- Joined
- Jun 24, 2010
- Messages
- 33,923
- Name
- Stu
I know I will be looked at as a homer and while one of the oldest cliches in football is that everyone has a chance at the beginning of the season, I just wanted to look at this year's Rams vs. last year's team group by group and see where we are better or worse off. I know I will leave some players out and it won't be a completely unbiased view but what the hell.
I am also going to ignore the injury thing as much as possible and try to just look at the talent level on both sides of the ball. We all hope the injury bug doesn't hit us so I want to look more at talent levels and other changes made.
Let's start off with QB - after all it's a "QB driven league" :beating:
Last year at this time we had Bradford, Feeley, and Brandstater. This year we have Bradford, Clemens, and Brandstater. My contention would be that Bradford, though going into his third system in as many years, also has two years under his belt. He was pounded repeatedly last season and though he did seem to feel pressure that wasn't exactly there last season, he also stepped into throws where he knew he was going to be hit during the same stretch. He played much of the season on a bad pod after no real off season and was trying to deal with IMO an OC with too big of an ego to honestly assess the talent level and experience of his team. This season, he will likely have an OC that allows him to play more within his experience and skill set. The addition of Wells will be huge for him as well.
If Bradford should go down, I definitely like the fact that we have Clemens behind him far more than having Feeley. Clemens also has the edge of familiarity with Schotty.
OL - Lots of question marks here. So let's look at last year's bunch: Saffold, Smith, Brown, LeVore, Goldberg, Dahl, Mattison, Wragge, Bell, Foster, and Hughes. Out of that bunch we kept Saffold, Smith, Dahl, and Mattison. We added Wells and Watkins and several others that I'm not overly excited about. So this is going to be a huge coaching challenge and I just have to hope that Boudreau is all that. If not, we could be in for another long year. Smith IMO is a liability and absolutely needs to step up. He gets beat more than a three legged mule. My guess is that he doesn't last at RT. I sure hope I'm wrong. I will say however that the addition of Wells calling the protections should not be overlooked. Over all, I would say that this unit may have some slight improvement in talent - maybe. It will come down to coaching and the right scheme.
RB - Of course we have SJ for both years. We have no idea what Pead or Richardson will become. I think we all are salivating at what they look like on tape. While Williams played admirably at times IMO, he had way too many mental lapses for my tastes and just didn't have the jets to make a difference or make defenses worry at all. Norwood was a total non-factor.
I definitely believe we have upgraded the position and potentially in a big way that will open up the offense out of the backfield. Look for Pead to get some touches where he lines up outside or in motion - ala Marshall. I'm not comparing him mind you. I just think he will be used similarly at times.
WR - Last year we all know Danny went down and that changed everything. Danny is not injury prone -nor was the injury something likely to re-occur. After Danny and before Lloyd, we had a combination of 2nd stringers, receivers playing at far less than 100% and rookies. We brought in Lloyd IMO too late and with too few compliments to make a real difference.
This season we still have a lot of unknowns. However, Danny will be back and likely a key part of the receiver corps. Danario has quicks and height and let's just say he plays the same number of snaps as last year. He gives us a good weapon to stretch the field and could be huge in the red zone. With Quick and Givens on the outside potentially most of the snaps, defenses will have to be more aware of the vertical threat. Add to that Salas and Smith slashing the middle of the field and you have what I feel is potentially (man I hate that term) a dramatically improved WR unit.
TE - Kendricks showed me flashes of why they picked him with a high 2nd but was sooooo obviously a rookie. Big Mike last year was his usual injury prone self. Bajema was just that mediocre but somewhat steady TE. Onobun was obviously a non-factor. And Spach? This season, Kendricks has beefed up a bit, improved his conditioning routine, and has just flat out is not a rookie any more. He to me is the biggest difference we will see this season at TE. Big Mike will need to stay healthy before anyone can say he is a factor. I honestly have to say that I don't know much about Peterson but what I have seen on tape looks promising. This season? Dunno. Mulligan I feel is an upgrade as a blocking TE. All in all, I see a slight improvement at TE.
