Veteran lets Avery know he has to prove himself

[AvengerRam]

Yeah, I remember when I started on these boards and sent a PM to Tx asking if he could help me come up with a good thread topic.

"@*%# off, newbie" was Tx's only response.

[txramsfan]

Yeah, I remember when I started on these boards and sent a PM to Tx asking if he could help me come up with a good thread topic.

"@*%# off, newbie" was Tx's only response.

Dad gum it Av, you owe me another freakin monitor.

[BM_Face]

By Bill Coats

In fact, Briles didn't even have a playbook; schemes were drawn up in the
meeting room, then transferred to the playing field.

In stark contrast, Avery was seen lugging offensive coordinator Al Saunders' massive playbook around Rams Park. It's the size of a large metropolitan area's phone book.

"They're throwing a lot at me; in meetings, everything sounds foreign," Avery said. "But you've got to understand that language so you can be on the right page."

The Rams obviously believe he can adapt.

Avery is going from no playbook to phonebook playbook? I hope someone is sitting down with him and helping him digest everything and teaching him the 'language'.

dont forget the real WR guru guys..a certain Henry Ellard...if Avery(or Burton) is gonna make it anywhere in the NFL, then its gonna be at the Rams,cant think of anywhere else where he would get the amount of help to achieve it than with us!

That is what I like to hear. Mentoring among players may be dead, but let's hope Avery gets some good direction from the coaches. If he is not ready to play on opening day it will be painfully obvious. On the other hand, if he burns opposing players and runs tight routes he will be a major part of the Ram's offense. GoRams!

[r8rh8rmike]

"He came to me a couple of times, shouting
at me," Avery reported.

Linehan can probably empathize.

I hope that Torry Holt is mentoring DREW BENNETT also.

That is too funny!

Mike Rosenthal is an announcer on the local ESPN station here in Austin. He played as an Offensive Lineman for the Vikings and the Giants...played 9 years in the league. Someone called in and said that someone would mentor Pacman in Dallas and he said that mentoring in the NFL is almost non-existent. Just repeating what I heard.

Too bad Marshall Faulk wasn't a WR, I hear he likes to mentor.

[cfh128]

I am not buying this talk that there is no mentoring in the NFL. I have heard Cris Carter say he took Randy Moss under his wing. Steven Davis helped Steven Jackson become a better runner. Gus Frerotte was signed largely because of his ability to help people with his knowledge of the offense. Of course they aren't substituting for coaches, but to say that there is no mentoring in the NFL is hard for me to believe.

[Goldenfleece]

I think the big question on Avery right now is how well he'll digest that playbook. Route-running is always going to be an issue for rookie receivers. Going over the middle...well, get used to it. But the fact that he played in an offense where they just sort of drew things up as they went--that is going to take a big adjustment.

[UtterBlitz]

There are a lot of receivers that are going to be at camp competing for the open spots. It is not Holt's job to mentor Avery. Perhaps Holt feels there are better receivers already on the team. We don't know the relationships that these guys have already formed. Holt may leave Avery alone and let him prove himself before they have any real interactions. I don't have a problem with that.

Ellard will look after Avery and gives him the best advice that he can. That is the coach's job.

[txramsfan]

I am not buying this talk that there is no mentoring in the NFL. I have heard Cris Carter say he took Randy Moss under his wing. Steven Davis helped Steven Jackson become a better runner. Gus Frerotte was signed largely because of his ability to help people with his knowledge of the offense. Of course they aren't substituting for coaches, but to say that there is no mentoring in the NFL is hard for me to believe.

That seems to be Cris Carter's nature. However, mentoring isn't as prevelent as "fans" tend to think it is.

I wonder sometimes just how much or really in better terms how very little we actually know about professional sports, what goes on, what it takes to make it, and what it takes to win. Me personally, I have no idea how pro sports works. Nada. Not a clue.

[Ntchwaidumela]

I hope Torry's jawing was in jest. Seriously..........

Avery is new, trying to settle in, impress his new would be employer, and read the 'Lord of the Rings' of all play books..

He could well do without some disgruntled veteran, who is sore at his best mate's departure, or yearning's for the Carolina's. I'm sure there was nothing in it really, and I have always thought of Holt as not of that ilk anyway..

Forget Bruce, Hakim, and Curtis. They are yester year's 'Friday night kebab wrappers' tumbling in the winds of history.

Just be Donnie Avery and show em' what you can do... Forget the ghosts of St. Louis's past.

