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'It's been a good week' Rams follow Faulk trade by adding Holt, Germaine
Posted: Sunday April 18, 1999 07:56 PM
ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Rams stayed on the offensive in the NFL draft, and nobody on the other side of the ball was complaining. The Rams passed up a chance to take highly-touted Georgia cornerback Champ Bailey in the first round, opting for North Carolina State wide receiver Torry Holt instead. St. Louis also took Ohio State quarterback Joe Germaine in the fourth round and offensive guard Cameron Spikes in the fifth. This, after St. Louis upgraded the NFL's 27th-rated offense in the offseason by adding running back Marshall Faulk, quarterback Trent Green and guard Adam Timmerman. Co-defensive coordinator Peter Giunta didn't seem to mind that he didn't get a load of reinforcements. 'I'm happy because hopefully those guys are going to stay on the field and we're going to stay on the sideline,' Giunta said. 'The best defense you can play is keeping the offense on the field. 'The more it helps us, the more it can improve us as a team.' Coach Dick Vermeil's capsule evaluation: 'It's been a pretty good week.' The Rams didn't totally ignore defense, taking North Carolina cornerback Dre' Bly in the second round, Texas A&M safety Rich Coady in the third and Northeast Louisiana defensive end Lionel Barnes in the sixth. They also took a punter, Rodney Williams of Georgia Tech, in the seventh. But it was clear, despite the Rams' pre-draft smoke screen that it was time to tend to defense, that the NFL's annual talent auction was all about points. The Rams didn't light up many scoreboards last year, averaging 18 points. That put a lot of stress on a defense that Vermeil often rated as playoff-caliber. The push continued on Thursday when Faulk arrived from Indianapolis at a bargain price, second- and fifth-round draft picks, and defensive players gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up. 'Boy, they had big smiles on their faces when they heard we got Marshall Faulk,' Giunta said. 'They were just thrilled to death we're doing something to improve the team.' Germaine was the Rams' first pick of the second day. Vermeil said on Saturday that he didn't intend to draft a quarterback, but had to because Germaine was the highest-rated player on the Rams' draft board. Germaine started only 13 games at Ohio State, but ranks third on the school's career list with 6,370 yards passing, and second with 56 touchdown passes. He's considered such a talent that the Rams likely have abandoned a plan to sign veteran Jeff Hostetler as a backup. 'It's going to be an exciting team,' Germaine said. 'They're on the rise and hopefully get better and better each year.' In the fifth round, the 310-pound Spikes joined fellow Texas A&M alum Rich Coady, a third-round pick at safety, in the draft class. Spikes, who moved from right tackle to left guard his senior year, did not allow a sack. Offensive line coach Jim Hanifan likes Spikes' aggressive tendencies. 'You see the athleticism and you also see a mean streak in him,' Hanifan said. 'There's some nastiness to him.' The 265-pound Barnes, the sixth-round pick, is a reach considering he has one year of major-college experience. He played two years of basketball at Barton County Community College in Kansas and a third season at Northeast Louisiana before switching to football, and had eight sacks his senior year after walking on. 'I really felt like I was kind of missing my calling,' Barnes said. 'I wanted to give it a shot before my college career was over with.' In taking Williams, who averaged 42.5 yards per punt last year, Vermeil put incumbent Rick Tuten on notice for his lack of hang time. 'That low line-driver he hit against San Francisco at the end of the season, if we'd have had six tanks we might not have covered that thing,' Vermeil said. 'It just puts too much pressure on our punt coverage guys.' Williams said he made an immediate connection with Rams special teams coach Frank Gansz and would have signed with St. Louis even if they hadn't drafted him. 'Being under the Godfather of special teams, there's no way I can go wrong,' Williams said. 'After one day with coach Gansz, I believe I've improved 50 percent.'
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