- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
- Messages
- 1,102
5 reasons why LA Rams will overcome odds and return to playoffs
After restocking both offense and defense, the LA Rams are NFL relevant once more. Here are five reasons why return to NFL Playoffs.
ramblinfan.com
Don’t believe the naysayers who have the LA Rams chances for success in 2020 in the intensive care unit, with professionals standing by to pull the plug. The Rams have restocked the roster with a nice infusion of young talent, and are prepared for another season of very competitive NFL Football. Despite the “rebuilt on the fly” perspective, a recent article written by PrimeTimeSportsTalk author John Devereaux suggested that the LA Rams are most definitely “Pretenders” in 2020.
He awarded the title of “Relevant” to both the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks and designated the Arizona Cardinals as “Pretenders” as well. While the list included the entire NFC, it appeared to be a recap of last year’s playoff teams, minus any NFC East teams. That was followed by Bleacher reports Maurice Moton’s prediction of the LA Rams finishing at 7-9, worse than the LA Chargers who he projects to an 8-8 record.
Last season, the LA Rams had an incredible epidemic of injuries to the offensive line, a decline in production from the team’s three highest-paid offensive players, and a special teams play which fell to the ranking of the bottom third in the NFL. Despite all this, the LA Rams missed the NFL Playoffs by one game. The focus of these projections is a litany of who the Rams lost, with no mention of who stayed or who joined. No, the Rams did not make the 2019 playoffs. Instead, the team got a wake-up call which has reenergized the entire organization. Sleep on the 2020 LA Rams at your own peril.
If the cutoff to current year relevance is to recap the previous year’s playoff teams, that ignores the fact that only an average of 60 percent of NFL teams who appeared in the NFL Playoffs return the following year. With that rate, is there any stock in a belief that 2019 NFC playoff teams remain relevant in 2020?
The echo chamber effect
The LA Rams just missed the 2019 NFL Playoffs, falling to a 9-7 record in a division where 13-3 and 11-5 launched teams into the post-season competition. Since the Rams did not reach that plateau in 2019, do they simply fade away this season? Are the Rams truly in a spiral downwards, struggling to win half of their games, while other NFL teams that have not had success in the past suddenly spring to the top of the NFL?
Yes, the Ram’s struggled in 2019 on many fronts. But rather than plummet to the NFC West basement, the team held its own in one of the toughest divisions of the NFL. The chorus line of further decline is a circular reference based upon the logic of – “they got bad due to the decline of these players, and will be worse because those players are gone.” Let’s not wind up being accused of any homerism here. There are specific reasons why the LA Rams failed to achieve a playoff berth in 2019. We believe those reasons no longer apply to the team in 2020. Those reasons were as follows:
(1)The Rams roster was a series of duct tape plug-n-play players almost out of the gates in 2019. The criteria for starting on the team fell from “the best option” to “are you healthy enough to suit up?”
(2)The Rams special teams play in 2019 plummeted to the bottom third of the NFL. That is not just kicker Greg Zuerlein’s inability to hit from the 40-49 yard range. That included less productive returns, fewer punts inside the 20, and a host of other minor breakdowns.
(3) The offensive line consistency broke down in 2019 due to poor play from original starters, followed by a series of season-ending injuries that devastated the Rams’ ability to move the ball and score points.
(4) The Rams restocked the defensive backfield in mid-season, and pass defense improved dramatically. The Rams did not have a run-stopping thumper at linebacker in 2019.
(5) The Rams were swept by the San Francisco 49ers in 2019, but game two of that series was much closer in competition.
So many have pulled the plug on the LA Rams playoff chances for 2020 without any understanding what happed in 2019. Their projections simply do not stand up to the track record of head coach That doesn’t jive with what we know about either the NFL or the LA Rams. So how can we be so certain that the LA Rams are relevant in 2020? Here are five logical reasons why.
V- Rams added players to the 2020 roster who fit the new game plan
The most prominent fault of the Rams 2019 season was something nobody discussed at all until now. The Rams injuries in 2019 were widespread and impacted a huge number of starters for the team on both offense and defense. While the focus of the sports world fixated on the numerous injuries to the Rams offensive line, the Rams had to endure minor injuries to wide receiver Brandin Cooks, as well as to running backs Darrell Henderson and Malcolm Brown.
