Silva: Rams Lack of Urgency on O-Line Amazing/Alarming

[Riverumbbq]

Who?

You know, that guy who's usually wrapped from head to toe in a kevlar body cast. He stands around a lot carrying a clipboard and delivers spiked kool-aid to his coach. Yeah, that guy.

 

[iced]

always been amazing to me how we called Bradford injury prone but yet we haven't been able to keep the back ups healthy

 

[Mojo Ram]

always been amazing to me how we called Bradford injury prone but yet we haven't been able to keep the back ups healthy

Who...Clemens, Davis and Hill?

 

[iced]

Who...Clemens, Davis and Hill?

all were injured or missed time..

we didn't bring Keenum in for "competition" - Hill was down and Davis was unsure if he could play that sunday..

hell hill went down week 1...

 

[shovelpass]

all were injured or missed time..

we didn't bring Keenum in for "competition" - Hill was down and Davis was unsure if he could play that sunday..

hell hill went down week 1...

Only Hill missed time due to injury, he missed 4? games to injury, he was also 34. Bradford is 27 and has played only 2 full seasons since entering the NFL. Bradford also had injuries in college.

 

[HometownBoy]

Don't worry guys, it's fine, because Foles isn't Bradford! That's all that's necessary.

I'm sure he's pretty okay at throwing from his back... Maybe. Is that allowed?

 

[Mojo Ram]

all were injured or missed time..

we didn't bring Keenum in for "competition" - Hill was down and Davis was unsure if he could play that sunday..

hell hill went down week 1...

Yeah i'm not buying all that. Our backups behind Sam have been healthy. Especially when you allude to Bradford's lack of durability as you did in your post. You're reaching.

 

[HometownBoy]

Yeah i'm not buying all that. Our backups behind Sam have been healthy. Especially when you allude to Bradford's lack of durability as you did in your post. You're reaching.

Yeah, the better argument would be to say we never actually put Bradford in a position where he wasn't right in the firing range. We knew this guy couldn't take shots and simply put our O-line simply wasn't up to snuff and little was done to change that. Sure we got Robinson, but leaving Long, Wells and others in when it was obvious that they've lost it was downright irresponsible and definitely not putting any of these guys in a safe position.

Between Clemens, Hill and Davis, there was 68 sacks. Just last year between the Hill/Davis combo there was 47. Even under Fisher's tenure Bradford was sacked 50 times.

Fisher hasn't ever really alleviated the pressure our guys feel. I can't say that he really put 100% into protecting Bradford.

 

[iced]

Only Hill missed time due to injury, he missed 4? games to injury, he was also 34. Bradford is 27 and has played only 2 full seasons since entering the NFL. Bradford also had injuries in college.

I could have sworn at one point Davis had an injury, Hill was already out, and there was a chance of Keenum having to start..

this team, particularly the last two years - has had a huge hole on the interior, and last year was even worse with Devin Joseph... I can't even begin to talk about how abysmal he was - constant liability for our QB..

I expect more of the same - question I have for you guys is if Foles go down, are back to blaming it on injury prone QB's or are we gonna start looking at the line?

The last time we went through 3 different QB's - Feeley, Clemens, Bradford

 

[fancents86]

Only thing I'm disappointed in is not trying to go for Mathis. I understand he's older, but he's still playing pro bowl level. I don't care if he only lasts 2 more years, we need a winning season NOW. Rebuilding needs to be done this season.

 

[WestCoastRam]

The fact that Saffold can play every position on the line except center probably allows the front office to feel more comfortable than us going into the draft and seeing what they can get for the oline. That and the fact that it doesn't look like Blalock nor Barksdale will sign before the draft means that the Rams are sitting in a decent spot. I agree with CoachO that Reynolds cannot be ignored as a FA pickup this offseason. This teams philosophy is to field the 5 best olinmen. To really follow that belief, they need to draft who they can and then look to fill out things in FA after the draft.

 

[CodeMonkey]

Yeah, the better argument would be to say we never actually put Bradford in a position where he wasn't right in the firing range. We knew this guy couldn't take shots and simply put our O-line simply wasn't up to snuff and little was done to change that. Sure we got Robinson, but leaving Long, Wells and others in when it was obvious that they've lost it was downright irresponsible and definitely not putting any of these guys in a safe position.

Between Clemens, Hill and Davis, there was 68 sacks. Just last year between the Hill/Davis combo there was 47. Even under Fisher's tenure Bradford was sacked 50 times.

Fisher hasn't ever really alleviated the pressure our guys feel. I can't say that he really put 100% into protecting Bradford.

I think you could go even further than that and say that from the day Sam was drafted until the day he was traded, the way he was put out there dodging bullets is really beyond excuse. I'm not being a Bradford apologist here but it's more than fair to say he was put into a poor situation protection-wise. It's tough to develop in such an environment. He understandably, like David Carr, became gun-shy. His first two reads seemed to be to quickly look for a dump off guy first then a soft place to land second. Before you get too excited, I realize I'm being overly general here but there is merit to the argument too. Obviously Fisher inherited the situation but he didn't fix it either. Still hasn't.

