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fearsomefour

Legend
Joined
Jan 15, 2013
Messages
17,135
I was hanging out with a buddy the other day and he proclaimed:

"Rams have a 2 year window" (raider fan)

I'm just curious if any of you agree with that sentiment.

I fully believe we have a much larger window of winning opened. 2 years seems to me like a supreme underestimate.
It depends of drafting. Captain obvious, I know. Having a young franchise QB makes a huge difference of course.
If the Rams go all Mike Martz and wildly reach or miss on picks, the window will be a short one. If they hit on picks they will have a long run of being competitive.
After this year 3 (I think) of the five lineman are FA. If the Rams resign one of the three and two are replaced by drafted players that are not downgrades they are in great shape.
If they resign one and miss with the picks they are quickly back into the OL hell of the Fisher years.
Are the guys drafted Havenstein (a solid starter level player that contributed quickly) or Rok Watkins?
 

Adi

Pro Bowler
Joined
Jan 19, 2016
Messages
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Adi
When you have the coach and QB in place, anything is possible.
 

LesBaker

Mr. Savant
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
17,460
Name
Les
I was hanging out with a buddy the other day and he proclaimed:

"Rams have a 2 year window" (raider fan)

I'm just curious if any of you agree with that sentiment.

I fully believe we have a much larger window of winning opened. 2 years seems to me like a supreme underestimate.

We have a Snead.

The window never closes.
 

Rams43

Hall of Fame
Joined
Jun 20, 2014
Messages
4,137
The Rams will be strong for a long, long time.

Snead
McVay
Goff

All young, mind you.

When your team has the FO, the HC, and the franchise QB in place then everything else sorts itself out. Yeah, players will come and go, but with those 3 in place we will be just fine.

Think of the 16 year (and counting) run of the Patriots with Belichick and Brady.
 

Tailback

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May 4, 2013
Messages
519
Name
Taco Jones
I guess if you exclude Les Snead from getting draft picks right for a few years, maybe.....But Les is one fire the last couple of years with rookies and FA's. Almost everyone is replaceable, althouth replace some would kill me. This isn't your 2011 Rams...:rockon:


Snead has been freaky good with his later rounds picks and UDFA. Add in the compensatory pick factor with Snead's great scouting and winner winner chicken dinner. The way I see this continuing on is that the Rams identify and retain core players. Draft extremely well, especially in the 4th round and beyond. Position certain players using free agency rules to maximize compensatory picks, and be efficient regarding what free agents to bring in.

The Oline HAS to be constantly refreshed through the draft. That's where those compensatory picks factor in.
 

Rambitious1

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Feb 4, 2013
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Tom
I was hanging out with a buddy the other day and he proclaimed:

"Rams have a 2 year window" (raider fan)

I'm just curious if any of you agree with that sentiment.

I fully believe we have a much larger window of winning opened. 2 years seems to me like a supreme underestimate.

I think we have a 5 year window, maybe longer depending upon how we handle our cap situation.
 

yrba1

Mild-mannered Rams fan
Joined
Jul 8, 2014
Messages
5,096
The longevity of our window will depend on how we draft and re-sign FAs. Ideally, I'd like to our roster to be built around Goff, Gurley, Cooks, Peters, and Donald. Everyone else can be replaceable or re-signed under a team-friendly contract to maintain the upkeep of success in the salary cap era.
 

LesBaker

Mr. Savant
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Aug 23, 2012
Messages
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Les
Snead has been freaky good with his later rounds picks and UDFA. Add in the compensatory pick factor with Snead's great scouting and winner winner chicken dinner. The way I see this continuing on is that the Rams identify and retain core players. Draft extremely well, especially in the 4th round and beyond. Position certain players using free agency rules to maximize compensatory picks, and be efficient regarding what free agents to bring in.

The Oline HAS to be constantly refreshed through the draft. That's where those compensatory picks factor in.

He's been good with his early picks too, but the narrative is that he isn't because some nattering nabobs of negativity focus on some misses he had. Everyone has those, even with top 10 overall picks. It just can't be avoided.

I don't know of anyone else that has picked two rookies of the year in a row.

Overall he is better than average in the first two rounds, and as you mention late picks and street FA's are his "hobby". He loves to find what he calls "hidden gems".
 

LesBaker

Mr. Savant
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Aug 23, 2012
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Les
The longevity of our window will depend on how we draft and re-sign FAs. Ideally, I'd like to our roster to be built around Goff, Gurley, Cooks, Peters, and Donald. Everyone else can be replaceable or re-signed under a team-friendly contract to maintain the upkeep of success in the salary cap era.

I'd add Brockers to that list. Possibly Woods too because he has only 4 years left and he's only 26.

That's a fantastic core group IMO. And all of them are young.

