days after New England was caught taping the New York Jets' coaches' signals from the sideline, the league investigation ended when the commissioner fined the Patriots $250,000 and coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and confiscated the team's first-round draft pick. Goodell then briefly reopened the league investigation days later and ordered his most trusted aide, league general counsel Jeff Pash, to stomp a handful of spying videotapes to pieces inside a Gillette Stadium conference room. The punishments had been delivered before the evidence was collected and then quickly destroyed. To Specter and others, this looked, at best, like an amateur investigation or, worse, like a cover-up. And then Goodell did not respond to either of Specter's letters seeking an explanation.

Specter was still seething about that in January 2008 when Carl Hulse, a congressional reporter for The New York Times, asked Specter who he thought would win that year's Super Bowl, which eventually featured a clash between the undefeated Patriots and the New York Giants.

"It all depends," Specter deadpanned, "if there is cheating involved."

As he recited all of this to Robbins in 2010, Specter sipped a martini on the couch in his den and spoke about his lingering Spygate frustrations. Specter recalled that during a recent fundraising session, he had decided to call up "an unlikely candidate" but "illustrative of my chutzpah, bravado and self-confidence." He called Robert Kraft.

Surprisingly, still furious over Spygate, Kraft agreed to meet with Specter at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, March 15, 2010, in a hotel suite in Boston. Although Kraft says now through a team spokesperson that the meeting "wasn't memorable," Specter told Robbins that the two men "had a delightful conversation," according to the transcript. "And he said, 'Let me get off my chest some things you did to the Patriots which were very unfair. Just very unfair.' I decided not to argue with him." Eventually, Specter and Kraft discussed the purpose of their meeting, campaign money, with the senator's hope being that Kraft and his company would contribute to his Senate reelection campaign.

The Kraft discussion led Specter to offer Robbins an intriguing aside about his Spygate investigation: "On the signal stealing, a mutual friend had told me that 'if I laid off the Patriots, there'd be a lot of money in Palm Beach.' And I replied, 'I couldn't care less.'" Although that exchange is published in Specter's 2012 book, the senator did not identify the powerful friend -- nor did he reveal in print that the friend had told him he was acting as an emissary of Kraft.

It became a fascinating footnote to the Spygate saga, one of many lingering unanswered questions: Who was the mutual friend of Specter and Kraft who had offered "a lot of money" for a powerful senator's Spygate investigation to be dropped?

In an October 2017 interview with an ESPN reporter, Robbins said several possibilities for the mutual friend included the newly inaugurated President Trump. In a subsequent conversation initiated by the reporter, Robbins offered more details: "I asked Specter, and he said, 'It doesn't matter, let's move on,' and I didn't press it." Robbins added that it had bothered him that Specter didn't trust him with the name. But in the end, it didn't really matter, Robbins now says: "I was pretty darn sure the offer was made by Trump. At the time, it didn't seem like such an important moment. Back then, Trump was a real estate hustler and a TV personality."

He was also a prolific political donor. Trump and Specter's friendship began shortly after, according to Federal Election Commission records, Trump wrote his first $1,000 check to Specter's campaign on Aug. 19, 1983.

Over the course of three decades, Trump contributed a total of $11,300 to Specter's campaign committees, often giving the maximum amount allowed in each cycle, FEC records show. Trump and Specter also exchanged a series of friendly, handwritten notes in which Trump, more than once, referred to Specter as his "close friend." On Sept. 1, 2004, during the Republican National Convention in New York City, Trump hosted a fundraising luncheon for Sen. Specter at Trump Tower. Trump and Specter stood for photographs with more than 100 people who had written checks for Specter's reelection campaign. "This guy is a great character," Trump said of Specter, according to a report in The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania. "Arlen is quite simply a friend of mine. He's just someone I like." Trump then glanced at Specter, adding, "I don't know if that helps you or hurts you."

Trump and Specter also were linked by a mutual friend: Roger Stone. Stone had served as chairman of Specter's 1996 presidential campaign, and Trump later hired Stone to again help with political activities, a role that would lead to his conviction on charges of lying to Congress in connection with Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Stone, whose sentence was commuted by Trump in July 2020, declined repeated requests to comment for this story. He has said he often lobbied Specter on an array of issues.

With Robbins now on the record that he believed Specter's "mutual friend" who had offered him money in Palm Beach was Trump, an ESPN reporter reached out again to Shanin Specter, Arlen's son. In October 2017, Shanin Specter and the reporter had discussed a few people who could have made the call to his father. He says he left the conversation under the impression he had pointed to Trump as the person. But now, he's far more definitive: "It was Trump."

"My father told me that Trump was acting as a messenger for Kraft," Shanin Specter says. "But I'm equally sure the reference to money in Palm Beach was campaign contributions, not cash. The offer was Kraft assistance with campaign contributions. ... My father said it was Kraft's offer, not someone else's."

"He was pissed," Shanin Specter says about his father. "He told me about the call in the wake of the conversation and his anger about it. ... My father was upset when [such overtures] would happen because he felt as if it were tantamount to a bribe solicitation, though the case law on this subject says it isn't. ... He would tell me these things when they occurred. We were very close."






He insists his statements today are not politically motivated, although he supported former Vice President Joe Biden's election bid last fall. And, to be fair, this wasn't a piece of information he took the initiative to reveal; he answered a reporter's follow-up questions after Robbins said more definitely that the friend who made the cash offer to Specter could only have been Trump.

Arlen Specter did not report the offer to the authorities or to Senate ethics officials after he concluded that the case law stated the offer wasn't a bribe solicitation, Shanin Specter said.

Election experts say it's a close call as to whether such an offer would be a bribe in the sense that it would be a prosecutable offense.

Federal statute 18 U.S.C. 201 covers the bribery of public officials: The government must identify "a question, matter, cause, suit, proceeding or controversy" that "may at any time be pending" or "may by law be brought before a public official." The law also covers an offer made on someone's behalf for an official decision. The statute of limitations is five years.

Matthew T. Sanderson, a Republican election attorney and a partner at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, says, "It is immaterial whether Specter took Trump up on the offer formally. You can't walk up to a U.S. senator and say my friend has a big bag of cash for you, even if it's campaign money, if you would drop your investigation. That's a bribe."

But the truth is, this kind of thing happens and is not prosecuted, two other experts said. There are bribes, and then there are bribes. "You'd think campaign contributions would be considered bribes, and it's hard to understand they're not," one of the experts told ESPN. "We've just decided they're not -- and senators and congressmen certainly don't believe they are."

Before he was elected president, Trump considered himself a one-man lobbying firm. Repeatedly during the 2016 campaign, Trump said he used campaign money, given frequently to Democrats and Republicans, as an effective way to get things done "for business."

"I support politicians," Trump said at the March 4, 2016, Republican debate in Detroit. "In 2008, I supported Hillary Clinton. I supported many other people, by the way. And that was because of the fact that I'm in business."

Despite Shanin Specter's allegation of a Trump offer on behalf of Kraft in 2008 and Sen. Specter asking Kraft for campaign money at their meeting in March 2010, FEC records show that neither Kraft nor his company, the Kraft Group, donated a single dollar to Arlen Specter's campaign committees. Kraft confirmed that neither he nor any of his entities ever donated to Specter. But amazingly, the Trump offer -- and Specter's fury about it -- wasn't enough to prevent Specter, two years after he closed his Spygate inquiry, from visiting Kraft in Boston seeking a campaign check. With his Spygate inquiry long dead, Specter figured, an opportunity to support his reelection campaign might have enticed Kraft.






