The Rams have made some major changes to their scouting department. According to Jason La Canfora (via Twitter), the team has informed four evaluators that they won’t be back next season. This includes Director of Pro Personnel Ran Carthon, who had held that role for the past five seasons.
Meanwhile, Neil Stratton of InsideTheLeague.com reports (via Twitter) that area scouts Danton Barto, Evan Ardoin and Sean Gustus have also been dismissed. The trio had spent a combined 17 years with the organization.
While the timing may be curious, Michael Gehlken of ProFootballTalk.com notes that the Browns made a similar move around this time last season.
Let’s check out some more notes from around the NFC…
- Free agent running back Adrian Peterson has confirmed to ESPN.com’s Josina Anderson that he will indeed be meeting with the Saints (Twitter link). The veteran will travel to New Orleans on Monday and visit with the Saints on Tuesday. The 32-year-old appeared in only three games last season, compiling 72 yards on 37 carries. The Saints are currently rostering four running backs in Mark Ingram, Travaris Cadet, Daniel Lasco, and Marcus Murphy.
- Laken Tomlinson, the Lions‘ first-round pick in 2015, started 14 games as a rookie and entered the 2016 campaign as the club’s starting left guard. However, he eventually lost his job to rookie Graham Glasgow and only returned to the starting lineup when Glasgow was shifted to center to fill in for the injured Travis Swanson. Glasgow will enter 2017 as the favorite to be the starting left guard, and given that Detroit is also high on guard Joe Dahl, who was selected in the fifth round of last year’s draft, Tomlinson may be fighting just to stay on the roster, as Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com writes. Making things more difficult for him is the fact that Glasgow and Dahl were selected by current GM Bob Quinn, who inherited Tomlinson from the previous regime. Just last week, Quinn indicated that Tomlinson would not be cut prior to training camp, but a poor performance over the summer could certainly lead to his ouster.
- We learned earlier today that running back Doug Martin has met with the Buccaneers and is expected to be present for the beginning of the club’s offseason program on Monday.
Rory Parks contributed to this post.
I doubt Tomlinson goes anywhere. Swanson has question marks with his health so Glasgow might have to move over again and Lang is not getting any younger. I think having all 3 is a nice problem to have right now for the lions.