In the 24 hours ... With Sean McVay thread, this excerpt caught my eye:

1:26 p.m.
There’s a problem: Soon-to-be-32-year-old center John Sullivan, a former Viking in his first year with the Rams, is too smart. He’s reading the defense and immediately calling out perfect offensive adjustments. That’s great in live action but counterproductive in practice when you’re trying to develop your second-year quarterback. “Hey, John,” McVay barks. “Let him”—Goff—“make these calls!”

Is Goff going to be given the responsibility of calling out offensive adjustments when the regular season begins, or will it be Sullivan's? I would guess that Sullivan would be calling out protections/blocking assignments, while Goff would be making sure the skill players are properly lined up. Anyone care to weigh in on this?

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angele...er-utah-qb-travis-wilson-will-catch-35-passes

Why Jordan Palmer thinks former Utah QB Travis Wilson will catch 35 passes
by Alden Gonzalez
ESPN Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES -- Jordan Palmer, the younger brother of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, has the same bet going with multiple people. Palmer is adamant in his belief that Travis Wilson, undrafted as a quarterback last year, will make at least 35 catches as a rookie tight end for the Los Angeles Rams this season. And if you want a piece of the action, just let him know.

He thinks it's easy money, even though the odds seem so heavily stacked against him.

You might remember Wilson as a four-year starter at Utah, where he played quarterback from 2012 to '15, and you might be wondering what he has been up to since. Well, Wilson basically sat out the 2016 calendar year. He spent a significant part of it earning $12 an hour at a surf shop in Laguna Beach and did his best to stay in shape. He was going to move to Australia and play quarterback for a startup league on the other side of the world, but the inaugural season was postponed.

It wasn't until late December that Wilson got with Palmer, who coaches collegiate quarterback prospects at Elite 11 and at that time was working with Deshaun Watson, the eventual No. 12 overall pick by the Houston Texans. Wilson's impatience had reached a point of desperation, so they met at a high school in Dana Point, California, and made a deal: Wilson would throw to Palmer for a half hour, then spend another half hour catching passes from Palmer.

Palmer knew "right away" that Wilson needed to make the switch to tight end.

At the end of their session, he asked Wilson the essential question: Do you want to play quarterback in the NFL, or do you simply want to play in the NFL?

"He said, 'I want to play in the NFL,' " Palmer recalled. "So I said, 'Great, I think you're going to make a team as a tight end.' And, actually now, I think he's going to be a big part of the Rams' offense."

Wilson was named an Elite 11 quarterback while starring for San Clemente High School in 2011. Palmer, who also lives in Southern California, knew him then. He was always impressed by Wilson's frame, now 6-foot-7 and 258 pounds. Then he remembered what an outstanding high-school volleyball player he was, a useful skill for tight ends because, as an outside hitter, Wilson always needed to spike the ball at its highest point.

"He's 6-6, 6-7, he weighs about 250, 255, and he's faster than DeShaun," Palmer said. "And I pulled up his highlight plays from college, of his run plays, and he likes contact. He likes to hit people."

Palmer, now 33, spent several years as a backup quarterback in the NFL and knows exactly what he wants out of his receivers. He boils it down to three skillsets, outside of the basic ability to make catches: that they can stop and start, that they can elevate and get the football, and that they have the body control to adjust. He saw all of that in his initial session with Wilson, and then, at the start of the New Year, they went about laying a foundation.

Wilson spent six weeks catching about 100 passes a day under Palmer's supervision. They trained six hours a day for six days a week, their time split between the classroom and the field.

The first three weeks were spent learning catch radius and understanding body control. Wilson would stand still and be thrown passes in every direction so that he could visualize which ones he could catch with two hands, which ones he could catch with one, and which ones he needed to tip to himself. He then learned how to change directions and carry momentum through a break without using his hands to propel him. Finally, specific route combinations were introduced.

Palmer approached Rams general manager Les Snead in late February, not long before all of the NFL's key decision-makers would convene in Indianapolis.

"Look," Palmer recalled telling Snead, "I'm going to the combine next week to tell everybody about Travis. So you can work him out now, or you can wait for me to tell everybody about him."

The Rams worked Wilson out and signed him on the spot. They eventually spent their first draft pick, at 44th overall, on a tight end named Gerald Everett, who is expected to split the targets at that position with second-year player Tyler Higbee. But nothing is certain. With the Redskins last year, Sean McVay got more out of his tight ends than anybody else. And now, with the Rams, the rookie head coach is open-minded about who will receive snaps for an offense that has finished last in the NFL in yards each of the last two seasons.

McVay believes Wilson has "some natural feel in the pass game" and also "a big catch radius." Wilson's biggest adjustment, McVay said, is "learning how to play in a stance, at the line of scrimmage, whether it be on or off the ball, moving around the formations. But I do think that the quarterback perspective gives you an advantage of knowing it from that standpoint."

"I definitely feel like I'm making big strides on where I started," Wilson, a professional tight end for less than half a year, said after a recent practice. "I knew kind of how to run routes and stuff, but I'm definitely now fine-tuning the technique of running routes, along with the blocking stuff. I never really had to block, so that's definitely still a big area I need to improve on. But I'm happy with the progress so far."


Outside of quarterbacks, tight ends have the thickest playbooks to learn. They have to know all the formations, all the shifts, all the motions, all the routes, all the hot routes, all the run plays and all the blocking assignments. Palmer believed Wilson would "learn the offense faster than anybody" on the Rams, including quarterbacks Jared Goff and Sean Mannion, because Palmer said he showed him how to do so from the ground up.

He took stock of McVay's history, scanned the Rams' uninspiring depth chart, considered Wilson's size and ability, and bet anybody who would dare that Wilson will come out of nowhere to catch 35 passes in 2017 -- 24 more than what Higbee caught in 16 games as a rookie in 2016.

"I'mma win those bets, too," Palmer said, without even a hint of laughter.

"I love Jared Goff and I love Sean Mannion, and I think I hooked both of them up with a great tight end."

They haven't thanked him yet.

"They will," Palmer said. "They will."

AD will play for the Rams at least through the '20 season if they choose to tag him twice.

That's the WORST case scenario.

Hopefully, he can be a Ram for his entire career. He will be if cooler heads prevail on both sides.

But he's not a "must have", fellas. Even though he's putting up HOF type numbers in his first 3 years.

Here's my non emotional, strictly business take.

In today's NFL, only quality starting QB's are truly the must haves in the purest sense. Emphasis on quality. You can't win without one. Shouldn't the definition of a must have be that he's absolutely necessary if one hopes to win football games?

There are All Pro players sprinkled throughout the league on teams that don't post winning seasons, much less winning playoff games or the SB. Heck, the Rams are one of those teams!

Sooooo...

I hope that AD and the Rams can work out a contract that makes all parties happy. I really do. But if not, the Rams can enjoy the services of AD for 4 more seasons and then move on just fine, if necessary. They can win football games either with him or without him, IOW.

Goff's success and his contract extension, if he is successful, is of paramount importance, otoh. Goff would then indeed fall into that must have category. But we're nowhere near knowing what Goff's Ram future is, yet.

I'm comforted by believing that the Ram FO seems to have grown ups that think long term nowadays. This will work out. No worries.

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald isn’t considered a lock to show up their respective teams’ mandatory sessions this week.

The Rams have negotiated with Donald, and he could still show up. But while negotiating, it’s at least worth the threat of withholding services to prove a point, even if he appears.

Donald participated in offseason workouts and a voluntary minicamp in April, but was absent for all 10 organized team activity practices that concluded last week. General manager Les Snead has acknowledged that Donald stayed away because of his contract situation.

Offseason workouts and OTAs are voluntary, so Donald’s absences have not cost him a penny. Players under contract who skip minicamps are subject to up to $80,405 in fines if they miss all three days. Bell, because he’s not signed, faces no financial consequence if he doesn’t show.

Donald, the 13th pick in the 2014 draft, is scheduled to earn about $3.2 million in salary and bonuses this season. The Rams also have exercised a fifth-year option that would pay him about $6.9 million in 2018.

By NFL standards, that is a bargain for an interior defensive lineman who has amassed 28 sacks and created havoc for opposing offensive coordinators, offensive linemen and quarterbacks.

http://www.ramsheadquarters.com/report-los-angeles-rams-star-aaron-donald-skip-minicamp/

NFL Media Access Policy

Reasonable cooperation with the news media is essential to the continuing popularity of our game and its players and coaches. The following league policy is reviewed and updated annually and remains standard operating procedure:

5. MANDATORY VETERAN MINICAMP ACCESS – During a club’s mandatory veteran minicamp, all daily practices must be open in their entirety to local media (those who regularly cover the team). It is permissible to limit the videotaping or photographing of certain portions of minicamp practices.

In addition, players and the head coach must be available to the media for interviews each day during minicamp (not necessarily in the locker room). Media access to a rookie or voluntary minicamp is a club decision.

4. TRAINING CAMP ACCESS – Beginning the first day of preseason training camp through at least the completion of Week 2 of the NFL preseason schedule, all daily practices must be open in their entirety to local media (those who regularly cover the team). It is permissible to limit the videotaping or photographing of certain portions of training camp practices.

All players and the head coach must be available to the media for interviews on a regular basis (not necessarily in the locker room) during the entire preseason period (through Week 4 of the preseason schedule). As in the regular season, one or two players with heavy media demands may be made available to local media once per practice week throughout training camp and the preseason (not including preseason game days).

All players must be available to the media following preseason games. Clubs must make several players available to media on the day the team reports to training camp, generally the day before the first practice session.

If a club elects to abide by regular-season access rules following Week 2 of the preseason schedule – practice open to local media for the first 30 minutes or until the start of “team” work, etc. – it must also adhere to all regular-season access policies – open locker room four times per practice week for a minimum of 45 minutes, etc.

If a club elects to conduct joint workouts with another club, those practice sessions must be open in their entirety to local media.

This is true regardless of whether the joint workouts occur before or after the completion of Week 2 of the NFL preseason schedule. It is permissible to limit the videotaping or photographing of certain portions of joint training camp practices.

Assistant coaches – defined as coordinators/assistant head coaches and all primary position coaches – must be available at least once during training camp to media that regularly cover the team. Permission to interview assistant coaches at other times about reasonable football issues should not be denied.

The Rest of the Basic Media Access Rules..........................

1. POST-GAME ACCESS – After a reasonable waiting period, defined as 10-12 minutes maximum after the completion of the game, the home and visiting team locker room areas will be opened to all accredited media with immediate access to all players and the head coach.