TO UNDERSTAND WHY Trump might have intervened in a Spygate inquiry with a senator he considered an old friend, one needs to understand the origins of the nearly 30-year-old friendship between Donald Trump and Robert Kraft -- and how Trump often tried to ingratiate himself with the leaders of Kraft's team. The Trump-Kraft relationship was symbiotic long before it became controversial. It began in the 1990s, when Kraft and his wife, Myra, bought a place in Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago. Kraft and Trump played golf together, and Trump joined Jon Bon Jovi as regular celebrities at Patriots games during the first half of the team's dynasty. After New England upset the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI -- the game that launched the Patriots dynasty and that, years later, Specter was most interested in investigating for cheating -- 24-year-old Tom Brady found himself with Trump on the businessman's tricked-out Boeing 727, eating sandwiches, sitting on an Italian leather couch, in the mystical embryonic stage of fame, en route from New York to Gary, Indiana, where Brady would serve as a judge for Trump's Miss USA pageant. "Let me tell you," Trump later said to Sports Illustrated, "if one thing stands out about Tom Brady, it's that he loves those women. And guess what? They love him too."

The relationship strengthened as New England's Super Bowl rings added up. Trump considered himself a winner and liked to be around winners. To Brady, Trump was "Mr. Trump," which embarrassed the businessman. To Kraft and Belichick, he was "Donald," a good friend whose trademark was not his bombastic self-proclamations and loud narcissism but rather his thoughtfulness and unselfishness. Kraft attended Trump's wedding to Melania Knauss in January 2005 at Mar-a-Lago, and Donald and Melania attended Myra Kraft's funeral in July 2011. Kraft was devastated when Myra died, and Trump called Kraft every week for a year to check in on him. Kraft has spoken frequently about how much Trump's gesture meant to him. "Loyalty and friendship trumps politics for me," Kraft said. "I always remember the people who were good to me in that vulnerable time, and he's in that category."

At one point, Trump wanted his daughter Ivanka to date Brady. "You have to meet him!" Trump told her, according to the book "Raising Trump." Ivanka wasn't interested, and she married Jared Kushner in 2009 -- the same year Brady married Gisele Bundchen. Trump later reportedly mused to Kraft that he could have had Tom Brady as a son-in-law but instead ended up with Kushner, who "is about half the size of Tom Brady's forearm," according to the book "Kushner, Inc." Before one game, Trump boasted that Belichick hugged and kissed him. All the men -- Kraft, Belichick, Brady and Trump -- shared anger over the way Roger Goodell handled New England's two cheating scandals. Trump mocked Goodell during Deflategate, calling him a "dope," according to The New York Times, and publicly urged Brady to sue the league to clear his name.

By the time Trump ran for the White House, the Trump/Patriots alliance began to erode -- mainly due to Trump's divisive and racist rhetoric. When a red Make America Great Again hat was spotted inside Brady's locker in September 2015, the star quarterback dodged questions about it, saying he was merely supporting a golfing buddy. In the summer of 2016, Trump asked Brady to address the Republican National Convention, but the quarterback declined. Late in the 2016 campaign, after Trump read a letter of support from Belichick -- in which the coach groused about their shared contempt for the media -- it prompted so much fallout that Belichick was forced to address it in a Wednesday news conference, normally his most reserved day of the week. The coach described himself as apolitical and deflected all follow-up questions in the vein of "We're on to Cincinnati" by simply saying, "Seattle. Seattle. Seattle." On Instagram, Bundchen was asked whether she and her husband had backed Trump. "NO!" she replied. But through it all, Kraft remained a loyal friend. "For me," Kraft said in May 2017, "it's like having a high school buddy or fraternity brother become president. It's weird, but it's cool." Kraft opened his checkbook for his friend; he was one of seven NFL owners to each contribute $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee.

After New England won the Super Bowl over the Atlanta Falcons a couple of weeks after Trump's inauguration, the team was scheduled to visit the White House. Many players skipped it, including Brady. Hoping to avoid a lackluster turnout, Kraft showed players a photo of himself in the Lincoln Bedroom, hinting that the team would get a special tour of the White House residence. Sure enough, during the visit on April 19, 2017, Trump said before a small group of players and coaches, "Let's go to the Lincoln Bedroom!"

An aide told the president that visitors don't go up there.

"We take the Patriots!" Trump said.

But the relationship continued to be fraught with difficulties. After Trump went to war with the NFL during the fall of 2017 over players taking a knee during the national anthem, it was Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, not Kraft, who boasted in owners meetings about his direct line to the president. Kraft continued to see the president socially, including the occasional dinner at Mar-a-Lago. But when the Patriots won the Super Bowl a second time during Trump's presidency, over the Los Angeles Rams in 2019, the team never made it to the White House. Twice the Patriots had dates locked in. One time, the team had to reschedule; the other time, it was the White House. Neither side seemed eager to find a makeup date. In one of Trump's final acts in office, in January 2021, he offered to award Belichick the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It was the type of honor that a student of the military, whose father was a World War II veteran who spent three decades at the United States Naval Academy, might have treasured. But the coach declined the award, citing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.






SPECTER SAID HE decided to embark on a one-man Spygate investigation for a simple reason. "The NFL has a very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption," he told The New York Times in early February 2008. "The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game."

Two weeks after delivering that statement, Specter and his staff met with Roger Goodell and Jeff Pash for an hour and 40 minutes in his Senate office on Capitol Hill. The commissioner defended the punishments and offered scant new information in response to the former prosecutor's many questions. Danny Fisher, a counsel on Specter's Judiciary Committee staff and a lead investigator on the Spygate inquiry, had a list of 13 current and former Patriots to interview, including Robert and Jonathan Kraft, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Ernie Adams, Charlie Weis and a host of videographers. None of the current Patriots agreed to talk, referring Fisher to outside counsel.

Although his one-man inquiry lacked subpoena power, Specter's outspoken criticism of the NFL's Spygate investigation frightened the league and Kraft, who less than two years earlier had supported Goodell to succeed Paul Tagliabue as commissioner. Goodell persuaded the Eagles and Steelers to release statements insisting that the league had done its due diligence, even though executives with both teams were convinced the NFL investigation was flawed and deliberately incurious. Goodell also called Mike Martz, who had been the head coach of the Rams during Super Bowl XXXVI. In early 2008, the Boston Herald had reported that the Patriots videotaped the Rams' walk-through practice the day before the game -- a report that the Patriots denied and the Herald later retracted. (Patriots videographers witnessed the walk-through but did not tape it.) Sounding panicked, Goodell asked Martz to release a statement. "He told me, 'The league doesn't need this. We're asking you to come out with a couple lines exonerating us and saying we did our due diligence,'" Martz told ESPN in 2015. Martz was convinced that New England had cheated against his team in the Super Bowl, but he also believed a wider inquiry with subpoena power "could kill the league." Martz wrote a statement, which he later said had been significantly altered by the league before it was released.

