D back in top 5 in 2022

[CoachAllred]

I'm not sure I can pinpoint a single reason why, I think our D is going to be far improved from last years.
But I think we are back in the top 5 next year.
Whether it's the fact that I don't see teams physically dominating us in the run game as the 9er's
did at times. Or the shear depth in the backfield, with some of the rookies already making their presence felt.
Gaines-Robinson-Donald ? Is there a better trio inside?

I just have a feeling we will a much tighter and consistent D in Raheems second year.
If there is a concern maybe it's ROLB,But even there we have a group guys with serious potential.
And I feel at least one, or even two of them will have a breakout year in 2022. Just too much raw talent.
With Ernest and Bobby we will be more flexible and will not be as quick to pull in a nickel set.
Don't know just got a feeling.
Anyone?

 

[dang]

I'm not sure I can pinpoint a single reason why, I think our D is going to be far improved from last years.
But I think we are back in the top 5 next year.
Whether it's the fact that I don't see teams physically dominating us in the run game as the 9er's
did at times. Or the shear depth in the backfield, with some of the rookies already making their presence felt.
Gaines-Robinson-Donald ? Is there a better trio inside?

I just have a feeling we will a much tighter and consistent D in Raheems second year.
If there is a concern maybe it's ROLB,But even there we have a group guys with serious potential.
And I feel at least one, or even two of them will have a breakout year in 2022. Just too much raw talent.
With Ernest and Bobby we will be more flexible and will not be as quick to pull in a nickel set.
Don't know just got a feeling.
Anyone?

DC better with a year under his belt.
DL better with continued improvement from Gaines/ARob.
ILB better with Wagner and EJII another year of experience.
OLB same but could be worse if someone doesn’t improve yo equal Millers end of year rise.
CB/S better adding Hill, improvement of Rochelle/Long and quality depth added to CB snd S.

Plus McSnead will be looking to add pieces of injuries occur or depth proves yo be thin.

 

[LA_vision]

LB core is way better, that alone is going to propel us. I expect the run D to be significantly better than last years. Thanks Wagner.

I also think Morris grew up last year, was tired of his dumb soft prevent d at the end of games, but the playoffs we saw none of that. Trust your guys.

 

[CGI_Ram]

I am feeling real good about our defense too @CoachAllred

@dang hit the highlights for me.

 

[Kupped]

I'm not sure I can pinpoint a single reason why, I think our D is going to be far improved from last years.
But I think we are back in the top 5 next year.
Whether it's the fact that I don't see teams physically dominating us in the run game as the 9er's
did at times. Or the shear depth in the backfield, with some of the rookies already making their presence felt.
Gaines-Robinson-Donald ? Is there a better trio inside?

I just have a feeling we will a much tighter and consistent D in Raheems second year.
If there is a concern maybe it's ROLB,But even there we have a group guys with serious potential.
And I feel at least one, or even two of them will have a breakout year in 2022. Just too much raw talent.
With Ernest and Bobby we will be more flexible and will not be as quick to pull in a nickel set.
Don't know just got a feeling.
Anyone?

The Rams were leading the league in sacks last year before they got Miller. As long as you have a healthy Donald and Floyd, you have a solid base. Add to that Gaines ability to penetrate and disrupt being better than SJD and Robinson morphing into the best version of himself... and your front should be excellent. I think the combo of players should be able to man the side opposite Floyd well enough.

One thing we'll see a lot this year is Wagner and Jones blitzing... and faking blitzing.. and dropping into passing lanes.. this should be the place where we see the most evolution in this defense from last year. Jones is an absolutely fantastic blitzer from the ILB position.. he's special at that. Wagner is excellent at it. On The Athletic Football Show pod this week, they were talking about an article from this summer on breakout players where Jones was one of the picks. Both the guys raved about Jones instincts and especially his blitzing.. they pointed out that once Morris started walking him up on the line in the Super Bowl, it was basically over for the Bengals.

The new, hip term for what they'll be able to do a bunch of on D is "sim pressure".. basically being able to present a front where the QB has no idea where the pressure is going to come from because you have several guys who can come at you OR drop into coverage.

I think the leap of faith is that everything we're hearing about the young DBs is true. If.... IF Long and, especially, Rochell take big steps this year? And Kendrick and Durant are ready to contribute at a decent level as rookies? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiit... this D will be fucking ferocious.

And that's before they add a veteran pass rusher at the trade deadline.

 

[Tano]

I also think Morris grew up last year, was tired of his dumb soft prevent d at the end of games, but the playoffs we saw none of that.

This

 

[Kupped]

This

I was the guy dying on the Morris hill last season and I just don't agree with what seems to be the bottom line of this take.