To relieve congestion in the locker room, each club must bring the head coach and at least one star player of the game to an interview area as soon as possible. This interview area should be within close proximity of the locker room or inside the locker room itself. Each club is responsible for setting up interview areas in its home stadium for both the home and visiting team. The interview area must include a riser for the coach/player, microphones for the speakers and a camera platform in the back of the room. The home team must ensure that the visiting team interview area is of adequate size to conduct a professional press conference. Access to the area should be restricted to working media only.

In the locker rooms, the home club must make arrangements for both teams to screen the shower areas from view without blocking access to player lockers. Each team must supply its players with wrap-around towels or robes in addition to the normal supply of bath towels for post-game showers. Clubs are urged to take other measures for player privacy, such as placing shorts in each locker or building individual locker curtains. Clubs must ensure that name plates with players’ names and numbers are left in position until after the locker room has cleared of media.

Each club will exert its best effort to limit access to the postgame locker room and interview areas to club officials and working media. A club PR representative should be stationed at the locker room door to ensure orderly postgame access for accredited media. When only a few players remain in the locker room and the majority of media have concluded their interviews, a club PR representative should announce that the locker room is officially closed and that media access has concluded. A PR representative must be in the locker room until all media have departed.

2. WEEKLY LOCKER ROOM ACCESS – Beginning no later than the week prior to the opening of the regular season through the playoffs, each club will open its locker room during the normal practice week (based on a Sunday game) on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to all accredited media for player interviews for a minimum of 45 minutes. While the actual interviews may be conducted outside the locker room at the club’s or player’s request, the media must be allowed to make the interview request in person to the player in the locker room. For the purposes of this policy, Tuesday is treated as the players’ day off.

The minimum 45-minute daily interview time on four days of the practice week will be set at the club’s discretion, but it should occur when players are available and free of other club commitments. It is the club’s responsibility to deliver access to all players during this time period and each player’s responsibility to cooperate.

It should be noted that several clubs afford media access both before and after practice on a daily basis. Clubs should consider if possible, based on the team’s daily schedule, dividing the open locker room period into two – i.e. a pre-practice session for 30 minutes and a post-practice window of 15 minutes. From a club perspective, it would offer options on fulfilling multiple requests for the same player (i.e. opponents’ conference call and general requests from local media). For the media, they would have two windows in which to speak to players.

If a club has its only daily interview session prior to practice, the head coach should be available to answer post-practice questions, and the club should make its best effort to have players available for post-practice questions if requested. If the locker room is open to the media following practice, the club must screen the shower area from view and distribute appropriate clothing, e.g. wrap-around towels or robes, for player privacy.

A club PR staff member must be present in the locker room at all times during the open locker room period. When the open locker room period has ended, this PR staff member should announce that the locker room is officially closed and that media access has concluded.

If a team gives its players two days off after a game, meaning no team meetings or practice on Monday (in addition to the typical Tuesday off day), the team must arrange for key players to be available to local media on Monday. The purpose is to ensure player availability between Sunday and Wednesday for media that are reporting on your team every day. This ensures compliance with the requirement that the locker room be open four days during the practice week for player interviews.

The following is a summary of access requirements for Head Coaches, Assistant Coaches and Players:

Head Coaches – In addition to holding a news conference after every game, head coaches must be available on a regular basis to the media that regularly cover the team. At a minimum, the head coach must be available to the local media at least four days during each practice week from training camp through the end of the season. The head coach must be available to local media the day after all games – including Thursday, Saturday and Monday night games – either in person or via conference call.

Assistant Coaches – Through their public relations department, clubs must provide regular and reasonable access to assistant coaches – coordinators/assistant head coaches and all primary position coaches – for media interviews that serve the best interests of the club and league. Clubs may not put assistant coaches off limits to the media and may not unreasonably withhold permission for coordinators or primary position coaches to speak to the media.

Coordinators – Offensive and defensive coordinators must be available to media that regularly cover the club at least once between Monday and Friday during every practice week of the regular and postseason for a minimum of 10-15 minutes, beginning with the week leading to Week 1 of the regular season. The scheduled availability of the offensive and defensive coordinator must be communicated to media in advance each week. Media do not need to request weekly access to the coordinators. Availability must occur weekly between Monday and Friday.

For clubs who do not have a named offensive or defensive coordinator, or whose head coach serves in that capacity, another position coach from the offensive or defensive staff (as applicable to the individual team situation) must fulfill this weekly obligation.

Assistant Head Coaches & Primary Position Coaches – Permission to interview assistant coaches about reasonable football issues throughout the year should not be denied.

Regular and reasonable access to assistant coaches – coordinators/assistant head coaches and all primary position coaches – will include a mandatory media availability during the club’s offseason program, during training camp, and during the club’s regular-season bye week for media that regularly cover the team. The structure of these sessions is a club decision (i.e. availability on a single day or multiple days, press conference format or on the field following practice, etc.) but all assistant coaches must be available during each of these three time periods.

Please note that while all assistant coaches must be available at least once during the offseason program, training camp, and the regular-season bye week, it is not permissible to deny all other requests because of these mandatory availabilities.

Access to assistant coaches on game day is a club decision. For offensive and defensive coordinators, game day access would be in addition to the mandatory access during every practice week.

Players – Players must be available to the media following every game and regularly during the practice week as required under league rules and their contracts and as noted above. It is not permissible for any player or any group of players to boycott the media. Star players, or other players with unusually heavy media demands, must be available to the media that regularly cover their teams at least once during the practice week in addition to their required post-game media availability. This applies to a maximum of one or two players per team only. The minimum for such players does not include other required media obligations such as visiting team conference calls, network production meetings, and national media interviews arranged by the team.

All NFL players, upon request of their club public relations director, are required to participate in weekly conference calls with the media from the opposing team’s city. While a player is encouraged to be available for this call every time he is requested by his club public relations director, no player is required to do more than five such opposing team/media conference calls each regular season.

3. PRACTICE ACCESS AND INFORMATION – Following the completion of Week 2 of the NFL preseason schedule and through the regular season and playoffs, daily practice (Monday through Friday) must be open to local media (those who regularly cover the team) for at least the first 30 minutes or until the start of “team” work. It is permissible to limit the videotaping or photographing of certain portions of practice. Starting the week prior to the opening of the regular season, clubs are required to designate on the NFL Intranet site and issue to local media the names of those players who missed any portion of 11-on-11 team or individual work on the specified days noted in the NFL Injury Report policy.

Setting reasonable ground rules for coverage of practice – subject to the general access rules specified above – is the responsibility of the clubs. For practice sessions during training camp and minicamp that are open to the public, there should be a balance that addresses publicity for our teams, the role of media in serving our fans, and the goals and procedures set by individual teams. As such, we require that at least for practice sessions that are open to the public – and subject to guidelines set by clubs on the reporting of strategy – clubs must allow reporting (tweeting, blogging, etc.) of newsworthy events, such as VIP visitors to practice, exceptional catches, standout rookie performers, etc.


6. OFFSEASON PROGRAM (OTAs) – To enhance publicity during the offseason, clubs must open to the media at least one of every three Organized Team Activity (OTA) days. In addition, it is recommended that clubs open to the media the first OTA session of the year. The purpose of opening at least one of every three OTA days (not one-third of the total number of OTAs but one of every three) is for media to have at least one mandatory access day in each of the four weeks of Phase Three of a club’s offseason workouts as described in Article 21 of the CBA. This means that on these designated days teams must 1) make players available to the media for interviews, either in the locker room or elsewhere at the club’s facility, and 2) open the OTA on-field session to the media in its entirety. It is permissible to limit the videotaping or photographing of certain portions of these sessions. These mandatory offseason media sessions are in addition to the veteran minicamps that must be open to the media in their entirety as described above. Any media access to Phase One or Phase Two of offseason workouts is a club decision.

7. PRE-DRAFT NEWS CONFERENCE – Every team is required to hold a pre-draft news conference with its head coach, and/or general manager, and/or player personnel director within two weeks of the draft. The purpose is to respond to fan interest in the draft and off-season squad development and promote a key league and club event.

8. MEDICAL INFORMATION – Clubs must ensure that all medical information issued to the media is credible, responsible, and specific in terms that are meaningful to teams, media, and fans. This includes the information in the weekly injury reports and information on injuries announced to the media during games.

As endorsed by the NFL Competition Committee in March of 2013, in-game injury announcements to the media must be specific to a body part, accurate, and updated as warranted, including any changes in the player’s status for the rest of the game if it changes from the initial report. In situations where players have been involved in major collisions in which a concussion is possible, there will be an announcement in the press box that the player is being evaluated for an injury and an update will be provided as soon as possible.

A player diagnosed with a concussion in a game will not be made available to the media after the game. The concussion-related medical exemption from media obligations extends to the practice week until the player is cleared to resume activity, i.e. running, lifting, attending meetings, etc. The player does not have to be cleared to practice to be made available to media.

Though the injury reporting policy does not begin until the week prior to the start of the regular-season, clubs are expected to update media on significant injuries that occur during the offseason program, training camp and preseason games.

As a reminder, please note that because the injury reporting policy affects the integrity of the game, compliance is governed by the annual certifications required under the Integrity of the Game initiative. These certifications are required from owners, club presidents, general managers and head coaches. Club management, in consultation with its medical staff, is responsible for the accuracy and appropriateness of medical information distributed in response to public interest. Super Bowl teams are required to submit injury report information during the week between the Championship Games and Super Bowl.

9. ON-FIELD MEDIA COORDINATOR – Each team is obligated to provide for each game (home and away) an on-field media coordinator whose duties include helping the televising network, sideline photographers and any other on-field media. The media coordinator should be located during games near the bench area with direct communication (walkie-talkie and telephone) to the team’s Public Relations Director in the press box.

10. DEPTH CHARTS – Every team must produce a credible weekly depth chart for the media beginning no later than the week of its first preseason game and updated weekly through the end of its season. The depth chart must include the 11 offensive positions and the 11 defensive positions a team considers to be in its base units, and it must list expected starters and backups at each of those positions. Listing players at each position on the depth chart in alphabetical order is prohibited.

11. EQUAL ACCESS – Under the equal-access principle of this policy, all accredited media must be given access to the designated player and coach interview times during the practice week, following games, and during training camp and minicamp. When a club allows media to attend daily practice, all members of the media who regularly cover the team must be admitted. Barring individual members of the regularly accredited media from any of the above sessions for what is perceived as “unfair coverage” or any similar reason is not permitted.

12. POST-SEASON REQUIREMENTS – The minimum standards for media access during the regular-season practice week will apply during the post-season. Due to increased post-season demands, however, it is recommended that clubs supplement their open locker-room times during a playoff practice week with specially arranged press conferences for the head coach and key players.