My gut tells me we will be going into next off-season STILL needing to address the OL. Whatever good we do this year, it wont be enough. To truly turn the OL into a feature unit is probably a multiple year fix. Can you imagine the hole we'd be in now had we not landed Saffold in FA and drafted Robinson last year?

I sure hope that @CoachO is right though with his evaluation that there are guys on our roster ready to step up this year. I'm willing to allow the possibility, and certainly hope, that the situation isn't as dire as it seems.

We shall soon see.

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

here's the thing. the rams were built to win this year (or last year but that train left the station in preseason). this year. i think it's pretty obvious the oline isn't gonna be up to scratch this year no matter which way you slice it. i'm perplexed at how they find themselves in this situation in their 4th year of rebuilding this team. seriously, it's mind boggling.

.

 

[HometownBoy]

I think you could go even further than that and say that from the day Sam was drafted until the day he was traded, the way he was put out there dodging bullets is really beyond excuse. I'm not being a Bradford apologist here but it's more than fair to say he was put into a poor situation protection-wise. It's tough to develop in such an environment. He understandably, like David Carr, became gun-shy. His first two reads seemed to be to quickly look for a dump off guy first then a soft place to land second. Before you get too excited, I realize I'm being overly general here but there is merit to the argument too. Obviously Fisher inherited the situation but he didn't fix it either. Still hasn't.

My gut tells me we will be going into next off-season STILL needing to address the OL. Whatever good we do this year, it wont be enough. To truly turn the OL into a feature unit is probably a multiple year fix. Can you imagine the hole we'd be in now had we not landed Saffold in FA and drafted Robinson last year?

I sure hope that @CoachO is right though with his evaluation that there are guys on our roster ready to step up this year. I'm willing to allow the possibility, and certainly hope, that the situation isn't as dire as it seems.

We shall soon see.

The bolded is definitely true, I was focusing on Fisher to show that even in recent years nothing really changed, but there's no denying that Bradford has never had an O-line worth talking about. The guy's in what, his 6th season he's only got one season where his sack total wasn't in the high 30s and that's because he was broken before then.

Pretty much everyone's negative for him was that he was deteriorating and Saint Louis did nothing but push that deterioration forward several years. It's Bulger all over again, you could see his talent and willingness drain after every sack from a LBer coming right up the gut because nobody was smart enough to block the one guy everyone should be aware of.

It's telling that our fans cream ourselves over being ranked in the teens of o-line ranking. Even being middle of the pack and mediocre is exciting compared to what we've known for years. The consistent lack of urgency in fixing this in the last 10 or so years has scared me since and still scares me now.

I'm hoping that we strike gold in the draft or these guys suddenly explode, because I'm starting to ponder if our regimes understand that it takes more than just throwing QB after QB at a mess for it to go away.

 

[blue4]

.

here's the thing. the rams were built to win this year (or last year but that train left the station in preseason). this year. i think it's pretty obvious the oline isn't gonna be up to scratch this year no matter which way you slice it. i'm perplexed at how they find themselves in this situation in their 4th year of rebuilding this team. seriously, it's mind boggling.

.

Exactly.

 

[shovelpass]

I could have sworn at one point Davis had an injury, Hill was already out, and there was a chance of Keenum having to start..

this team, particularly the last two years - has had a huge hole on the interior, and last year was even worse with Devin Joseph... I can't even begin totalk about how abysmal he was - constant liability for our QB..

I expect more of the same - question I have for you guys is if Foles go down, are back to blaming it on injury prone QB's or are we gonna start looking at the line?

The last time we went through 3 different QB's - Feeley, Clemens, Bradford

Our line has been bad, no doubt. But Sam has injury issue, plain and simple.

 

[iced]

Our line has been bad, no doubt. But Sam has injury issue, plain and simple.

No doubt - but apparently so has a lot of our 2nd and 3rd string qb's..

In the past 8 seasons, the Rams have only had a QB play a whole season twice. (Sam, 2010 and 2012)

Other qb's of the past?

Bulger, Null, Frerotte, Berlin, Green,Boller, Null, Feeley, Clemens, Hill, Davis.

I think the fact that Hill was hurt by half time week 1 is telling - especially since he barely had any time with rotational joke that was the interior

 

[Memphis Ram]

Yeah, but the offensive line has been an issue since Fisher and Snead took over day one. To me that's what's alarming. At C they have guys like Jones and Rhaney they want to give a shot. That's cool with me. It's the lack of young depth. We have failed to stock the offensive line like we have the defensive line. That to me is the issue. It's not a one offseason problem.

They signed Long and Wells and both got hurt. Saffold has gotten hurt. This year some of the backups even got hurt. It happens. Sure they could have better stocked the OLine, but if those guys stay healthy, the team would have actually might have built one of the better OLines in the league.

 

[Memphis Ram]

.

here's the thing. the rams were built to win this year (or last year but that train left the station in preseason). this year. i think it's pretty obvious the oline isn't gonna be up to scratch this year no matter which way you slice it. i'm perplexed at how they find themselves in this situation in their 4th year of rebuilding this team. seriously, it's mind boggling.

I'm sorry, but how is this pretty obvious?