St. Louis Rams: Projecting the 10-Man Practice Squad
The St. Louis Rams have the opportunity to start building their 10-man practice squad on Sunday, one day after they made the cut to 53 players on Saturday evening. The Rams didn’t have the same amount of quality depth that they had last preseason, so the assembly of this practice squad feels like a much easier exercise in 2015. There are a few positions where the Rams need to stock extra depth (tight end, defensive tackle, linebacker, cornerback), but otherwise, they have the luxury for the most part of continuing to develop a few of the players who the staff liked most during training camp and the preseason. Here’s a quick guess at which 10 players might end up comprising the Rams’ practice squad this season, with some creative liberties taken in order to satisfy pressing depth concerns:
S Christian Bryant
DE Matt Longacre
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TE Alex Bayer
OT Isaiah Battle
DT Louis Trinca-Pasat
CB Merrill Noel*
LB Jordan Tripp**
WR Daniel Rodriguez***
*= the two cornerbacks are free agents recently released by other teams, and the Rams could very easily go for two completely different players. My intention here was just to assert that I think the Rams will go find two outside options to add CB depth, though Noel and Jean-Baptiste seem to be two of the higher-upside options available.
**=the Rams will also need linebacker depth from the outside, since Daren Bates is injured and the two players they cut yesterday, Jo-Lonn Dunbar and Marshall McFadden, are not practice squad eligible. The Rams may have an edge with Tripp, one of the higher-profile free agent linebackers on the market, because he played with Rams defensive backs coach Brandon Fisher at Montana in 2009.
***=Rodriguez hasn’t shown anything in terms of skill to signify that he’s actually deserving of one of the 320 practice squad positions available around the league, but the coaching staff clearly admires the former Purple Heart winner’s dedication and the fact that he goes at 100 percent all the time, and it’s difficult to fault them for that. Rodriguez has made it farther than I ever thought he would at this point, so until he’s left off the practice squad, I’ll assume his journey with the Rams continues.