Normal post-game media access rules apply during the playoffs (i.e. locker rooms must be opened to all accredited media no later than 10-12 minutes after the game). Clubs should supplement post-game interview areas for the head coach and star players to meet the heavier demands of playoff media coverage. Clubs that schedule off days for players during a playoff bye week are expected to make key players available to the media that week to serve the extensive public interest in the NFL playoffs.

Clubs are required to comply with the league office press conference schedule for playoff games. This obligation includes the responsibility to have available the head coach, starting quarterback and other key players as requested by the league office based on media and fan interest.

For the Conference Championship Games, the four participating teams are required to adhere to media requirements established by the league office for Wednesday through Sunday of championship game week. This will include open locker room periods on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday plus press conference and conference call availabilities on those days at the team facility. The head coach must be available in the press conferences at the team facility on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The starting quarterback must be available in the press conferences at the team facility on Wednesday and either Thursday or Friday at a minimum.

For Super Bowl week, overall media arrangements differ in several respects from other playoff games. Those requirements will be communicated to the participating teams in advance of their arrival in the Super Bowl host city.

Full cooperation is required.

13. SEASON-ENDING NEWS CONFERENCE/OPEN LOCKER ROOM – Every team is required to 1) open its locker room for player interviews the day after the season ends and 2) hold a news conference during the week following the end of its season with its head coach, and/or owner, and/or club president, and/or general manager. The purpose is to serve fan interest in the conclusion of the team’s season.

14. RESPONSIBILITY OF CLUB OFFICIALS – Each club will assign the responsibility of administering the post-game and practice week media access policies to two appropriate members of its public relations staff. One – or both – of these designated officials must be present when the club’s locker room is open to the media following each game and during the practice week.

15. TELEPHONE ACCESS — Full cooperation is expected on weekly head coach and leading player conference calls with media in the opposing team’s city, as described in the section on player media responsibilities. While public relations directors may take requests from local media as to which players will be available on a conference call, the decision on which leading player will participate will be made by the club public relations director. Each club will make arrangements for other appropriate media telephone contact with its players and coaches upon reasonable request.

16. TEAM MEETING ON MEDIA & PUBLIC/COMMUNITY RELATIONS — Each club is required to hold a team meeting during training camp on media and public/community relations. The club president or general manager, coaches and public relations staff should attend. The required playbook section on player public relations responsibilities, the importance of good media and community relations, plus league and club policies should be discussed. It is mandatory at this meeting that the film, “NFL Players and the Media,” be shown and that instructional materials provided by the league and the club be distributed.

17. MEDIA TRAINING – Each club is required to conduct a media training session each year prior to the start of the regular season for all players and coaches. This can be done in one session or in separate sessions at the club’s option. In addition, the club PR director must arrange for a separate media training meeting for his club’s rookies each year prior to the season. The league office will assist clubs in identifying professional media trainers that can conduct the sessions or advise clubs that prefer to have their own staff handle the sessions. These mandatory training sessions will be held in addition to the annual team training camp meeting at which the club public relations director reviews league and club policies on media and public relations, described above.

18. CLUB MEDIA & PUBLIC RELATIONS BROCHURE — Each club will produce for its coaches and players an annual brochure listing individual local media (with photos) and reviewing club policies on media and public/community relations. A copy of your club’s brochure should be sent to your conference communications director.

19. MEDIA ACCESS PLAN — Each club must complete and return by Monday, July 25, a form provided by the league office on the club’s media access plan. The form will ask each club to provide details on post-game interview areas, weekly locker room and practice access for the media, specific details on how a club will fulfill the weekly mandatory coordinator access requirements, and related matters.

Once the form has been received, it will be reviewed by the league office. To ensure clear understanding of these policies at multiple levels of an organization and responsibility for adherence to them, the signatures of the club president or general manager, head coach and PR director on the form will be required. Failure to comply with this directive is subject to discipline.

In addition, your weekly in-season release detailing the club’s upcoming media schedule must be forwarded to your conference communications director each week.

20. PRESS WILL CALL/PARKING — Each club will have a separate Press Will Call window or booth, preferably at or near the Press Entrance of your stadium. There will be a phone line or other communication link between Press Will Call and the public relations director in the Press Box. Clubs are encouraged to have credentials available at Press Will Call four hours prior to kickoff for preseason, regular-season and post-season games. Clubs will make their best effort to provide appropriate game-day parking accommodations to working members of the media, as well as including relevant maps and parking-related information on the back of parking passes.

21. PRESS BOX SEATING — Each club will exert its best effort to limit the number of club personnel in the press box during games.

22. VIOLATIONS – Violations of the above procedures will be considered conduct detrimental to the league and will be subject to disciplinary action by the commissioner.
http://www.profootballwriters.org/nfl-media-access-policy/

__________________

http://www.sbnation.com/mma/2017/6/11/15778068/groenhart-boxer-fan-attack-glory-42

Crazy shit. The vids are not posting well, so you will have to check out the link above to see them.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/05/05/son-of-bum-wade-phillips-book-excerpt-redskins-interview

Why couldn't Wade Phillips find work the year before he built a Super Bowl-winning defense?
WADE PHILLIPS/May 5th, 2017


Photo: Coomer, Brett, Phillips Family Photo

The following is excerpted from Son of Bum: Lessons My Dad Taught Me About Football and Life by Wade Phillips Copyright © 2017. Reprinted with permission of Diversion Books. All rights reserved.

I couldn’t believe that I was going to spend an entire offseason without working for an NFL team, but that was what happened in 2014 after the Texans fired me. I’m not sure what was keeping me from being hired, although my age of sixty-seven probably didn’t help. I also had a year left on my contract at a pretty big salary.

Late in my second season with the Texans, Tampa Bay wanted to talk to me about its head coaching job when we were in the playoffs. Bob McNair, our team owner, said to me, “You know, I’d rather you not do that, because of the playoffs and so forth.” So I didn’t talk with the Buccaneers.

It probably would have been my last shot at getting a head coaching job. However, Mr. McNair did come back and give me a new deal that made me the highest-paid assistant in the league. It was nice of him to do that. It was a reward for turning around a defense that went from thirtieth in the NFL to second in our first year and then ranked seventh in each of the next two seasons.

But when other teams heard about my salary after I got fired, they said, “You know, we can’t pay you what you were making in Houston.”

After the 2014 season, a few assistant coaches had called to say if they got a head coaching job, they’d like to have me as their defensive coordinator. Tony Sparano had been the interim head coach in Oakland and thought the Raiders would hire him.

Pat Shurmur, who had been the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia after two years as head coach in Cleveland, had another shot at a head coaching position. Frank Reich, who was the offensive coordinator in San Diego, also called me. He thought he had a chance with the Jets or Buffalo. All three of those guys had interviews, but none of them were hired.

I felt my record spoke for itself. I had consistently coached very good defensive teams. Beginning in 2005 with the Bills, I went to the playoffs in my first year with six teams in a row. I thought real football people around the league would recognize those accomplishments. I thought everything was going to be okay. It wasn’t. The 2015 offseason began and I was still out of work.

Finally, I got a call to interview with the Washington Redskins. Jay Gruden, their head coach, had fired his defensive coordinator, Jim Haslett, and wanted to talk with me about the job. By this point my son Wes was the Redskins’ tight ends coach, so I was looking forward to the possibility of us working together again.

But my interview with Jay was strange, to say the least. I’d had unusual interviews before—like the one with Marty Schottenheimer that took forever because he asked a million questions about the 3–4 defense—but I had never gone through something quite like this.

When Jay was the offensive coordinator in Cincinnati and I was with the Texans, I faced the Bengals twice in the playoffs, after the 2011 and 2012 seasons, and beat them both times—31–10 and 19–13. I felt he knew my credentials and might have been impressed with the things we were able to do in the previous three games in which we had beaten the Bengals, including one game during the regular season.


Bob Levey/Getty Images

We watched a lot of tape of the Texans’ games versus his offense. It seemed to me a lot of the plays were of when Cincinnati did well. Most of the interview was about that. I thought we should have talked more about philosophy, technique, concepts, and my record, but he was the one interviewing me.

After the interview I told Wes of my disappointment. I felt Jay didn’t have as much regard for my coaching as I’d hoped he would. He ended up hiring Joe Barry, a friend of his, to be defensive coordinator. Joe had been with the Chargers, whose defensive coordinator was John Pagano. John had been my linebackers coach when I was the defensive coordinator in San Diego, so Joe basically learned my defensive system through John.

Although I didn’t get the job, I was happy for Joe because I think he’s a good, young coach. Of course, the main reason I had even considered going to Washington was for the chance to work with my son again. But I know Wes has enjoyed working with Jay, and they’ve done a good job with the Redskins.

Meanwhile, the Broncos hired Gary Kubiak to replace John Fox as their head coach. They were trying to get Vance Joseph to be their defensive coordinator. He was the secondary coach for the Bengals and he’d had the same job when I was with the Texans.

But Mike Brown, the Bengals’ owner, wouldn’t let Vance out of his contract. (After spending the 2016 season as defensive coordinator for the Dolphins, Vance would become the Broncos’ head coach in 2017 as the replacement for Gary, who decided to retire.) After that, the Broncos called me, so I was obviously the second choice.

I was disappointed that they thought somebody else would do a better job, especially because I had been with Kub in Houston, but that was the way it was. It’s just like when somebody takes your place after you’re fired, or you take somebody else’s place and you get the job. You do the best you can and you don’t worry about how you got the job.

You just make the most of the opportunity. It didn’t make me more determined to succeed. It didn’t make me want to try harder—if you’re not already doing the best you can, you shouldn’t be in it. If you don’t love it enough to deal with the fact that you’re always in danger of being fired or that you’re going to be passed over for jobs, you shouldn’t be in it.

Read an Excerpt From Wade Phillips' New Book "Son of Bum"
By TheRams.com



Rams Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips may be new to LA, but he's hardly new to football. Phillips is recognized as one of the greatest coaching minds in football history, achieving numerous accolades (including a Super Bowl victory two seasons ago with the Denver Broncos) over a career that spans decades.

Phillips has also collected a myriad of stories along the way and he shares them in his new book "Son of Bum: Lessons My Dad Taught Me About Football and Life" while paying tribute to his late father, Bum Phillips -- another legendary figure in NFL history. The following is an excerpt from the book that includes a window into how Bum impacted Wade's life and coaching style early on.

Bum Phillips was my hero. Pretty much everything I know about life, football, and coaching, I learned from him.

