St. Louis Rams' Fifth-round Pick Brooks Foster Reaches Deal

[r8rh8rmike]

St. Louis Rams' fifth-round pick Brooks Foster reaches deal
By BILL COATS
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
07/19/2009

The number of unsigned Rams draft picks dropped to five Saturday, when wide receiver Brooks Foster, a fifth-round pick from the University of North Carolina joined the fold.

Agent Joby Branion confirmed that Foster had agreed to terms on a four-year deal and that the contract probably would be signed Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

On Friday, cornerback Bradley Fletcher of Iowa, a third-round selection, became the first Rams draftee to sign. Yet to sign are Jason Smith (1st round), James Laurinaitis (2nd), Darell Scott (4th), Keith Null (6th) and Chris Ogbonnaya (7th).

The Rams open training camp July 31.

[Varg6]

Good to know, I want Foster in training camp from start to finish. We need our Receivers to learn as quickly as possible...Let's keep 'em coming guys.

[dgr828]

I'm just glad his name is Brooks Foster rather than Foster Brooks!
Keep the signings going!

[Ramer]

Another down, a few more to go. Lets get them all signed before camp. Go Rams!

[mikhal5569]

Brooks Foster has his work cut out for him if he wants to make the team. We have a lot of young talent at the cb position this year. This should make the position battles at cb all the more interesting to watch, and hopefully a deeper secondary squad that we can build on for years to come.

[TekeRam]

Brooks Foster has his work cut out for him if he wants to make the team. We have a lot of young talent at the cb position this year. This should make the position battles at cb all the more interesting to watch, and hopefully a deeper secondary squad that we can build on for years to come.

You know he's the wide receiver we picked, right?

That said, one more down, five more to go, and 11 days to do it. Let's keep em coming!

[BEER]

Jason Smith needs to be in camp. I hope he does not hold out like Barron did.

[mikhal5569]

Whoops, that's embarrassing I got him mixed up with Fletcher for some reason. Silly me.

[RamOfDenmark]

Whoops, that's embarrassing I got him mixed up with Fletcher for some reason. Silly me.

You could still end up having it right. It wouldn't be out of character for the Rams to try and convert him to CB - though I really really hope we're smarter than that now. Let's hope the time for stupid experiments converting players around is over - Leonard being the last example of this kind of idiocy, and a wasted 2nd round pick.

[TekeRam]

Denmark, while I think that the Rams should have embraced Leonard as a backup running back, the key point is that they didn't try to convert him to anything he hadn't played before. At Rutgers Leonard was the starting tailback until Ray Rice came on board. Then, to accommodate the needs of the team, Leonard switched to fullback.

He came into the NFL as a hybrid back, and we treated him like one, as opposed to letting him get his feet wet in one position or another exclusively, which is why I think he hasn't reached his full potential yet.

The pick will only be wasted if the DT we picked up doesn't make the team.

[RamsFan16]

Glad to see Foster was signed. I'm excited to see him in training camp, and see how he does. If I remember correctly, I read that he was just as good as Nicks, and Tate at North Carolina.. I just wonder why he didn't jump ahead of them and start?

Either way, I love how most of these are 4 year deals, and not to outrageous in price for a 3rd, 5th and 7th round picks.

[TekeRam]

The nice thing about the 4 year deals is that it essentially just means picking up the restricted free agent tab, but we gamble that the tag for them would actually be more than the contract, so we save money. Plus we have another year to spread out the signing bonuses, however much they are.

[RamOfDenmark]

Denmark, while I think that the Rams should have embraced Leonard as a backup running back, the key point is that they didn't try to convert him to anything he hadn't played before. At Rutgers Leonard was the starting tailback until Ray Rice came on board. Then, to accommodate the needs of the team, Leonard switched to fullback.

He came into the NFL as a hybrid back, and we treated him like one, as opposed to letting him get his feet wet in one position or another exclusively, which is why I think he hasn't reached his full potential yet.

The pick will only be wasted if the DT we picked up doesn't make the team.

True, it's not like he didn't have experience as a fullback. He was a very good college fullback. I just don't think he projected well to be an NFL fullback - not enough bulk or toughness IMO. Problem was he didn't project well as a HB either (lack of quickness, speed and moves), at least not well enough for one you'd pick up in the 2nd round. I hated the pick from day one.

Anyway my post was more of a general lament of our tendency to try to convert and/or play players out of their optimal position - like Crouch, Furrey, arguably Carriker, Witherspoon and so on. I better stop before this gets way too off-topic though