New tackle makes immediate contribution

Rams' new tackle contributing

by RamDez

Rams' new tackle contributing

By R.B. Fallstrom, The Associated Press

MACOMB, Ill. -- Newly signed offensive lineman Greg Randall hit the ground rumbling with the St. Louis Rams.

The 333-pound tackle, who bolsters an injury-plagued position, showed up at training camp for a physical on Sunday night after agreeing to a contract. On Monday, he participated in about 10 plays of a scrimmage.

"Obviously we feel pretty good about him, to bring him in like this and throw him in like we did," coach Mike Martz said. "So, he'll compete."

The Rams had been down to 10 healthy linemen before they signed Randall, who was released by the ***** in June. Tackle Kyle Turley was in St. Louis having his ailing back checked, center Dave Wohlabaugh is recovering from hip surgery and tackle Orlando Pace is a contract holdout.

Randall, who is 6-6 and 333 pounds, is a former fourth-round pick of the Patriots in 2000 and played his first three seasons for New England. He started all 16 games for the Houston Texans last year at right tackle, but his stay with the ***** was brief.

Opening a letter from the team, Randall discovered he had been cut. If he makes it with the Rams, that'll be incentive for the two games with San Francisco this year.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "But the main thing is to try to learn this system and try to get this offense down."

Randall used to be known as Robinson-Randall. For a time he used the last name of both his mother and his father, who died of cancer at age 24.

The Rams also were trying to sign Chris Dishman, a guard-center formerly of the Cardinals.

Martz was unsure when Turley, who underwent surgery for a herniated disc in March, might return to the team. Turley was considering visiting a back specialist, Dr. Robert Watkins, in Los Angeles.

"That's going to take some time," Martz said. "When you're dealing with a back, particularly since he's had surgery, he wants and we've encouraged him to always get a second and third opinion so he feels good about where he is."

The Rams released kicker Dillon Pieffer, a rookie from UNLV who signed with the team on July 26. That leaves incumbent Jeff Wilkins as the only kicker in camp.

Close call: Rookie defensive end Anthony Hargrove avoided an injury at the end of Monday's practice when he turned his left ankle. He spent time on the trainer's table, but after practice Hargrove seemed fine and the ankle wasn't even wrapped.

"It happens all the time, so I should be all right," Hargrove said. "It was scary at first because I felt like I broke it.

"Walking around on it, it feels better."

Hargrove, the team's third-round draft pick, is happy with his performance so far
...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-08-03-2004, 02:58 PM
Anthony Hargrove hurt

by RamDez

Veteran tackle joins depleted line
By Bill Coats
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/02/2004

MACOMB, Ill. - Help arrived Sunday night in a big package. A 6-foot-6, 333-pound package, to be precise.

Tackle Greg Randall, a five-year NFL veteran, hustled from his hometown of Houston to Western Illinois University, signed a one-year contract with the Rams, and was on the practice field Monday morning. Randall was hired to shore up an offensive line that has become short on personnel during training camp.

"I'm very excited. I'm just trying to come out here and work hard," said Randall, who has huffing and puffing a bit after a full-pads workout that was cut to about 90 minutes because of a thunderstorm. No afternoon practice was scheduled.

Randall, working at right tackle with the second team, took part in full-contact action. "Obviously, we feel pretty good about him to bring him in like this and throw him in there like we did," coach Mike Martz said. "We put him in a live situation for about 10 plays out here, and he was able to perform pretty well."

With Orlando Pace absent during contract negotiations and fellow tackle Kyle Turley (back) and center Dave Wohlabaugh (hip) out with injuries, 60 percent of the front five is missing. Grant Williams, Andy King and Scott Tercero have been filling in on the first unit, but depth had become a concern.

Randall, 26, was New England's fourth-round pick (127th overall) in the 2000 draft out of Michigan State. He started 23 games for the Patriots over three seasons; he played against the Rams in the Super Bowl following the '01 season. He was traded to Houston and started all 16 games at right tackle last year for the Texans, then signed with San Francisco in the offseason as an unrestricted free agent.