My dad shaped me as a man, as a husband, as a father, and as a football coach. It was a non-stop education that played out first in the field house at Nederland, Texas, High School – where he held his first coaching job and I always came by to visit from when I was seven – all the way through the time we coached together in college and the NFL. And that education continued even after he retired.

Dad’s actual name was Oail Andrew Phillips. There are a couple of different stories about how he became known as Bum. I’m going to set the record straight by telling the real one. For one thing, he needed a nickname, because no one could pronounce Oail, which sounds like “Uhl.” His daddy was Oail, Sr., but everybody called him “Flop.”

The version Dad liked to tell about the origin of Bum was that when his sister, Edrina, was three, she stammered and when she tried to say, “brother,” it came out, “b-b- b-bum.” The real story – and I know this because it came from his mother – was that when he was a little kid, he got into a nest of bumble bees. It was a scary experience that stayed with him.

In the country, they don’t say, “bumble bees.” They say, “bummel bees.” After that, his mom and dad always would say, “Bummel! Bummel! Bummel!” to try to scare him. Eventually, his mother started calling him, “Bummel.” But Aunt JoAnnette couldn’t say it when she was a little kid. She could only say, “Bum.”

Even though the other explanation makes no sense, I think Dad liked telling the story that way because he didn’t want to go through the trouble of telling the longer version every time. He also liked to say that one of the best things he ever did for me was not naming me Oail III.

Daddy was a genuine cowboy. He wore a ten10-gallon hat and cowboy boots; my mother claimed the only time she ever saw him wear dress shoes was on their wedding day. He rode horses and chewed tobacco. His granddaddy was a rancher, and that was the life Daddy knew – ranching and football.

He wasn’t getting paid a lot when he first started coaching at the high school level, so he would compete in rodeos on the weekend. He was a bulldogger. That’s where you jump off the horse, grab a steer by the horns, turn his neck, and take him to the ground. Whoever did it in the fastest time would win.

In 1947, when I was fixing to be born, Dad was working on the Edgar Brown Ranch in Orange, Texas. The ranch belonged to one of the two richest families in town. The other was the Starks. The Browns and the Starks both had ranches, and they basically owned Orange at that time.

Daddy would always look for ways to earn some extra income working on the ranch. People would pasture their horses there, and there was one time when a world-champion quarter horse happened to be on the ranch. In fact, he had just set the world’s record in the quarter mile.

Back then, there weren’t horse-racing tracks everywhere, so people would stage weekend match races where you could bet on your own horse. Dad and one of the other ranch hands decided they would take the champion quarter horse to a match race in Louisiana, just over the Texas border. Dad was going to bet all the money he had on him, which wasn’t a lot.

The people running those match races wouldn’t hesitate to pull a gun on you and shoot you if they thought you were cheating them. Fearing that someone might recognize the horse’s markings, my dad and his friend used brown shoe polish to cover a big white spot on the front of his head.

They also told the guy who would be riding him to pull back as much as possible. They didn’t want to win by such a wide margin and
raise suspicions.

The horse won and as soon as he crossed the finish line, Daddy and the other guy ran over and threw blankets on him. They wanted to get him out of there as soon as they could, especially when they noticed that the horse’s sweat was making the shoe polish come off. They ran him into the trailer, collected their winnings, and took off.

My dad’s share was about $150 … just enough to pay the hospital bill when I was born. Nice to know I at least had a sure thing bringing me into the world.

Of the many qualities I admired about my dad, the biggest one I admired most was his great common sense. He always seemed to point something out or make a suggestion that would cause everyone around him to say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” His real gift was knowing what things to do and when to do them. I like to think I emulate that.

A lot of people think coaching is hollering or screaming at somebody. My dad always said – and I’ve always said this, too – “Coaching isn’t bitching. There’s no use bitching about something that’s already happened.” That’s the way a lot of coaches coach.

They bitch at guys after the mistake happens, calling them names or whatever, instead of teaching them how to do it right in the first place. The object is to get them to be better players. When you spend more time harping on what they do wrong than showing them how to do it right, you aren’t coaching. You’re just bitching.

My dad was unlike a lot of coaches in another way: he had no problem with being friends with his players. He believed you shouldn’t be afraid to get close to somebody. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, either. Dad was approachable to all his players, and I think that’s a big reason why they played hard for him.

When players know that you’re pulling for them and trying to get them to do their best, that’s usually a pretty good combination. I know I’d rather play for somebody I like than somebody I don’t like. Common sense, right?

Daddy never believed in using fear as motivation, and he was right about that. These are grown men, and more than a few have seen some of the worst things that life can dish out long before they ever get to the NFL. They’re not scared of you. They’re not scared of anyone.

It’s part of the mindset that goes with being a football player. There was a time when coaches could get away with threatening players by saying they would cut them. If you do that now, that player’s going to say, “Go ahead and cut me. I’ll just play somewhere else.”

Using threats and kicking guys in the butt? I just don’t think you get the most out of your team that way.

On the flip side of the coin, coaching is about being honest, too. If players make a mistake or they need to hustle more or they need to do things a certain way, you’ve got to be honest with them about that. You can’t just say, “Hey, I want to be your friend and I’m only going to tell you what you want to hear.” But there’s a difference between that and constantly bitching at them.

Dad warned me early on that there would be a backlash for taking more of a player-friendly approach. “People will say you’re too soft because you get along with the players,” he said. “But that doesn’t matter as long as they respect what you say and do what you say. After that, you just let them do the things that they can do well. You get a good player and a good team that way.”

Nice guys can finish first. That’s what Daddy always believed. That’s what I’ve always believed. You’re not trying to get all the players to like you, because that’s not going to happen. But as long as they know you respect them, they seem to reciprocate.

He just had a great feel for how to connect with his players and get the most out of them without trying to jam things down their throat. Daddy never talked about winning and losing. He just talked about playing your best doing your best, working to be the best – all those things. You never heard him say things like, “Now, we’re gonna go out and kick their asses!” Or, “We’re better than them!” Or, “If we do this, we’re gonna win!”

He just talked about being the best you can be in every way possible – being the best team, being a family, being a great teammate.

You can purchase "Son of Bum: Lessons My Dad Taught Me About Football and Life" by clicking here.

https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/da...wboys-began-shift-wade-phillips-jason-garrett

Book excerpt: How balance of power on Cowboys began to shift from Wade Phillips to Jason Garrett
By SportsDayDFW.com

With one year left on my contract, I had my agent ask Jerry for an extension on my deal. It seemed like things were good, but they weren't. Or at least, they weren't good enough. The year before, when we went 9-7, the press wanted to fire me. Now here I was, with a 33-15 record and a playoff win in three seasons, and coming off an 11-5 year. I thought I'd get Jerry to extend my contract beyond the 2010 season. But he wouldn't.

Another factor was Jason Garrett had some head coaching opportunities. He got an offer from the Baltimore Ravens [in 2008], and his agent evidently went back to Jerry and said, "If you give him what Baltimore is paying him as a head coach, he'll stay in Dallas as offensive coordinator." Jerry matched the offer and now Jason was making more than me.

I asked Jerry about it and he said, "Well, you know, we had to keep him."

"That just doesn't seem right to me," I said.

After our 9-7 season, when the offense struggled, Jerry said that maybe he should have let Jason take the Baltimore job rather than give him the big raise.

Jerry did agree to give me more money. He did it by adding an option year to the two remaining seasons on my contract.

It included a bonus that would only be paid if I finished the season as head coach.

"This is just for if you murdered somebody, or something like that, you wouldn't get the bonus," Jerry said. "And it's our option to pick up that extra year."

"Well, then that's not giving me another year if it's your option," I said.

I took the deal, although I still didn't think it was right. Jerry can do what he wants to do as owner, obviously. I just didn't think it was right that an assistant coach was making more than a head coach. He could have paid me more. He had plenty of money. Still does. But he's a businessman and his business side made that decision.

SportsDay Cowboys beat writer Brandon George had a lengthy Q&A with Phillips about the book and his career. Below are some highlights.

How did this book idea come about?

After winning the Super Bowl, they came to me and said they would like a book. I said, 'Everything is pretty much documented about the Super Bowl and winning it, our team and all the great things that happened. I'd really rather do something about my dad.' They said that would be a good idea and we started working on it then.

It's been about a year and a half. It takes a while to get it done, but it's something that I kind of wanted to do family-wise and football-wise. There aren't many coaches who had a dad who coached and he was your high school coach, your college coach and you worked with him for like 11 years and I have a son [Wes] who worked with me for Dallas. It's kind of a unique situation. I think the Phillipses and the Shulas are the only three-generation NFL families, so all that tied together.

What's your favorite story in the book?

There are a bunch of them in there. Earl Campbell is probably the funniest one or one of the funniest ones, when he couldn't run the mile, it's the test for the preseason to see if players are in shape, and he couldn't make the mile. Of course he wasn't a miler, and the press all ran to my dad and said, 'Bum, Bum, what are you going to do? Earl can't make the mile.'

He said, 'Hell, if it's third-and-a-mile, we won't give it to him.' Then he said, 'We're going to give it to him the rest of the time,' and we did. That was just one of the many with him, with my dad, he came up with a lot of stuff and a lot of that stuff is in the book.

Click here to enjoy the full Q&A between George and Phillips.

These are excerpts. To read the whole article click the link below. Now that Peter King is back, does the Patriots butt-kissing continue? You bet! The man can't help himself. Because he missed a week, he doubles down on his insane man-crush.

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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/06/12/carson-wentz-philadelphia-eagles-fathers-day-books-peter-king

The Hunt for Carson Wentz
After a roller-coaster rookie season, the Eagles quarterback still feels confident and ready to stalk his prey in Year 2
By Peter King


Photo: Rich Schultz/Getty Images

I don’t know if Carson Wentz is going to be a good player or not. It’s more likely than not he’ll have a successful career, but as Bill Parcells has said about 1,600 players in his life, they don’t sell insurance for that stuff.

But I talked to Wentz for awhile the other day, as he drove home from an offseason practice, and I came away thinking he’s got a good chance. He reminds me of Eli Manning in terms of mentality and confidence—I’ll explain that in a few moments—and I don’t think the game’s too big for him, which I’ll explain too.

I don’t believe Eli Manning’s ever been hunting for Himalayan Tahr (a wild goat) and Chamois (a goat-antelope species) and red deer in New Zealand, though. And that’s one of the things that’s got Wentz particularly excited these days. “I went with my brother to New Zealand for a week [in late March], on what I know would be a bucket-list hunt for so many hunters,” Wentz told me.

