St. Louis Rams: Tuesday's Rams News and Notes at Noon - Bleacher Report

Welcome to Tuesday's St. Louis Rams "News and Notes at Noon," the one-stop destination for all major Rams headlines and other information of interest to Rams Nation.

Rams Minicamp Kicks off Today 

Rams head coach Jeff Fisher will finally get to spend time with his new players on the field, as reported by Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

Today marks the beginning of a two-day minicamp in St. Louis.  The Rams could have opted for a longer minicamp, but wanted more time to prepare for next week's NFL draft. 

In regard to the aforementioned minicamp, Fisher stated the following (as reported by Thomas in his above-linked column): 

Tomorrow is our first opportunity to join the players on the field. Coaches have been prohibited from observing and participating up until this week. So we've got two days to introduce our offense and defense, some aspects of special teams, and get the players moving around a little bit.

We'll get them on the same page as far as things as simple as the huddle, and things as specific as some play-action passes and protections.

St. Louis Draft Needs Assessed

Justin Blackmon

Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com analyzed the Rams draft needs.  Prisco takes a position-by-position look at the roster and offers some nice insight on thoughts.

Prisco insists that St. Louis needs help in a multitude of areas, which is not surprising when evaluating a 2-14 team.

New Mock Drafts Revealed

Pat Kirwin, Pete Pricso and others from CBSSports.com released new mock drafts recently. You can find all of the mock drafts here. 

Kirwin has the Rams taking a wide receiver at No. 6, as does Prisco.  Others there have St. Louis going with defense.

Looking at Tight End Draft Prospects

The 2012 draft class is not overly deep for tight ends in the draft, but there are, presumably, at least a few good ones to be had.

Nick Wagoner of stlouisrams.com broke down the Rams current state at tight end and named his top five tight ends and his sleeper pick.  

Michael Egnew

Michael Egnew of the Missouri Tigers made Wagoner's list at No. 4.

St. Louis Has Fourth-Toughest NFL Schedule, According to Report

According to a report by ESPN.com, the Rams will have the fourth-toughest schedule in 2012. 

Of course, those projections do not always hold true as they are based off of last season's records.  Much can change from one season to the next in the NFL.  

As of now, however, it looks like a tough road for the Rams in the coming campaign.

As many of you know, the NFL is releasing the specifics of the schedule (including home and away dates) tonight.  I will have an analysis and breakdown in that regard shared here early tomorrow morning. 

Finalists for Rams Cheerleaders Announced

The St. Louis Rams have released their 2012 cheerleader finalists in this piece at stlouisrams.com.  

Each finalist is listed, and we wish much success to all of them in their pursuit of becoming a Rams cheerleader.

Columnist Insists That Rams Need to Improve Everywhere

Brian Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shares his opinions regarding the Rams current status and how they should approach the 2012 NFL Draft. 

Burwell asserted that St. Louis is more than a player away and should avoid becoming fixated on any one player in next week's draft.

Minnesota Vikings Hit Roadblock In New Stadium Hopes

The Vikings continue to struggle to make progress in their pursuit of a new stadium in Minnesota, according to this report via the Star Tribune. 

At this point, the Vikings are obviously frustrated by the rejected proposal in the Minnesota House that would have moved the franchise closer to a new stadium by allowing it to be financed by city, state and team contributions. Lester Bagley, the Vikings point man regarding negotiations, offered:

I guess I would ask the state, what else would you expect us to do? What else can we do?

Edward Jones Dome- St. Louis

Bagley also stated that the status quo is not going to cut it: 

It's a mistake to think the Vikings and the [National Football League] will continue with the status quo.

In St. Louis, May 1 marks another step in our own process for ensuring the future of the Rams here.

On that date, the Rams will present their counteroffer after rejecting the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission's initial proposal that came on February 1. 

It will certainly be interesting to see how different the Rams counteroffer looks from the original offer from the St. Louis CVC. 

Have a great day as always, STL Rams Nation.

Follow @ShaneGmoSTLRams

Shane Gray covers the St. Louis Rams daily as a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. You are encouraged to check out the rest of his work here. Gray also owns and operates stlramscentral.com.