You might want to take a wait and see approach before thinking free agent OT Anthony Davis, signed by the Rams this week to round out their OL depth. Davis started two seasons, '05 and '06, at LT with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Before looking at the stats, it's worth noting that Davis was just one player on that unit. 

Sacks allowed aren't always the best, or fairest, stat for offensive linemen. I tend to take view them with a somewhat skeptical eye, but understanding they have their value too. In 2005, Davis allowed 7.5 sacks, and 7.00 the year after. 

In 2005, the Bucs' had a 41 sacks for a 7.9% sack rate, the league's 25th highest. 

The running game was helped considerably by the emergence of rookie RB Cadillac Williams. Davis' side of the line graded out well; at left end and left tackle, they were sat among the top ten in adjusted line yards.

Pass protection improved in 2006. Tampa Bay QBs were sacked 33 times for a sack rate of 5.3%, 10th best.

The run blocking dropped off some that season. Their adjusted line yards fell from 4.00 the season before to 3.88, ranking them 28th. But their "stuffed" numbers indicated some toughness on the line.

Davis, just 28, might be a fine addition to the depth chart at OT, but I'll withhold judgement until seeing some results.

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Sounds like Haslett did finally call out his players, threatening to sit them if they play like they have and keep making such lousy errors.  Ironically enough, still starting QB Marc Bulger agreed with the message.

I like hearing the do-or-die motivational talk, but, again, I'll wait to see the results before deciding whether it worked or not.

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We'll all be glad when RB Steven Jackson gets back on the field, at full speed. Still no word on when that might happen. When he does come back, he has to make it count, even if it's just a couple games. Why, besides the usual reasons? 

Since skipping training camp while holding out for a new contract, Jackson's taken plenty of heat from fans this season. And yesterday, head coach Jim Haslett told the press he believed that Jackson's hold out contributed to his injury status this year. From the coach:

Guys don't go to training camp, and when they come back, they either pull a hip flexor, groin, something, and you hope it's nothing major that keeps them out. You hope it's one of those one-week injuries, four or five days and they come back, but it happens all the time.

Nobody's surprised at that assessment - we've said as much since August - but hearing it from the head coach can give angry fans some more red meat to call into the talk shows with. 

The PD's Jeff Gordon looks at some of the Rams higher paid slackers, the guys that Haslett apparently has been vainly pressing upon to do better. There are 12 names on Gordon's list and he posits the Rams will have to cut about half of them to retool next year.

Let's look at the possibilities. Starting with the sure things: Dante Hall and La'Roi Glover's contracts are up after this season, so jettisoning their contracts is easy, and both players have passed their prime. You can forget dumping Bulger or Steven Jackson, for reasons we've discussed ad naseum. There's maybe a .001% chance the Rams could part ways with Bulger, via trade, but it's incredibly unlikely.

Witherspoon's a safe bet to remain a Ram too. He's playing with an injury and out of position. If the Rams add a real live middle linebacker next season, the chances of us seeing the player we saw last season go way up. DT Adam Carriker isn't going anywhere either. He's not playing like a first round pick this season - he has had moments though - but if the Rams can get a big body to play next to him on the line, he'll improve. I'd even think about making him a DE again. Given their needs on the line and the hit they'd take on the cap, G Jacob Bell is safe too. With improvements around him on the line, he'll be better.

It's hard to imagine the Rams without LT Orlando Pace, but at what point will he consider retirement? The Rams invested a lot of money in him for diminishing returns. He probably stays. The team's lack of depth helps LB Pisa Tinoisamoa's case, but if the team adds some quality to this group from the draft and/or free agency, then they could take the cap hit and say goodbye.

I don't know why the Rams would keep Trent Green. Cutting him costs them money, but I think they'll live with it. Fans might charge the field, and not for celebration, if WR Drew Bennett makes the roster next year. That leaves WR Torry Holt from Gordon's orignal list. Holt probably gets moved, traded for whatever they can get.

The debate about Jim Haslett's fate with the Rams after this season made for some good discussion yesterday. The overwhelming consensus, unscientific, was for Haslett to get his walking papers at the end of the season. Given the team's performance since the fourth quarter against the Patriots, it's tough to make the case for the Rams to keep Haslett.