His time with the ***** was short: He was released in June. "They sent me a letter," Randall said. "Nobody called me."

More than a month passed before anyone else called, either. "I was a little worried, but you can't get too down about it," he said. "If you don't get picked up, you've got to move on and do something else."

For now, Randall is undergoing a crash course with the Rams' playbook. "It's tough; there's a lot to learn," he said. "You have to try to figure out what you're supposed to do on a play instead of just relaxing and playing. But it's a great offense."

Plus, he's trying to get into football shape as rapidly as possible. "Being in pads and then going against people live is completely different from just getting up and running," Randall said. The opportunity to resume his career "means a lot to me," he said. "I'm happy to be here, and I just want to go out here and work hard and try to do my business."

...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-08-03-2004, 11:17 AM
Turley remains out of camp with bad back

by RamDez

Turley remains out of camp with bad back
By Bill Coats
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/09/2004

MACOMB, Ill. - As Rams coach Mike Martz addressed a small group of reporters after Monday afternoon's practice, a cell phone went off.

"Kyle, is that you?" Martz asked.

He was joking, of course. Still, the training camp absence of first-team right tackle Kyle Turley has edged into its second week, and it's hardly a laughing matter. No determination has been made on how long he'll be away from Western Illinois University while having his back examined by a series of specialists.

Martz hasn't been able to reach Turley, but he indicated that Rams officials have spoken with Turley's agent, Tom Condon.

"Kyle's down in the dumps," Martz said. "This thing isn't as far along as he wants it to be, and he's very, very frustrated. ... I understand what Kyle is going through; I feel for the guy."

Turley, 28, had surgery in March to repair a herniated disc. He skipped the on-field work at minicamp in May, but participated fully when camp workouts began July 28. Within a few days, he experienced pain in the same spot of the original injury and he was forced to the sideline again.

Before he returned to St. Louis on Aug. 1, Turley acknowledged that he was concerned about his future in the NFL.

Turley has been examined by Rams physicians in St. Louis and by Dr. Robert Watkins in Los Angeles. He also is expected to see Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala.

Condon could not be reached to comment Monday.

"We've just got to get a conclusion medically in terms of a course of action he needs to take," Martz said. "Kyle's a guy that's played at an extremely high level his whole career, and now all of a sudden he's got something that's keeping him down. Guys as high-strung and competitive as Kyle is, that's hard to deal with. He'll be much better when he knows what the course of action is and he can focus on that."

Other absences

Three other Rams - center Dave Wohlabaugh, offensive tackle Jeremy Phillips and defensive end Kevin Aldridge - also were absent Monday.

Wohlabaugh, who started every game last season but has missed all of camp, is having further evaluations on his hip in St. Louis and in Ohio, where surgery was performed in March on a torn labrum.

Phillips, who has been troubled by stingers, returned to St. Louis to have his neck examined.

Martz said that Aldridge, a second-year player with a shot at making the 53-man roster, had been granted an indefinite leave to take care of "a very serious personal issue."

Back in business

Several Rams who had been nursing minor aches and pains were back on the field Monday after a 1 1/2-day break following Saturday's
...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-08-10-2004, 11:56 AM
'Salt and Pepper' link spices rookies' season

by RamWraith

By Bill Coats
Of the Post-Dispatch
Friday, Dec. 24 2004

One came from the deep Southeast, the other from the far Northwest. One arrived
brimming with promise, the other with only slight hope of making the team. One
is black, the other white.

They met at Rams Park. And now, several months later, rookies Anthony Hargrove
and Brian Howard are virtually inseparable.

"That's why we call ourselves 'Salt and Pepper' - we're always together,"
Hargrove said. "You always have salt and pepper together; you don't have one
without the other. That's kind of how we are."

Hargrove was the team's second draft pick in April, a third-round selection
from Georgia Tech.

"We felt like this was a guy that will ascend quickly," Rams coach Mike Martz
said on draft day. "The athleticism, the speed, the strength - all those things
that you're looking for in a pass-rusher and defensive end are there."

