The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS Ÿ Rookie Steve McLaughlin missed one short field goal too many. The St. Louis Rams released him yesterday.
The Rams took McLaughlin, who won the Lou Groza Award last season as the best college kicker in the nation while at the University of Arizona, in the third round of the draft, the highest they've ever taken a kicker. But McLaughlin missed half his 16 field-goal attempts and was only 2-for-6 between 30 and 40 yards.
Rams coach Rich Brooks, who recommended his team choose McLaughlin, admitted he made a mistake. St. Louis likely will use today's off day to find a replacement and Brooks said he'll have a new kicker in place tomorrow or Thursday.
''I was the one who wanted to draft this young man and I still believe he has the talent to be a good kicker,'' Brooks said. ''He may be one of the better kickers in the league in three to four years, two years, next year, I don't know. But right now it isn't going to happen for him in St. Louis.''
McLaughlin was wide to the left, a familiar problem, on a 32-yard attempt in Sunday's 20-9 loss to Philadelphia. Almost all his misses have been to the left.
The Rams brought in a sports psychologist to help McLaughlin in the last month. Last week, former NFL kicker Chris Bahr tried to help. Nothing worked.
The last two weeks, McLaughlin missed from 30 and 32 yards and had one blocked from 28 yards. He has 41 points, the least of any kicker who's played in every game.
McLaughlin blamed part of his problem on rushing his approach. But Brooks said he wasn't good enough on kickoffs, either.