Specter was furious that his investigation was being stonewalled. In his notes during the session with Goodell and Pash, he jotted, "Cover-up."

"At every turn, we were rebuffed from speaking with Patriots employees and personnel as well as others that had direct knowledge about the videotaping and the allegations of cheating," says Fisher, the counsel on Specter's staff. "It was extremely frustrating to Specter, especially in light of the NFL telling us there was no competitive advantage or benefit to the videotaping. If there's nothing to hide, why not be open and transparent?"

Before Specter had officially announced his inquiry, Donald and Melania Trump invited Specter and his wife, Joan, to a private dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008 -- the day of the AFC and NFC championship games. Four days later, Specter wrote a handwritten card to the Trumps: "Dear Donald & Melania, Joan and I very much enjoyed our dinner with you. The food was excellent and the company was better. Donald, you ought to give some serious thought to becoming a Cabinet secretary. Meanwhile, we look forward to March 18th. My Best, Arlen."

March 18, 2008, was the date of a party in Philadelphia for Specter's recently published book, "Never Give In." Trump served as the book party's co-host, according to the Specter papers. By that time, Specter's investigation of Spygate had grabbed many headlines. Shanin Specter said he can't recall precisely when his father told him about the Trump offer, but he said it was shortly after the senator had received the Trump call during the first half of 2008.

Not long after the book party, on March 31, 2008, Trump wrote a $1,300 check to Specter's campaign committee. It would be the last campaign check Trump would write for Specter.

By mid-May of that year, after Goodell interviewed former Patriots videographer Matt Walsh and all but declared the league's third look at Spygate closed, Specter's Spygate inquiry was running out of momentum. Specter couldn't interest his fellow senators in exploring it, though he continued to threaten to introduce legislation that would revoke the NFL's antitrust exemption. Some columnists excoriated Specter for spending so much time on the Spygate inquiry while the economy was rapidly deteriorating and the United States was still fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Specter was also accused of fighting with the NFL over Spygate on behalf of one of his most powerful political patrons: Comcast, the Philadelphia-based cable TV company that was Specter's second-largest contributor. At the time, Comcast was engaged in a public war with the NFL over whether the cable company could charge its customers for carrying the NFL Network. The criticism outraged Specter, who adamantly denied such suggestions. Still, Specter later acknowledged in notes in his personal papers that the "stonewalling" of his inquiry, combined with the mounting criticism and questions about his motives, was wearing on him. At 78, he was fighting cancer by undergoing chemotherapy sessions and told friends it was time to conclude his one-man battle against the Patriots and the NFL.

On June 5, 2008, Specter delivered a lengthy speech on the Senate floor, one he wrote himself by hand over several weeks, intended as his final word on Spygate. He defended himself against the Comcast criticism while again ripping the league's Spygate inquiry and calling for an "impartial investigation."

Now Shanin Specter says he was proud of his father, who he felt "did a great job" in pursuing the truth about Spygate. "He was alone, but so what? He was used to that," he said. "He was a football fan who felt he'd been cheated and a senator who felt the NFL needed to police themselves in order to maintain their congressional-awarded antitrust exemption. He was right on both counts. Now we know Belichick was, and is, a serial cheater and, in this instance, his boss closed ranks behind him."






Arlen Specter told confidants that the mysteries of Spygate -- precisely how many games the spying operation helped New England win, why the league had so quickly destroyed all the evidence turned over by the Patriots -- would remain stubborn secrets. And in doing so, Specter kept a few secrets of his own. Why didn't the senator name Donald Trump in his last memoir? Was it because, even though he was insulted by the offer, Trump was his friend? Or was it because Specter knew Kraft hadn't given him any campaign cash, and no harm, no foul, so why name names?

"I'm not sure why he didn't disclose it was Trump in the book," Shanin Specter said. "But he liked Trump. They had a warm relationship. So that may explain it. But that, of course, was a different Trump. If my father were in the Senate today, a lot of things would be different."

As with so much about Spygate, nobody will ever know.

Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. are senior writers for ESPN. Reach them at Seth.Wickersham@espn.com and Don.VanNatta@espn.com. On Twitter, their handles are @sethwickersham and @DVNJr.

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Los Angeles Rams get undrafted free agent steal in Alaric Jackson​

The Los Angeles Rams set up a draft headquarters in Malibu and without a first-round pick because of the Matthew Stafford trade, they were probably feeling pretty great, all things considered. Being without a first-round pick is nothing new for the Rams. They haven’t made a first-round pick in the NFL Draft since they took Jared Goff first overall in 2016.

The Los Angeles Rams have truly become masters of finding talent after the first day of the NFL Draft and clearly general manager Les Snead is not afraid to invest prime NFL Draft real estate in veteran players or to move up in the NFL Draft.

The 2021 NFL Draft looks like it will be par for the course for this Rams franchise in terms of guys bringing value beyond the first round, starting with their top pick overall in former Louisville wide receiver Tutu Atwell.

As tough as the Rams’ lineup will be to crack, there’s room for someone from the undrafted ranks to rise up and not only make the squad, but potentially make an impact as a starter in the not-so-distant future.

That particular player from the 2021 class is former Iowa Hawkeyes left tackle Alaric Jackson.

Alaric Jackson at a glance

• 2017 Freshman All-American
• Four-time All-Big Ten selection
• 42 starts for Iowa at left tackle

Jackson is the only player in the 2021 NFL Draft class with more than 40 starts at left tackle, which is likely where he’s going to fit in with the Rams. As much experience as Jackson has at left tackle, some feel like he could transition well to the guard position at the next level as well.

For the time being, projecting Jackson as a tackle, he comes from an Iowa program where he’s obviously going to be very well-coached. Specifically, on a team like the Rams with so many similar concepts between Sean McVay’s offense and the Iowa Hawkeyes offense in terms of blocking scheme, Jackson should have an edge that not all rookies bring to the table with this team.

Jackson has good size for the left tackle position at 6-foot-5, 321 pounds. Coming out of Iowa’s program, that’s to be expected. Iowa is essentially a printer and high school offensive linemen are like paper. You put the paper in the printer, and NFL linemen shoot out the other end. That’s how it’s gone under Kirk Ferentz, whether you’re talking about elite-level prospects through the years like Robert Gallery, Brandon Scherff, or Tristan Wirfs, or back-end guys who go undrafted or late like Austin Blythe, Ike Boettger, and here Alaric Jackson.

Jackson didn’t post a great workout when it comes to movement skills, and you see some of his flat-footedness show up at times in pass protection. There are other times when he looks like he can mirror with anyone.

Consistency was a bit of an issue for Jackson, and he could get blown up at times by power rushes.

If he can improve his base and strength, there’s a real shot you’re looking at a guy going from being undrafted to being a starting NFL left tackle. Being able to learn from Andrew Whitworth will be extremely valuable for Jackson in terms of just understanding what it takes to be a pro.

Being in this kind of offense, as it did at Iowa, can also help mask some of Jackson’s weaknesses at times. It will be excellent to see him in preseason play against other rookies and see how much he’s improved even in just a short time with new Los Angeles Rams offensive line coach Kevin Carberry, who spent the last three years coaching the Stanford offensive line.