Hargrove, a boisterous 21-year-old from Punta Gorda, Fla., received a
three-year, $1,374,000 million contract that included a $442,000 signing bonus.

Howard, a reserved 23-year-old who grew up in the Seattle suburb of Kent,
Wash., and played college ball at Idaho, wasn't drafted. He joined the Rams as
a free agent on April 30. After surviving the final training camp cut, he
signed a three-year deal worth $927,500.

Each has played in 13 games, with Howard getting a start Nov. 29 at Green Bay
and Hargrove possibly in line for his first start Monday night against
Philadelphia. Both see considerable special-teams action.

As strangers in an unfamiliar city, they sought companionship. That they found
it in each other came as a surprise to both of them.

"You get here as a rookie and you kind of look for someone to pal around with,"
Howard said. "During camp, we didn't really hang out much. It started more
toward the regular season. We found out we had a lot in common, and we were
real compatible as friends."

Roommates on the road and neighbors in the locker room, they spend most of
their nonfootball hours together, too.

"He's usually the first guy I call in the morning when I get up and the last
guy I call before I go to bed," said Hargrove, adding that they planned to
spend Christmas Day together, probably at his house in St. Peters. Howard lives
in an apartment about 10 minutes away. Hargrove said they've "educated" each
other as their comradeship has grown.

"He's showed me that Western fishing, country-life kind of thing, and I've
showed him the wild, city-boy type of atmosphere," he...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-12-25-2004, 08:43 AM
Rams Get Back to Work

by RamWraith

Monday, August 9, 2004

By NICK WAGONER
Staff Writer

With the return of the Rams to practice Monday afternoon, came the return of many of the injured players who missed valuable time in the past couple of weeks.

St. Louis, which beat Chicago in a scrimmage 12-6 on Saturday, had Saturday evening and Sunday off. Most of the veterans went back to St. Louis to be with their families, while the rookie and first-year guys stayed in Macomb.

The opportunity for rest couldn�t have come at a better time for a banged-up St. Louis squad that had as many as 13 missing members at one time. Most of the injuries didn�t heal in the day off, but they improved enough to see a number of the affected players come back.

Coach Mike Martz said it was necessary to give his team the time it needed to recover. �It�s good to get them back out here,� Martz said. �The first two weeks we really went hard and now we need to get them back a little bit and have a good couple days and get ready to go play the Bears.�

Monday�s practice was a light workout, with the players in shells (helmets, shoulder pads and shorts). The hardest work of the day came at the end of practice as each position spent time running sprints and doing conditioning work.

Martz said the choice of outfits allowed many of the players to return when they couldn�t have in full pads. Among the Rams making their return to the field were Leonard Little, Travis Fisher, Jerametrius Butler, Robert Thomas and Anthony Hargrove.

�By putting them in shells today we could get a lot of them back,� Martz said. �I�m very pleased with where this team is. They�ve got a great attitude�and I couldn�t ask for anything better.�

MORE ON HARGROVE: The rookie defensive end, who had missed most of the past week with ankle and knee problems, returned and showed few ill effects.

Hargrove was one of the camp�s early standouts showing the speed to blow past any tackle and the power to run them over. Hargrove pushed his injuries a little with his return, saying he tweaked the injury during one-on-one drills, but he refused to sit any more time and completed a couple rounds of sprints.

Hargrove said it was difficult to watch his teammates practice; knowing an opportunity to play right away is at stake.
�To be sidelined is a hard thing on me,� Hargrove said. �I�ve been working for this for a year now.�

In a defensive line drill with a series of dummies, Hargrove proved to be at the head of the class again, despite his injuries. With four dummies lined up closely, line coach Bill Kollar challenged his players to see who could do it the quickest and strongest without falling on their face as some of the lineman had done earlier in the drill.

Defensive tackle Bernard Holsey served as judge for the competition while he rested his knee. The...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-08-10-2004, 05:53 AM

Announcement

New tackle makes immediate contribution

New tackle makes immediate contribution

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