“It’s probably the most exhilarating hunt I’ve been on. I got my Tahr with a bow from about 40 yards, and boy, that was rewarding. It’s addicting.”

“What would be more rewarding from 40 yards—getting a Tahr with a bow and arrow, or throwing a touchdown pass from that distance in the Super Bowl?” I asked.

Pause. “God willing, playing in the Super Bowl one day, and making that pass like you say, would be a blessing—that’s what I’m working for right now,” Wentz said.

A bit of a game-rewind on Wentz, the phenom who grew up in North Dakota, starred at North Dakota State, and was fed to the Philadelphia wolves with the second pick in the 2016 draft. He was supposed to wilt. He didn’t.

Wentz was an early sensation, ripping off three wins to start his career and sending the normally skeptical Philly fans into a Wentz-for-Canton tizzy. But it was too good to be true, as these number illustrate:

.....................................W-L...Comp. %.......... TD-INT........... Rating
The Good Start..... 4-2..... .638...................... 8-3......................... 92.7
The Rough End.... 3-7...... .616.......................8-11........................ 73.4

Odd: Wentz’s only three wins in the last two months of the season came against NFC playoff teams—the Falcons, Giants and Cowboys. So the most famous athletic North Dakotan since Roger Maris entered a long off-season with more question marks than exclamation points.

Mostly this: As the season went on, Wentz never got a crisis of confidence or questioned that he should be playing as a rookie from North Dakota State. Basically, his confidence occasionally signed checks his arm couldn’t cash.

To start a five-game Eagles’ losing streak, Wentz threw a laser into a forest of four Seahawks just before halftime, down nine points, that was picked by Kam Chancellor and killed an important drive. There were more where that came from.

Wentz didn’t have a crisis of confidence. If anything, he had a crisis of decision-making.

“The thing is, I never pressed last year,” Wentz said. “I learned a lot. Windows are smaller, I have to make decisions faster … athletes, obviously, are better. But my motto was, ‘It’s just football.’ I didn’t make anything bigger than it was. I made some mistakes, but I didn’t get shaken by them.”

“Did anything last year, making that jump from North Dakota to the NFL, bug you?” I wondered.

“Never,” he said. “Definitely never.”

That’s where the Eli comparison is appropriate. I’ll always remember after the February 2012 Super Bowl win over New England, an emotional-less Manning was being shuttled through the Giants’ locker room to a media obligation by a phalanx of yellow-coated security people.

Looking at the scene, Justin Tuck of the Giants said, “That’s Eli—he’d look the same whether we just won or lost this game.” Manning felt if he left everything in preparation and performance on the field, no sense crying about a bad loss. And he never got very high after his biggest wins.


Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images

It’s early, but that’s Wentz’s way. He went to work with Tom House’s quarterback-mechanics protégé, Adam Dedeaux, in southern California for two weeks after the season to polish footwork, the timing between arm and legs, and learn the kind of shoulder exercises and “prehab” work that will prevent his shoulder from aching during heavy throwing periods.

(Dedeaux recently took over House’s business tutoring quarterbacks.) “What made me go there?” Wentz said. “Knowing so many good players went there and it helped them. I never want to stop learning. There are so many little things about playing this position that to the naked eye you won’t see when you watch me. But I do feel I am improved mechanically.”

Wentz has confidence he can play faster, he said, because he’s not thinking as much. In the Eagles’ OTA workouts—important not just for Wentz, but also for his chemistry with new receivers Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith—he said he feels faster and more comfortable in his second year under offensive coordinator Frank Reich. “Way more comfortable,” he said.

“It’s OTAs, I know. But things have slowed down. I’m not thinking about everything anymore—last year I was. Now I can feel the important things early in the play—where’s my answer, what are my options, what will work? It’s a different game when you can dial it down and feel you know what’s important to look for, and you’re not looking at every little thing out there. I mean, cover-2 is cover-2.”

On the topic of hunting, Wentz, who turns 25 this year, did a lot of it with American League MVP and Eagles season-ticket holder Mike Trout, 26. “Ducks, geese, sometimes just shooting boxes of shells and getting nothing. But there’s nothing like laying in a field, waiting for a shot. He’s a ridiculous fan of ours, but we don’t talk sports, really. Just life. We’ve got a lot of common ground.”

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Eagles fans certainly hope so. Executive VP of football operations Howie Roseman dealt two starting defenders (Kiko Alonso, Byron Maxwell), plus first-, second-, third- and fourth-round picks to move from 15 to eight, then eight to two, in the draft to pick Wentz. So he’d better be the guy.

One of the things Wentz needs to be significantly better doing is throwing downfield. His 6.2 yards-per-attempt was 31st in the league—and Wentz has a good arm. There’s no way Trevor Siemian and Case Keenum should be better downfield throwers than the second pick in the draft, with a good arm and a load of confidence.

The Eagles got the speedy Smith and the productive deep weapon Jeffery to make Wentz better intermediate and down the field. Now he’s just got to do it.

For now, you’re not shaking Wentz’s confidence. Reich and coach Doug Pederson have emphasized smarter throws when diagnosing some of his 2016 mistakes. Wentz understands.

“I never found myself pressing last year, and I won’t this year,’’ he said. “Losing bugs me. But I’m a very optimistic person. I continue to refine what I do. I’m loving working with these new guys. The attitude here is very good, very positive. Going into this year, I’m really happy where we’re at.”

* * *


Photo: Jim Rogash/Getty Images

“Brady is unbelievable—the greatest quarterback I’ve ever seen … He’s the greatest football player of all time.”

—LeBron James, in a video posted by Def Pen Hoops, debating the greatness of the Patriots and Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Very interesting.

And then …

“But he [Brady] affects the game one way, and that’s by throwing the ball. And it’s great. And it’s great … But as a basketball player, the pounding that you take, and running both sides. I gotta get back on offense, I gotta get back on defense … Belichick has done a great job of implementing those five guys up front, to protect that asset. That’s Belichick, that’s not Brady … [But] I’m not saying Brady’s not great.”

—James, in the same video.
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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...om-brady-people-for-some-reason-seem-to-care/

LeBron James says things about Tom Brady, people for some reason seem to care
Posted by Mike Florio on June 11, 2017

Getty Images

I’ve resisted for two days posting this item, because my primary compass for determining what is or is relevant to be posted is whether I’m interested in a story as a football fan. And, frankly, I’m not interested in what anyone who plays any other sport thinks about any football player, regardless of how good or not good said player in some other sport may be.

But I keep getting emails from readers sending links to NBA superstar LeBron James with his views on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady as an overall athlete in comparison, apparently, to basketball players. So I need to write something or the emails will continue.

“Brady is unbelievable,” LeBron said in a video in which he was at a barber shop getting his real and/or not real hair cut, via NFL.com. “Brady is the greatest quarterback I’ve ever seen but he affects the game one way. Just as a basketball player, and the pounding that you take and running both sides — ‘OK, I gotta do offense. Oh sh-t, I gotta get back on defense. Oh sh-t, I gotta get back on offense. Oh sh-t, I gotta get back on defense.’

As physical as football is — and to the body, I know it’s crazy to the body — but for a quarterback, [Bill] Belichick has done a great job of implementing those five guys in front to protect that asset. For us [as basketball players], every single night, you gotta know both sides.”

It’s a meaningless comparison, naturally skewed toward making basketball players seem in some way better than football players. Greatness in any given sport, however, is measured by achievement relative to one’s peers. Brady, with five Super Bowl championships and two other Super Bowl appearances, has emerged as the greatest quarterback of all time. James hasn’t even reached that pinnacle in his chosen sport. Once he does, we can argue whether Brady or James is the greater overall athlete.

Until then, Brady has one championship to go to catch Michael Jordan, which then could spark a true debate as to whether Brady or Jordan is the greater overall athlete.

And as to James’ stream of “oh sh-ts” about playing offense and defense, that’s a matter of basic conditioning and “want to” that any basketball player worth a damn must have. It’s wholly related to effort, and unrelated to skill.

But if the number of times a guy says “oh sh-t” in a given game is indeed relevant to greatness, Wayne Gretzky is the guy LeBron James should be putting at the top of the list.
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“It’s a lot better than the Jets Hall of Fame, which is nonexistent.”

—Josh Kraft, son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, to the Boston Herald, at a community event, commenting on the Patriots Hall of Fame.

There is no proverbial love lost between these two teams.

“Alexa, lights off. Alexa, lights off. Alexa….lights…..off.”

—Sean McVay, commanding his Amazon personal assistant to make it dark in his Encino Hills home, via the latest installment of The MMQB’s 24 Hours series. Writer Andy Benoit spent an all-access day in Los Angeles with the 31-year-old Rams coach—hanging at his house, watching tape at the office, attending an OTA practice and having a sushi dinner on Sunset Boulevard.

* * *

Stat of the Week

I wrote the other day about the NFL and Great Britain and the inevitability of it all… but these numbers really caught my attention:

2016 Games......................... Average Attendance
New England Patriots............. 8 66,829
NFL Games in London............ 3 80,786

Could England do that for eight games a year—sell an average of 13,960 more tickets per game than the Super Bowl champs? I don’t know. But I do know that there are four games in England this year, and they sold out by the end of April, and the market has sold approximately 40,000 season tickets for the four games. And this conservative thought:

The NFL is preparing a stadium to be shared with the Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, with the agreement between the league and Tottenham to put a minimum of two games there per year starting in 2018, and with separate entries and locker room and playing surfaces for the two games (grass for soccer, FieldTurf for football).

That stadium has a capacity of 61,000. With the NFL’s two current venues in England seating 84,000 (Wembley Stadium) and 74,000 (Twickenham Stadium), selling 61,000 seats eight times seems pretty manageable.

* * *

This week’s conversations: Atlanta coach Dan Quinn on the meaning of Fathers Day; author Michael MacCambridge, on his book “Chuck Noll: His Life’s Work”; and Lucy Kalanithi, widow of Paul Kalanithi, author of the sobering and inspirational book, “When Breath Becomes Air.”

• MacCambridge on the only interview he couldn’t get for the Noll book: “The only person who said no, out of the three years and 300 interviews, was on several occasions from Terry Bradshaw. I went through Dan Rooney, I went through Fox, and I went directly to Terry's office. I can remember Terry's personal assistant telling me at one point, there's two things Terry doesn't like to talk about. One of them I'm not going to say, and the other is Chuck Noll.

There is a tortured relationship there so I tried to tell as much of the story as I could from Terry's own words, from his books and his interviews, and sometimes as you well know, those words are contradictory. But I thought it was interesting, through all the grievances Terry still has and clearly still feels, the people who are closest to the situation, and the people who I respect most, all said a variation of the same thing.