He didn't need to "grow up" in any way... but he did need to get a complete grasp of the system he was running.. who he had running it and what he wanted to eventually run. It wasn't a fully-formed defense from go.. AND he was dealing with some real limitations in the secondary and at ILB.

When they got Von, they could regularly get pressure with 4... that tends to change things.

He and McVay also showed a willingness to come up with a custom game-plan, like Belichick would, to attack the 9ers in the postseason... and THAT is something I hope we see more of this season. The Rams have enough flexible pieces to hit offenses with some shit crafted just for them.

 

[Tano]

I was the guy dying on the Morris hill last season and I just don't agree with what seems to be the bottom line of this take.

He didn't need to "grow up" in any way... but he did need to get a complete grasp of the system he was running.. who he had running it and what he wanted to eventually run. It wasn't a fully-formed defense from go.. AND he was dealing with some real limitations in the secondary and at ILB.

When they got Von, they could regularly get pressure with 4... that tends to change things.

He and McVay also showed a willingness to come up with a custom game-plan, like Belichick would, to attack the 9ers in the postseason... and THAT is something I hope we see more of this season. The Rams have enough flexible pieces to hit offenses with some shit crafted just for them.

He was still playing tentatively at the end of halves and at end of games right at the end of the season.

He had more than enough time to get to know his team to realize playing a prevent defense right before half and at end of games was not the way to go with this defense.

I think the Rams had one of the worst statistics with giving up at minimum a field goal right before the half and possibly with giving up TDs at the end of the game especially against the better teams.

He completely changed his ways in the playoffs to the better.

 

[Merlin]

Morris had never coached under anyone who ran a high Cover 4 approach. He had to learn that shit on the job last season and it showed early in the year. What matters is he closed it out with great instincts on his calls and it was the other DC who shit the bed in the Super Bowl. All it takes is one bad call for a situation, and we saw that happen on the other side of the ball all through the playoffs with Stafford making them pay. Raheem killed it in the playoffs.

But we don't need to make this about Raheem, because he's not a concern irt what this defense is going to be this year. The defense is going to dip in pressures, which means the secondary has to carry the day. And tbh I think they have the pieces this year to do that. Rams did a great job reloading that corner group with some ready rooks and bringing Hill back. Now we have the kind of unit that might be able to keep this defense in that top third even if QBs have a little more time.

I will say that even with perfect corners if you give a QB too much time they're gonna win. But it's not like we will have a bad rush. We still have AD. We're just not gonna have that epic rush like last year and these DBs need to be ready and playing well to counter it.

 

[Kupped]

He was still playing tentatively at the end of halves and at end of games right at the end of the season.

He had more than enough time to get to know his team to realize playing a prevent defense right before half and at end of games was not the way to go with this defense.

I think the Rams had one of the worst statistics with giving up at minimum a field goal right before the half and possibly with giving up TDs at the end of the game especially against the better teams.

He completely changed his ways in the playoffs to the better.

I couldn't disagree more, obviously, when it comes to process and the idea of "growing up" or some nonsense like that.

We also don't know what kind of discussions were had between him and McVay when it comes to scheme and approach.

And.. prevent defenses aren't always a bad thing.

Bottom line.. the Rams defense kept getting better and better and grew more complex as the season went on.. as you would hope/expect a unit to do over the course of a season.

He didn't "completely change his ways" in the playoffs.

 

[Tano]

1st game TD in last minute of first half
2nd game FG with no time left in first half
3rd game TD in last 2 minutes of game
4th game FG in last 10 seconds of first half and kneel down by Cards at end of game
5th game - Rams had ball in last two minutes of game
6th game - NY Giants - they just sucked last year
7th game - FG in last 4 seconds of first half
8th game - They almost let Houston back into the game with 3 TDs in the fourth quarter with a 38-0 lead
9th game - TD at 2:10 mark of 1st half - Rams had ball in last two minutes of game
10th game - SF kicked our ass through-out the game
11th game - GB was held with the ball at end of 1st half
12th game - Jacksonville - another crappy team
13th game - FG in last minute of first half and end of game
14th game - FG at 10 second of first half
15th game - FG at 2:32 of first half and 30 second mark at end of game
16th game - FG at 2 second mark of first half
17th game - FG with no time left at end of first half - TD at 26 second mark at end of game

So out of 17 games - the other team scored a FG or TD in 10 of the 17 games towards the end of the first half

Morris wasn't as bad at the end of the game - only a few times did they score - however we did run out the clock at the end of the game to offset that in a lot of the other games

But I stick with my premise that Morris was just horrible right before half time. 10 out of 17 times - just yuck

They just did that 1 out of 4 times in the playoffs - much much much better

 

[Kupped]

Morris had never coached under anyone who ran a high Cover 4 approach. He had to learn that shit on the job last season and it showed early in the year. What matters is he closed it out with great instincts on his calls and it was the other DC who shit the bed in the Super Bowl. All it takes is one bad call for a situation, and we saw that happen on the other side of the ball all through the playoffs with Stafford making them pay. Raheem killed it in the playoffs.

