By Bill Coats
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Tuesday, Jul. 24 2007
One of the first things Adam Carriker told reporters on April 28, the day the
Rams made him their first-round draft choice, was that he intended to report to
training camp on time.
"It's huge," the 6-foot-6, 312-pound defensive lineman from Nebraska said. "I
want to learn the system, I want to learn the scheme, I want to learn about the
coaches. ... I just want to get to practice and play football."
Yet with the Rams set to report for camp Thursday, Carriker is not signed. And
if he doesn't have a contract in place by Friday, when the first practices are
scheduled, he won't be on the field at Rams Park.
Former Rutgers running back Brian Leonard, the Rams' second-round pick, is in
the same situation.
Carriker's agent, Vann McElroy, didn't return a phone message. Leonard's
representative, Mike McCartney, said he'd had "very positive talks" with the
Rams but declined to elaborate.
"We've been talking to these guys for a while now, and we continue to talk,"
said Jay Zygmunt, the Rams' president of football operations. "As the hours
start dwindling down, a lot of this stuff will be resolved."
As dire as their circumstances might appear, the Rams are in better shape than
most NFL teams, with six of their eight selections under contract. As of Monday
night, about 55 percent of all draft picks had signed. Only Pittsburgh had
locked up all its picks; Miami, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago and New
Orleans had just one draftee yet to come to terms.
The Super Bowl-champion Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals, conversely,
had signed none of their rookies; Denver and Dallas had just one in the fold.
"It's part of our business; I understand it," Rams coach Scott Linehan said.
"There are all kinds of ways of leveraging your position on the business side.
We want the player in camp, and it doesn't help the player if he isn't in camp.
... But everybody's got a job to do, and nobody wants to do a bad deal."
Linehan said he expected "something to break with Brian in the next couple of
days and Adam pretty soon after that. I'd be real surprised if by the weekend,
we didn't have everything done."
Team officials and agents routinely try to wait until the picks on either side
of their player's overall position in the draft work out deals so they can
"slot" the salary somewhere in between.
Carriker was the 13th selection. The highest pick under contract is Steelers
linebacker Lawrence Timmons, who was No. 15 overall and reportedly received a
five-year, $15 million deal, including $8,053,000 in guaranteed money. The two
other first-rounders who have signed are San Francisco tackle Joe Staley (No.
28 overall; five years, $10.9 million, $5.6 million guaranteed) and Chicago
tight end Greg Olsen (No. 31 overall; five years, $10,696,000, $4.9 million
guaranteed).
That leaves 29 first-round choices without deals.
Three of the Rams' first-rounders in the past five years reported late to camp
because of contract disputes.
Defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy was five days tardy in 2003, offensive tackle
Alex Barron sat out two weeks in '05, and cornerback
Tye Hill missed four days
a year ago.
Leonard was the 52nd selection. Three of the four signed second-rounders were
higher picks (Nos. 37, 40 and 46). Some 28 second-round selections remain
unsigned.
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