Throughout the off-season Mike Carlson will give nfluk.com readers a rundown of all 32 teams in the NFL - the story of their 2009 season and their needs heading into a new campaign. In his opening column Mike takes a look at last year's cellar dwellers, the St Louis Rams.

Welcome back to another off-season of Coast to Coast, where we travel across America to update the status of all 32 NFL teams between now and the start of the 2010 season. For the next few weeks we'll concentrate on those teams coming off bad seasons, who will control the high draft picks at the end of April, and after the draft we'll start looking ahead more to the upcoming season.

We begin this Friday because, in NFL terms, March 5th is the first day of the 2010 season, and a lot of contractual issues, like how to cut Joey Porter without going over the 2009 cap, will be resolved. As you're probably aware, since no collective bargaining agreement will be resolved between the owners and the players before today's deadline, 2010 will be an uncapped year. This doesn't mean that 30 teams will rush to keep up with Jerry Jones and Saddan Synder in spending, because no one can be sure what 2011 will bring, if and when a CBA is eventually agreed, but it also means there's no floor to spending, so a team like Buffalo can actually cut their payroll considerably, should they want to try that road to profit.

It also means a lot of players who would've been unrestricted free agents will now find themselves restricted, allowing their teams to match offers and get compensation, depending on what level they've tendered new contracts. And it also means the 8 teams that qualified for the divisional round of the playoffs are extremely limited in what free agents they can sign--basically on a like-for-like basis with those they lose--which has already prompted people to accuse Bill Belichick of losing deliberately to the Ravens to retain free agent flexibility!

Already we've seen some big ticket players, like LaDanian Tomlinson, Brian Westbrook,
Terrell Owens, Antonio Pierce, Dunta Robinson, and Orlando Pace either cut before they were due bonus payments, or not made an offer to stop them pursuing free agency. The Chargers also left Darren Sproles untendered until the last minute, then slapped the top tag (first and third rounders as compensation) on him. I had thought someone like Thomas Jones, whom the Jets are expected to release today, or Leon Washington, tendered for a second round pick, might be attractive to them. Remember, teams do have the right to match offers to tendered players, and other teams can make deals beyond the set compensation (the Pats threw in a seventh round pick to trade for Wes Welker, whom the Dolphins had given a second-round tender).

One area where the cap doesn't factor is the NFL offices, where the Commish pulls in $9.26 million a year and has just been given a re-up until 2015.  You might say he franchised himself, as a wide receiver. Steve Bornstein, the former ESPN boss who heads NFL Network, gets $7.44, defensive tackle money, but it's interesting that number three on the pay scale is Jeff Pash, the lawyer in charge of the labour negotiations, though he's at $4.85 million, more than a kicker but less than a tight end.

ST LOUIS RAMS (1-15)
DRAFT NEEDS: Everything! OK, they don't need kickers, or running backs, and this draft could be rich in runners.

Last year the Rams were the NFL's ultimate warriors, registering the worst season in franchise history. They managed to win only one game under new coach Steve Spagnuolo, putting paid to my publicly expressed hunch they might be a vastly improved team. To their credit, they played hard, but their overall lack of talent, and a rash of key injuries in the trenches, meant they found it hard to stay in games: their only win came at Detroit, and and they had only three games decided by a field goal, though a few more where they were still in the fight to the end. Spags found it hard to play as aggressively on defense as he'd like, because of talent limitations (this despite the Rams repeatedly using top picks on the D line), and his offense was a shambles, symbolised by the team finally releasing Richie 'Road Rage' Incognito, poster boy for a mistake-filled offensive line that has rendered Marc Bulger a poster boy for free healthcare in America.

This year the theme appears to be indecision. They don't know who their new owner will be, and the casting vote, as it were, belongs to Stan Kroneke, of Denver's Nuggets, Avalanche, and Rapids, and the Arsenal French Foreign Legion in North London. They don't know who their top draft pick will be, and they don't know who their QB will be. Or maybe they do know, but just aren't telling us.

Their best player was probably running back Steven Jackson, who ran for 1,416 yards despite missing one week, and carried 20 times or more in 11 of his 15 starts. He led the team in catches, and got all four of their rushing touchdowns (that's right, only four for the season!), and he was really the only threat in an offense that averaged less than one whole touchdown per game, quite a step back for what was the Greatest Show On Turf, and a team that from 1949-52 was probably as great an offense as the league has ever seen. They went through three quarterbacks, Bulger, Kyle Boller, and unheralded Keith Null (whom they probably drafted just to be able to have Null & Incognito together), and Bulger's mediocre 70.7 passer rating was by far the best: they combined for 11 touchdowns and 21 picks.

Although the assumption was that the Rams would use the first overall draft pick for A Boy Named Suh or The Real McCoy, the best pair of defensive tackles in one draft for years, there has been an increasing amount of talk that the team has their eye on Sam Bradford, the Oklahoma QB who should have entered the 2009 draft but instead returned to school and injured his shoulder. Bradford would be the best QB prospect in the draft were his shoulder a sure thing (Jake Locker of Washington probably would be had he decided to leave college early) but now he's a risk. The Rams also have to consider how bad their offensive line is: they can't expect to throw Bradford in at the deep end behind that bunch, especially if he's an injury worry. Look at Matthew Stafford's season for a good comparison. So if you want to bring him along relatively slowly, might you better off using that pick on a player who can help you short-term right away.