It's up to youngsters Jordan Fuller, Taylor Rapp now that Rams' safety net is gone​

As a rookie last season, safety Jordan Fuller played a crucial supporting role for a Rams defense that ranked among the NFL’s best.

Now Fuller is preparing for something bigger.

With safety John Johnson gone to the Cleveland Browns after receiving a huge free-agent contract, Fuller is expected to emerge as a leader of a unit aiming to repeat or surpass its 2020 performance.

During a videoconference with reporters Tuesday, Fuller said he was not the only defensive back seeking to fill the void left by Johnson’s departure.

“I definitely take it on my shoulders,” he said, “and I know just all the DBs as a group are trying to take that on.

“He was a great leader, great communicator. Really, really smart. So that’s kind of part of the reason I want to work on my Football 101, like learning the ins and outs of the game because John was great at that.”

Fuller, 23, showed similar promise last season. He was drafted in the sixth round after playing at Ohio State and, despite an off-season program that was conducted virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic, arrived at training camp ready to compete.

Second-year pro Taylor Rapp was projected to start at safety with Johnson — the defensive signal-caller — but Rapp was sidelined because of a knee injury. Fuller stepped into the lineup and made a critical stop in the opener against the Dallas Cowboys. He suffered shoulder injuries that sidelined him for four games, but he started 12 and intercepted three passes.

“We saw it from Day 1,” Ejiro Evero, who has coached Rams safeties since 2017, said last season. “He’s just wired the right way. Extremely smart, extremely dedicated to his craft, and a lot better playing coming out than people gave him credit for.”

Evero now oversees the entire secondary for a staff that has undergone major change. Coach Sean McVay hired Raheem Morris to replace coordinator Brandon Staley, who left to become coach of the Chargers. Cornerbacks coach Aubrey Pleasant and inside linebackers coach Joe Barry also departed for promotions with other teams.

Devin Fuller, Jordan’s brother, was an Atlanta Falcons receiver in 2016 and 2017, when Morris coached receivers.

“He was like, ‘Yeah, you’re going to love him. He’s going to coach everybody the same,’ ” Jordan Fuller said his brother told him about Morris. “He has a lot of energy. It’s great being around him.”

Fuller and Rapp, who started 10 games as a rookie in 2019, are the most experienced members of a safety corps that includes Nick Scott and Terrell Burgess, who suffered a season-ending ankle surgery as a rookie.

The Rams began organized team activity workouts this week. After 2020’s virtual offseason, Fuller said he was enjoying being around teammates.

“It’s given a bunch of us excuses just to be around each other and work on that glue, as we always say,” Fuller said, “Because the tighter we are, the better we’re going to be.”

For durability, the 6-foot-2, 203-pound Fuller said he was “trying to like build some armor” via increased upper body strength. He said he also was studying body movement and technique of safeties such as Johnson, Justin Simmons of the Denver Broncos and Jessie Bates of the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Trying to understand what they’re seeing,” he said. “Stuff like that. Basically, motivation to get where they’re at and then surpass that.”

Fuller might have exceeded others’ expectations as a rookie, but he knows he has much to prove.

“Year 2, there’s more expectations — you’re not expected to make rookie mistakes anymore,” he said. “Also, it’s just like natural for you to maybe speak up more as you grow and there’s younger guys that you need to pour into and lead along the way.

“But … it’s nothing I haven’t done before.”

Great information put together here covering Rams history.

Which former Ram would you add to this team... As the finishing touch?

I need to think on this one...

Thoughts?

Haven't seen this posted yet but apologies if I have just missed it.

You NEED to listen to these if you're a rams fan. The first was 70 mins long and there are apparently going to be a series of ten.

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Which, if any, of these veteran FAs should the Rams sign to a short term (1-2 year) deal? (Players’ ages at start of 2021 season listed)

Rams OLB Terrell Lewis needs a breakout year​

After the LA Rams drafted Alabama outside linebacker Terrell Lewis with the 84th pick of the 2020 NFL Draft (6.29 draft grade per NFL.com), it seemed as though the Rams had matched a huge roster need with a hugely talented individual. Lewis was a prospect who was difficult to get a good fix on when and where he might hear his name called. Talent-wise, he was a standout.

The 6-foot-5 262-pound rookie edge rusher was devastating on the football field for the Crimson Tide, which created quite a buzz over his potential in the NFL. When healthy, he was easy to pick out on video footage, as he was near the football and or the quarterback. The big problem was the simple fact that he was injured multiple times during his collegiate career.

That would have been the end of it, as all that college stuff is quickly eclipsed by their first NFL season. Unfortunately, the pattern of injuries that began in his college football playing days carried over into his rookie season. He was unavailable through the first four games of the 2020 NFL season. He was activated for game five of the season, and he played for six games before he was returned to the bench to heal a lingering knee soreness.

He returned for the final two games of the season, and the first playoff game before his season ended. In the end, he converted 124 defensive snaps into five tackles and two quarterback sacks. Not exactly the type of season that the Rams had hoped for by drafting him as their top defensive rookie.

The first impression left something to be desired​

Okay, so first impressions aside, it’s a brand new year. The Rams clearly have a greater opportunity for Lewis this year, having parted ways with Samson Ebukam and Derek Rivers. The question now is whether Lewis can step up and absorb a greater role on the Rams defense in 2021.

I believe he can, but I’m willing to sit on the fence for the moment. After all, a rookie debut of just 124 defensive snaps is not exactly a promising first step to a stellar NFL career. But it does not mean that Lewis is hopeless either. It’s merely an incomplete, a season that didn’t have enough evidence to form a defendable position either way.

Athletically, the sky is the limit for this young man. Durability-wise, the Rams were wise to add Chris Garrett as depth to the position and to sign Max Roberts as well. That gives the Rams a solid seven to enter training camp with. But it doesn’t answer the question, what do the Rams need from Terrell Lewis in 2021?

A breakout season​

Well, for starters, the Rams would love to see Lewis play in all 17 games. That need not be 17 starts, merely available to suit up and enter the game’s rotation. With the Rams losing Ebukam, it would be great if Terrell Lewis could elevate his performance to start at least 10 of the 17 games in the 2021 NFL season. That would translate into 400 defensive snaps, a huge increase over his 124 defensive snaps from 2020.

Production-wise? A great year from Lewis would likely result in 40 tackles, six quarterback sacks, and perhaps even an interception. But even as the Rams have come to count on Leonard Floyd to own every function at the edge, it would be great if Lewis could demonstrate that same amount of universal proficiency opposite Floyd. If Lewis can do it all, then the Rams can focus their efforts upon the garnishments and flourishes to complement Lewis on the roster.

Of course, it all starts with durability, and that has been the bane of Terrell Lewis’ football career so far. Lewis is a passionate player who energizes his play from the emotional energy from fans and pundits, and anything short of a standing ovation runs the risk of interpretation as negative feedback. It’s not intended as such. It’s simply the reality. The LA Rams must play 17 regular-season games in 2021, and hopefully as many as four post-season games. To be successful, the Rams will need Terrell Lewis healthy and playing at the top of his game.

If he can do that, the rest will follow.

Path to creating explosive plays with Matthew Stafford starts in OTAs​

Tasked with improving an offense that averaged 23.3 points per game in 2020 -- the lowest during his tenure as head coach -- Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay vowed to create more explosive plays this offseason.