On defense, the team was hit hard too. Safety John Johnson’s season ended due to injury, forcing an emergency promotion of rookie safety Taylor Rapp. CB Aqib Talib fell to injury, which forced the team to promote cornerback Troy Hill. Then a series of trades which forced the Rams defensive backfield to undergo a complete facelift in mid-season. The team traded away CB Aqib Talib (injured reserve) and CB Marcus Peters, eventually adding CB Jalen Ramsey. That did not happen during training camp, nor offseason, but rather in the midst of the season. Even newly acquired cornerback Jalen Ramsey fell to injury in 2019.
The same hot-swap happened on the offensive line in mid-season as well. The Rams injuries were too numerous to repair strategically. Ultimately, the patched-up offensive line became a series of swapping players until OL Coach Aaron Kromer found five players who seemed to gel together. In mid-season, that is awfully hard to do.
But the adversity of 2019 has become the plans for the 2020 roster. The LA Rams have emphasized versatility for players selected in the 2020 NFL Draft. The team learned the hard way that players get injured, and the most successful teams have accounted for injuries in their plans. New defensive backs, offensive linemen, and more have the “multi-role” background so important to the team’s 2020 philosophy. The Rams learned important lessons in 2019, and have added the personnel to resolve those issues.
IV- Rams special teams will return to among the NFL’s top ten in 2020
Special teams play in the NFL is approximately one-third of the team’s performance. So why is there not a lot of discussion about it? It’s a complex category in the NFL, a catch-all category of “all other”. While it’s the oft-overlooked part of the game, it’s performance frequently determines the outcome.
A missed field goal, a short punt, bad kickoff coverage, failure to cross the 50-yard line on any returns in a football game are all examples of the impact of special teams on the outcome of any contest. And yet, fans are taught early on that “if the team had played better overall, it shouldn’t matter”. And yet, by the end of each NFL season, we all see evidence to the contrary. The playoff teams make the game-winning field goals. They punt more accurately within the opposing team’s 20-yard line. Successful teams kickoff with more touchbacks.
And over the past three seasons, the LA Rams had become one of the worst teams in the NFL at special teams play. In 2019, the LA Rams fell to 23rd ranking on special teams per FootballOutsiders.com ranking. In 2018, the Rams ranked 17th. However, in 2017, the Rams stood as the second-best in the NFL, just behind the Baltimore Ravens.
The Rams newly hired ST Coordinator John Bonamego’s first task? He needs to make the Rams special teams special once more. And he has a resume chock-full of examples where he did that over and over. You can see his influence all over the Rams day three draft selections, and all over the UDFA signings. He is looking for players who excel at tackling, blocking, catching and running. After the Rams lost kicker Greg Zuerlein, the Rams signed two non-NFL kickers and drafted a third to ensure the Bonamego gets accuracy, power, and consistency at the kicker position. For special teams, you can expect a pretty good number of player turnover, as it is quite clear that Bonamego wants to amp up the intensity. Look for the Rams special teams to recover dramatically in 2020.
III – Rams offensive line will heal, and improve, in 2020
The LA Rams offensive line injuries in 2019 included: Brian Allen, Joseph Noteboom, Austin Blythe, and Rob Havenstein. That is 80 percent of the Rams original starters. While we are pointing to the Rams offensive line, let’s not forget that the Rams seldom sent out the same five starters on the offensive line from one game to the next.
QB Jared Goff took his snaps from three different centers in the season. Austin Corbett, a player who started the 2019 season on the Cleveland Browns bench, arrived at the LA Rams and started both at the center and at the left guard for the team. And he never practiced once for the Rams once before arriving.
The Rams only starter, the venerable left tackle Andrew Whitworth, started all 16 games at the same position for the team. That was a rough ride for the entire offense all season. Eventually, the Rams began to adjust. The replace offensive linemen began to play better and cohesively. The Rams ran more 12-packages and used a tight-end to help on the pass and run blocking assignments. That opened up tight end Tyler Higbee in his passing routes.
