Last decade, Rams have taken quite a tumble

ST. LOUIS -- Mike Martz made it a point to relish the good times. The St. Louis Rams' three-year run from 1999 to 2001, including two Super Bowl trips and the franchise's lone title, was a "special place in time."

The victory total from any of those glory years, when the Rams went 13-3, 10-6 and 14-2, easily trumps the 6-41 record the Rams have mustered under three coaches, two front offices and a revolving door roster the last three seasons.

"I've seen the good," said defensive end Leonard Little, the last remaining player from the title team. "And I've seen the bad."

Heading into today's finale against the San Francisco 49ers, the Rams (1-14) are one loss from clinching the first No. 1 draft pick they've earned through incompetence since 1963. Back then, they came off a 1-12-1 season and selected Oregon State quarterback Terry Baker, the Heisman Trophy winner who was converted to a halfback and lasted three seasons.

Rams general manager Billy Devaney and coach Steve Spagnuolo are both winding up a painful first season, presiding over a floor-to-ceiling housecleaning. They absorbed dead money from foolish, extravagant contracts, and cut ties with tackle Orlando Pace and wide receiver Torry Holt, both seven-time Pro Bowlers who could have helped this season's bottom line.

"It's been a long year," Devaney said. "It's been a grind."

A grind with a purpose. Right now they're too young, too inexperienced and too beat-up, with 13 players on injured reserve. The game plan: keep building with youth and selective free agency signings.

"People who think free agency is a cure-all have been sorely disappointed over time," said Kevin Demoff, the team's vice president of football operations. "When you look at the organizations that draft well and keep their own players, those are the organizations that traditionally have succeeded over periods of time."

Martz's falling-out with the front office was the beginning of the big dropoff. Martz missed the last 11 games of the 2005 season due to a heart ailment and was fired after a 6-10 finish, but went 56-36 overall.

The Rams were 8-8 in 2006, Scott Linehan's first season, then fell fast and hard.

It's no surprise that poor personnel decisions are behind the decline, although Martz's disputes with the front office in 2005 certainly didn't help matters.

Before this season, the Rams were something of a family operation, with team president John Shaw and director of football operations Jay Zygmunt, both longtime employees, answering only to owner Georgia Frontiere. They made the move to St. Louis in 1995 after totaling 23 wins in a dismal five-season stretch, then hit paydirt in the late 1990s when they acquired Marshall Faulk from the Colts for draft picks, and former Arena League quarterback Kurt Warner improbably rose to stardom.

When that group began to fade, the replacements couldn't measure up.

Of the Rams' 12 first-round picks since winning the Super Bowl, five qualify as busts. Wince at the memory of running back Trung Canidate (31st in 2000), billed as Faulk's heir apparent. Defensive tackle Damione Lewis (12th in 2001) is a starter this season with Carolina, but did little in St. Louis.

There are more sour faces at the thought of linebacker Robert Thomas (31st in 2002) and defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy (12th in 2003), a pick that so enthused Martz he did an impromptu dance at the podium after the selection.

Cornerback Tye Hill (15th in 2006) was part of the Devaney-Spagnuolo purge this year, released along with that year's second-rounder, tight end Joe Klopfenstein. That leaves only seventh-round pick Mark Setterstrom, an offensive guard, from that class.

Pro Bowl running back Steven Jackson, a first-rounder in 2004, is the last man standing from that class. Another seventh-rounder, Chris Massey, is the only survivor from 2002.

The Rams wore throwback jerseys twice this year, hoping perhaps to recapture a bit of the mojo from the Super Bowl seasons.

"It brings back great memories when we wear those jerseys, because we won it all in those jerseys," Little said. "When you first put them on, it brings you back to when we won it all."

Must be a fleeting feeling. The Rams lost 38-10 to the Vikings in October and 16-13 to the Texans in December, the latter game with paid attendance of 46,256, the franchise's worst since the move to the Midwest.