May 23, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins (21) catches a ball during an OTA at ContinuityX Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

Let the Janoris Jenkins issues officially begin. Adam Cole of Yahoo Sports is reporting that Jenkins and the Rams are in the middle of a dispute over a pre-draft agreement between the two sides that Jenkins hire a specific financial advisor. According to reports, the Rams want Jenkins to hire Lou Taylor of Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group, but the rookie cornerback is happy with his current team that includes agent Malik Shareef, Army staff sergeant Sandy Cornelio and financial advisor Rich DeLuca of Merrill Lynch. Furthermore, the team has admitted that any pre-draft agreement is against the CBA, but that isn’t stopping head coach Jeff Fisher from pushing Jenkins to agree to work with Taylor.

I have a feeling people are going to be quick to jump all over Jenkins here, but I can actually see where both sides are coming from. Jenkins wants to keep his own people who have helped him and who he feels comfortable, while the Rams want to use their hand-picked group to make sure the young man doesn’t fall back into his irresponsible ways. After taking a chance on the kid, I have no problem with Fisher pushing to get his people involved in keeping Jenkins on the straight and narrow. But I also believe that Jenkins should be able to keep the people he is comfortable with provided that his group meets a certain set of standards set forth by the Rams. It sounds like Shareef, Cornelio and DeLuca have done a solid job keeping Jenkins straight since they took over, but if the organization is going to give him millions of dollars I don’t blame them at all for trying everything they can to take precautions. They may have overstepped their bounds here, but I find it hard to condemn the Rams for trying to look out for their interests in what is likely a high-risk player. With that being said, you have to give a grown man some leeway to make decisions, and if he doesn’t want to use your people, then you can’t force him to do so.

This whole situation is obviously holding up the process of getting Jenkins under contract, but both sides have said they want to work it out together without getting the courts involved, so let’s hope they can find some middle ground and get him in camp on time.

The next week is going to be absolutely nuts all over the NFL, and our St. Louis Rams are certainly no different. As many time lines as we have seen recently, it looks like we finally have an actual, concrete list of dates for the next few weeks up to the first preseason game Saturday, August 13 against the Colts at the Jones Dome. Obviously, you shouldn’t be shocked if something changes with these at some point, but it looks like this list provided by Jim Thomas should be as close to accurate as we can get right now. Some of these dates will be affected depending on how long it takes to ratify the agreed-upon CBA, so keep that in mind as well.

Also, teams will be required to spend nearly all the way up to the salary cap under this proposed agreement. That means that small-market teams won’t be able to cheap out on payroll to save money. In the previous agreement, the total payroll floor was less than 90% of the cap, so this should force teams to spend their money, making the competitive balance even better in a league that is already in pretty good shape in that aspect. Several other issues, such as TV deals and the rookie wage scale are also featured in the deal, but those have yet to be ironed out.

So, overall this looks like a major step forward in discussions. Now that these details are out there, it will be tough for either side to hold off on these point due to public opinion. Neither side wants to be the “bad guy” in these negotiations, so I can’t imagine either holding up a deal. I have heard numerous insiders who believe that we could have agreement in principle in the next 7-10 days, and if that happens, it’s only a matter of time before a final deal is agreed upon. This isn’t to say that this thing is completely finished by any means, and we have seen this turn bad several times already. I will say that I think this is as close as we have been, and I’m confident that the 2011 NFL season will take place on time.