FB - I think this position is quite possibly the most static of all positions I am bringing up here. The one difference may just be in how they are used. I'll call this one a wash.
Moving on to the defense, this is where I see the biggest improvement in talent.
DE - Last year we had Long, Hall, Quinn, Simms, Ah You, and Selvie. I was upset when they cut Selvie but I moved on. Long showed that he going nowhere but up. I thought Quinn was looking like a potential beast but let his rookieness and rawness show. Simms and Ah You had their moments.
This season I see Quinn with more intense coaching at run defense. He will be at least as good at rushing the passer. One problem I see is that we will likely miss Hall's experience a bit. I still think we improved at the starting RDE. Long will be just that much better than last season. AND - a big AND - he will have more help.
DT - Let's face it. Last season's DTs were either old or mediocre. Now we have IMO two DTs in Langford and Brockers that would start for most teams in the NFL. They will solidify the middle and vastly improve the run defense. We added Laws for depth and still have Cudjo, and Scott behind them. This unit possibly more than even the CBs should make this defense a terror to deal with.
LB - It was another rough season at the LB position for us last year. Aside from JL, Chamberlain and Hull played ok periodically.
I realize many feel we didn't do enough to upgrade this unit, but I see it differently. Fisher doesn't typically rely on a straight 4-3 in reality. He will often employ just two LBs. Even considering that fact, I will take the likes of Dunbar, Haggans, McIntosh, Hoffman-Ellis, Cole, and Brown over last year's Chamberlain, Cole, Kehl, Nixon, Poppinga, Leber, and Diggs. I'm not saying this is a greatly improved unit but I also don't see it as a liability this season. I couldn't say that last season even though I did expect more out of Poppinga and Leber. Look for JL to have an All-Pro season with the help of a slightly better LB corp and a solid DL.
CB - Are you kidding me? This pencils out to be a very tough secondary to pass against and of course it is due in large part to a big infusion of talent at CB. Injuries aside, we were just an ok unit heading into the season last year. Bring in Finnegan with his toughness and experience in Fisher's defense along with Jenkins and Johnson to team up with Fletcher and Murphy and you have IMO the most talented CB group in the NFL. This is a night and day difference from last year - again - injuries aside.
Safety - We had what I thought looked like a pretty good Safety group last year. Then the injuries hit. I'm not sure if this unit actually is as good as what we started the season with last year but I like what I see. Stewart will be another year BETTER and Mikell could start for most teams. Darian is going to show what he's got and people are going to pay. Dahl is IMO a serviceable #3 and Daniels has potential. Again, I am not sure if we improved at safety and it is entirely possible that we slipped a bit from what we started with last season. All that said, I look for them to be able to play with a little more wreckless abandon.
Finally, Special Teams - Sorry but I think the punter Hekker is too much of a boom or bust type punter for me to get all too excited about. Donnie Jones was pretty consistent for us. Yeah I know he had his worst year statistically but hell - join the club. I honestly look at the move of changing the punter as purely a money move. Zeurlein on the other hand looks to be a pretty big improvement. We'll see if he has the mental fortitude for the NFL but few if anyone questions his leg. I'm thinking touchbacks will be the rule and frankly, the only thing I ever liked about Brown as a Ram was that we snatched him from Seattle.
In the return game last year we had Danny - oops... who now? Return by committee sucked pretty bad. I never understood why we had Gilyard returning virtually everything only to cut him and leave us with nothing real behind Danny. Norwood? Talk about a shell of his early years. This year it looks like Danny will be the emergency go to returner if one of the others gets injured. I'm pretty excited about the options of Pead, Richardson, and Jenkins. I'm thinking there's a huge increase in return yards in store for us.
So all in all, I see a fairly substantial increase in talent at most positions. Our O-line is still a question mark. and we will simply have to see if several of the other positions pan out. But when I look at the NFL and see the parity that is truly there among most teams, a slight improvement here and there combined with what I see as the makings of an elite defense and I say - Why not the Rams?
