Nutten benched, Terrell starts

[RamWraith]

Two rookies will start on offense vs. Colts
By Jim Thomas
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Saturday, Oct. 15 2005

The Rams will start two rookies on the offensive line Monday night against
unbeaten Indianapolis.

Guard Claude Terrell, a fourth-round draft pick from New Mexico, will make his
first NFL start, joining rookie right tackle Alex Barron in the lineup.

"I just found out today," Terrell said following Saturday's practice. "I can't
wait. This is my opportunity. I'm ready to make the most of it."

At the start of practice Saturday, Terrell went over to work with the scout
team, the group of backups that runs the plays of that week's opponents.

"You don't have to do that today," offensive line coach John Matsko told him.
"You're starting."

Terrell will start at left guard against the Colts in place of Tom Nutten.
Terrell was in for 29 plays on the offensive line last week against Seattle,
but only three of those plays were in place of Nutten. The rest of the time, he
played in place of right guard Adam Timmerman.


Are you ready for some football?

The Rams are accustomed to having crowd noise piped into practice via portable
speakers, particularly when they're preparing for a road game. But during
Saturday's workout, held indoors at Rams Park, they got something entirely
different.

During an offensive team period midway through practice, the sounds of country
singer Hank Williams Jr., singing the "Monday Night Football" anthem, blasted
through the speakers.

"Just a little something to energize the guys," interim head coach Joe Vitt
said. "I'm from south Philadelphia; believe me, I know very little about
country-western music."

Then, he added, "I don't think they know who the Delphonics are, and the
Spinners."

When the music started blaring, defensive end Anthony Hargrove and running back
Steven Jackson responded with some, uh, dance moves.


Injury update

Tight end Brandon Manumaleuna, who has missed the past two games with a
sprained knee, practiced for the second day in a row Saturday and is expected
to play Monday.

After sitting out practice Thursday and Friday, defensive end Leonard Little
(back) and wide receiver Torry Holt (knee) worked out during team periods
Saturday. Neither will be 100 percent, but both say they're playing Monday.

Cornerback DeJuan Groce (hamstring) also worked Saturday and said he's playing
against the Colts.

"I'm always going to find a way to play, hurt or not," Groce said. "As we get
closer and closer (to game time), it gets a little bit better, because we've
been doing treatment real hard."

However, wide receiver Isaac Bruce (turf toe) is expected to miss his third
consecutive game. Cornerback Travis Fisher, who missed practice Friday because
of illness, returned Saturday. Rookie safety Jerome Carter was added to the
injury report Saturday as questionable with a hip injury. Carter plays in the
Rams' six-defensive-back package.


Ram-blings

Defensive players wore wristbands with plays on them during practice this past
week to help with nickel plays. ... Practice squad wide receiver Dominique
Thompson may be promoted to the active roster for the Colts game because of the
injuries to Bruce and Holt.

[talkstoangels61]

Timmerman needs to be benched also and Saipia needs to take over!

[RamsFan16]

Little and Holt are playing. This is good! How big is Timmerman and Nuttens contracts btw?

[Nick]

Nutten signed a one year league minimum contract this offseason.

Timmerman has four years remaining of a five year deal signed in March 2004. He has a reasonable salary this season, but his salary jumps to $1,500,000 for 2006 and $2,200,000 for '07 and '08. Don't know what bonus money he got, so I also don't know how that bonus money is spread out over the length of the contract.

[RamsFan16]

They need to take some of that away from him.

[moklerman]

I'm not predicting a miraculous turn around just yet, but I like the way Vitt's throwing these guy's some curveballs while at the same time trying to give them some fun.

It seems to me the team hasn't been holding back on making roster moves since Martz is gone so I don't know how to interpret that. Are these all things that Martz didn't want, or couldn't bring himself, to do? It doesn't really matter and hopefully will work out in the long run. If Martz see's and/or agrees that the moves are beneficial, maybe he will become comfortable with trusting and utilizing his staff to make decisions.

I'm under the impression that he feels responsible for making the decisions on every single thing, even things that he may not be best suited to do so. Maybe DV can encourage him to use his resources if they talk any time soon.

Of course, all the moves could work out badly and Martz would never trust anyone around him again. That wouldn't be helpful.

[sbramfan]

All the moves are great, IMO. I'm not sure that any of these wouldn't have been made under Martz, because if you remember, he was talking about someone being held accountable on the defense, and I think he was referring to Hawthorne...and now he got the axe.

Terrell starting couldn't hurt, because you can always put Nutten back in, if he fails. Plus, it probably wouldn't hurt Nutten to get a game off, or even just a bunch of plays. Remember, the guy can barely walk. I don't know how he gets in there and plays football. Give him an award, though for all he's done for this team....but time to get Terrell in there.

the Monday Night Music thing is great. I think there is an element of getting guys pumped up that Martz isn't all about. He is more business-like, which probably works well for the guys who played in the Superbowl, but not everyone was on that team.

I feel the changes made are giving this team the best chance to win. Not to say whether they will or won't win, but given the best chance to succeed.

[Nick]

It's hard for me to believe that Martz might not have been willing to make this move himself, considering Terrell was in the starting line-up before the regular season and was inserted back during the Seattle game under Martz's watch, but it would be interesting to know if these moves are talked about with him before they're executed.

I have not read any of this thread yet and before I do I just want to comment on something. Wasn't it Nutten that was ready to go over and coach in NFL Europe then the Rams talked him out of retirement?

[RAMMAN68]

During an offensive team period midway through practice, the sounds of country
singer Hank Williams Jr., singing the "Monday Night Football" anthem, blasted
through the speakers.

i REALLY LIKE THIS. Vitt is taking charge and trying to motivate these guys. Hopefully they will respond.