PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : RAMS : Rookie Negotiations Could Get Serious

The Rams have yet to start serious contract talks with their top draft pick, offensive tackle Wayne Gandy of Auburn, but discussions will start today with their second-round pick, wide receiver Isaac Bruce of Memphis State.

Jay Zygmunt, Rams senior vice president, will meet with Bruce’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, today and hopes to work out a deal shortly. Sexton was in town Monday to meet with the Lakers regarding one of his other clients, free agent Horace Grant.

Contract talks have been slow with Gandy, the 16th player taken in the April draft. The Rams project him as their starting left tackle and they are anxious to get him in camp for conditioning and to work on his upper-body strength.

Neil Schwartz, Gandy’s New York-based agent, had expressed an interest in coming to terms by mid-June at the latest.

“We don’t know what is taking the Rams so long,” said Steve Klein, who is assisting Schwartz with negotiations. “We would have liked to have had something done by now.”

Gandy and Bruce are the only unsigned players among the 10 the Rams drafted in April. Neither player attended the Rams’ pre-training camp workouts, which began Monday at Rams Park.

Klein said Gandy would not be in training camp when it opens July 22 unless he has a contract.

“Holding out is the only leverage we have,” Klein said.

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The Rams also signed free-agent offensive lineman Bill Schultz of Indianapolis and re-signed running back Howard Griffith to one-year contracts. Long-snapper Blair Bush also agreed to terms on a one-year deal.

More than 45 players attended Monday’s informal workouts on the first day of a four-day camp. Drills concentrated on the passing game and didn’t involve contact.

Among the players missing the optional workout for veterans was new quarterback Chris Miller. He was excused to be with his wife, who gave birth to their first child, a son, prematurely over the weekend.

The camp will end Thursday, but the players will return next Monday for three more days of workouts. Players then will report for training camp at UC Irvine on July 21, with workouts beginning the next day.

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Linebacker Roman Phifer, a restricted free agent coming off his best NFL season, said he and his agent, Marvin Demoff, were still seeking a multi-year deal from the Rams.

The team tendered Phifer a one-year contract at $649,000 in February, a deal he will be locked into for this season if he doesn’t sign the multi-year deal he is seeking.

“I’ll be in camp (July 22) no matter what happens,” Phifer said. “I’m not concerned about the contract. My agent calls and updates me on that, but it’s not my focal point right now.”

Quarterback T.J. Rubley and right tackle Darryl Ashmore have yet to re-sign, but the Rams own exclusive rights to them.

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Dannue L. Mayo of Anaheim, president of Golden Opportunity Youth Assn., and a friend picketed Rams Park on Monday with signs encouraging the team to stay in Anaheim instead of moving to another city, possibly Baltimore or St. Louis.

Mayo carried a sign that read: “Save the Rams. Stay in Anaheim. Stay for the youth.”

Mayo, 43, has coordinated several speaking engagements for Ram players in the community and wishes to meet with Rams’ executive vice president John Shaw and encourage him to keep the team in Anaheim.

“The Rams (players) have been good role models for our youth,” Mayo said. “We want to keep them here.”

Mayo said he plans to continue picketing Rams park over his lunch hour for the rest of the week, and is encouraging local youth groups to join him. He said he is “85 percent sure” the Rams will stay.

“I’ve got a 2-year-old bottle of wine that somebody gave me that I can’t open until the Rams win the Super Bowl,” Mayo said. “And I want them to be in Anaheim when they do it.”