The Rams executed a trade to secure Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions to help put more points on the scoreboard.

McVay wants to be more explosive and more dynamic on offense. That means creating more chunk plays in the passing game, becoming more dangerous in the second and third levels of the defense down the field.

“You’ve got to give guys an opportunity to create big plays in a variety of ways,” McVay said after this year’s draft. “There’s a big responsibility that I know I feel, and our coaches feel to put our players in the positions to be able to make those plays. There was definitely an intentional approach and process to being able to add a quarterback of Matthew Stafford’s caliber, and then surround him with the right pieces.

“Guys that we’ve already had in place and then guys that we’ve added, whether that be DeSean (Jackson) or the players that we drafted, and then the guys that we have in-house, but we have a lot of expectations and things that we expect to accomplish, but you got to do it.”

With his strong arm and deep accuracy, Stafford and the Rams will push the ball down the field more. Stafford also is accurate throwing the ball in the red zone. And he takes care of the football, something Jared Goff struggled with last season.

The Rams start Phase III of offseason work on Monday and will open organized team activities up for reporters on Thursday, so we’ll get our first opportunity to see Stafford on the field with his new team.

Here are a few areas where Stafford should improve L.A.’s offense, starting this offseason. The Rams just completed Phase II of offseason.

Yards after catch

McVay’s offense is known for generated yards after the catch because of his ability to devise passing schemes with receivers catching the ball on he run in open space. But the Rams finished No. 15 in yard after catch last season (4,183).

Led by Matthew Stafford, the Lions finished No. 8 in the NFL. (4,397).

With the addition of speedsters like Jackson in free agency and Tutu Atwell through the draft, along with players like Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp and Cam Akers already on the roster, McVay should dial up more chunk plays.

In particular, because of Stafford’s ability to fit the ball into tight windows down the field, throwing a catchable ball and hitting receivers in stride, it should create more opportunities for pass catchers to gain more yards after a reception.

Play-action game

Stafford also should be more dynamic in creating chunk plays through the play-action game. McVay wants to create balance by leaning on Akers and others running the football.

Once they can run it, the Rams will effectively run play-action off that, and Stafford is one of the best throwing off platform or moving the pocket and hitting guys in stride off play-action.

According to Next Gen Sports, Stafford averaged 9.1 yards per pass attempt on play-action passes last season, totaling five touchdowns and zero interceptions. Stafford has a 108.7 passer rating on play-action passes in 2020.

For comparison, Goff averaged 7.9 yards per pass attempt on play-action passes, finishing with seven touchdowns and five interceptions last season. Goff posted a 92.1 passer rating on play-action passes in 2020.

Quick game

McVay and the Rams will continue to emphasize taking check downs and getting the ball out quickly for Stafford. That means not getting bored with easy completions and taking what the defense gives him to move the chains.

Stafford completed 80 percent of his passes and averaged 9.4 yards per pass attempt when he got the ball out under 2.5 seconds last season, per Next Gen Stats.

Sam Farmer of The Los Angeles Times talked with Stafford about a slight change in his footwork that he hopes pays dividends this season in this Q&A.

“I’m always trying to find a way to be a little bit better,” Stafford told Farmer. “The common fan probably wouldn’t notice it, but I used to be in the shotgun with right foot forward, and now I’m left foot forward. It’s a little thing that helps me on certain throws to certain directions.

“The left side is a little bit easier to get to. I’m a little bit less busy on my drops, especially with the quick-game stuff. Gives me good tempo. It’s just finding ways to get a little bit better. I’ve really enjoyed working with those guys, trying to find little things here and there to help me out.”

Stafford gives his first interview round table with the Rams media after first round of OTA's

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Full Interview
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Warner does not appear to be a huge fan of Lance's inaccuracy.
First video is the positive stuff Warner see's and the 2nd video shows the negatives.
The Negative video is 4 minutes longer. hopefully an example of things to come. LOL

Lance is not in Warner's top three, with Warner liking Mac Jones as the 3rd ranked QB in the draft.
Of course Warner is looking at reading and accuracy and taking the ability to run the ball out of
his equation.


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‘Kicker’s jacked, man’ | 10 Things with Matt Gay​

1: "Kicker's jacked, man."

Sarina: You joined the Rams halfway through the season and I remember after your first game against the Buccaneers, Sean McVay ended his presser by saying you look like you train with Aaron Donald. "Kicker's jacked, man." How do you see yourself in comparison to other kickers? And have you ever trained with Aaron Donald?

Matt: I definitely feel like I am bigger than the typical kicker, but that typical kicker has changed a lot in recent years I feel like. And no, I never have trained with AD, but I'm hoping to soon!

2: Game of inches

Sarina: What is a misconception about kickers that can help fans understand the art of kicking better?

Matt: That it's easy! (laughs). So much of kicking is just confidence! And it really is an art, something that has to be continually perfected. It's a game of inches. If you're an inch off in the beginning, you could be feet or yards off in the end.

3: Vacation 1, Baby 2

Sarina: You are a family man! I saw you guys just took your first family vacation with your son! Congrats. Where did you go and what did you love most about the trip? And you have another one on the way!?

Matt: We went to Arizona and spent some time at the resort! Just loved being able to spend time with the family and enjoy playing with my son! And yes, second on the way! Another boy! 

4: Team of dawgs

Sarina: What stands out to you about this Rams team heading into a new season?

Matt: The talent and pieces on paper are all there. Just a team of dawgs.

5: He's a tweety monster

Sarina: mgtweetymonster is a funny IG name. Anything behind that?

Matt: Haha, when I made my Twitter like 10 years ago, I just thought you tweet on Twitter, and I wanted to tweet a lot so tweetymonster came to life! And MG, my initials, so I threw it on there. 

6: Wings and things

Sarina: Did you ever find some good wings? (Shout out to you on Rams Reveled with JB) What is your favorite flavor for wings?

Matt:No, I never quite did in California. Wings are a tough food to get for takeout I feel, and that's all you could do last year. I am a traditional Buffalo kinda guy!

7: Never have I ever

Sarina: What is the best name you've heard for a fantasy football team, or do you have any recommendations?

Matt: I got nothing for this hahah never played fantasy football!

8: Across the pond

Sarina:Your wife is British! What is your favorite thing to order at a pub when you guys cross the pond?

Matt:A full English breakfast for sure! And sticky toffee pudding at a pub! But my favorite food, in general, over there is Indian food!

9: More Ted Lasso

Sarina:Is Ted Lasso your favorite show on TV? 

Matt: It was definitely up there! Just a feel-good tv show to throw on, need more seasons! 

10: Field and non-field goals

Sarina:Goal for 2021? Personal or professional or both?

Matt:Welcome my new son into the world healthy, and his mum healthy too! And to be able to make my kicks and help this team win and win a Super Bowl!

Congrats Phil Mickelson 2021 PGA Champion @ 50 years old.

Oldest PGA Champion ever. Absolutely amazing.

Best read I've found on Staley's defensive scheme. It all starts upfront with a good 4 man rush and solid play on the boundaries with CBs you can trust. This is why retaining Williams was so important. Now with Rochell this defense will really take a step up in the next few years. If you play a zone scheme this is how you do it....aggressively. He's like McVay and the offense, disguising the look by making it always look the same but played differently each time.