They all said, Chuck was exactly the kind of coach that Terry Bradshaw needed. He held Terry Bradshaw accountable. He made him into a better quarterback. He made Terry discipline himself in a way that he might not have done if he was playing with the Chargers or the Saints or some other team. And I thought that was meaningful.

And sure, a lot of coaches and quarterbacks tangle. I'm sure that Marino had his own thoughts about Shula, I'm sure that Otto Graham disliked that Paul Brown called the plays, but not many quarterbacks have four Super Bowl rings for the trouble, and to be bitter after that, I believe probably says more about Bradshaw than it does about Noll.”

• MacCambridge on the relationship between Noll and wife Marianne: “She was certainly by Chuck's side at a lot of the social functions to help him and shield him. She was active in art, continuing education, charity work, she was working at their parish, she was somebody who was a person in full on her own and it was neat to hear about their relationship and how it evolved.

Their son Chris said at one point when he was in his early twenties, ‘I don't know if I am ever going to get married because I don't know if I am going to be able to find something that you guys have.’ Which is a nice thing to model for your children when you can.”

• MacCambridge on how the Nolls lived with his Alzheimer’s Disease: “That was his last heroic act, and it was her heroic act too. She didn't leave his side for the rest of his life. The only times they didn't spend the night together was when he was hospitalized a couple times. When I would go visit them, they were always connected, always doing things.

Alzheimer’s is always a losing fight and the only way you can minimize that is to keep your mind as active as possible and they would be doing jigsaw puzzles and crosswords, and he would be helping her with dinner. He never did forget who she was. If you've known people with Alzheimer’s, you know how difficult that is. It was like this heroic act on both of their parts, and that story touched me as well.”

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Things I Think I Think

1. I think the Chargers, in ensuring that one of the best bookend pass-rush tandems will play together for at least the next four years (assuming the fifth-year option of Joey Bosa is exercised at the end of the 2018 season), now have something to build around on defense in their new home. Bosa plays this season at 22.

Melvin Ingram, who signed a four-year, $66-million deal over the weekend, according to Adam Schefter, plays the year at 28. Both are healthy. So now the Philip Rivers-led offense doesn’t have to worry about scoring 34 a game if the relocated Chargers hope to win.

2. I think the league made a really good hire in Dawn Aponte for its chief football administrative officer (per Dan Kaplan of Sports Business Daily). I think that because of the respect Aponte has earned around the league with the Browns and Dolphins in football administration since 2009. “She should be a GM,” said one front-office veteran Sunday via text Sunday night. “Hope this gets her closer to that.” Amy Trask served as CEO of the Raiders under Al Davis.

But a woman has not been a general manager in the NFL. Aponte has been a strong negotiator, and the argument I’ve heard for her as a GM is that not all GMs climb the ladder the traditional way, beating the bushes as a scout for years before having a chance to run a front office. She’s strong-willed and very smart. It’ll be interesting to see her fate working under Troy Vincent in the league office in the near future—and whether a team would at least interview her for a GM opening.

3. I think not much happens in June that you can say truly impacts the regular season. But that’s exactly what happened when the Lions lost their best offensive lineman at the most integral position, left tackle Taylor Decker, with a shoulder injury and surgery last week.

Decker's value is not just his fine play; Pro Football Focus recorded that, in his 1,037 snaps played in 2016, only nine times did he allow his quarterback to be sacked or hit significantly. The Lions will miss Decker’s leadership on a changing line, where at least two starters will be new.

4. I think the truest words of the week belong to longtime and well-respected football writer Rick Gosselin, who Tweeted the other day: “Everything I see, hear and read out of NFL OTAs in May and June is fake news.” Twenty-nine teams are making the playoffs as of this morning. Haven't you heard? Read the clips, day by day.

The only teams I hear zero playoff talk about are the Niners and Browns and Jets. So 17 fan bases are going to be bitterly disappointed at some point this season. Optimism is fine. Nothing but optimism is misleading. That’s the slippery slope of having media cover football every day in May and June and July, when nothing but instruction is happening.

5. I think a pretty good example of that is what Colts owner Jim Irsay said, according to Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Starvia an event with fans the other day. The offensive line is fine, Irsay said, and line guru Howard Mudd, the former Colts assistant, told Irsay so. Now, one of the reasons the Colts fired GM Ryan Grigson was because the quarterbacks were getting hit too much, and the line was leaky and a constant issue in the past couple of years.

Grigson gets whacked, Chris Ballard takes over, doesn’t address the line much in the off-season, and now all of a sudden the line’s no problem? I’ll believe it when I see it. But there was Irsay saying all’s well. “If Howard Mudd tells you it’s fixed, trust me, it’s fixed,” Irsay told the fans. We’ll see.

6. I think I had this reaction when I saw a headline on Pro Football Talk Saturday about the Saints exploring a trade for running back Travaris Cadet: For what? An eighth-rounder? Any team looking at the Saints sees Mark Ingram, Adrian Peterson and Alvin Kamara certainly ahead of Cadet, and sees the mildly used Cadet with 128 touches in five years, and has to wonder why it would give a draft choice for him.

7. I think I’ll be very interested to see which NFL team, if any, makes some offer to retired Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops to consult. He’s a very popular coach in NFL circles.

8. I think Odell Beckham Jr. will be at Giants’ mandatory practices this week—the first ones for the full squad this off-season. He hadn’t been at voluntary ones. Of all non-Kaepernick stories since the draft, the Beckham no-show to voluntary practices has gotten more attention than anything in the league. Which just goes to show you that May, June and July, truly, comprise the NFL’s silly season.

9. I think it’s great, and just, that Mike Vick retires as a Falcon today in Georgia.

Adam and Jake talk major NFL headlines around the league, Derek Carr's rumored $25M annual contract extension, creating their own dream teams and much more.

https://bumpers.fm/e/b4v3cp70b01g014h73n0

There are signs that second-year Rams QB Jared Goff might be much improved

Rams quarterback Jared Goff passes during practice June 5. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

By Gary Klein

Three weeks ago, when the Rams began organized team activity workouts, quarterback Jared Goff was asked to assess the change in offensive systems from last season.

“It’s way different,” he said.

That was no surprise: The Rams have a new coach in Sean McVay, a new quarterback-friendly scheme and ostensibly a new vibe.

As the Rams progressed through their 10 OTA workouts, Goff also looked different.

“More confident,” receiver Mike Thomas said. “More relaxed. More poised in the pocket.”

The real evaluation, of course, will not begin until the NFL season starts in September.

So Goff still has three months to prepare for the scrutiny.

But as the Rams get ready for this week’s mandatory minicamp, there are signs — some obvious and some subtle — that Goff could be much improved in his second season.

The No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL draft has added a few pounds of muscle. He also made more decisive choices and throws during the final week of OTAs.

During one workout, he connected with receiver Pharoh Cooper on a slant route for a short touchdown, fired a pass into a seam that receiver Nelson Spruce turned into a long scoring play and zipped multiple mid- to long-range completions to Thomas, Robert Woods and others.

He was especially adept executing two-minute drills, and appeared more confident taking charge in and out of the huddle.

“We have a lot of confidence in what he’s done,” McVay said, adding, “He’s getting better every single day and he’s definitely commanded that role.”

Goff, 22, has “a little swagger to him,” new left tackle Andrew Whitworth said.

“He has kind of taken ownership and is trying hard to become that franchise quarterback that so many teams look for. You can tell that’s his goal and his mission.”

Goff did not look the part of a franchise quarterback last season.

He was inactive for the season opener at San Francisco and then sat for eight more games as Case Keenum’s backup.

He started the final seven games and the Rams lost them all, including two in the final minutes.

He completed 54.6% of his passes, five for touchdowns, with seven interceptions. He was sacked 26 times and was pressured relentlessly.

“It’s only seven games,” Goff said after the finale against the Arizona Cardinals, “but it’s enough to know what I did well and what I didn’t do well and what I need to work on.”

Goff knew that he would have a new coach and offensive system this season, but he did not know at the time that it would be McVay.

As part of McVay’s interview with the Rams, the quarterback went through tape with the young coach, who turned 31 shortly after he was hired in January. Goff came away encouraged by the possible opportunity of working together.

“Coming out of that meeting,” he said later, “I was like, ‘If they pick him, I’m going to be really excited.’”

In February, Goff followed the lead of Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, Drew Brees and other elite NFL passers and enlisted help from quarterback trainers Tom House and Justin Dedeaux. During sessions in Newport Beach, they helped refine his mechanics.

Almost immediately after free-agent wide receiver Woods signed with the Rams in March, Goff and the former USC standout started working out together. Goff also threw passes to then-draft hopeful Cooper Kupp — who is represented by the same agency as the quarterback — before the Rams selected Kupp in the third round.

The results of the extra work have been evident.

Goff will not have an opportunity to reestablish and improve timing with veteran receiver Tavon Austin until training camp opens in late July. Austin, regarded as a possible centerpiece in McVay’s offense, is recovering from wrist surgery and did not participate in team drills during OTAs.

During minicamp, Goff will attempt to continue his upward trend. The three days of workouts, which begin Tuesday in Thousand Oaks, are the last team practices until the Rams reconvene for training camp at UC Irvine.

McVay said he was “very pleased” with what Goff has established “above the neck” in terms of handling different situations.

“He has done a nice job improving every single day,” McVay said, “and that’s what’s going to give us a chance.”

[www.latimes.com]

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/los-angeles-rams-talent-is-better-than-you-think-061017

Los Angeles Rams lacking in talent? That may not be quite as much the case as many perceive.

Reports of the Los Angeles Rams talent, or lack thereof, may be premature. In fact, the Rams have the most talented player in the league and another player in the Top 50, according to Pro Football Focus.

The report lists Aaron Donald as the No. 1 player, even though that praise comes with a caveat:

With J.J. Watt injured in 2016, there has been no more consistently dominant force in the NFL over the past couple of seasons than Donald. The Rams defensive lineman has been a one-man wrecking crew inside whether against the run or as a pass-rusher. He has tallied a ridiculous 161 total pressures over the past two seasons, and 90 defensive stops, generating both pressure, and decisive pressure, at a completely different rate to any other defensive tackle.

With all due respect to Watt, that’s why it’s imperative for the Rams to come to a long-term agreement with Donald. If he was a beast before the arrival of defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, imagine what the Rams will be able to do once they put the supporting cast around Donald that Phillips wants.

The Rams also have the No. 36 player in their clutches in free-agent find Andrew Whitworth. The 35-year old may not be the long-term answer the Rams need at left tackle. But he may be the steadying force that promising quarterback Jared Goff needs to gain confidence and grow into the leader the franchise needs.

