Rams News

As expected, Rams place Jones on free agent market
06/01 08:34 PM

By Elizabethe Holland
Of the Post-Dispatch Staff

Of little surprise to anyone, Robert Jones, the Rams' starting middle linebacker last season, is on the free agent market.
Charley Armey, the Rams' vice president of player personnel, said Monday that Jones' name would be listed on the waiver wire either late Monday or early today.
Speaking for Rams coach Dick Vermeil, Armey said: ``He (Vermeil) wishes him well and feels that he can play for a lot of football teams in the right situation.''
If the Rams had released Jones before Monday, they would have taken a salary cap hit of $280,000 this year -- the $1.68 million of remaining signing bonus they would be charged for under the cap rules, minus the $1.4 million the team would save in base salary.
The 28-year-old linebacker had completed the second year of a five-year, $10 million contract with the Rams.
Jones' release became inevitable Feb. 25 when the Rams signed Eric Hill, a 6-foot-2, 264-pound middle linebacker from the Arizona Cardinals. Hill has signed a two-year contract for $5.25 million with St. Louis.
Jones, who started 15 games and led the Rams with 115 tackles last season, could not be reached to comment Monday, but his agent, Jordan Woy, said a few teams have expressed an interest in him.
The Chicago Bears are thought to be one of those teams, but Bears public relations director Bryan Harlan couldn't confirm any discussions between Chicago and Jones.
Woy said Jones had been anticipating his release. The player's name hasn't appeared on the Rams' offseason rosters this spring, and his number -- 55 -- has been given to linebacker Troy Dumas.
``I'd known this was coming for a while with Robert, and they (the Rams) had pretty much given me permission to at least touch bases with a few teams, Woy said.
``I have talked to a couple of teams in the past, just mentioning his name, and most of them wanted to wait until today (Monday) and see what happened. . . . I'm sure that over the next week or two, it'll start to filter itself out.''
Jones was the only Ram to fall to the June 1 cutdown date, a date on which typically several veterans throughout the NFL get the boot in salary-cap moves.
League-wide, the number of veterans unemployed as of or after June 1 is down because of a giant jump in the salary cap that came with the $17.6 billion television contract the NFL negotiated in January. The boost will allow most teams to hold on to their veterans longer.
Monday was significant for at least one other Ram, however. Vermeil had said offensive lineman Ernest Dye's future with the Rams was bleak. But rather than cut Dye, the Rams have put out a one-year tender offer.
The tender had to be sent out on or before June 1.
If by July 15 Dye, an unrestricted free agent, hasn't signed with another team, the Rams will have exclusive negotiating rights.

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