However, there are plenty of arguments in his favor, not the least of which is the talent he has to work with. The PD's Bryan Burwell has a column in today's paper arguing that the Rams should keep Haslett. I have to question a few of his key points though, mostly in relation to Haslett's connection with the players. To wit:

Haslett knows how to be a head coach. He may not be the greatest X's and O's man who ever patrolled the sidelines, but he doesn't have to be. He's a leader, and this team will need a strong-willed, confident man in charge, not a sad-sack fatalist who mopes around Rams Park as if he's doomed whenever he faces hard times. I like the way Haslett is still working every day trying to weed out the weak-minded and the talent impaired.

He had me until that last sentence (emphasis mine). He comes back to that theme, two paragraphs later:

Haslett's value is that he's shown the good sense, judgment and credibility to sniff out all the slackers and jokers in that locker room. Like he said a few weeks ago, the problem with this team is that it has too many players who either don't want to play hard, lack the talent to play hard or suffer severe cases of both maladies.

Now, we know Haslett doesn't have much to work with, mismanagement over the years has left the Rams talent-barren and instilled something less than a winning tradition. My question, however, is what exactly has Haslett done to weed out the "weak-minded," the "talent impaired" and "slackers and jokers"?

It seems to me that it's the same guys in the same rotations out there week after week, excluding injured players, from the high points a few weeks ago to the recent run of putrid football the Rams have played. Granted, the lack of depth prevents the Rams from benching many guys, but if Haslett's called out any slackers in the locker room, that hasn't translated to the field. It's particularly hard to agree with this sentiment when it's already been announced that Marc Bulger will start at QB again this week. And Bulger's not particularly a slacker; he's just not playing well enough to justify another start at the moment.

I will say that Haslett's tactic with backup runners Antonio Pittman and Kenneth Darby worked well. Both had solid games against the 49ers, not just at garbage time either. Darby, you'll notice, didn't fumble in this game after a costly one against the Jets. And the offensive line came out looking sharp to start the game, but the rest of the team's performance showed no signs of rising to meet the challenge.

Without a doubt, whoever the Rams make haed coach next season, there has to be some real changes to the roster, not only to jettison overpriced or over-the-hill veterans but to also, you know, purge a few malcontents. There also has to be a sea change at the top, new leadership in the front office, and by all accounts that's coming. Things we've been saying here since 2006. Burwell makes both those points in his column too, but if Haslett's calling out the lugs, we've yet to see the results.

Next question: It's easy to talk about the bums and malcontents, the quitters and the half-effort types, but who are they? Which players on the Rams team need to go for these reasons?

Rams LT Orlando Pace is out at least 2-4 weeks with an MCL strain.

However, the team might opt to go the rest of the season without the seven-time Pro Bowler. The Rams are considering putting Pace on IR, ending his season. With just six games left to play and the team's problems extending far beyond anything Pace can do, there's no reason to put him at further risk for injury, especially with the LT under contract through 2011.

Speaking of that contract, look at the dollars coming his way, as pointed out by ESPN's Mike Sando. That's a boatload of green for a guy who's played 18 games in the last three seasons. I'd think the Rams have to approach Pace about reworking that contract. Especially, given that the Rams MUST add a tackle in the upcoming draft. I'd be really, really surprised if he had another full season of play left in him at this point. If you're Pace, at what point do you start thinking about retirement?

When Jim Haslett took over as head coach, the Rams started looking like a different team. They rattled off two upsets and nearly had a third against the Patriots in New England. Haslett had two of the six wins that could potentially guarantee him the head coaching job for 2009 and fans had a reason to care about the Rams again. Whispers of a shot at the division title even surfaced. 

A week after the best stretch of football Rams fans have seen in two years, one quarter against the Cardinals brought the team right back to where they started the season. Since then, the difference between Scott Linehan's Rams and Jim Haslett's Rams has been limited to the name fans and pundits curse in the wake of each week's more stunning loss.

With that, I think it's safe to say the odds of Jim Haslett sticking around as head coach are pretty slim. Duh. I think everyone knew Haslett's job security in St. Louis slipped away with a loss to a team that had been among the league's worst. And now we, as fans, should ask the question whether we would want Haslett back for another year and whether or not he could help right the ship if he did come back.

He can't be blamed for the personnel he has to play with. Years of bad decision making left the team with the talent and lack thereof it puts on the field every week. But still, performances like the last three take much more than just an inferior team losing to a better one. The Rams were perfectly capable of scoring more points and preventing some scores in games against the Cardinals and Jets, and a win at San Francisco was entirely possible. Reading quotes from players bewildered about the disconnect between some good practices and their game-time performance doesn't help the case along either. 