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"Welcome to Los Angeles Matthew. " "I have a little surprise for you named Tutu & our playbook has gotten much bigger since we left Cabo San Lucas Mexico."

According to Spotrac.com

The average 2021 NFL Salaries by position.


QB
Patrick Mahomes $45,000,000 KC
Dak Prescott $40,000,000 DAL
Deshaun Watson $39,000,000 HOU
Russell Wilson $35,000,000 SEA
Jared Goff $33,500,000 DET

Aaron Rodgers $33,500,000 GB
Kirk Cousins $33,000,000 MIN
Carson Wentz $32,000,000 IND
Matt Ryan $30,000,000 ATL
Ryan Tannehill $29,500,000 TEN

Jimmy Garoppolo $27,500,000 SF
Matthew Stafford $27,000,000 LAR
Derek Carr QB $25,000,000 LV
Tom Brady QB $25,000,000 TB
Ben Roethlisberger $14,000,000 PIT
88 John Wolford $762,500 LAR
95 Bryce Perkins $742,500 LAR

RB
Christian McCaffrey $16,015,875 CAR
Ezekiel Elliott $15,000,000 DAL
Alvin Kamara $15,000,000 NO
Dalvin Cook $12,600,000 MIN
Derrick Henry $12,500,000 TEN

Joe Mixon $12,000,000 CIN
Aaron Jones $12,000,000 GB
Melvin Gordon $8,000,000 DEN
Saquon Barkley $7,798,688 NYG
Austin Ekeler $6,125,000 LAC

Kareem Hunt $6,000,000 CLE
Tarik Cohen $5,750,000 CHI
Kenyan Drake $5,500,000 LV
Chris Carson $5,212,500 SEA
David Johnson $5,000,000 HOU

Cam Akers $1,543,259 LAR
Darrell Henderson $1,053,001 LAR
Jake Funk $897,057 LAR
Xavier Jones $764,667 LAR
Raymond Calais $695,000 LAR

WR
DeAndre Hopkins $27,250,000 AZ
Julio Jones $22,000,000 ATL
Keenan Allen $20,025,000 CHI
Amari Cooper $20,000,000 DAL
Michael Thomas $19,250,000 NO

Tyreek Hill $18,000,000 KC
Kenny Golladay $18,000,000 NYG
Odell Beckham, Jr. $18,000,000 CLE
Allen Robinson $17,880,000 CHI
Tyler Lockett $17,250,000 SEA

Mike Evans $16,500,000 TB
Robert Woods $16,250,000 LAR
Brandin Cooks $16,200,000 TEX
Adam Thielen $16,050,000 MIN
Chris Godwin $15,983,000 TB
Cooper Kupp $15,750,000 LAR

DeSean Jackson $4,500,000 LAR
Tutu Atwell $1,477,175 LAR
Van Jefferson $1,402,784 LAR
Ben Skowronek $891,131 LAR
Landen Akers $808,333 LAR
Jeremiah Haydel $808,333 LAR
Trishton Jackson $766,000 LAR
J.J. Koski $742,500 LAR
Nsimba Webster $540,000 LAR

TE
George Kittle $15,000,000 SF
Travis Kelce $14,312,500 KC
Hunter Henry $12,500,000 NE
Jonnu Smith $12,500,000 NE
Austin Hooper $10,500,000 CLE

Zach Ertz $8,500,000 PHI
Jimmy Graham $8,000,000 CHI
Rob Gronkowski $8,000,000 TB
Darren Waller $7,450,000 LV
Tyler Higbee $7,250,000 LAR

Jack Doyle $7,100,000 IND
Cameron Brate $6,800,000 TB
Nick Boyle $6,500,000 BAL
C.J. Uzomah $6,100,000 CIn
Gerald Everett $6,000,000 SEA

Bryce Hopkins $987,033 LAR
Johnny Mundt $920,000 LAR
Kendall Blanton $837,500 LAR
Jacob Harris TE/WR $660,000 LAR

FB
Kyle Juszczyk $5,400,000 SF
Patrick Ricard$3,651,084 BAL
Derek Watt$3,250,000 PIT
C.J. Ham$3,000,000 MIN
Nick Bellore$2,225,000 SEA

Andy Janovich $1,900,000 CLE
Keith Smith $1,433,333 ATL
Dan Vitale $1,300,000 NE
Alex Armah $1,127,500 NO
Elijhaa Penny $1,100,000 NYG

Michael Burton $990,000 KC
Jakob Johnson $850,000 NE
Cullen Gillaspia $850,000 NYG
Khari Blasingame $850,000 TEN
Tory Carter $812,500 TEN

LT
Trent Williams $23,010,000 SF
David Bakhtiari $23,000,000 GB
Laremy Tunsil $22,000,000 HOU
Kolton Miller $18,000,000 LV
Garett Bolles $17,000,000 DEN

Taylor Lewan $16,000,000 TEN
Nate Solder $15,500,000 NYG
Donovan Smith $15,500,000 TB
Taylor Decker $15,000,000 DET
D.J. Humphries $14,583,333 AZ

Dion Dawkins $14,575,000 BUF
Jake Matthews $14,500,000 ATL
Cam Robinson $13,754,000 JAX
Terron Armstead $13,000,000 NO
Tyron Smith $12,200,000 DAL
Andrew Whitworth $10,000,026 LAR
Joseph Noteboom $863,011 LAR

RT
Lane Johnson $18,000,000 PHI
Jack Conklin $14,000,000 CLE
Taylor Moton $13,754,000 CAR
La'el Collins $10,000,000 DAL
Halapoulivaati Vaitai $9,000,000 DET

Trenton Brown $9,000,000 NE
Rob Havenstein $8,125,000 LAR
Andrew Thomas $8,086,397 NYG
Daryl Williams $8,000,000 BUF
Matt Feiler $7,000,000 LAC

Marcus Cannon $6,482,000 RT
Jesse Davis $5,000,000 MIA
Mike McGlinchey $4,585,430 SF
Brandon Shell $4,500,000 SEA
Germain Ifedi $4,250,000 CHI

Bobby Evans G/T $878,473 LAR
Alaric Jackson $815,000 LAR
Max Pircher $808,333 LAR

G
Brandon Scherff $18,036,000 WAS
Joe Thuney $16,000,000 KC
Brandon Brooks $14,087,500 PHI
Zack Martin $14,000,000 DAL
Andrew Norwell $13,300,000 JAX

Andrus Peat $11,500,000 NO
Rodger Saffold $11,000,000 TEN
Graham Glasgow $11,000,000 DEN
Ali Marpet $10,825,000 TB
David DeCastro $10,000,000 PIT

Ereck Flowers $10,000,000 WAS
Shaq Mason $9,000,000 NE
Justin Pugh $8,955,000 AZ
Joel Bitonio $8,527,463 CLE
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif $8,472,600 KC

Gabe Jackson $7,525,000 SEA
Kevin Zeitler $7,500,000 BAL
Billy Turner $7,000,000 GB
Alex Lewis $6,200,000 NYJ
Quenton Nelson $5,972,227 IND