Or, and here's where it gets interesting, might you be able to trade down and still get the kind of help you need. In recent years, the trade-down has become more and difficult at the top of the draft, because of the size of the guaranteed contracts demanded, but there are teams who might consider one of those DTs a must-have, and there are teams that need a QB, and might be more willing to grab for Bradford. The Rams, meanwhile, have needs all over the place: a pass-rushing end, lots of offensive line help, a potential top receiver, linebacker and secondary upgrades, so could use extra picks. With the NFL, who believe that more is always better, stretching the draft over three days, look for the Rams to try to leverage the first pick in day two (round two) and day three (round four) into more picks: teams will have the overnight to check their boards and may want to do what the Jets did last year to get Shonn Green.

There's a new offensive coordinator, in Pat Shurmur, whom Spags knew at Philadelphia. Shurmur, as the legacy of the name implies, is a west-coast offense kind of guy, but his provenence with the Eagles has kept the rumour mill flying. First it was Michael Vick. Problem is, Vick's not a good fit for any system based on quick reads and accuracy, though he is a good fit for a team where the QB spends a lot of time running for his life. Now rather than the dogsbody, it's the man himself, Donovan McNabb, which would be a great deal with the Eagles if they're prepared to go ahead with Kevin Kolb and end the annual DMac soap opera early. It wouldn't be such a good move for the Rams, though it may seem attractive rather than using Bulger as a stop-gap for another year. My feeling is their needs are too widespread to trade picks for an aging QB who'd need a big long term deal. Although Bulger's status is up in the air, odds are he'll be back, while Boller doesn't seem like a good fit. Null showed some promise but remains raw. If I were QB coach Dick Curl, of WLAF/NFLE/Herm Edwards fame, I'd be chanting mantras until something is decided.

The key, of course, is building an offensive line, and here things fell apart. Top draft pick Jason Smith looked over-matched as a left tackle, then suffered a concussion and missed most of the year. Alex Barron has never lived up to expectations, as you might guess from the second-round tender the team placed on him. It appears right now that both guys are better suited for the right side than the left. Jason Brown, last year's big free agent brought in from the Ravens, ought to anchor the line, and Adam Goldberg, who's a versatile backup, might be considered at guard, where Mark Setterstrom wasn't tendered, and big John Greco is the other incumbent. Jacob Bell was signed from the Titans in 2008, but concussions and torn hammer have meant he hasn't been able to show much. Chasing an interior lineman with a second round pick, and hoping they can get by with Barron or Smith at LT might be too much of a risk, but there's no chance they use the top pick for an OT, unless they're able to trade down.

They also need a wideout, since Donny Avery doesn't seem like a number one guy. Eagle castoffs Danny Amendola and Brandon Gibson are complementary; Amendola lacks speed but had a good year returning kicks. Old Amsterdam star Ruvell Martin wasn't tendered but could be back, but they definitely need another downfield threat. Randy McMichael was outplayed last year by Dan Fells, and the Rams didn't tender Fells, but might try to sign him to a deal. They will let McMike walk as a UFA. Billy Bajema returns and they did sign Derek Fine, who's a pass-catching type, but there are a number of receiving TEs in this year's draft. In front of Jackson, Mike Karney can still block a bit, behind him are Kenneth Darby and Chris Ogbunnaye, as Samkon Gado's not likely to be back.

Defensively, they've spent a lot of top picks recently without a lot to show for it, though their best player last year may have been second-round rookie LB James Laurinaitis - though on such a porous defense it's hard to evaluate him fully. Adam Carriker, once again may be the key: I said when he was drafted he would be better as a 3-4 end, and I still think that, but if he can stay healthy he ought to be an effective moving tackle in Spags' system. Chris Long hasn't lit up the league, and veterans Leonard Little (who got the Rams their only defensive TD, and allowed them to boast 16 TDs in 16 games) and James Hall are nearing the end of the road, and are both UFAs who likely won't be back. Victor Adeyanju was given a fourth-round tender and proved useful when he finally got on the field last year. Inside, rookie Darrell Scott was a pleasant surprise, and they surprisingly tendered Clifton Ryan at only a second-round level, while finally releasing third-round bust Claude 'Johnny' Wroten, and not tendering another ex-NFLE guy, Gary Gibson, who works hard but is injury-prone, likely because he's not naturally big enough for the position. Either McCoy or Suh would be an immediate upgrade and a good fit for the kind of stuff Spags likes to do.

At season's end the outside linebackers were old NFL Europe friend Paris Lenon and 2008's Mr Irrelevant, David Voroba, who's built himself up but is also still basically undersized. Neither Larry Grant nor Chris Chamberlain appear to ready to start. In the secondary, their best player was safety OJ Atogwe, whom they franchised last year, but coming off an injury they've made him the lowest tender, a right of refusal, and may be looking to trade him before he'd be due a $7 mill payment. They ended the year with ex-Giants James Butler and Craig Dahl at safeties, but you'd want to upgrade that, and Dahl, much as I liked him when the Giants signed him undrafted, also has an injury history.

Clifton Hart, another ex-Eagle, came aboard when the Chargers cut him. At corner, the returning starters are Ron Bartell and Justin King, with Danny Gorrer probably third. Jonathan Wade has shown flashes over the years, but little else, and wasn't tendered, and they definitely need help here.

They're set at kicker, however, with Josh Brown, and in the punter spot, crucial to a team with a popgun offense like St Louis' Donnie Jones can blast the ball, though he could place it better. Still a 41.7 net was the NFC's best, and a sign the Rams' coverage teams played well too. Amendola's not a home-run threat as a returner, which means they may look to someone else on kickoffs, but he's consistent. The challenge for the Rams this year to be consistently something other than awful.