Of Whitworth, Pro Football Focus says:

The only thing keeping Whitworth from being higher on this list is the fact that he is 35 years old and the inevitable knowledge that sooner or later he has to begin to display that reality on the field. Last season, Whitworth was once again one of the game’s best left tackles, and he allowed just 14 total pressures all season.

Donald and Whitworth provide more than a foundation for Rams talent. They provide hope. And with 31-year old head coach Sean McVay in charge, hope can go a long way. So before you write off the Rams as a talentless bunch, thing again, and buy into that hope.

Five prospects the Yankees should be eyeing in the first round of tomorrow's MLB Draft

https://www.downtownyankees.com/sin...be-eyeing-in-the-first-round-of-the-MLB-Draft

The MLB draft is tomorrow and with an unfortunate season-ending Tommy John surgery looming for prized 2015 first round pick James Kaprielian and 2013 first round pick Ian Clarkin unable to stay healthy. The Yankees may have to look at some pitchers in the 2017 draft. Here are five prospects the Yankees should target

Griffin Canning, RHP, UCLA (21 years old)
2017 College Stats: 17 starts, 7-4, 2.34 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 140 strikeouts in 119.0 IP

The former Colorado Rockies draft pick back in 2014, decided to continue on through college and it has definitely been a spectacular business decision for Canning. The 21 year old has been considered a prospect that has one of the higher floors in the draft, but because of that has a lower ceiling. With the Yankees as mentioned previously, having some concern with former first round pitcher Ian Clarkin, this pick would not be surprising in the slightest.

Canning has four pitches right off the bat that would make him a favorite to be a back end rotational starter, and as we have seen over the course of the major leagues, you can't have too many pitchers. Canning is only 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds. He is not a physically imposing or high-velocity pitcher, this is a guy that is going to ultimately win with his off-speed stuff. Canning, a former teammate of James Kaprielian who the Yankees took two years ago. Might be the favorite to come to the Yankees organization and reunite with Kaprielian. The crazy thing with this one would be that the Yankees have the same pick (16th overall) that they used to draft Kaprielian. Could the Yankees repeat history in drafting a UCLA pitcher at 16th overall? Only time will tell, but for now, Canning seems to be a good bet to end up with the Bombers.


David Peterson, LHP, Oregon (21 years old)
2017 College Stats: 15 starts, 11-4, 2.51 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 140 strikeouts in 100.1 IP

This Oregon Duck left-hander right here is my favorite pitcher on this list. The big 6-foot-6 and 240-pound pitcher is exactly the opposite of Griffin Canning. Peterson is my type of pitcher, the physically imposing and overpowering pitcher that just looks like a giant on the mound. Again, another pitcher enters the list due to previously mentioned concerns in the Yankees farm system.

Peterson is most known for striking out 20 batters and being a pitcher that has very solid control. If you are looking for a 100-plus mph pitcher, you won't find it with Peterson, but his slider is very good and he will surely make it to the majors if injuries do not rob him of the opportunity. Just like Canning, Peterson is expected to cruise through the minor leagues with a high floor and lower ceiling. Bottom line is this, as long as Peterson can maintain his control and breaking balls he will be a force in the MLB.

D.L. Hall, LHP, (HS) Valdosta, Georgia (18 years old)

The first prep arm on the list goes to D.L. Hall, who by all means has all the potential to be number two or number three starter someday. He has been compared to the likes of Scott Kazmir due to his size (6-foot-0, 190 pounds) and if he is anything like Kazmir, that could be a huge get for the Yankees. Hall, is, of course, a prep arm who is only 18 years old so because of that it is not a guarantee he would sign with the Yankees, but if he did the Yankees would be getting an impressive young arm. Hall has committed to Florida State, so he could realistically bypass the minor leagues to develop further in college.

Overall, this kid has a great fastball which has more velocity than the previously mentioned names and a very encouraging curveball. He has a higher ceiling than the two mentioned above and might not make it to the Yankees pick at 16. If he falls to the Yankees though and they decide to pull the trigger, that would show confidence in the pitchers at the top of the farm and not desperation to find a pitcher that will make it to the major leagues the fastest. Hall would definitely be an option as the best player available and should definitely be on the radar for Yankees fans.
Jordon Adell, OF, (HS) Ballard, Louisville (18 years old)

Okay, I'll be honest with you, he probably is not going to fall into the Yankees lap at 16 overall, but he also isn't going number one overall either. He is slated between the pick range of 9th-to-13th, but stranger things have happened. Going back to the 2013 draft I had Aaron Judge at the top of my board and many felt like he would not be there for the Yankees in the later portion of the draft. He was, and now we are seeing the benefits first hand.

Adell, may not be the pitcher that the Yankees may need for bulking up their farm, but this player is one of the hardest working in the draft, he's a young 18 years old. Meaning he just turned 18 earlier in the year and he has rare speed and power that you just love to see in an outfielder. So why would he fall? Often times, teams are scared to draft prospects like this out of prep school because most often they do not sign. Adell is a player that if he does not sign this year, he will likely be a top 3-to-5 talent next year. He's got great size at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds and while the Yankees have a loaded outfield at the moment, Adell would be way too hard to pass up on. He reminds me a lot of how Byron Buxton was in the draft.

Nick Pratto, 1B, (HS) Huntington Beach, California (18 years old)

I have seen Pratto mocked to the Yankees more than anyone not named Griffin Canning. It seems like the Yankees are willing to just take the best available and Pratto is realistically going to be the best available bat. Adell maybe more of a pipe dream, but Pratto is projected to be there for the Yankees at 16 and they continue to be linked to him as we go into the draft.

The 6-foot-1. 195 pounder has committed to USC, but he is expected to sign if he is offered real first-round money. He is a smooth hitter and has been considered the best prep hitter in the entire draft. He is expected to grow into his frame and hopefully add more power for the big league level. He's an overall good fielder at first base and appears to be a likely candidate to easily translate to the next level. The only question scouts have is his power doing the same. He is a really talented first base prospect, but he is going to have to have to improve his power or he will likely have no chance playing first base for the Yankees with players like Greg Bird and Tyler Austin at the top of the organization with plenty of power. Pratto could definitely end up being the pick so definitely do not be surprised if the Yankees grab him and give him a healthy deal to influence him in bypassing college.

Honorable mentions:

Trevor Rogers, LHP, (HS) Carlsbad, New Mexico (19 years old)
Has a chance to be a dominant starter with a high-velocity fastball and good size. Older prep arm that doesn't normally lead to success or at least as much success as others.

Sam Carlson, RHP, (HS) Burnsville, Minnesota (18 years old)
With his stock soaring as of late, I don't think he will be there at all. Carlson is another pitcher who has a chance to be dominant and likely if he went to college for one year, he would have a chance to be the first overall pick. Solid frame with a year-to-year improvement with his velocity.

Blayne Enlow, RHP, (HS) St. Amant, Louisiana (19 years old)
A later projected pick in the first round has a chance to be really good. He has a great curveball and a smooth motion that should allow him to grow without worry. The only worry is the fact he will likely be too hard to sign as he is likely to go to LSU for at least one year.
What are your thoughts Yankees fans? Do the Yanks need another arm or another bat? Who are you eyeing in this draft? Let us know!

Just started a Yankees site. You can check it out here:

https://www.downtownyankees.com/

Some great footage here everyone...Heartbreaking season, but it was the silver anniversary of the Rams being in Los Angeles so some great history with some American Express Retro Commercials too!
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walking around Disneyland and run into our new LT. let's just say that dude is huge. And fit. No fat on this guy. Real nice guy. He was with his family so I just said hi and good luck this year.

I told him about ROD and said he should look us up and do a Q and A. I told him hold excited the fans are to have him and our new coach. I said that Mcvay really seems to get and his reply was oh yeah he gets it.

I think speaks volumes with a proven vet like him says that about our coach.

I've gone on record that this is a rebuilding year with too many factors that will mitigate a winning season this year. The QB position is so complex that it simply takes time for a young guy to develop in the NFL. Injuries to key players like Donald, Gurley, Ogletree, Whitworth, Sullivan, Woods, Johnson, or Barwin could derail the integrity of what this team could accomplish. Between that and having to count on a collective unification of so many young players in a first year system having to compete with experienced, veteran defenses indicates we may have to wait a year to see what this offense is capable of accomplishing.

While this was a reasoned assertion a few weeks ago and I vowed not to drink the offseason Kool-Aid, a couple things have changed that have me taking a couple sips now. The big thing was reading MMQB's transcript on 24 hrs w McVay. What stood out to me was his process for developing plays, evaluating film, and involving other coaches in his decision making process. I always scratched my head when the Redskin offense made Gregg Williams' defense look inept with Kirk Cousins. But now I see first hand why it happened. My original premise was that McVay was teaching a new system and the players would have to grow into what McVay has run in Washington. Apparently, that's not the whole story. McVay is developing plays that simplify things for the offense and fit what they are equipped to accomplish successfully as individuals. While the Skins were a high percentage of two TE sets, they also had seasoned vets playing at high levels. Higbee and Everett will have some good plays and develop nicely, but they aren't the best receiving options on the team...they will have an important role, but by percentage, smaller than that of Reed and Davis. Where Reed was their best slot mismatch, I'd say on the Rams McVay would prefer Kupp, Woods, Cooper, or Spruce over Everett (not yet a good route runner) or Higbee (still raw at the position). The other thing that impressed me was McVay's breakdown of Gurley. He's insisting that Gurley keep his shoulders square and develop patience like LeVeon Bell. I watched a couple Steelers games last year and made a similar observation but wrote it off as the two being different types of backs. However, it seems that McVay is astute in this area even as he is with QB's and receivers. I would love to be a fly on the wall hearing his conversations with Kromer to learn how much input he has in developing a running attack similar to Buffalo's. Imagine that...a Redskin like creativity in the passing game combined with the running effectiveness like the Bills. It makes me shiver. At the very least, it would make McVay's offense more effective in the Red Zone where the Skins were particularly weak last year. Combine this with Phillips' penchant for improving defenses, and I'm having difficulty pumping the breaks on my expectations. It's not like we as Rams fans haven't seen a coordinator produce unimaginable results in year one...though there's no way we have the same talent as the GSOT. But it doesn't have to be that dramatic for a 10 win season. Therefore, I'm retracting my position and am getting mildly buzzed about this year.

Sorry DaveFan'51, I'm stealing your thing....:redcard:

What two players in Ram's history, who were not related, had names that sounded exactly the same? Both players played for the Rams before 2000.

