The St. Louis Rams' invisible Brian Quick is starting to raise questions

Deactivate your second-round wide receiver for one week and he's raw. Barely play him for another and he's getting into the swing of things.Deactivate him again and—well, the St. Louis Rams are beginning to learn exactly what happens then. People are starting to wonder about Brian Quick, the big, athletic wide receiver the Rams leaped over the rest of the draft board to grab at the start of the second round. He's gone from the wide receiver the Rams wanted all along to a guy who can't break through a receiving corps that's been paced, in touchdowns, by the perennially just-good-enough Brandon Gibson, and he's been leapfrogged on the depth chart by the more easily utilized speedster Chris Givens, their fourth-rounder.

If it's any consolation to Quick, the other second-round offensive pick who was supposed to make a rapid impact, Isaiah Pead, has been exactly as invisible on offense, falling behind Daryl Richardson, whom the Rams drafted just this side of Mr. Irrelevant, on a running back depth chart that's been shaken up by Steven Jackson's struggles. But if Pead's been clearly outplayed, Quick just hasn't played at all—and the Rams, for better or worse, don't seem hasty about seeing what they've got in him.

On defense and special teams the Rams' rookies are already evident; Janoris Jenkins has been a difference-maker in the secondary, even if he's still mistake-prone, and Greg Zuerlein and Johnny Hekker have looked like star-caliber kickers, if such a thing exists. But the St. Louis Rams' offensive rookies, aside from pressed-into-service Rokevious Watkins and the startlingly game-ready Richardson, are invisible—and none of them more than Brian Quick.