The situation in Ferguson Missouri is getting worse by the day as police use harsh force against protesters rallying for justice after the horrific death of Michael Brown and to help out the community, the St. Louis Rams offered hundreds of tickets to high school football players to attend the Rams-Pacers NFL preseason game and this comes as live stream coverage of the protests and press conferences are continuing.
According to the MMQB.com, the Rams offered over 70 tickets to the three schools within the Ferguson-Florissant School District to their football teams. Here is a look back on the Rams draft and offseason. The St. Louis Rams had a very interesting draft in 2014 and along with Michael Sam in the seventh round, the team picked Greg Robinson and Aaron Donald in the first along with other names like Tre Mason in the third round and Garrett Gilbert in the sixth round and Jeff Fisher and company are getting some solid grades heading out of the draft, especially when it comes to their pick of Sam.
The Rams are coming into the season after going 7-9 and losing their quarterback Sam Bradford and while Gilbert will not be taking over the starting job, he provides some nice insurance in case Bradford goes down again. Donald is a run stuffer and a great defensive lineman, while Robinson was considered to be the highest rated o-line player in the draft and Fisher also raved about his athletic ability after the forty time he put up at the NFL scouting combine. The player with the chance to make the biggest impact is Mason, as the Rams have not had an explosive back like him in years and they struggled running the ball last season.
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The Rams suffered an identity crisis when they let Steven Jackson go and while Zac Stacy stepped up nicely last season, they needed more depth and now they have it with Mason. Last season Mason rushed for over 1,800 yards and had 23 touchdowns for Auburn as they went to the national title game and with his explosive speed he can be a factor out of the backfield for the team. At their number two pick they went with Robinson over Sammy Watkins and Johnny Manziel, as the team felt picking Tavon Austin last season was good enough and since the team desperately needed line help, they felt that was the way to go.
Last season the Rams ranked 27th in the league in passing yards per game and 19th in the league in rushing yards per game and while part of that was due to Bradford getting injured, it was also due to the fact that beyond Tavon Austin there weren't many playmakers on the field. Jared Cook led the team over Chris Givens in receiving yards and now they are hoping Austin can step up this season in year two. Stacy was tops with nearly 1,000 rushing yards and adding Mason and Robinson should boost the rushing game and it also should solidify the offensive line. The team is getting Jake Long back healthy and along with Robinson they could have one of the most athletic lines in the league.
