Rams Tinoisamoa is moving to safety

[Vinny]

The free agency and trading period is still two weeks away. The NFL draft is a good two months down the road. But the re-tooling of the Rams defense is in full swing.

To wit, the Rams are switching linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa to strong safety and moving Adam Archuleta from strong safety to free.

"Pisa's got such terrific range," Rams coach Mike Martz said Wednesday. "He reminds me of Carnell Lake and Darren Woodson, some of those people. He's got the stature to be very effective there."

Woodson and Lake were big safeties, playing at 215 to 220 pounds during their NFL careers. Although Tinoisamoa was listed at 235 pounds, Martz said he played at closer to 220 pounds last season.

"Size has nothing to do with it," Martz said. "If he was 280 pounds and could run like he does, who cares?"

While it's debatable whether Tinoisamoa has the pass coverage skills to play strong safety, that's a position in the secondary where run support is the primary responsibility. Teams made it a point to bring their lead blocker at Tinoisamoa on a consistent basis when he played outside linebacker.

While Tinoisamoa was more than willing, his shoulder was worse for the wear.

"He dislocated his shoulder eight times last season," Martz said.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...ving+to+safety

[texasguy346]

Seems a bit odd to move a guy who's having shoulder problems to a position on the field where you routinely "lower the shoulder" at opposing players. Wouldn't he have the same problems meeting the runner head on as he's had meeting the lead blocker head on? Hopefully Martz is making the right move on this one.

[gg no re]

Depends on the shoulder he leads with.

Anyhow, since this was a Martz-think move, it shouldn't mean anything.

[F-minus67]

at the local mental hospital they give you $5000 for admiting a crazy person, do you think we could trick Martz into coming to connecticut?

[ledzeppelin229]

Originally Posted by F-minus67

at the local mental hospital they give you $5000 for admiting a crazy person, do you think we could trick Martz into coming to connecticut?

I will admit myself for 5 grand

[scourge]

Moving him to SS and moving Archuleta to FS may also have something to do with Archuleta's back...

[gg no re]

The move itself isn't really that bad in thought though.... Martz may be acting on how Michael Boulware and Polamalu were former LBs who became successful SSs.

The thing that makes Martz stupid is that, compared to Seattle and Pittsburgh, he's got 'poop' for LBs.

Oh well, any team that runs on the Rams can expect 6-8 ypc depending on how far back Tinoisamoa is lined up.