Now, with his decision to stick with Marc Bulger at QB, you really have to wonder. I don't feel like an irrational Bulger critic; the line he's had to play behind the last few seasons would injure the conscious of most men, to say nothing of making them gun shy. But given his play the past few weeks, turnover after turnover leading directly to points scored by opponents - the sequence of Bulger's fumble and INT this week was some of the ugliest football I've ever seen - the case to leave Bulger under center completely eludes me. Even in light of his decent play in the second half, I can't see the logic in this one. There were plenty of things not to like about the Rams play the last few weeks - the d-line was every bit as pathetic as the QB play - all of it making Haslett's case hard to defend. Sticking with Bugler, however, might just be the decision that ends Haslett's tenure with the Rams. 

Now, what about getting a new coach? One possibility that surfaced yesterday, reported by NFL.com's Adam Schefter, is New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. He could be a particularly good fit for the Rams if he can lure soon-to-be free agent QB Matt Cassel to join him. New England assistants are a highly desired pedigree for NFL coaches, and if the Rams have any hope of courting a prospective coach like that, Chip Rosenbloom's rumored changes coming in the front office at Rams Park will have to demonstrate an organizational commitment to winning, a completely new philosophy for the team. 

Should be an interesting news conference with Rams head coach Jim Haslett today. Should be. Depending on your perspective, there's plenty to talk about in the wake of another ugly, lopsided Rams loss. 

My favorite, from QB Marc Bulger, proving there's no "I" in team:

We were well-prepared schematically. We just didn't execute. We turned the ball over. We couldn't stop them. Just all-around, we didn't play well as a team. It has nothing to do with coaches. It's up to us to make plays, and we're not doing it.

The discrepancy from chalk board to the field befuddled another Rams veteran, Leonard Little:

We practice a whole lot better than we've played in the first half. The second half was like practice again. Everybody was where they needed to be, and people were making plays. That second quarter just killed us today.

Head coach Jim Haslett had a few things to say about the broken Xs and Os:

For us to come out in the second half and play like that, they need to string a whole game together. I really don't understand. And, when we do commit a turnover, we don't stop anybody on defense. It's disappointing from the whole standpoint.

We started off the game -- and we challenged the players to make some plays -- and we missed a field goal, which is ridiculous, and then we have a kickoff that is a line drive that they bring back. The first half was a disaster.

The pundits weighed in on the Rams poor, poor execution. From Clark Judge at CBS Sportsline:

Uh, how come nobody asks if the St. Louis Rams have quit? The past three games they've been outscored 99-10 in the first half. Whatever Jim Haslett is using for a pregame speech, I'd junk it.

Oh, burn! That wasn't so much a comment on poor execution as, well, just general poorness. ESPN's Mike Sando tried to offer something a little more constructive in his "silver linings" post for the game:

OK, we're reaching now. It's getting pathetic. I've watched most of the first half at this point. The Rams appear to be giving good effort on defense. They're chasing Shaun Hill around the field. But they're not finishing plays. The 49ers are making big plays routinely. But enough negativity! This is a silver-linings file, after all.

The "A for effort" defense. Never worked on my dear mother. Check out this exchange from Football Outsiders:

Aaron Schatz: The worst tackling team in the NFL? I don't know, St. Louis is losing to the FORTY-NINERS 28-3 and it isn't even halftime.

Doug Farrar: With the Rams, I think it's more that they're getting blown off the ball against the run, or are out of position in coverage, so often that they're not even able to get close enough to screw up a tackle.

So, now we know  the Rams executed poorly and found themselves out of position again and again, but what do we do about it? Thoughts?

Okay, the Rams season is lost, and it's getting hard to find things to talk about, "hey, how about that Donnie Jones?"

We know the entire organization is in desperate need of a makeover, especially the top of it. With that, here's a crazy thought for the day: why not Mark Cuban?

To heck with buying a baseball team, buy the Rams. No idea whether or not the Mavs owner has any interest in joining the NFL's elite ownership club, but we do know or at least have reason to believe, that the Rams owner wants out. And the match made in heaven doesn't end there. The Rams need organizational leadership committed to winning. An owner like Cuban, who hates losing, would instantly give the entire franchise a completly new pyshcological make up, banishing the ghosts of a troubled recent history.

He might have to clear this little insider trading blip first...

Now again, let me be clear, I'm just playing armchair general here; there's nothing out there even remotely indicating such a rumor. Besides, he's probably too smart to sink money into this outfit. Still, talk about a complete flip in a franchise's makeup. Cuban would annoy many, but I'd take that over the profit taking mentality that's governed the team for too long now.

Naturally, just when the offensive line plays a good game its two best players would suffer injuries. It's like the Rams weren't content with the crappiness and had to really try and top what we saw in 2007. 

