By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

Sitting in a hotel room a year ago near the Russell Training Center, Quinton Culberson eschewed the usual lyrical stylings of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. on his Ipod. Instead, he hoped for the sweet sound of silence.

See, when cut down day comes; the turk makes a phone call. If your phone doesn’t ring, you made the team.

Indeed, Culberson’s phone never rang and the undrafted free agent out of Mississippi State became the Rams’ resident success story of little known player made good.

“It hit me last year when I first made the team coming in after the last preseason game I saw a couple of guys packing up bags and I thought, ‘Yes, I didn’t get that phone call at the Holiday Inn,’” Culberson said.

This year, there will be no such tense moments for Culberson. In fact, the only question surrounding this year’s edition of cut day – the final roster of 53 must be set by Saturday afternoon – is whether Culberson will be the team’s starting strong side linebacker on opening day.

As it stands, all signs point to yes though coach Scott Linehan won’t go as far as to declare him the starter just yet.

“I think he’s put himself in a pretty good position for that,” Linehan said. “We’re not naming a starter at this point, but I think ‘Q’ is making a pretty good statement at this point for playing time at that position.”

Playing time was few and far between as a rookie for Culberson. He arrived in St. Louis as an unheralded free agent rookie.

For the Bulldogs, Culberson played cornerback before moving to linebacker where he eventually played all three positions. He played in 42 games with 36 starts and was productive but was thought to slow and raw to be drafted.

Upon arrival in St. Louis, Culberson’s profile stayed low until nagging injuries began to strike the linebacker corps. In the meantime, Culberson showed up clearly on special teams and caught the coaches’ eye for his knack for always being around the ball.

“If you remember a year ago, nobody knew who Quinton Culberson was,” linebackers coach Rick Venturi said. “Then we had a couple nicks, a couple guys went down. Then all of a sudden here’s Quinton. We asked him to step in and he all of a sudden was making some plays. Then he made some more plays.”

By the time camp ended, Culberson had made so many plays between practices and preseason games that the coaches couldn’t ignore him. Culberson finished the preseason third on the team in tackles with 17 and had a pass defended.

“He’s exactly why I have always told my guys whether he is a first round pick or the seventh round guy, you will get a chance,” Venturi said. “This is a game of results; it’s the no spin zone. You either show up and get it done or you don’t.”

Thinking they had a young player with some potential who at worst would contribute on special teams, the Rams coaching staff wasn’t quite sure it had a potential impact player or even a future starter.

Culberson continued his role on special teams but found himself stuck well behind Brandon Chillar on the depth chart at strong side linebacker. Still, he struggled with certain technique issues and the Rams were unsure of how well he would handle the various assignments of his position.

By week 16 against Pittsburgh, the Rams were painfully thin on both sides of the ball because of injuries. Linebacker was no different as Chillar suffered a calf injury against the Steelers.

Culberson immediately got his first taste of action, posting a pair of tackles on 11 snaps of action. Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett declared Culberson ready to start in the season finale against Arizona though he said Culberson still wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing.

Haslett and Co. were rewarded for their faith in an admittedly nervous Culberson with 14 tackles and a forced fumble against the Cardinals.

“The thing Quinton showed us a year ago was that even when he wasn’t exactly sure of something, he always had the knack to make plays,” Venturi said. “He has grown and the only thing he doesn’t really have is game experience. He had the one which was pretty damn good.”

With Chillar’s impending free agency, the Rams had seen enough of Culberson to believe that Chillar was expendable. Of course, it helped to have veteran Chris Draft around to provide competition.

Chillar signed with Green Bay soon after the free agent market opened and the Rams opted not to draft a linebacker until the seventh round. Even then, they picked a pair of linebackers more suited to the middle and weak side than Culberson’s potential spot.

“I was coming in this year focused on special teams but when they let Chillar go I figured I might have a good chance of playing a lot if they didn’t bring anyone in to play the position,” Culberson said. “They didn’t and now I am getting my chance.”

Culberson wasted no time in taking advantage of that chance in this preseason. On a consistent basis, Culberson has been one of the best defenders on the field.

Against San Diego, he came free for a sack and has showed an ability to get to the quarterback that was a bit of an unknown last season. Culberson says he enjoys blitzing though he says he wants to make getting sacks a habit before he unveils a sack dance.

In addition, Culberson is no longer getting by solely on instincts. He says he spent the offseason and this training camp focusing on playing assignment football and staying responsible for his job on every play.

Venturi says the Culberson of this year is not even remotely close to the raw youngster he first saw last year.

“That’s not even measurable,” Venturi said. “He had the whole year with us, he had the whole offseason. I’m going to be comfortable with him. He’s a real student of the game, he plays hard, he’s fun loving.”

Against Baltimore last week, Culberson posted four tackles and a quarterback hit in about a half of play. For the preseason, he has 11 tackles with 1.5 sacks.

As for goals for his first season as a starter, Culberson is keeping a realistic tone, shooting for “between five and 10” tackles per contest.

While Draft missed a chunk of training camp because of a back injury, Culberson got plenty of opportunities. Even with Draft back, though, Linehan sees the value in keeping him as the top backup for all three linebacker spots in case injury hits again. 

“The great thing about Chris is he’s ready to play whatever role that we would ask him to play and he’s good at all three positions,” Linehan said. “‘Q’ has really played very well for us here in preseason. He played his most solid as far as being assignment perfect and those kinds of things. He still has a couple of mistakes here and there, but he’s always around the ball.”

And Culberson knows even when he might blow an assignment; he can always rely on that intuition.

“That’s natural instinct,” Culberson said. “Just run to the ball. When all else fails, just get to the ball.”