It's the first day of training camp....

[PeoriaRam]

And Bradford is not signed. Even better, contract negotiations have had hiccups emerge.

Good job Team Devaney. You had almost 7 months to get a deal done and still didn't. In your next jobs, start contract negotiations a little sooner.

[HUbison]

I wouldn't give up the ghost just yet, Peoria.

[sosa39rams]

I am pretty disappointed aswell.

[BM_Face]

No one thought that this deal would be signed within the first six months. Saying that there has been seven months to close the deal is a little disingenuous when negotiations have only recently been joined.

Give it a chance. The Season is not over.

[sjacksonrules]

And Bradford is not signed. Even better, contract negotiations have had hiccups emerge.

Good job Team Devaney. You had almost 7 months to get a deal done and still didn't. In your next jobs, start contract negotiations a little sooner.

IF you haven't noticed Suh and McCoy both have not signed either and thats just to name two. Let alone eric berry, joe hayden, tim tebow, Do I really need to name almost every first rounder besides dez bryant.

[laram0]

The word here in Massachusetts is that Tom Brady is waiting to see what Bradford gets for a contract before he hammers out a new deal with the Pats.
Local news here is reporting that Brady is not happy with the Pats right now even though he wants to remain a Patriot. To make a long story short....The longer it takes for Bradford to sign with the RAMS the more stewing Brady will be doing.....I know that doesn't help us but I hate the Patriots!!!!

[sjacksonrules]

The word here in Massachusetts is that Tom Brady is waiting to see what Bradford gets for a contract before he hammers out a new deal with the Pats.
Local news here is reporting that Brady is not happy with the Pats right now even though he wants to remain a Patriot. To make a long story short....The longer it takes for Bradford to sign with the RAMS the more stewing Brady will be doing.....I know that doesn't help us but I hate the Patriots!!!!

I would assume that they are also waiting on peyton and his deal. It would make my year if tom brady didn't play for the patriots anymore. I wonder if they give him the money he wants because the patriots are known to pay less money not more.

[HUbison]

IF you haven't noticed Suh and McCoy both have not signed either and thats just to name two. Let alone eric berry, joe hayden, tim tebow, Do I really need to name almost every first rounder besides dez bryant.

And to your point, none of the top 7 have signed yet.

[MACD]

Wouldn't Sam have to sign first before the dominoes start falling?

[Nick]

We can't control what other teams do and when they sign. But we also aren't beholden to them in order to complete our own negotiations.

The truth of the matter is the Rams could have followed the Lions or Dolphins formula and signed Bradford in April, but for whatever reason they elected not to. They then waited until the middle of July to start negotiations, and haven't been able to finalize a deal before the start of camp.

Do I expect this to be a long holdout on Bradford's part? No. I expect he'll sign anytime within the next 72 hours, to be honest. But do the Rams deserve some amount of criticism for him not being in camp on time so he could participate in today's opening practices? Yeah, they do.

Here's a Jim Thomas story that seems to indicate there wasn't much of a rush last night to get a deal done...

There were no talks Wednesday night between the St. Louis Rams and the agents for No. 1 overall draft pick Sam Bradford. And that meant no 11th-hour agreement that would put Bradford on the practice field Thursday morning when rookies and selected veterans open training camp at Rams Park.

The first full squad practice doesn't take place until Saturday. Less than half of the 80-man roster is expected to participate in Thursday's morning and afternoon practice sessions. But for a rookie, particularly a rookie quarterback expected to be the face of the franchise, every lost practice is time you can't get back.

Kevin Demoff, the Rams' executive vice president of football operations, had indicated earlier Wednesday that talks were progressing. But sources familiar with the negotiations indicated later in the evening that no talks took place Wednesday night. Demoff could not be reached later. There are no indications of major hang-ups. Nonetheless, there's still no deal.

Bradford is represented by St. Louis-based agents Tom Condon and Ben Dogra of CAA Football. They're the same agents who represent last year's No. 2 overall pick, offensive tackle Jason Smith.

Last year, on the eve of the first camp practice for rookies and selected vets, the Rams and Smith's agents reached agreement on a deal at about 1 a.m. -- less than 8 hours before the first practice. With a lot of paperwork to be finalized, Smith didn't sign until about 3 p.m. that afternoon _ missing two practices, both of which lasted little more than an hour.

Smith was on the practice field the following day, when the full squad took part in its first practice of Rams camp. This year, there are two days of practices for rookies and selected vets, meaning the Rams and Bradford's agents have an extra day to strike a deal before the full squad gets to work.

My bet is that he's signed in time to be at the Saturday full-squad practice, which is fine. But IMO, there's really no reason not to have the deal done so he can participate in as many practices as possible.

This is yet another reason why the NFL needs a rookie wage system. Then teams won't have to spend as many resources on negotiating a contract and risking their rookies not being in camp on time.

[HUbison]

The truth of the matter is the Rams could have followed the Lions or Dolphins formula and signed Bradford in April, but for whatever reason they elected not to.

Did they "elect" not to? Takes two to tango, and for all we know Demoff approached Condon in April, and Condon was the one that said "see ya in July".

Could have gone either way.

[Nick]

Did they "elect" not to? Takes two to tango, and for all we know Demoff approached Condon in April, and Condon was the one that said "see ya in July".

Could have gone either way.

While it's possible that the Rams could have approached Bradford's agent before the draft or multiple times after only to be refused at every advance, I think that's a pretty unlikely scenario, especially since we've heard virtually nothing about any negotiations or attempted negotiations until the announcement earlier this month that they'd get underway in mid-July. It does take two to tango, which means you have two parties that both hold some portion of the responsibility when the kid is late to the dance. And one of them is the Rams.

[MoonJoe]

Wouldn't Sam have to sign first before the dominoes start falling?

I think he is the first domino, isn't that usually how it starts?

[HUbison]

While it's possible that the Rams could have approached Bradford's agent before the draft or multiple times after only to be refused at every advance, I think that's a pretty unlikely scenario, especially since we've heard virtually nothing about any negotiations or attempted negotiations until the announcement earlier this month that they'd get underway in mid-July. It does take two to tango, which means you have two parties that both hold some portion of the responsibility when the kid is late to the dance. And one of them is the Rams.

I'm not sure what makes it so unlikely. It looks to me like a 50-50 shot. Either the Rams didn't want to push forward or Condon didn't want to push forward. I guess there is the third option of neither party wanting to push forward. So, let's do the math.....

1/3rd chance Condon drug his feet = Condon's fault
1/3rd chance Demoff drug his feet = Demoff's fault
1/3rd chance both drug their feet = Condon's and Demoff's fault

Therefore, there's a 66.7% chance that Condon is at fault; and a 66.7% chance that Demoff is at fault. So I was wrong......it's not a 50-50 shot. It's a 66.7-66.7 shot...........wait a minute, that doesn't work either. Hmm.


You got love the offseason when discussions turn towards the blame placement for the rookie QB missing the first day. We'll all have a good laugh when the contract gets signed within a few hours.

[AvengerRam]

Clearly, most of you have never negotiated a big contract.

When two sides begin far apart, something has to move them closer to the center. Typically, its some event that creates urgency for one or both sides.

Here, there was no urgency on either side in, say... June, to get a deal done. That - and not some neglect of duties - is the reason the deal did not get done sooner.

I'll be shocked if he's not signed by this weekend, Monday at the latest.