It looks like the St. Louis Rams finally decided it was time for a change. After years of letting Steven Jackson rush himself into an early grave by taking nearly every carry the Rams had for him, no matter how small, undignified, or dangerous, the erstwhile Greatest Show on Turf signed two down-on-their-luck veterans out of free agency, selecting Jerious Norwood as The Fast Understudy and Cadillac Williams as The Third Down Understudy. Their job: To get beaten up so that Jackson doesn't have to. Their mission: To do that well enough that, like Kenneth Darby and Keith Toston, last year's models, they don't find themselves invisible after Week 5.
Cadillac Williams, for his part, seems to have taken well to the role of Third Down Punching Bag after his arduous return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following a glorious start to his rookie season and several years of near-career-ending injury problems. With Norwood he provides the stoutest backup plan to Jackson in recent memory--and we can only hope it's stout enough to actually work.