The news  doesn't sound good for LT Orlando Pace. If he has a torn MCL he'll be out a month or possibly the entire season. Retirement? Even if Pace does come back, it just underscores the Rams desperate need to draft a young LT this spring.

It's a rotator cuff injury for Incognito, and we won't know more until he undergoes an MRI. 

Do I even need to say what I'm about to? Yes. Going to anyway. Let's see what we've got in this year's third round draft pick John Greco. The can probably slot him at guard, where they've talked about playing him since the draft. The young, hungry running backs played well. Now, let's see what we've got in Greco. 

The Bartell injury could mean really bad things for the Rams pass defense this season. Bartell's been one of the team's few bright spots this season, finally emerging from his up and down play to become a solid presence in the backfield. He's probably done for the year. Tye Hill should be able to play again soon, an he better regain the form we saw from him down the stretch last year. 

Turning into another fine season of Rams football, no?

Another week, another ignominious Rams loss. I'm beginning to think the league needs a Kevorkian rule; keep losing by lopsided margins and the commissioner pulls the plug on your season. It's getting hard to watch this team. If these guys were in charge of fixing the economy, I'd start stuffing bills in my mattress and pennies in my shoes. Only a loss to the Lions would have been more humiliating. 

So many times watching this team over the last two years, after so many turds like this one, I've demanded answers and appealed to reason. No more. There's just no point. Until there's a sea change in the organization's zeitgeist, this is the rule, not the exception. 

For me, mercifully, the game wasn't televised, so I'll leave my venomous sentiments to those who witnessed the massacre. The game sounded just as impressive on the radio as I'm sure it looked. 

The game was a stinker on all fronts, but I gotta say, the Tony Banks Award for Excellence this outing goes to Marc Bulger. I was fully prepared to blame the Rams o-line, but they played pretty well, all things being relative with a 2-8 team. When it's this bad, there's plenty of blame to go around, but you can pin the lion's share of this mess on Rams QB Marc Bulger. The game ended with Bulger's fumble on 2nd down in the 2nd quarter set the 49ers up for a TD. That brillant sequence was follwed by a terrible interception by Bulger. The 49ers started two drives on turnovers inside the Rams side of the field, once in the red zone. At that point, 28-3, it became reasonable to wonder if the Rams were going on two weeks in a row where an opponent scored 40 points by the half. Turns out the 49ers only got 35. Crisis averted. Making it even worse was some fairly effective play from the QB in the second half...with the Niners in cruise control.

I don't see how you argue for sticking with Bulger next week. 

The middle of the Rams defense did itself no favors with their inspired play either. DT La'Roi Glover spent most of the snaps he saw on his back. Glover's long in the tooth, a guy who served his time, playing admirably for a lost cause now. The disappointment is Adam Carriker, who hardly played like a first round draft pick. I don't think he belongs at DT, at least not without a bulky, NT-prototype next to him in the 4-3. Given the playmaking skills touted when he was a draft pick, maybe he'd be a better LB. That's two position switches in three years, though, not exactly a recipe for success. At the very least, I think the Rams should move him to DE, where he played better last year filling in for injured players. DE Leonard Little is the heart and soul of this team, by default, but taking nothing away from the man. Unfortunately, he's clearly playing hurt or just too over-the-hill, and that's dramatically reduced the level of effectiveness the Rams need out of one of their precious few leaders. More cause to move Carriker to DE. 

And how could we forget about the injuries...just to make it really feel like a contemporary Rams game, there had to be injuries to good(ish) players. If this team loses Bartell for any significant amount of time, there could be a lot more blowouts. Pace and Incognito, well, let's keep our fingers crossed, those are our two best linemen. 

Finally, there's Jim Haslett. His epithet for his time with the Rams might read, "He stuck with Marc Bulger as his starting QB." Though, I don't know; there was plenty of merit to the argument of leaving Bulger under center coming into this game (also plenty of argument against it). Haslett's early run seemed so promising. I can't imagine the odds favoring him at the helm next season, even though much of the problem lies with the player personnel. I think he'll be a fine coach, but if comes down the keepign Haslett and completely remaking this team, well, best of luck in the SEC, Jim. Much more than Haslett, the future of this team hinges completely on how the front office gets remade, and to do that right, Rosenbloom is going to have to show a winning commitment if he wants to get the best people for the job.

Alright, I can't think about the Rams anymore tonight. Why waste a perfectly good Sunday evening, right?

More fun tomorrow.