Thursday, December 6, 2007
By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer
It was around the holiday season last year that the Rams finally saw the breakthrough of cornerback Ron Bartell. Shifted into the nickel cornerback role, Bartell played his best football at this level and finished with two interceptions in the season finale against Minnesota.
Bartell has never doubted his ability to be an effective cornerback at the NFL level. After enduring two years of bouncing between corner and safety and never really finding steady work at either spot, Bartell has finally settled into a role for the Rams.
Or so he thought. Just when Bartell was making his impact as the team’s nickel cornerback and even working as a hybrid linebacker rushing the quarterback in certain situations, Bartell is being asked to take over the starting corner job on the outside.
With the season ending wrist surgery starter Tye Hill underwent late Monday night, Bartell has been handed the keys to the starting job. But with opportunity comes the chance to prove he belongs, again.
“I’ve always had the same ability,” Bartell said. “I just think the opportunity has come a lot more often. When you have these opportunities week-in and week-out, you have no choice but get better. If I got worse, I wouldn’t be here. I’m just more confident and I know the defense a lot better. I know where I’ll be playing instead of shuffling back and forth like last year.”
Bartell will hold down the outside job for the rest of the season after Hill was placed on injured reserve, ending his season. Of course, starting on the outside is nothing new to Bartell, even this year.
Bartell started in one cornerback spot to open the season because of the four-game suspension to starter Fakhir Brown. Bartell fared well in those games, coming up with 22 tackles, a sack and two passes defended.
Upon Brown’s return, Bartell moved to the other side to replace Hill, who had suffered a back injury. He made nine tackles with two passes defended in that pair of games.
All told, Bartell has 55 tackles with a sack, an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery this season. Essentially, Bartell has been a third starter for the Rams and his performance when given the opportunity has inspired plenty of confidence in coach Scott Linehan.
“He’s played very well for us all year,” Linehan said. “He started, with Fakhir’s suspension, four games. He has basically moved around and played in a number of spots. He’ll be back in that nickel spot and he’ll be back in action at corner. Ron’s become a really solid player for us that we can count on. He has experience now, so there’s no real hesitation or concern for us that he will be able to go out there and perform very well for us.”
Although Bartell has started at nickel the past two weeks, he hasn’t technically started...
-12-07-2007, 05:32 AM
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