[leafnose]

Great notion for a solid thread.

I agree on every point except the tight end.

Cleeland has suprised me as being able to stay healthy and he is a decent in line blocker. They never run him on crosses, or rarely on drag plays. In Oakland that's exactly what they ran him on....a play that always goes to the WRs....and what does he do? He crushes the defensive back (injured reserve for the year) and tromps off just short of a touchdown.

Brandon may not be great stuff, but they so rarely send the ball to him that he is under-utilized. I have wonder why they haven't run him on those more elaborate plays in the 2nd level of the secondary.....but the fact is that the Coach is guilty of not going to his tight ends more often.

Coach doesn't particularly allow any wiggle room, so when the tight ends drop a ball, one can just about assure themselves that the Coach isn't going to call their number again in that game.

Just witness the part where Coach knew Marshall had the NFL longest catching streak going....and when Marshall dropped that pass...well....Martz never did call his number again.....

Add in Bulger. Bulger tends to look for his deepest guy first.....sometimes to his own shortcoming.....since the tight ends don't get those routes we never see what these guys can do....and there have been times that Marshall has suffered for Marc's myopic deep ball zones tosses.

And it is tough as sin to use a first day pick on a tight end in this system, and that's really part of the problem. Quality tight ends are statistically always taken on the first day in the draft. Conwell wasn't even an early pick......you have to go all the way back to Troy Drayton to get a first day Tight end selection.

In all my years, as a Ram fan the tight end has been an after thought. Conwell remains the best of the ones I can recall.....even with his long absence in injury

The Rams couldn't afford to take another long spell to try and develop another draft pick, so they picked up Brandon's contract. We'll have to see what transpires next. Cleeland said he'll retire rather than take another one year contract, and Jensen did nothing for me.