Anyone know if this is just a stopgap move or will Saffold stay at RG for the rest of the season? Is it possible that the Rams cut Dahl and Wells, plug Saffold in at RG and Barrett in at center? I dont know the cap ramifications of this, but would this free up enough room to sign Saffold and then draft another swing lineman?
No inside information on this...IMO
Saffold will remain @ Right OG until
Harvey Dahl's knee is back to full 100%. Once Harvey is ready the he returns into his starting position. I guess your question on the cuts is in reference to 2014 not this season right? As X pointed out
Saffold contract is over when this 2013 season is ended.
Saffold should be a serious HOT commodity UFA on the open market for OL deprived teams who are panic shopping for fixes in a leaky OL. If a former UFA's like TE like Jared Cook or CB Cortland Finnegan can get over $$ 10 mil a yr .....
Saffold who has shown is a much better player than both of them when he is on the field should land something similar to them.... but not as a Ram we do not have the cap $$$ to spend cuz the Rams have players Finnegan & Cook under contract still collecting guaranteed money.
As far as the 2014 off season ..with the OLG performance still way below par & Chris Williams contract concluding... you have one OL hole there @ OLG then the Rams will be without a valid Swing OT to play should OT's Barksdale & Long get hurt there's your second hole that they must fill. It would be doubtful that the Rams would release their starting ORG & OC along with those other two holes so they have four OL holes to fill this off season with very little cap $$$ for those mega million signing bonuses. I would say this that Boudreau would be smart to use
Saffold to start @ LEFT OG position in place of Chris Williams to help Jake Long to open holes for Zac & Benny for the remaining games.
Three back to back seasons where
Saffold missed large chunks of those seasons certainly tainted & soured the Ram Org. on taking a chance once again on
depending on or investing more massive cap $$$ in on one of the NFL's most injury prone OL'ers! I love
Rodger Saffold game day play but I would not invest much $$ in him.
Barrett Jones is not the back up OC for the Rams now its
Tim Barnes. If Wells was not here in 2014 IMO Tim Barnes would be the center in 2014 with Barrett as his reserve. IMO in 2014
Barrett will be Boudreau's PERFECT active game day dressed Main reserve for all three interior OL positions!
Barrett's brain should make him a outstanding center in the future for the Rams, but before that he will use that brain to be the main back up.