Havenstein doubtful for Sunday

[FRO]

Apples and oranges when comparing the two units and how they are used.

You prepare for a season with the idea of playing the same five guys as much as possible. Therefore in this age of the salary cap you just cannot afford to invest in your 8th 9th & 10th offensive linemen.

While on defense. The way they rotate players they fully expect to play as many as 8 guys every week.

IMO it's absolutely unrealistic.

I get your point as far rotating guys and depth not getting a chance to be sharp. I do think having to relying on 6 rookies out of 10 total linemen in year 4 of a rebuild is troublesome. The inability to build the line or line depth in the previous year's is a reason we are where we are year 4 of the rebuild. It is what it is now, and going forward this playing time will do is good for future years. May kill us Sunday though.

 

[FRO]

Well, yes. I'd rather have rookies with talent than washed up journeymen or high priced FA busts. At least rookies have a future and aren't costing us an arm and a leg for the same caliber of crappy play. I much preferred them altering their approach this off-season and trying to fix the OL with more than band-aids.

I agree with that, but it is risky short term. Long term it will pay massive dividends, provided we drafted guys with talent.

 

[Robocop]

Well, yes. I'd rather have rookies with talent than washed up journeymen or high priced FA busts. At least rookies have a future and aren't costing us an arm and a leg for the same caliber of crappy play. I much preferred them altering their approach this off-season and trying to fix the OL with more than band-aids.

Donnal graded out as the worst lineman in the league last time he played. year 4 was suppose to be the make or break year right? but your talking more about a long term investment because that's not a strategy for a make it year. so I guess no complaints Sunday when this line is in action. it should have been a building process throughout those years not waste on expensive FAs then put all the eggs in the rookie basket in year 4 when we knew the only veteran on the line to start was going to get hurt anyways.

 

[blackbart]

What is the problem with this team and injuries? The oline has been ridiculous the last couple of years, secondary seems to be the same year after year. Just WAY too many for a team of professional athletes. Are they too pampered because of the $$ involved? Is it the lack of hitting allowed in OTAs and TC now? Not enough to toughen them up? And why does it seem the Rams have more than other teams? Their field? Their training regiment? Their training staff?? WTF OVER??????

Georgia F still hexing them????????????????

 

[den-the-coach]

 

[jrry32]

Donnal graded out as the worst lineman in the league last time he played. year 4 was suppose to be the make or break year right? but your talking more about a long term investment because that's not a strategy for a make it year. so I guess no complaints Sunday when this line is in action. it should have been a building process throughout those years not waste on expensive FAs then put all the eggs in the rookie basket in year 4 when we knew the only veteran on the line to start was going to get hurt anyways.

I don't care what year 4 is supposed to be. The Rams neglected it while trying to fix other parts of the team. They needed to attack the problem. They did.

 

[den-the-coach]

Didn't like it when the Rams picked Donnal, didn't like his start at LG and not looking forward to him starting at RT. Not very strong at the point of attack and very susceptible to the bull rush!

 

[den-the-coach]

I don't care what year 4 is supposed to be. The Rams neglected it while trying to fix other parts of the team. They needed to attack the problem. They did.

I concur, however, Donnal was a reach and IMO was drafted more for his versatility than his outright ability! Rams would be better off going with Battle IMHO.

 

[CoachO]

I think some people just want to complain because for whatever reason what they've done hasn't garnered the results.

Many who are questioning the strategy of the youth movement now are the same people who complained about over spending for veteran free agents in the past.

Whether it worked or not. The plan they put in place since they've been here has made a lot of sense to me. The ONLY reason it didn't pan out was the abundance of injuries. And unless you're using hindsight to be critical, there was no realistic way to predict the overwhelming number of injuries.

They tried the veteran option. Now they've chosen to go in the direction of youth. Bottom line for me anyway. When you are forced to play the 9th & 10th players in a unit, it's never gonna be good. Regardless.

 

[jrry32]

I concur, however, Donnal was a reach and IMO was drafted more for his versatility than his outright ability! Rams would be better off going with Battle IMHO.

I don't know about Battle. But I agree on Donnal. I wasn't a fan of his.

 

[RamDino]

You have to agree it's been the injury bug that's hurt our o-line for most of Fisher's reign in arguably the toughest division in the league.. That said... at least we have enough bodies this year for "next man up", instead of having to sign unemployed street free agents like the first year. And think about this, with all the injuries we've had over the last few years, Boudrou (spell) has done a pretty good job of getting "adequate" performance out of the line overall (IMHO). Ask Gurley. Robinson has been a bit of a disappointment for me this year but he is still very young. And keep your fingers crossed that Isiah Battle matures and gets stronger and can contribute in the future. At some point, this line might become very good overall.

 

[RedRam]

I believe the offensive line's current status has a lot to do with the current #1 QB status. Foles would likely end up hospitalized while Keenum can at least run for his own life.

I'll be praying for you Case!

 

[Mikey Ram]

My sentiment will not be a popular one, but I'm just interested now in what the O line shuffling (with the experience that goes with it) and Keenum's play look like...With no offense meant to anybody and high hopes, I just can't see any way the Rams put together anything even resembling a push to the playoffs...I just haven't seen anything that says differently...As always (for 50+years, I watch and root as much as ever)...

 

[CoachO]

it has nothing to do with blaming Fisher for the injuries and you won't find me on here harping about him constantly. what I blame him for was stacking rookies next to rookies with rookies backing up more rookies. now does that sound like a smart strategy?

It's not what the plan was. It's called making the best of what the alternative is now.

It real easy to say they should have known Saffold was destined to get hurt. But you don't PLAN for those things. They didn't PLAN from Havenstien to get dinged up in back to back weeks. They didn't plan to have TWO linemen sustain season ending injuries on one play.

 

[BatteringRambo]

Heard Wagoner on 101espn say the oline will be; GRob, Reynolds, Barnes, Wichmann and Donnel.

 

[hotanez]

Heard Wagoner on 101espn say the oline will be; GRob, Reynolds, Barnes, Wichmann and Donnel.

I hope it's true

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I just think it seems like they ignored OLine youth and just got serious about it now. They leaned heavily on veterans and now it is a very young line but if Jones had panned out then they would have had two veterans on the team to go along with two rookies and it wouldn't seem that bad. They did take. Fifth round OG in there too that did not pan out, plus Rhaney, and Grob who are both kind of raw.

It may have been nice to see a little more attention to OLinemen in the draft over the four years but I am not in there evaluating players. Maybe they felt the value wasn't there. They were very serious about Zach Martin, so it isn't like they ignored OLine altogether. Fisher is a defense first coach.

Without injuries I don't think that anyone would be complaining. And if we consider the youth beat out the old depth, then even the depth improved.

 

[jrry32]

Heard Wagoner on 101espn say the oline will be; GRob, Reynolds, Barnes, Wichmann and Donnel.

That's a little better than the alternative.