But we don't need to make this about Raheem, because he's not a concern irt what this defense is going to be this year. The defense is going to dip in pressures, which means the secondary has to carry the day. And tbh I think they have the pieces this year to do that. Rams did a great job reloading that corner group with some ready rooks and bringing Hill back. Now we have the kind of unit that might be able to keep this defense in that top third even if QBs have a little more time.

I will say that even with perfect corners if you give a QB too much time they're gonna win. But it's not like we will have a bad rush. We still have AD. We're just not gonna have that epic rush like last year and these DBs need to be ready and playing well to counter it.

I think pressures will dip compared to post-Von.. but I think there's a good chance that, year-to-year, the Rams this year have an even better pressure rate in the first half of the season.

My thinking is that with a more reliable secondary, Morris will feel free to dial up even more blitzes than last year... and, people forget, before the Rams got Von they actually blitzed a lot.

 

[CoachAllred]

Morris had never coached under anyone who ran a high Cover 4 approach. He had to learn that shit on the job last season and it showed early in the year. What matters is he closed it out with great instincts on his calls and it was the other DC who shit the bed in the Super Bowl. All it takes is one bad call for a situation, and we saw that happen on the other side of the ball all through the playoffs with Stafford making them pay. Raheem killed it in the playoffs.

But we don't need to make this about Raheem, because he's not a concern irt what this defense is going to be this year. The defense is going to dip in pressures, which means the secondary has to carry the day. And tbh I think they have the pieces this year to do that. Rams did a great job reloading that corner group with some ready rooks and bringing Hill back. Now we have the kind of unit that might be able to keep this defense in that top third even if QBs have a little more time.

I will say that even with perfect corners if you give a QB too much time they're gonna win. But it's not like we will have a bad rush. We still have AD. We're just not gonna have that epic rush like last year and these DBs need to be ready and playing well to counter it.

Maybe with our ILB's we can be more consistent in shutting down the run, which
would give our dline an advantage they didn't have last year.
I mean we have gone from bottom of the barrel to one of the strongest ILB units in the league.
So I'm just hoping dline will have more op's to pin their ears back. Thinking we see more 5 man rushes as well.
Only time will tell.

 

[1maGoh]

He didn't need to "grow up" in any way... but he did need to get a complete grasp of the system he was running.. who he had running it and what he wanted to eventually run.

 

[FarNorth]

I'm not sure I can pinpoint a single reason why, I think our D is going to be far improved from last years.
But I think we are back in the top 5 next year.
Whether it's the fact that I don't see teams physically dominating us in the run game as the 9er's
did at times. Or the shear depth in the backfield, with some of the rookies already making their presence felt.
Gaines-Robinson-Donald ? Is there a better trio inside?

I just have a feeling we will a much tighter and consistent D in Raheems second year.
If there is a concern maybe it's ROLB,But even there we have a group guys with serious potential.
And I feel at least one, or even two of them will have a breakout year in 2022. Just too much raw talent.
With Ernest and Bobby we will be more flexible and will not be as quick to pull in a nickel set.
Don't know just got a feeling.
Anyone?

The Rams' defense will be much, much better in an area which had been a serious weakness for years: linebacking and stopping the short run/pass game over the middle. Wagner of course is the main difference, but he will be paired with an emerging Jones and two now fully monstrous linemen in A'Shawn and Gaines.

This will be critical in two respects. First, the Rams will now be fully equipped to stop the 49ers, a team they were fortunate to beat in the playoffs, and win the division handily. The Niners will not be able to use their short, physical game to march down the field with Wagner in the middle with Jones. Second, for the same reason the Rams D will be greatly improved against power teams such as Tennessee, Baltimore and others.

What the Rams will of course miss is Von Miller paired with AD. In the playoffs this combination enabled the Rams to bring a crushing, game changing, championship winning pass rush at crucial times in crucial games. Not saying the Rams will have a bad pass rush, just that it is unlikely to be as good, and may not be as capable at stopping great passing attacks in the playoffs.

Imo Rams will need a more consistent and higher scoring offense, and what should still be an outstanding D, to run the table in the playoffs.