Rams and Atogwe Still Talking

Rams beat writer Brian Stull reported on Twitter that the Rams are still in talks with safety OJ Atogwe on a contract. Stully believes that this thing is going to go on at least until the June 1 deadline, and possibly past that. I don’t know about you, but this whole situation is really starting to worry me. You have to think that if OJ hits the market he will be snatched up quickly, and it seems unlikely that he will give us any kind of hometown deal considering we aren’t very good. I know the team is at least a little concerned about his injury history, and my gut feeling is that it is the reason why they are hesitant to pay him a bunch of money. I know the team doesn’t want to get tied down to a big deal for a guy who might be injury-prone, but Atogwe is worth the gamble. His shortcomings are well-known, but he is a playmaker who gives our defense some much-needed big play ability. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I can’t be the only one getting a bad feeling here. Maybe the Kevin Payne signing is making me feel like the team made the decision to move on without OJ a long time ago, but I hope they prove me wrong.

In some other news, it looks like Brian Westbrook could be making his decision some time this week. You shouldn’t hold your breath that he will pick the Rams, but we are certainly still in the running. It looks like it has come down to St. Louis, Denver, and Washington as the final choices. If I had to handicap the race, I would put the Rams right in the middle. Denver would probably be the favorite here, but I can’t imagine he would go to Washington. The Skins backfield is already overloaded, and he certainly wouldn’t be their first option. I will keep an eye on both of these situations, so stay tuned.