Dec 21, 2008; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams defensive back Ron Bartell (24) is tackled by San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Bryant Johnson (82) after intercepting a pass during the second half at the Edward Jones Dome. The 49ers defeated the Rams 17-16. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE

With free agency opening Tuesday, the Rams have already begun making roster cuts to clear cap space. Cornerback Ron Bartell was cut, as were defensive tackles Fred Robbins and Justin Bannan, center Jason Brown and defensive end James Hall. With the moves, the team freed up almost $19 million in cap space, which is a pretty nice number.

As far as the players go, I don’t think anyone is surprised by Brown or Bannan being gone. Brown was benched last season, and although Bannan wasn’t terrible, last year was his first with the team and he didn’t blow anyone away.

Hall has been playing good ball since he came to St. Louis, but he is 35 years old. He would have counted $3 million against the cap, so I guess it’s not a huge surprise. Word of Bartell’s possible release hit a few weeks ago after he missed the season with a neck fracture. Bartell has been cleared medically, so it will be interesting to see what happens with him. I really like Bartell, and I hope he can continue to play at a high level when he returns.

Let’s start where we usually start: Sam Bradford. Bradford attempted to explain the team’s inability to score in the red zone by saying there are too many mental lapses when the team gets inside the 20. “I think it’s a lack of concentration once we get down there. Some of the mistakes that we do make down there, there’s no reason for them, and we’ve got to find a way to eliminate those.” Bradford went on to say “We get down there and we just continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with either penalties or negative plays that put us behind the chains and put us into bad situations.”The sooner we can eliminate those negative plays, I think the sooner we’ll finally start to see rewards.”

Well, they always say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. I think everything he said has been painfully obvious to everyone who has watched this team, but it’s nice to hear him say it. Maybe now that it’s out there, we will see more concentration in those situations. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

Also in the news today, it looks like the Rams have benched center Jason Brown in favor of Tony Wragge. Brown said he was informed by the coaches he won’t be starting on Sunday, but he gave no explanation for the change. I find it curious that the team would make this move now after the offensive line has looked much better over the last few weeks, but I have no problem with shaking things up. Also, the team activated Mark Clayton and added him to the 53-man, so it looks like he will make his 2011 debut against Cleveland this weekend. More on next page…

As far as the play on the field, I thought the team looked decent in the first half. The running game was very good for much of the game, (thanks to Cadillac Williams) but the Eagles shut everything down through the air. When we did have an open receiver, Bradford was either off target or we couldn’t catch the ball. It’s inexcusable to have that many drops for any NFL team, I don’t care if they are rookies or not.

The defense did OK early on, but the containment issues we saw against the Titans in the preseason were back in the running game today. I think that is an issue of real concern for this team. Vick had his way with us, which is partly because he is really, really good and partly because the team really lost discipline as the game went on. I think there are real issues on both sides of the ball that are perhaps more prevalent than we thought after the preseason, but let’s keep in mind that it’s only Week 1 and we played maybe the most talented team in the NFL. I’m not saying those are excuses, but let’s not jump off the Rams bandwagon just yet.