Laken Tomlinson $5,500,000 SF
Mark Glowinski $5,400,000 IND
Isaac Seumalo $5,306,000 PHI
A.J. Cann $5,018,333 JAX
Jon Feliciano $4,800,000 BUF

Wes Schweitzer $4,500,000 WAS
Pat Elflein $4,500,000 CAR
Chris Lindstrom $3,681,822 ATL
Dan Feeney $3,500,000 NYJ
Nick Gates $3,412,500 NYG

Austin Corbett G/C $1,892,000 LAR
Bobby Evans G/T $878,473 LAR
Jamil Demby $850,000 LAR
Tremayne Anchrum $842,623 LAR
Jordan Meredith $808,333 LAR
David Edwards $696,130 LAR
Chandler Brewer $540,000 LAR

C
Frank Ragnow $13,500,000 DET
Corey Linsley $12,500,000 LAC
Ryan Kelly $12,500,000 IND
Mitch Morse $11,125,000 BUF
J.C. Tretter $10,850,000 CLE

Ryan Jensen $10,500,000 TB
Brandon Linder $10,340,600 JAX
Cody Whitehair $10,250,000 CHI
Chase Roullie $10,125,000 WAS
Rodney Hudson $10,000,000 AZ

Matt Paradis $9,676,667 CAR
Weston Richburg $9,500,000 SF
Connor McGovern $9,000,000 NYJ
Jason Kelce $9,000,000 PHI
Trey Hopkins $6,800,000 CIN

Ben Jones $6,750,000 TEN
Alex Mack $4,950,000 SF
David Andrews $4,750,000 NE
Andre James $4,325,000 LV
Garrett Bradbury $3,220,718 MIN

Austin Corbett G/C $1,892,000 LAR
Brian Allen $786,734 LAR
Chandler Brewer G/C $540,000

DE/Edge
Joey Bosa $27,000,000 LAC
Myles Garrett $25,000,000 CLE
Khalil Mac $23,500,000 CHI
DeMarcus Lawrence $21,000,000 DAL
Leonard Williams $21,000,000 NYG

Frank Clark $20,800,000 KC
Von Miller $19,016,667 DEN
Trey Flowers $18,000,000 DET
Cameron Jordan $17,500,000 NO
Dee Ford $17,100,000 SF

Arik Armstead $17,000,000 SF
Za'Darius Smith $16,500,000 GB
Bud Dupree $16,500,000 TEN
Chandler Jones $16,500,000 AZ
Leonard Floyd $16,000,000 LAR

Earnest Brown $728,443 LAR
Eric Banks $837,500 LAR
John Daka $742,500 LAR
Jonah Williams $660,000 LAR

OLB/Edge
Shaquil Barrett $17,000,000 TB
Robert Quinn $14,000,000 CHI
Carl Lawson $15,000,000 NYJ
Dante Fowler $15,000,000 ATL
Matt Judon $13,625,000 NE

Whitney Mercilus $13,500,000 HOU
Preston Smith $13,000,000 GB
Jason Pierre-Paul $12,500,000 TB
Lavonte David $12,500,000 TB
Matt Milano $10,375,000 BUF

Jamie Collins $10,000,000 DET
Demario Davis $9,000,000 NO
Chase Young $8,640,899 WAS
Anthony Barr $8,635,000 MIN
Nick Kwiatkoski $7,000,000 LV
Bradley Chubb $6,817,810 DEN

Terrell Lewis $1,159,648 LAR
Max Roberts $808,333 LAR
Travin Howard $780,000 LAR
Justin Hollins $706,433 LAR
Ogbonnia Okoronkwo $683,634 LAR
Chris Garrett $680,529 LAR
Justin Lawler $633,436 LAR

DT
Aaron Donald $22,500,000 LAR
DeForest Buckner $21,000,000 IND
Chris Jones $20,000,000 KC
Kenny Clark $17,500,000 GB
Fletcher Cox $17,100,000 PHI

Grady Jarrett $17,000,000 ATL
Cameron Heyward $16,400,000 PIT
D.J. Reader $13,250,000 CIN
Javon Hargrave $13,000,000 PHI
Akiem Hicks $12,000,000 CHI

Eddie Goldman $10,510,000 CHI
Dalvin Tomlinson $10,500,000 MIN
Brandon Williams $10,500,000 BAL
Grover Stewart $10,250,000 IND
Jordan Phillips $10,000,000 AZ
A'Shawn Robinson $8,500,000 LAR

Greg Gaines $786,653 LAR
Marquise Copeland $742,500 LAR
Mike Hoecht $742,500 LAR
Bobby Brown III $660,000 LAR
Sebastian Joseph-Day $653,809 LAR

LB
Bobby Wagner $18,000,000 SEA
C.J. Mosley $17,000,000 NYJ
Zach Cunningham $14,500,000 HOU
Deion Jones $14,250,000 ATL
Myles Jack $14,250,000 JAX

Shaq Thompson $13,608,250 CAR
Cory Littleton $11,750,000 LV
Jaylon Smith $11,403,500 DAL
Joe Schobert $10,750,000 JAX
Blake Martinez $10,250,000 NYG

Benardrick McKinney $10,000,000 MIA
Eric Kendricks $10,000,000 MIN
Anthony Hitchens $9,000,000 KC
Dont'a Hightower $8,875,000 NE
Jordan Hicks $8,500,000 AZ
Devin White $7,328,954 TB

Kenny Young $774,976 LAR
Micah Kiser $689,494 LAR
Ernest Jones $660,000 LAR
Troy Reeder $585,000 LAR

CB
Jalen Ramsey $20,000,000 LAR
Marlon Humphrey $19,500,000 BAL
Tre'Davious White $17,250,000 BUF
Darius Slay $16,683,333 PHI
Byron Jones $16,500,000 MIA

Xavien Howard $15,050,000 MIA
James Bradberry $14,500,000 NYG
Trae Waynes $14,000,000 CIN
Marcus Peters $14,000,000 BAL
William Jackson $13,500,000 WAS

Shaquill Griffin $13,333,333 JAX
Adoree' Jackson $13,000,000 NYG
Stephon Gilmore $13,000,000 NE
Joe Haden $11,200,000 PIT
Bradley Roby $10,500,000 HOU

Darious Williams $4,766,000 LAR
David Long $950,348 LAR
Donte Deayon $920,000 LAR
Brontae Harris $808,333 LAR

S
Justin Simmons $15,250,000 DEN
Budda Baker $14,750,000 AZ
Eddie Jackson $14,600,000 CHI
Kevin Byard $14,100,000 TEN
Tyrann Mathieu $14,000,000 KC

Landon Collins $14,000,000 WAS
Devin McCourty $11,500,000 NE
John Johnson $11,250,000 CLE
Marcus Maye $10,612,000 NYJ
Marcus Williams $10,612,000 NO

Harrison Smith $10,250,000 MIN
Jordan Poyer $9,750,000 BUF
Micah Hyde $9,625,000 BUF
Jimmie Ward $9,500,000 SF
Adrian Amos $9,000,000 GB

Rayshawn Jenkins $8,750,000 JAX
Malcolm Jenkins $8,000,000 NO
Quandre Diggs $6,200,000 SEA
Eric Murray $6,000,000 HOU
Vonn Bell $6,000,000 CIN
Jalen Mills $6,000,000 NE