Now, the Rams will begin a new season, having learned all of the lessons from 2019. The team will not only be able to reform the most successful line from 2019 but will look to improve the play at the center where A-gap blitzes were far too successful. And the team will direct competition for the backup left tackle role. This is not the same 2019 offensive line, despite the same faces. Ultimately, this is a group of very competitive football players all of whom now have a chip on their shoulder
II – Rams’ defense did not get older. Rather, it got younger
I have read several projections for the LA Rams in 2021, and was surprised to read one which stated: “the defense is starting to get old“. Seriously? All teams get older as one year passes on to the next. Meanwhile, the Rams said farewell to OLB Clay Matthews, OLB Dante Fowler Jr., ILB Cory Littleton, ILB Bryce Hager, S Eric Weddle, and CB Nickell Robey-Coleman. They weren’t young. In their place, the Rams are going with OLB Leonard Floyd, rookie OLB Terrell Lewis, ILB Micah Kizer, ILB Kenny Young, rookie slot CB Terrell Burgess, and second-year safety Taylor Rapp.
Now, where on this list of 2020 likely new starters on the defense are the Rams getting “older”? The answer is simple, they aren’t. Take the Rams defensive secondary for example. At the beginning of 2019, that backfield had starters of cornerbacks Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters, slot corner Nickell Robey-Coleman, and safeties John Johnson and Eric Weddle. In 2020, that same backfield is cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey and Troy Hill, slot corner rookie Terrell Burgess, with safeties John Johnson and Taylor Rapp. Not only had the Rams 2020 starting defensive backfield scored better by Pro Football Focus, but the fact that the defensive backfield will remain intact for the 2020 season is a huge advantage.
The Rams defensive line is the only place on the defense where they have not gotten markedly younger. All-Pro Aaron Donald is rejoined once more by a long-time teammate and good friend Michael Brockers. And the move made Donald very happy.
They will be reinforced by Sebastian Joseph-Day, Greg Gaines, and veteran strongman A’Shawn Robinson. The defensive line will be a key battleground for the Rams defense in 2020, and you should be prepared to witness a new and higher level of play by the Rams in the trenches. The only true question for this defense in at linebacker, and we’ll focus on that area in the near future.
I- Rams will dethrone 49ers in 2020
The LA Rams swept the injured San Francisco 49ers in 2018, on their way to Super Bowl LIII. The San Francisco 49ers swept the injured Los Angeles Rams in 2019, and their way to Super Bowl LIV. Now, it’s the Rams’ turn. No, that isn’t a call for some leap of faith on your part. Hear me out. The LA Rams, with all of the problems we’d discussed earlier, nearly defeated the San Francisco 49ers in their rematch. How?
Head coach Sean McVay is a very driven and passionate coach who sees a challenge as a personal test of his ability. Despite the cards stacked against him in that 2019 rematch, he adopted some remarkable countermeasures to neutralize the advantages of the 49ers. He went to a two-tight-end set and unleashed tight end, Tyler Higbee upon the 49ers.
He flexed the Rams passing game from Cooper Kupp to Robert Woods, and he watched as the Rams pass rush wore heavily upon besieged 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo en route to racking up six sacks. In that game, the Rams simply did not have the ability to stop the 49ers offense when they needed to most, and they were unable to run the ball effectively.
In the end, the score was 34-31. 49ers kicker Robbie Gould was two for two. The Rams Greg Zuerlein was one for two. Reverse that kicker’s performance, and the score is suddenly in favor of the Rams, and LA is suddenly into the playoffs with a winning streak giving them momentum.
That was then, this is now. While the 49ers may have retained the majority of their players, the Rams have healed, refocused, and upped the team’s intensity. Much like the 49ers’ quest to get better in 2019, the Rams have systemically added some key players, while promoting other players ready for a larger role. To improve the running game, the Rams drafted a sleeper at running back in Cam Akers. Akers is a do-it-all runner who can get tough yards when needed. Meanwhile, the Rams have gone big on defense, adding run specialist NT A’Shawn Robinson and OLB Leonard Floyd.
Yes, they now need to prove in on the field. But the Rams diagnosed the issue and addressed it. The Rams are all-in for 2020 but in a different way. Now it’s not about paying players and hoping they deliver on game day. Now it’s about coaching to win each game, each quarter, each play.