Oh - bye the way. Did I mention the coaching staff that has seen virtually everything the NFL has to offer?
I am also going to ignore the injury thing as much as possible and try to just look at the talent level on both sides of the ball. We all hope the injury bug doesn't hit us so I want to look more at talent levels and other changes made.
Let's start off with QB - after all it's a "QB driven league" :beating:
Last year at this time we had Bradford, Feeley, and Brandstater. This year we have Bradford, Clemens, and Brandstater. My contention would be that Bradford, though going into his third system in as many years, also has two years under his belt. He was pounded repeatedly last season and though he did seem to feel pressure that wasn't exactly there last season, he also stepped into throws where he knew he was going to be hit during the same stretch. He played much of the season on a bad pod after no real off season and was trying to deal with IMO an OC with too big of an ego to honestly assess the talent level and experience of his team. This season, he will likely have an OC that allows him to play more within his experience and skill set. The addition of Wells will be huge for him as well.
If Bradford should go down, I definitely like the fact that we have Clemens behind him far more than having Feeley. Clemens also has the edge of familiarity with Schotty.
OL - Lots of question marks here. So let's look at last year's bunch: Saffold, Smith, Brown, LeVore, Goldberg, Dahl, Mattison, Wragge, Bell, Foster, and Hughes. Out of that bunch we kept Saffold, Smith, Dahl, and Mattison. We added Wells and Watkins and several others that I'm not overly excited about. So this is going to be a huge coaching challenge and I just have to hope that Boudreau is all that. If not, we could be in for another long year. Smith IMO is a liability and absolutely needs to step up. He gets beat more than a three legged mule. My guess is that he doesn't last at RT. I sure hope I'm wrong. I will say however that the addition of Wells calling the protections should not be overlooked. Over all, I would say that this unit may have some slight improvement in talent - maybe. It will come down to coaching and the right scheme.
RB - Of course we have SJ for both years. We have no idea what Pead or Richardson will become. I think we all are salivating at what they look like on tape. While Williams played admirably at times IMO, he had way too many mental lapses for my tastes and just didn't have the jets to make a difference or make defenses worry at all. Norwood was a total non-factor.
I definitely believe we have upgraded the position and potentially in a big way that will open up the offense out of the backfield. Look for Pead to get some touches where he lines up outside or in motion - ala Marshall. I'm not comparing him mind you. I just think he will be used similarly at times.
WR - Last year we all know Danny went down and that changed everything. Danny is not injury prone -nor was the injury something likely to re-occur. After Danny and before Lloyd, we had a combination of 2nd stringers, receivers playing at far less than 100% and rookies. We brought in Lloyd IMO too late and with too few compliments to make a real difference.
This season we still have a lot of unknowns. However, Danny will be back and likely a key part of the receiver corps. Danario has quicks and height and let's just say he plays the same number of snaps as last year. He gives us a good weapon to stretch the field and could be huge in the red zone. With Quick and Givens on the outside potentially most of the snaps, defenses will have to be more aware of the vertical threat. Add to that Salas and Smith slashing the middle of the field and you have what I feel is potentially (man I hate that term) a dramatically improved WR unit.
TE - Kendricks showed me flashes of why they picked him with a high 2nd but was sooooo obviously a rookie. Big Mike last year was his usual injury prone self. Bajema was just that mediocre but somewhat steady TE. Onobun was obviously a non-factor. And Spach? This season, Kendricks has beefed up a bit, improved his conditioning routine, and has just flat out is not a rookie any more. He to me is the biggest difference we will see this season at TE. Big Mike will need to stay healthy before anyone can say he is a factor. I honestly have to say that I don't know much about Peterson but what I have seen on tape looks promising. This season? Dunno. Mulligan I feel is an upgrade as a blocking TE. All in all, I see a slight improvement at TE.
FB - I think this position is quite possibly the most static of all positions I am bringing up here. The one difference may just be in how they are used. I'll call this one a wash.