For they are now irrelevant

[DistantRam]

It's only last week that SJ eulogised about how much Torry Holt (and Ike) had helped him settle in, in an interview with the NFL Players' Association.

http://http://www.nflplayers.com/use...id=443&pid=994

Now, obviously Holt is narked at Bruce's departure and he may feel that Avery isn't that good a player. Perhaps he simply doesn't like him: team-mates don't necessarily have to be the best of friends off the field, after all. And it's entirely possible that Holt, as others have mentioned, may see Avery as a threat to his place in the team in the future, although if he really wants to return to Carolina to see out his career that shouldn't be a problem.

Everything Holt has said and done in his time as a Ram suggests that he is a model professional and I'm sure that this story is just a mountain being made out of a molehill, as the media is known to do from time to time. However, if #81 doesn't want to help the new guys settle (I include Burton with Avery, as he has the potential to be a very good receiver, too), then I'm sure that Henry Ellard and the rest of the coaching staff will more than compensate.

[Goldenfleece]

There are a lot of receivers that are going to be at camp competing for the open spots. It is not Holt's job to mentor Avery.

But isn't that kind of thinking the kind of thing we'd prefer to avoid? The idea that "I'm not required to mentor, so I won't" kind of goes against the team ethos. I hope this is just negative spin from the media. If all Holt is saying that it's too early for him to have a good read on Avery, that's not a problem. If it's more like Avery needs to prove he belongs there before Holt will accept him, that is kind of a problem.

[UtterBlitz]

But isn't that kind of thinking the kind of thing we'd prefer to avoid? The idea that "I'm not required to mentor, so I won't" kind of goes against the team ethos. I hope this is just negative spin from the media. If all Holt is saying that it's too early for him to have a good read on Avery, that's not a problem. If it's more like Avery needs to prove he belongs there before Holt will accept him, that is kind of a problem.

Goes against the team ethos.....????? I had to look up ethos since it is not a word that I use. New word of the day is ethos.

To me it sounds like Bruce was the mentor type and he has mentored Holt and others. The FO went against the team ethos when they let Bruce slip away. Holt may not step up into the role that Bruce played.

Why do you think that Holt needs to mentor Avery? Should he mentor everyone of the receivers or just one? Maybe he already is a mentor for someone else. What about Burton? Does he get a mentor too?

Football is a team sport, but each of the players need to be concerned with their own self. They need to condition, learn the plays, study rival tape, train, and practice with the team. They don't have loads of extra time to be mentoring new players, and mentoring only happens when you feel a connection with someone and you want to help them.

Holt may feel no connection to Avery, or maybe he sees him as a threat to his place on the team. I can't really draw a conclusion about what is happening with the receivers from the limited information that we have available. I think we will have to wait and watch what happens during training camp.

[Goldenfleece]

Goes against the team ethos.....????? I had to look up ethos since it is not a word that I use. New word of the day is ethos.

To me it sounds like Bruce was the mentor type and he has mentored Holt and others. The FO went against the team ethos when they let Bruce slip away. Holt may not step up into the role that Bruce played.

Why do you think that Holt needs to mentor Avery? Should he mentor everyone of the receivers or just one? Maybe he already is a mentor for someone else. What about Burton? Does he get a mentor too?

Well, okay. Maybe ethos wasn't the right word. I just thought "there's no I in team" would be a little too corny. But I guess there is an I in "business".

The thing that would worry me here--and we don't even know if it is true--is if Torry is treating these rookies differently than he would other rookies because of how things went down with Bruce. The main reason these relatively mild quotes even make news is because they're a little uncharacteristic of what we expect from Holt. For example, when we took Tye Hill, Torry was talking about how that was who he thought we would take and playing up the positives. By comparison, this doesn't seem quite as supportive.

[MauiRam]

If Avery has what it takes to become an elite NFL receiver, he won't need a mentor other than good coaching. Who was Isaac Bruce's mentor? Did he even have one? The same goes for Burton too, he either has it or he doesn't. If we are winning, there will be plenty of love going around for everyone .. "Mentoring" will abound if we're winning

[eric2810]

If Avery has what it takes to become an elite NFL receiver, he won't need a mentor other than good coaching. Who was Isaac Bruce's mentor?

Thats True Maui. The key to Avery's success is how quickly he adapts to Saunders' playbook. Coaching is for the few tips the recievers dont know, but when it comes down to the field, its on Avery to make a play, regardless of how much "mentoring" he recieved. Then we will know how good he can be.