Sources: Rams Still Favorites for Atogwe; Dolphins in Pursuit

[rammiser]

You don't think Atogwe bears any share of the blame for The Rams atrocious defense last year ? While certainly not the worst offender, he made a lot of bad plays,imo.

Let's bookend the season; game #1 about 10:15 in 2nd Qtr. Burleson catches a pass on the sideline, OJ has a head of steam & clear shot but Burleson sends him sprawling with a stiff arm, picks up 5 more yds for a first down, tippy-toeing down the sideline, & adds insult to injury by baiting Little into knocking him down, drawing a 15 yder. The Hags go on to score on that drive.

Week 13. The Bears throw a deep corner to a WR covered by rookie Quincy Butler. OJ is playing left centerfield; no Bear near him, misreads the play, breaks forward, leaving QB to cover a guy 1-on-1 to the pylon.You can see OJ do a classic double take as the WR and DB streak past him. Q.Butler panics & draws a PI. Way to help out the rook, OJ.

I'm sure I could fill in the spaces between those moments to further support my position that he is not the second coming of Ronnie Lott but what's the point? You either want to be balanced & rational about the guy or you don't. The NFL at large seems to be leaning towards the former so far.

Of course, he made great plays-in those very games,actually- but to say he was some Rock of Gibraltar out there is not what I saw.

I like how your not on the sidleines but you knew what Atogwe's responsibility was in the Bears game. You sure that was his responsibility? Maybe Butler was supposed to be one on one on that play and he just blew the play himself. Even if it was O.J's fault I can go through every great safety in the NFL and find plenty of plays they missed just like the ones you found on Atogwe. No player is perfect.

You found two bad plays within a 13 weeks span? Wow your right the guy is terrible. I love how you balanced the arguement in your favor. Your not even being balanced and rational about the guy. You don't like him fine, and you found two plays to support your arguement. I never called the guy Ronnie Lott. All I have said is in my opinion the guy is a top 5 free safety in the NFL. This team is better with Atogwe and worse with Dahl plain and simple. It's no big deal though i'm getting used to watching my team let good players go too soon.

[Azul e Oro]

I like how your not on the sidleines but you knew what Atogwe's responsibility was in the Bears game. You sure that was his responsibility? Maybe Butler was supposed to be one on one on that play and he just blew the play himself. Even if it was O.J's fault I can go through every great safety in the NFL and find plenty of plays they missed just like the ones you found on Atogwe. No player is perfect.

You found two bad plays within a 13 weeks span? Wow your right the guy is terrible. I love how you balanced the arguement in your favor. Your not even being balanced and rational about the guy. You don't like him fine, and you found two plays to support your arguement. I never called the guy Ronnie Lott. All I have said is in my opinion the guy is a top 5 free safety in the NFL. This team is better with Atogwe and worse with Dahl plain and simple. It's no big deal though i'm getting used to watching my team let good players go too soon.

LOL...Oh, Brudder,.. I spent 10 minutes on nfl rewind looking only at the first & last game of Atogwe's season & easily found two examples.I didn't have to scour hours of tape to find them. They are the kind of basic competent plays that need to be made to get the opposition off the field and keep them from scoring.One of a failure to wrap up a tackle that HAS to be made.We are NOT talking about perfection here; a virtually stationary WR, inches from the sideline, & OJ gets beat like a redheaded stepchild.

Usually I'd agree with you about assessing DB coverage play from tv tape; very hard to see when those guys are doing the right thing because the camera follows the ball & good play, esp from a safety, often keeps the QB from even throwing into that area but that play in The Bears game is about as basic as safety play gets,imo; he has no individual receiver to cover & clearly gets baited by the quarterback into breaking forward & leaves his raw DB on an island. There's no other logical analysis for me. Now you want a comprehensive list of every occasion that he made such mistakes ?! I get the feeling I could show you OJ cutting off someone's head with a kitchen knife & you'd still want to set him up with your sister so why bother?

We are 4 days into his true free agency & there has been zero confirmed interest from any team at what is widely presumed to be an unreasonable price. Even if some team did give him a huge payday, I'd still maintain my position-it wouldn't be the first time that a team has overpaid a player beyond his value on the field. I'm just glad that it doesn't seem likely that it will be The Rams this time. I hope he stays but this situation gives me a little more hope that we do , in fact, have astute football men at the helm for once.

Yes, the Rams should have signed OJ longterm a couple of years ago( like The Steelers securing Polamalu when he was, I believe, 26) but they didn't and compounding the mistake now is not solving the problem of losing good ascending young players in general; it's the opposite end of the same problem The Rams have had, ie mis-evaluating the current and future value of established players.

Oh, and the Ronnie Lott reference was a sarcastic joke, not meant as a literal comparison. I guess it's OK for you to shovel the sarcasm with a backhoe but not those who hold a different view.

You may be right that The Rams would be better off with OJ than Dahl for the short term but I don't think that , after 8 starts in a Rams uniform in which Dahl played BOTH safety spots, that there is enough evidence to say that definitively for the long term.