If they keep those players long term that will allow them to draft other spots to fill out the roster with quality players and possibly pro bowlers. Not having to draft a QB or WR or RB or DT (in a 3-4) in the first or second allows them to add LB's and OL. And that'll help on both sides.

I actually think that is probably the skeleton of their plan.
 

Mojo Ram

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Feb 3, 2013
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mojo
As others have mentioned, it depends on how well we continue to draft and replenish talent.
I'd say right now our window is about 4-5 years even if our scouting drops off a cliff(like Seattle's did).
Longer if McVay continues to grow as a HC and Snead has continued success.
 

yrba1

Mild-mannered Rams fan
Joined
Jul 8, 2014
Messages
5,096
I'd add Brockers to that list. Possibly Woods too because he has only 4 years left and he's only 26.

That's a fantastic core group IMO. And all of them are young.

If they keep those players long term that will allow them to draft other spots to fill out the roster with quality players and possibly pro bowlers. Not having to draft a QB or WR or RB or DT (in a 3-4) in the first or second allows them to add LB's and OL. And that'll help on both sides.

I actually think that is probably the skeleton of their plan.

I think Brockers, Woods, Kupp, and J. Johnson, maybe Joyner are players who will fit our roster as well by re-signing team-friendly deals while being well accommodated for what their production is worth.
 

DR RAM

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Rambeau
It's a good question, but what does window really mean? I think for the first time since the 60's and 70's, and 80's that the Rams have a chance at sustainability. It has all I have wanted for them, over the last decade, or so. Now, here's the thing, I don't think we will be Superbowl bound every year. Too much needs to happen, including luck, and we haven't had much of that. I do think we are set up to compete in the playoffs for the next 4 -5 years, and have the overall plan in place to be sustainable longer than that.

The only bummer that I see, is that so many teams in the NFC are good, have gotten better, are young, and on the same path as us. So, there will be a ton of competition over the next few years. It will be the team's who stay the course, while staying competitive. You can't give up your future, for your now, but there is a fine balance. We made some moves for the now, and for the future. Will these moves pan out? We will all have to wait and see, but they feel like really good moves at this point.

Having our young core, as many have mentioned is great, but with success, there comes players who want more. This is also tricky. We have a lot of pieces in place, including coaches, management, and ownership, and those things are so important. Our coaches did so well, we lost some of them too, and will probably continue to lose guys, so coaching development is just as important as player development. The real key for me, will be our defense being a top unit, and more importantly, and urgently, developing our aging offensive line. This last draft may be the key to the future success of the Rams.
 

ausmurp

Starter
Joined
Aug 15, 2013
Messages
569
Who knows really. Our offensive window will be longer as we have locked up the core, we just have to draft good on the OL and we should be a top 10 offense for a long time, +5 yrs.

When a team builds like we are, offensively, the defense will uncontrollably rotate every yr or so, as players on our successful team will hit FA and get paid more/we can't pay enough bc of the $ we have in Offense. So it's all about how we draft starting this yr. Realistically we probably have a window like Brees, Rodgers, etc have had. Is their window closed? Not really, the saints just drafted so well on D that Brees is right back in it.

We probably do have a 2-3 yr window with our current D, and that will be short as Suh, Talib, etc probably won't stay long. Also I doubt Wade will stay very long. So yeah I think he's right. But we will have multiple short windows after that. Do all those add up to a large window? Depends on how you look at it.
 

snackdaddy

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May 6, 2014
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Charlie
I think our window is much longer. We have our top 3 receivers, QB and RB for a minimum of 3 years. I believer our QB will be a Ram his whole career. Our elite running back is locked up for 6 years. Cooks 5 more years and Woods 3 more years. Don't forger Everett with a minimum of 3 more years. No one will be past their prime in the next 3 to 5 years. We are set for quite a while with skill position players.

We should be able to maintain an upper tier offense as long as the line doesn't regress too much. If we can lock up Donald and Peters, we have some good defensive pieces to field and adequate defense. And don't forget what we might be drafting the next few years now that we have our first round picks finally.

Our championship window is open for at least 3 more years and our playoff contender window could be open for a lot of years. We have a very good coach and franchise quarterback. When you have that you always have a chance.
 

Merlin

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They've done a great job loading young talent around Goff at the skill positions. Offensively it looks like a nice multi-year window where we're going to score a ton of points.

Threats to that window are...

1. OL. Retool is pending most likely with 3 FAs after this season and our starting LT being 37 in December I think it was. Oh and Sullivan being long in the tooth with a history of back injury too.

2. Defensive roster. This season will tell us whether the moves will result in a better unit. But there are plenty of question marks, mostly at LB both inside and outside and extending into the secondary, not to mention the AD situation and how things pan out there.