Rams poll

[Largent80]

Also, back on topic, the Rams are going to have some problems this year. New England showed the blueprint for their offense.

 

[Ramfan128]

Also, back on topic, the Rams are going to have some problems this year. New England showed the blueprint for their offense.

That was with Kupp out and Gurley....whatever was going on with him. Those are our two best offensive weapons.

More than anything, that was an AWFUL game by Goff. If the commentary is that the Rams might struggle because Goff might struggle, I agree - but if you re-watch that game, we had open WRs pretty consistently. McVay took the blame like a good coach and leader, but this game was 1000% on Goff.

Goff needs to take the next step - his success has been surrounded by the best or 2nd best collection of offensive talent in the NFL - Woods and Cooks with that OL should have been enough for a top QB to execute - which obviously tells us all that he's not a top QB. But IMO he's good enough to win with and could develop into one.

But I'm not worried about Chicago, Philly or New England having given a blueprint - McVay will adjust. And this defense should be a legit top 10 unit next year.

 

[Largent80]

You can only do so much on a field before the league catches up. The Seahawks were copied extensively after 2013. Everyone is copying the Rams now. Defenses will adjust. McVays initial offense will be neutralized and even more pressure will be put on Goff, who choked hard core when his team needed him most.

Doesn't bode well, plus add losing in the SB and a lot of ????? in L.A.

 

[bigskydoc]

You are right, it was 1000% Goff. When his crutch was taken away, he was exposed. Doubt any smart team is going to let him have his crutch back next year. Well, maybe the Hawks will since we just line up and play. Rams are still a good team. Still the best in the West, IMHO. But, when it comes time to pay Goff his 5th year option money, I think you are going to struggle. You won't be able to maintain the team around him, and he needs a lot of team support to be successful.

I wonder if the Rams will try to cut/trade him, before next year, and take a draft gamble next year.

 

[Maulbert]

Goff is a mental midget. He will always shrink when the heat's turned up. That's the narrative until he changes it, and it's damn hard to do.

 

[bigskydoc]

$20 arm, 10 cent head

 

[Ramfan128]

You are right, it was 1000% Goff. When his crutch was taken away, he was exposed. Doubt any smart team is going to let him have his crutch back next year. Well, maybe the Hawks will since we just line up and play. Rams are still a good team. Still the best in the West, IMHO. But, when it comes time to pay Goff his 5th year option money, I think you are going to struggle. You won't be able to maintain the team around him, and he needs a lot of team support to be successful.

I wonder if the Rams will try to cut/trade him, before next year, and take a draft gamble next year.

It's not popular with other Rams fans, but this is where I'm at right now. I would have to see A LOT of growth this upcoming year.

Where I disagree is about the crutch though - Cooks/Woods/Kupp are probably the best trio of WRs in the NFL, and if they stay healthy and our run game stays on track (which hopefully it will with Henderson in the fold now), any of 15 QBs could win it all with that offense.

 

[Ramfan128]

You can only do so much on a field before the league catches up. The Seahawks were copied extensively after 2013. Everyone is copying the Rams now. Defenses will adjust. McVays initial offense will be neutralized and even more pressure will be put on Goff, who choked hard core when his team needed him most.

Doesn't bode well, plus add losing in the SB and a lot of ????? in L.A.

Seahawks may have been copied, but nobody could figure out their defense for four years - or rather, everyone knew what they were going to do, but it didn't matter, because they were so good.

Goff is just average, but the supporting cast around him is so great that it won't matter IMO. Plus, at the end of the day McVay is still a really good/smart offensive coach - possibly the best in the NFL - he's going to add some new wrinkles this offseason I'm sure.

Losing the Super Bowl does have me worried - I saw the GSOT Rams come off a Super Bowl loss and be predicted to win it all the following year start the season 0-5 - so I'm well aware of the impact that can have and it definitely makes the Rams winning the NFC West again far from a guarantee.

 

[Largent80]

The Seahawks played mostly single high safety in zone. It depended on the athletes they had to make it work.

Holes in a zone are exploited. That's what the Rams do. Hybrid Safeties have been shown to counter all that motion crap that McVay runs. It's not rocket science, it simply was innovative to try and take away defensive strengths.

The league evolves rather quickly and smart GM's get people that will directly have impacts on opposing teams within their own division. John Schneider has done this effectively for years and this upcoming year is no different.

Teams are willing to give up those little dinks/dunks all day. But in the end, the dink/dunk will dink more than dunk.

To me, last year the Rams went "all in" to win it and it didn't happen. If they don't this year, I see that window not only closing but slamming with a resounding BANG. Meanwhile, don't look now but the Seahawks have 10 picks next year and about 90 mill in cap, after the RW signing. AND the core of the team is young.

 

[chris98251]

Sometimes it doesn't matter if you figured out how it works, if you have players that execute it at a elite level the counter is to have players on the other side that match it at a elite plus level. The player doesn't have to be physically elite but elite in the role he plays in the system.

When you have that it doesn't matter, you can't stop it even when you know what they are doing.

 

[Ramfan128]

The Seahawks played mostly single high safety in zone. It depended on the athletes they had to make it work.

Holes in a zone are exploited. That's what the Rams do. Hybrid Safeties have been shown to counter all that motion crap that McVay runs. It's not rocket science, it simply was innovative to try and take away defensive strengths.

The league evolves rather quickly and smart GM's get people that will directly have impacts on opposing teams within their own division. John Schneider has done this effectively for years and this upcoming year is no different.

Teams are willing to give up those little dinks/dunks all day. But in the end, the dink/dunk will dink more than dunk.

