So who replaces Amendola in the slot?

[mcpeepants232003]

Obviously Quick is too large and Givens is our deep threat so I'm sure it will fall to either Pettis, Smith or Gibson. I'm not sure Pettis or Gibson have the quickness to be a slot receiver. Could we see Steve Smith go from inactive to a key player in the passing game?

[bigdogg2834]

I think that is most likely the case. That's where he is at his best. Could possibly see Pettis in red zone situations.

[bruce4life]

I think it needs to be a variety of players that step up. Givens can handle many roles in this offense. I believe Steve Smith gets the first crack at the lineup.

[BarronWade]

Its gunna be either Steve Smith or Pettis...i prefer pettis thou he needs to hold on the footbal and not drop catchable balls all the time...

as you said smith has been inactive the past couple weeks lets see if he show enough during practice to become our slot guy

[Rambos]

Smith should be the guy to play the slot. The question is, hiow will Bradford distrube the ball. Bradford's best game had one major flaw and that is most of the passes went to Amendola. The other stat that is scary is when Sam goes to Amedola he has a passer rating in the hundreds and when he goes to any body else it's almost cut in half.

Gibson needs to step up and play like his future with the Rams is on the line because it is... Givens needs to start making catches underneath as well as the home run balls. Both Pettis and Quick need to make a few play each week.

Another name that could make up some of the loss is Pead, yeah Pead could be used in the passing game as well. Coming out of the backfield or just line him up in the slot at times.

"Isaiah has looked really impressive this camp," Jackson said. "Isaiah is someone that is very shifty. He has a good understanding of the game of football. From my understanding he played in a spread offense, so he definitely brings a dynamic to us so we can use him and spread out the defense in ways so we can have a match up problem, actually in our favor though."

We need all of these guys to step up IMO. I hope we don't look like last year now that Amendola is out. Sam has more then enough to spread the ball around.

[live4ramin]

We might involve the tightends more.

[Agrajag]

We might involve the tightends more.

So we might see more formations with two tight ends? I guess Gibson might see more catches as a wide receiver in that scenario. Hadn't thought of that

[TekeRam]

I think it should be a blend of all of that. Quick, Gibson and Givens staying outside while Smith and Pettis split the slot reps(depending on hot hands). Use some more 2 TE sets with Mulligan and Kendricks. And then at times use Pead or Jackson as receivers to get them in space.

Basically, the more we can coach up the guys to run different sets, the more confusing we can make it on the defense, even if we can only use the sets in one or two ways per week, it still will stress them out in the film room and on the field.

2 TE sets also give some more protection schemes to hide the O Line a bit as well!

[Rambos]

BY BRYAN BURWELL, Post-Dispatch Sports Columnist

The Rams are a perfect example of this cold and calculating side of the football business. Last Thursday night, as television cameras followed Danny Amendola to the Edward Jones Dome X-ray room after he suffered a shoulder injury that abruptly interrupted the makings of a career-best season, the third-year wide receiver angrily threw his helmet against a wall.

Amendola didn't need an X-ray to know how bad it was. But his bad news was someone else's chance to step into Amendola's place not only in the starting lineup, but also as quarterback Sam Bradford's favorite and most reliable target.

Opportunity has come knocking to the Rams receiving corps, and I just hope there's a mad and ultra-competitive scramble to pick up Amendola's business. It hurts to see someone who has worked as hard as Amendola has to perfect his craft get all busted up right when he was playing so well. But the Rams have invested a lot of draft picks over the last two years trying to upgrade Bradford's receiving corps, and this would be the ideal time for one of these young receivers — or all of them — to show they're as good as previously advertised.

The usual suspects are all over the place. Chris Givens. Brian Quick. Austin Pettis. Lance Kendricks. Steve Smith. Does anyone want the job?

Does anyone care to prove that they're ready to become at the very least a reliable playmaker?

Is anyone on this roster ready to emerge as a potential star?

The most obvious relationship that we need to keep an immediate eye on is between the young, high-profile quarterback and Givens, the rookie speedster from Wake Forest. It didn't take Bradford long to understand Givens' potential during training camp. Even when the rookie wasn't getting any reps with the first unit during preseason games, he kept flashing his deep-threat ability on the practice field. Bradford would pull Givens aside after practices trying to get their timing right on those deep routes. Once the regular season began, Bradford and Givens would break way during a lull for the offense in practice and keep getting their timing right.

"He's so fast you have to really get the ball out in a hurry," Bradford said. If Bradford hesitated even for a split second, Givens would simply blur out of frame, essentially going so fast with that 4.3-second speed that he'd be too deep down field even for an arm as strong as Bradford's. But in recent weeks, they seem to be clicking. Givens has only four receptions, but he's averaging a stunning 28 yards a catch, including two over 50 yards.

There are other rather obvious targets who should be getting more work in Amendola's absence. Brandon Gibson seems to have raised his game to a higher level, and tight end Kendricks has been working on his reliability, too. Pass-catching tight ends are valuable commodities in the West Coast offense. Second-year man Pettis is another young gun who keeps finding a way to get on the field.

But let's face it, isn't there only one guy that we're all really waiting on?

Hello Brian Quick, where have you been?

I've already seen enough of Quick on the practice field to know that he can play. I'm also going to go with my hunch that this new Rams personnel department doesn't make too many mistakes in judgment (see: Janoris Jenkins, Greg Zuerlein, Johnny Hekker, Michael Brockers). He's the guy this Rams personnel department swears was the best receiver in the draft. He's the guy they are convinced will be a dangerous, big-play weapon for Bradford for years to come.

Yet after five games, the rookie second-round pick has exactly one catch for 19 yards.

If you're scratching your head trying to understand why he's not in the starting lineup and why he has spent most of the season on the sidelines, you're in a long line of people with itchy scalps.

Every week in practice, he routinely makes at least two or three "ohhh my gawd" catches. It doesn't appear that he's struggling to grasp the playbook, either. Talk to him for a little more than a minute or two and you'll figure out that he's an intelligent kid.

So what's the problem?

Coach Jeff Fisher won't say much more than there are several other players ahead of him on the depth chart. But you can bet that this shrewd head coach knows something that he's not telling us about the kid, and I suspect that Quick has a few lessons he still needs to learn about what it means to be a real pro athlete.

Remember the last words that Steven Jackson said before the team broke from spring mini-camps? It was a rather stern scolding of Quick; a no-nonsense demand that the rookie spend his summer break learning how much this team was relying on him and what he needs to do to earn his teammates' trust.

At the time, it seemed almost random.

Now, months later, as he continues to show that he's the most gifted receiver on the roster, but he can't get on the field consistently, we're starting to connect the dots.

Now would be the most opportune moment for Quick to take his teammate's harsh admonition and his coach's firm but private discipline to heart.