Rams cut WR Burton to make room for Clayton

[Nick]

From Howard Balzer's Twitter...

Dominique Curry stays on the roster as Rams cut Keenan Burton to make room for Mark Clayton.
8 minutes ago via web

[LA Rammer]

Awww c'mon you beat me again!!! Can we at least merge our two?

Here it goes:

BY JIM THOMAS | Posted: Tuesday, September 7, 2010 11:40 am

Wide receiver Keenan Burton has been released by the St. Louis Rams to make room for newly-acquired Mark Clayton on the roster. This couldn't have been an easy decision for coach Steve Spagnuolo; the hard-working Burton was one of his favorites.

A fourth-round draft pick out of Kentucky by the Rams in 2008, Burton was slowed by knee injuries during his time in St. Louis. He played in 22 games including seven starts in his two seasons with the Rams, catching 38 passes for 425 yards and one touchdown.

Burton suffered a season-ending knee injury last Nov. 15 against New Orleans, causing him to miss the final seven games of 2009. Burton also missed three games as a rookie due to a knee injury.

Interestingly, the Rams kept rookie wideout Dominique Curry ahead of Burton after trading for Clayton. A possession receiver who seemed to do his best work in the slot, Burton had eight catches for 57 yards this preseason.

[DistantRam]

Most of the new management's decisions have made sense but this one doesn't; Burton is a far better receiver than Curry ever will be.

Still, what do we mere fans know?

[TekeRam]

Burton had flashes of greatness, but never showed it consistently. Further, he's banged up and as far as I know, not 100% yet. It makes sense to drop him when we know more about his ceiling than we do Curry's.

[LA Rammer]

i think it's more of the injuries, but he had plenty of time to separate himself from Curry and make the roster.

[3STL9]

Yeah Burton has been inconsistent when not injured. I think its time to part ways with him.

Enough building up these slot/4th receivers. Time to trim the hedges. And I doubt it matters if its curry or burton. I would prefer to give Curry a shot now

[RamsInfiniti]

I am a huge fan of Burton's, way back to when he played in the SEC. Very talented individual ...

However, it's looking like his knees may prevent him from ever truly developing ...

Quite a shame ...

[39thebeast]

Never was a Burton fan i can understand why he is gone. Zero deep field ability not great size terrible knees, solid route runner with solid hands pretty much it. Curry offers way better size way better health and most importantly alot of special teams ability

[richtree]

I told you this would happen last season when you were all screaming how good he is....I would bump my old thread if the search feature wasn't disabled.

Now we have a much better team and in a weak division I expect a big step forward .

MODS PLEASE DELETE MY OTHER THREAD -- THANKS!

[RAMFANRAIDERHATER]

Never was a Burton fan i can understand why he is gone. Zero deep field ability not great size terrible knees, solid route runner with solid hands pretty much it. Curry offers way better size way better health and most importantly alot of special teams ability

I think you nailed it here. Curry's contributions to ST's probably gave him the edge.

[RAMarkable]

Can't say I didn't see this coming. However, it is with a bit of sadness that Keenan is leaving in that I'll always wonder what he could have been had he stayed healthy.

But the reality is that he was severly injured 2 out of his 4 years at Kentucky and both years with the Rams. That means that 4 of his last 6 football years he was injured and unavailbale for action.

Guess we'll never know....


WHAT SAY YE?

[DistantRam]

... solid route runner with solid hands pretty much it

A wide receiver who could run his routes AND catch the ball? Useless, I tells ya!

[shower beers]

I think you nailed it here. Curry's contributions to ST's probably gave him the edge.

That's most certainly the case. A guy that far down the depth chart better be able to hustle down the field and make a tackle now and then, or at least fall in front of the returner, causing them to trip to the ground.

It worked for Larry Grant.

[Rich86]

A wide receiver who could run his routes AND catch the ball? Useless, I tells ya!

or perhaps a dime a dozen

[KoaKoi]

wow, sounds like i'm in the minority but after seeing each of the preseason games this year, i think Curry earned the spot ahead of Burton. he was more aggressive in RAC as well as run blocking. he's a bigger receiver and put on a linebacker's attitude by not seeming to be afraid to smack the runner on spec'l teams.

i liked burton too... but in this case, he got beat out for the job fair and square.