To me, last year the Rams went "all in" to win it and it didn't happen. If they don't this year, I see that window not only closing but slamming with a resounding BANG. Meanwhile, don't look now but the Seahawks have 10 picks next year and about 90 mill in cap, after the RW signing. AND the core of the team is young.

Rams core is young, have a ton of cap space in upcoming years too. I never bought into the "all in" mantra. Just media speak.

 

[bigskydoc]

Rams cut it close this year, going into the draft with around 5 million cap space.

When accounting for Goff's 5th year, they currently sit around 40-60 million cap space, for 2020, with 50 players under contract. They have space, but really only enough space to hold the line.

They are probably close to 80 million in cap space for 2021, but that is with only 43 players, and Goff's cap number will go up by around 10 million from 2020, IF they elect to keep him.

They can free up some money by restructuring Donald and Cooks.

Things are tight now, and they are only going to get tighter in 2020, but the Rams will be fine until 2021. Goff's contract will rival Wilson's, and probably exceed it. Their big money players, other than Goff, will be aging. There will be some tough decisions to be made.

2021 and beyond is going to depend on how they draft.

 

[Largent80]

We will see exactly where all of this leads, but I will say one thing, the Rams barely beat the Hawks in BOTH games this past year, and although both teams have changing pieces, in the trenches the Hawks have made more strides than the Rams.

Also, our special teams are going to be HUGELY better, which the way we play the games will be an advantage.

 

[Ramfan128]

We will see exactly where all of this leads, but I will say one thing, the Rams barely beat the Hawks in BOTH games this past year, and although both teams have changing pieces, in the trenches the Hawks have made more strides than the Rams.

Also, our special teams are going to be HUGELY better, which the way we play the games will be an advantage.

The narrative that you will read in the media will reflect this because of the way the Rams defense played in the playoffs. But we didn't play Seattle in the playoffs - we played two regular season games, which is where the Rams had the worse run defense in the NFL, mostly because of Suh and Barron.

Taking their place will be Greg Gaines and Micah Kiser on early downs - Suh is obviously a far superior play to Gaines, BUT Suh's regular season was abysmal. His effort was nonexistent. Barron was a former safety who played the pass really well and before injuries, was decent against the run. He started the season injured and once he came back, was not the same player.

From the standpoint of defending the run, Gaines and Kiser are massive upgrades over Suh and Barron. Barron, while not a star, was paid like one and had prior success - the biggest downfall of this defense during the regular season was that they didn't seem to play as a unit, hence the league worst run defense. In the playoffs they flashed what they could have been by shutting down the Cowboy and Saint running games - but again, we're talking about their performance in the regular season.

On the other side of the ball, it was apparent pretty quickly last year that John Sullivan was done - but McVay valued his football IQ and being able to read defenses, so he kept playing at Center - in three of the four losses (Bears, Eagles, Patriots), the middle of our OL was a massive weakness and it turned Goff into a pumpkin. Losing Saffold wasn't ideal as he was one of the better guards in the NFL.

But last year we drafted Brian Allen and Joseph Noteboom - they will be stepping in for the departed Sullivan and Saffold. Noteboom was the primary backup at T and G, and what little playing time he did get, he looked very good. Both players practiced with the first team all year last year while we gave Whitworth and Sullivan days off every week - so while they don't have a ton of experience, in a way they do - and Sullivan was so bad last year that almost anyone would have been an upgrade. Saffold to Noteboom is a downgrade, but we'll see by how much.



I have no clue what to expect from the offense - how much will losing Saffold hurt? How good is Noteboom? Will Kupp being back and a running game return Goff to his early season form last year?

But on defense, I'm supremely confident that they will be better - much better. We improved our run defense with addition by subtraction in Suh and Barron, improved our secondary by going from Joyner to Weddle, and upgraded our pass rush with Fowler (for a full year) and Matthews.


I'd be interested to hear how Seattle has upgraded anywhere on their roster for 2019 - from my perspective, they'll be better in the long run but not necessarily this year (although I don't know the team like you guys do obviously).

 

[RedAlice]

I’m not sure the question.

Will I, as a Rams fan, show my face after the SB loss?
Giggle. Honey, I was here when Rams won a game or two a season.

Will I, as a Rams fan, be here to troll?
Another giggle. I’ll just be me. You can define that as you choose.

 

[RedAlice]

Rams# has covered all the serious stuff.

For my part.

Weddle is a huge addition. His impact will be felt. He’s a treasure.
Rumor is that he will be the D play caller. Rumors being just that tho...


Adding to what has already been said, the Rams D I have high expectations for right now.

I don’t know what the offense will look like yet.

Goff looks more solid than I’ve seen before. Let’s see what he does.

And ST? Lol at feeling you have an advantage there cuz of how you play. Funny.

 

[RedAlice]

To add:

Us is spelled with a U. Not an I.

Written in my very best iRo typing imitation.

 

[Uncle Si]

To add:

Us is spelled with a U. Not an I.

Written in my very best iRo typing imitation.

+1 field goal

 

[ApnaHawk]

Rams, smams, they blew their chance. They'll be good this year, but going back to back is insanely hard and the injuries piled up with a longer season in January will take its toll next year. We have experienced it first hand over here.

My only worry is that, knowing Carroll he won't disguise defenses like Bill did. It's all about execution with him. Here is our play - try to stop it. Vintage Pete, still love him but for gods sake I just wish he would add some flair and exotic stuff here and there.

 

[Largent80]

And ST? Lol at feeling you have an advantage there cuz of how you play. Funny.

So, you failed to see the massive upgrade of the Hawks ST?.

That's ok...You'll see it when we play you this year. Good Luck.