Did anyone see the new Story Mode? Looks great. But I don't like that you are unable to edit your character or play an actual NFL game, but this at least shows Madden is open to adding some things...2K needs to be doing everything in their power to get back in this market so they can push each other.

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Super Bowl-pedigreed Kayvon Webster must show he can handle starting role with the Rams
Gary KleinContact Reporter

Most of Kayvon Webster’s NFL snaps came on special teams, not in the secondary.

The cornerback sat behind multiple Pro Bowl players while contributing to Denver Broncos teams that played in two Super Bowls.

Now, for the first time, Webster is on track to start on defense.

The Rams, with a hearty endorsement from new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, signed the fifth-year pro to play on the outside opposite franchise-tagged cornerback Trumaine Johnson.

Webster said his Super Bowl pedigree, and what he learned while earning it, helped prepare him for the opportunity with the Rams.

“I know what it took to get there,” he said of playing for an NFL championship, “and what it’s going to take to get there.”

The Rams, of course, have a long way to go to reach the playoffs, never mind the Super Bowl.

They finished 4-12 last season. They have not played in the postseason since 2004.

As an unrestricted free agent after last season, Webster received interest from the Broncos, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Miami Dolphins. But the Phillips connection was strong.

“He knows what kind of player I am and what kind of player I aspire to be,” Webster said. “So it goes hand in hand.”

In March, after signing a two-year, $7.75-million contract, Webster cited former Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning and former defensive back Champ Bailey — both destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame — and Pro Bowl cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. among the players whose influence “kind of rubbed off on me.”

The Rams pursued Webster with the belief that his experience and work ethic would similarly influence veteran and rookie teammates.

Webster, 26, was part of a Rams free agent class that included offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth and receiver Robert Woods.

The Rams targeted them mainly because of their performance but also for the example they might set for a team that has not had a winning season since 2003.

McVay, 31, has preached a “We Not Me” philosophy.

Webster embodies those traits, cornerbacks coach Aubrey Pleasant said.

“It’s different when you talk about it,” Pleasant said, “and you have living, breathing examples.”



In the months leading up to the start of free agency, Pleasant evaluated potential cornerback additions.

With Johnson’s status uncertain, the Rams were searching for players to possibly replace or complement a cornerback who earned nearly $14 million while playing under the franchise tag in 2016.

The Rams tagged Johnson again — at a cost of nearly $17 million guaranteed — and signed the 5-foot-11, 192-pound Webster.

As a rookie in 2013, the former South Florida standout had played extensively as a reserve. But with Talib’s arrival in Denver as a free agent in 2014 and the ascent of Harris and Bradley Roby, Webster’s defensive snaps decreased.

They fell from 479 in 2013, to 130 in 2014, and to 69 and 59 the next two seasons, respectively, according to profootballreference.com.

Pleasant, though, saw enough in the limited snaps.

“He’s not the biggest corner in the world, but he played very large and played good against bigger opponents,” Pleasant said. “And then, when there are guys in the NFL who are considered speedy receivers he had to go against, he didn’t blink.”

Webster, a special teams standout, also demonstrated another quality.

“Any time you can be patient and wait for your opportunity and be ready when your opportunity becomes available, that says something about you as a person,” Pleasant said. “And those are the types of people I want in this locker room.”



During an April minicamp, Webster and Johnson were “excellent off the edges,” McVay said. Johnson was absent from three of 10 organized team activity workouts, but he and Webster worked as starters in the others.

The two also developed a relationship off the field, with Webster inviting Johnson to workouts with his personal trainer.

“He’s a real-deal competitor,” Johnson said of Webster.

With Lamarcus Joyner moving to safety, Johnson and Webster are part of a cornerbacks group that includes E.J. Gaines, Nickell Robey-Coleman, Troy Hill and Michael Jordan.

The Rams will end offseason workouts with a three-day mandatory minicamp that begins Tuesday.

Webster is confident that he can handle the starting opportunity.

“The team counts on you,” he said, “and you have to put that on your back.”
http://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-kayvon-webster-20170609-story.html

The good folks at KCET contacted us to let us know they have Kevin Demoff coming for a "TownHall Facebook Live" with Kevin Demoff on Monday at 10:30 am (PST).

Let's fill it up with ROD quality questions!

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Join us for a conversation with Kevin Demoff of the Los Angeles Rams to discuss the upcoming football season and the construction of their major sports complex. Do you have a question for him? Leave it in the comments below. #TownHallLA

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https://www.numberfire.com/nfl/news/15004/gerald-everett-adds-another-dimension-to-the-rams-offense

There are a few pieces of pop culture that truly capture the spirit of the era during which they were created.

The 2000’s were the iPod era, 1990’s had grunge music (or the Macarena, depending on who you ask), and the 1970’s were definitely the time of Saturday Night Fever.

But the 1980’s were captured best by Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a goofy cult hit film about two space-case high schoolers who travel through time, because (of course) the fate of the universe depended on them acing history class. The movie reminded us that having someone by your side to help you is one of the most important things in the world, and its B-list 1980’s metal soundtrack reinforced that – including its final jam: “Two Heads Are Better Than One” by Power Tool.

That sentiment is clearly what the Los Angeles Rams were aiming for in their new offensive approach when they drafted tight end Gerald Everett in the second round, just one season after they spent a second rounder on Tyler Higbee. This is an offense fully in transition, also having overhauled its offensive line and wide receiver corps, but first-year head coach Sean McVay’s history with his previous team, the Washington Redskins, indicates that the Rams are poised to feature the tight end in 2017.

How will featuring two tight ends affect their offense?

The McVay Offense: Not-So-Wild Stallions
The two-tight end set (also known as 12 personnel) really boomed around 2013, when teams across the NFL realized how good the New England Patriots’ monster packages featuring Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were. As the Pats began to emulate this strategy, the usage of tight ends exploded -- and so did the number of teams doubling up on the position.

According to a Pro Football Focus (PFF) articlefrom 2013, the league-average use of the two-tight end set was just under 20 percent of plays called. One of the 12 teams to top that rate in '13 was Washington, who utilized the 12 set on 22.8 percent of their offensive snaps.

And who was Washington's tight end coach that season? Sean McVay.

When McVay was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2014, the Redskins began to feed more and more looks to their tight ends. Both Washington’s total targets and the percent of drop backs converted into tight end targets spiked that year, and have only risen since then; Washington has averaged around 23 percent of their drop backs targeting a tight end during McVay’s tenure.




With so many more targets going to tight ends -- who usually work in the short area near the line of scrimmage -- we would expect the passing average Depth of Targets (aDOT) overall to get shorter, and, sure enough, under McVay, Washington quarterbacks’ average target depth went from 8.95 yards beyond the line in 2011 to 2013 to 8.51 the last three years (per PFF). Shorter targets also meant, however, that Washington quarterbacks' completion rate went up; in fact, it jumped from 60.3 percent to 67.8 percent in that time.

Also, 2016 showed a huge spike in average Depth of Target for Washington’s Kirk Cousins, due to the effective play downfield of DeSean Jackson.

If McVay follows a similar pattern for designing the offense in Los Angeles, he’ll almost certainly utilize tight ends Everett and Higbee to stabilize the passing attack early on (see 2014 and 2015 in Washington), and then introduce deeper concepts as they and quarterback Jared Goffdevelop in the offense down the road – whether with Tavon Austin as the deep-ball maven, or even 2017 rookie Josh Reynolds.

Utilizing extra tight ends should be a booster for the offense under Goff. Now, how does this feature role look when we project it between the Rams’ tight ends?

The Tight Ends: Be Excellent to Each Other
McVay’s offenses have featured the tight end in their game planning, but how does their production break down by roles? The chart below shows the progression of Washington tight end roles by their percent of team tight end targets from 2011 to 2016.




It’s important to note that 2015 was the only season under McVay in which Washington tight end Jordan Reed was healthy for 14 games, so it’s entirely possible that the 80/20 split between the TE1 and TE2 role that year is the ideal in this offensive scheme. We can also see there's a very small target role for the TE3 in this offense, but that really only spiked to significance in years where Reed was severely injured; the third tight end is a blocking role for McVay.

But between the two top tight end spots, what is the usage like?

We can see how much value each of them creates through numberFire’s Net Expected Points (NEP) analytic. NEP is an analytic that describes the contribution a play (or player) makes to their team’s chances of scoring. By adding down-and-distance value to the box score, we can see just how much each play and each team as a whole influence the outcome of games. For more info on NEP, check out our glossary.

The table below compares the Reception NEP per target values each tight end role generates on average in Sean McVay’s offense.

Role Rec Targets Target % Rec NEP/Targ Rec NEP/Rec Rec Success %
TE1 68 89 63.7% 0.60 0.80 80.3%
TE2 33 44 31.6% 0.68 0.90 82.0%
TE3 5 7 4.8% 0.10 0.13 53.3%


On average, the top two tight end roles have about a 2-to-1 target share split, indicating a slightly more favorable fantasy outlook for the top tight end.

However, as illustrated by Vernon Davis’ usage in Washington last year, the second tight end role is used a bit more as a downfield receiver and seam-buster than the top role – which is a more possession-based option. A slightly higher Reception NEP per reception rate (more value per catch) and Reception Success Rate (the percent of catches that generate positive value) help illustrate for us that the second tight end in the McVay offense is a bit more of an athletic receiving mismatch than their number-one counterpart.

The table below compares Higbee and Everett to Reed and Davis in those top two roles, based on NFL Combine measurables (those marked with an * are projected based on height and weight comparables).

Player Team/Role Height Weight 40 Vert Broad Shuttle 3-Cone
Jordan Reed WAS TE1 6' 2" 236 4.72 32"* 9' 9"* 4.30* 7.10*
Tyler Higbee LAR TE1 6' 5" 249 4.77 33"* 9' 7"* 4.38* 7.14*
Vernon Davis WAS TE2 6' 3" 254 4.40 42" 10' 8" 4.17 7.00
Gerald Everett LAR TE2 6' 3" 239 4.60 37 1/2" 10' 5" 4.33 6.99


It’s interesting that Higbee has a frame much more like Vernon Davis', but athleticism like Reed, while Everett is the exact opposite.

It remains to be seen exactly how Sean McVay uses these two potent threats, but the sophomore “veteran” Tyler Higbee could be in line for a Jordan Reed-like workload, with a healthy dose of the speedier Gerald Everett cracking the deep middle open for Jared Goff.

Whichever of them becomes McVay’s new Jordan Reed, this offense will build its foundation on these two young tight ends. And that’s certainly better than one.