Moving on to the defense, this is where I see the biggest improvement in talent.
DE - Last year we had Long, Hall, Quinn, Simms, Ah You, and Selvie. I was upset when they cut Selvie but I moved on. Long showed that he going nowhere but up. I thought Quinn was looking like a potential beast but let his rookieness and rawness show. Simms and Ah You had their moments.
This season I see Quinn with more intense coaching at run defense. He will be at least as good at rushing the passer. One problem I see is that we will likely miss Hall's experience a bit. I still think we improved at the starting RDE. Long will be just that much better than last season. AND - a big AND - he will have more help.
DT - Let's face it. Last season's DTs were either old or mediocre. Now we have IMO two DTs in Langford and Brockers that would start for most teams in the NFL. They will solidify the middle and vastly improve the run defense. We added Laws for depth and still have Cudjo, and Scott behind them. This unit possibly more than even the CBs should make this defense a terror to deal with.
LB - It was another rough season at the LB position for us last year. Aside from JL, Chamberlain and Hull played ok periodically.
I realize many feel we didn't do enough to upgrade this unit, but I see it differently. Fisher doesn't typically rely on a straight 4-3 in reality. He will often employ just two LBs. Even considering that fact, I will take the likes of Dunbar, Haggans, McIntosh, Hoffman-Ellis, Cole, and Brown over last year's Chamberlain, Cole, Kehl, Nixon, Poppinga, Leber, and Diggs. I'm not saying this is a greatly improved unit but I also don't see it as a liability this season. I couldn't say that last season even though I did expect more out of Poppinga and Leber. Look for JL to have an All-Pro season with the help of a slightly better LB corp and a solid DL.
CB - Are you kidding me? This pencils out to be a very tough secondary to pass against and of course it is due in large part to a big infusion of talent at CB. Injuries aside, we were just an ok unit heading into the season last year. Bring in Finnegan with his toughness and experience in Fisher's defense along with Jenkins and Johnson to team up with Fletcher and Murphy and you have IMO the most talented CB group in the NFL. This is a night and day difference from last year - again - injuries aside.
Safety - We had what I thought looked like a pretty good Safety group last year. Then the injuries hit. I'm not sure if this unit actually is as good as what we started the season with last year but I like what I see. Stewart will be another year BETTER and Mikell could start for most teams. Darian is going to show what he's got and people are going to pay. Dahl is IMO a serviceable #3 and Daniels has potential. Again, I am not sure if we improved at safety and it is entirely possible that we slipped a bit from what we started with last season. All that said, I look for them to be able to play with a little more wreckless abandon.
Finally, Special Teams - Sorry but I think the punter Hekker is too much of a boom or bust type punter for me to get all too excited about. Donnie Jones was pretty consistent for us. Yeah I know he had his worst year statistically but hell - join the club. I honestly look at the move of changing the punter as purely a money move. Zeurlein on the other hand looks to be a pretty big improvement. We'll see if he has the mental fortitude for the NFL but few if anyone questions his leg. I'm thinking touchbacks will be the rule and frankly, the only thing I ever liked about Brown as a Ram was that we snatched him from Seattle.
In the return game last year we had Danny - oops... who now? Return by committee sucked pretty bad. I never understood why we had Gilyard returning virtually everything only to cut him and leave us with nothing real behind Danny. Norwood? Talk about a shell of his early years. This year it looks like Danny will be the emergency go to returner if one of the others gets injured. I'm pretty excited about the options of Pead, Richardson, and Jenkins. I'm thinking there's a huge increase in return yards in store for us.
So all in all, I see a fairly substantial increase in talent at most positions. Our O-line is still a question mark. and we will simply have to see if several of the other positions pan out. But when I look at the NFL and see the parity that is truly there among most teams, a slight improvement here and there combined with what I see as the makings of an elite defense and I say - Why not the Rams?
Oh - bye the way. Did I mention the coaching staff that has seen virtually everything the NFL has to offer?