Taylor Rapp $1,168,424 LAR
Terrell Burgess $1,124,851 LAR
Jordan Fuller $866,428 LAR
Troy Warner $812,500 LAR
Paris Ford $808,333 LAR
Jovan Grant $808,333 LAR
Jake Gervase $780,000 LAR
JuJu Hughes $695,000 LAR
J.R. Reed $695,000 LAR
Nick Scott $649,332 LAR

K
Justin Tucker $5,000,000 BAL
Graham Gano $4,666,667 NYG
Ka'imi Fairbairn $4,412,500 HOU
Jason Sanders $4,400,000 MIA
Mason Crosby $4,300,000 GB

Brandon McManus $4,300,000 DEN
Chris Boswell $4,201,500 PIT
Harrison Butker $4,055,000 KC
Wil Lutz $4,050,000 NO
Ryan Succop $4,000,000 TB

Josh Lambo $3,875,000 JAX
Jason Myers $3,862,500 SEA
Jake Elliott $3,861,620 PHI
Robbie Gould $3,625,000 SF
Daniel Carlson $3,384,000 LV

Matt Gay $762,500 LAR
Austin MacGinnis $742,500 LAR

P
Johnny Hekker $3,762,943 LAR
Tress Way $3,412,500 WAS
Brett Kern $3,162,500 TEN
Britton Colquitt $3,000,000 MIN
Logan Cooke $3,000,000 JAX

Rigoberto Sanchez $2,900,000 IND
Riley Dixon $2,900,000 NYG
Bradley Pinion $2,750,000 TB
Cameron Johnston $2,666,667 HOU
Sam Koch $2,475,000 BAL

Sam Martin $2,350,000 DEN
Matt Haack $1,825,000 BUF
Pat O'Donnell $1,750,000 CHI
Kevin Huber $1,637,500 CIN
Andy Lee $1,500,000 AZ
Corey Bojorquez $1,020,000 LAR

LS
Kameron Canaday $1,212,500 PIT
Jon Weeks $1,212,500 HOU
Jake McQuaide $1,212,500 DAL
Luke Rhodes $1,212,500 IND
Clark Harris $1,212,500 CIN

J.J. Jansen $1,212,500 CAR
Morgan Cox $1,212,500 TEN
Zach Wood $1,195,000 NO
Don Muhlbach $1,175,000 DET
Trent Sieg $1,140,833 LV

Rick Lovato $1,131,250 PHI
Patrick Scales $1,127,500 CHI
Casey Kreiter $1,127,500 NYG
Tyler Ott $1,100,000 SEA
Thomas Hennessy $1,100,000 NYJ
Matthew Orzech $850,000 LAR
Steven Wirtel $742,500 LAR

For those who might be interested in what coaches and ex-QBs think of Stafford this is a pretty good read.

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LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOO!!!!!!!

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What do you see? 2020 vs 2021

RAMS:

Better
QB
WR
LB
Special Teams

Same
OL
RB
DL
EDGE

Weaker
TE
CB
S

DIVISION:

Better
Rams
49’ers
Cardinals

Same
Seahawks

Weaker
None

The NFC Favorites No One Is Talking About​

The Los Angeles Rams are really good but no one is talking about them for some bizarre reason. It’s like everyone has seemed to have forgotten less than 2 years ago the Rams were competing in a Super Bowl. This team is of course very different from the team that beat the Chiefs 54-51 in one of the most exciting games in NFL history. That team was built on explosive offensive plays. Todd Gurley having an All-Pro caliber season opened up the play-action game for Goff and he looked like an MVP candidate. The system was perfect for him and he seemed to have justified his 1st overall selection 2 years prior. Sean McVay seemed to have figured out a way to get the best out of his young quarterback. This team is different, neither Gurley nor Goff who stood out in the first 2 years as a head coach are no longer here.

Defense Wins, But Not On Its Own.

This current Rams team is predicated on elite defense. The biggest change on defense for the Rams this year is the departure of coordinator Brandon Staley, who is now the head coach of the Chargers. But how many teams have ever been able to say they have a generational player on the defensive line and at cornerback? The Rams defense finished number 1 overall last year, number 1 in scoring defense, number 1 in passing defense, and number 3 in rushing defense. In other words, they were incredible on that side of the ball. They gave up 18.5 points a game on average. Although a few of their players on defense didn’t come back, most of their elite game changers are still there. New defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, who was interim head coach in Atlanta last year, is more than capable of maintaining the Rams level on defense. They spent 5 of their 9 draft picks reinforcing that side of the ball. The Rams have no doubts that they will be a top 3 defense again in 2021, Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey will see to that no matter who is calling the plays.

Offensive Genius

In his first year as a head coach, Sean Mcvay made a name for himself on offense. Explosive plays were a hallmark of that season, finishing second only behind Kansas City in Mahomes’ MVP year. Creative play calling and simply out coaching everyone else earned him Coach of the Year honors. ‘Boy Genius’ they called him and rightly so, the youngest NFL head coach of the modern era was tearing the league apart. McVay kicked on in his second year and took his team to their first super bowl appearance 18 years.

Last season, however, the Rams finished overall 22nd on offense. A lot of that can be and most likely will be attributed the Jared Goff and his inability to make plays consistently when the team is struggling to control time of possession and they got behind. Goff is by no means a bad player, he is a middle-of-the-pack quarterback who under the right circumstances can make plays and help your team get far. But he is not going to be the player that makes pieces around him better and helps the lesser players excel by putting the team on his back. To be fair to Goff he broke his finger towards the end of the season and still managed to return in the playoffs for his team so his toughness cannot be called into question.

Welcome, Mathew Stafford

In 11 years, Stafford had a defense in the top 20 just 4 times. During his time with the Lions, he had a top 10 defense only 1 time. That year they finished 11-5 and went to the playoffs. Stafford is not only one of the toughest players in the whole league, he is up there with the most talented throwers of the ball in the league. He has never had a supporting cast this exciting, a run game this effective, and definitely never had a defense this elite.

The Rams have one of the best receiver duos in the league and last year’s rookie Cam Akers seems to have picked up where Todd Gurley left off a few years ago. McVay has so much more he can do with Stafford as his quarterback. Stafford can make every throw and improvise when plays break down. No disrespect to Goff but Stafford is a massive upgrade at the position for the Rams. This offseason move instantly makes them one of the favorites if not the outright favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

The Rams consistently have one of the best special teams in the league, they are certainly going to have a defense in the top 10 and you can guarantee their offense won’t rank that low again.

It sounds like SoFi will see full crowds for football!! Now that I live so far away. LOL Well what it means is that we can expect the NFL cap to probably increase moderately next year. The implications are huge for the Rams who have a bunch of FAs to re-sign and extend like Darious Williams and a number of linemen.

The fact that they didn't draft o-line this year has interesting implications next year. It means if this o-line this year looks good going forward they will have to sign the players to long term deals. Snead is not one to be caught flat-footed so I have no doubt whatsoever that they have a specific plan to deal with these players. The large majority of them probably won't be resigned as many of them on that list have already been essentially replaced already, i.e. Kiser, Howard, Lawler, etc.

I really feel that the Rams now have their core players on the roster and this past draft basically filled the depth gap at most positions.