A few random thoughts after sleeping on this fubar of a game…

[Kupped]

Yeah Evans at LG - ick

But I think we could have someone better than Kolone on the PS as the third string center if we paid more attention to the OL in 2020 and 2021 drafts.

Sure.. maybe.. but they brought in Jackson in 21 and Bruss this year. If we assume Bruss will be decent.. isn’t that doing something?

I think saying they could do more is certainly fair and a reasonable opinion… I just take exception to the comments (not saying you) that they ignore the line. It’s just not true.

 

[Kupped]

Since we’re talking Oline… PFF season grades..

Austin Corbett 77.4
Alaric Jackson 66.5 (Corbett was a 68 last year)
Roger Saffold 44.3
David Edwards 57.9

Feels like what we’re seeing.. and Jackson may be a find,

 

[PhillyRam]

I should add to my statement

IMHO "and I want to stress that this is just my opinion and how I feel" - OL is the second most important position right behind QB.

I feel the Rams should spend at minimum 2 picks in the draft each year (one in a higher round 2nd 3rd 4th) and one in the later rounds.

Dl - they can find decent ones in the 5th or later rounds every year it seems like.

If the Rams had done this, we might still have a decent OL even with the amount of injuries we have incurred. Tutu and/or outside linebacker/DE last year were wasted picks when at least one of them could have been a possible decent OL. Right now our OL sucks because we are forced to use in your words a third string center (who is absolutely horrible right now) and a fifth string guard (who shouldn't even be on the team from what I have seen of him in the preseason and regular season).

But that's just my opinion.

I dunno... the Niners use a lot of higher picks on the DL and it works for them. If they had a better QB they would be a 13 win team.

This team needs a better DL. They rely so much on Donald to do everything for everyone. You can't get by on late round try hard guys. The NFL is all about pressuring the QB and it takes special players who can do that consistently considering that offensive holding is just about legalized nowadays. So it's hard to find those guys after round 5.

I don't think it's as difficult to find guys who can block though, again considering the rules favor the OL so much. It's easier to develop later round picks into quality OL. That's why so many OLs are filled with late round picks...especially on the interior.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

The Rams are on lineman #10…
Jackson is the 4th string guard and looks.. pretty good!
They’re on Center #3.

I just don’t think the argument they neglected the line is very relevant right now.

What I'm saying is that it's not the problem right now. Math.
Rams only carried 8 OL... and one of them was Evans.. who wouldn't have been there, most likely, if Bruss hadn't gotten hurt.

I can understand if the argument is that you just don't think they devote enough resources to the Oline and that the overall quality isn't good enough.. maybe Edwards wouldn't be the starter.. maybe Allen would be the backup.. but the number of injuries have wiped out the on-roster depth. Period.

Once you're on practice squad, you're fair game for the rest of the league.

That third string center was on the practice squad.. if he was "good".. he would've been poached by another team.

So, no.. it's not a depth and draft issue at the moment. When they were playing with Shelton, Jackson and Edwards.. backups at two positions.. one of them the 4th guard.. they were doing a decent job.

They gave up one sack to the Falcons and one sack to the Cardinals.. that's fine.. especially for backups including a 4th stringer.

Allen would be a backup on many teams, maybe Edwards, maybe, Noteboom probably.

The issue is depth. We’ve seen other teams plug in backups with good success. The Niners backups were much better than the Rams backups. The Buccaneers backups have been much better than the Rams backups.

I think the hang up for some is seeing these other teams plugging in guys and not skipping a beat.

 

[Tano]

Sure.. maybe.. but they brought in Jackson in 21 and Bruss this year. If we assume Bruss will be decent.. isn’t that doing something?

I think saying they could do more is certainly fair and a reasonable opinion… I just take exception to the comments (not saying you) that they ignore the line. It’s just not true.

Well the Rams got Jackson in the 7th round in 2020 and Bruss in the 3RD OR 4TH Rnd IN 2021 but nothing in 2019 and I was calling for the Dallas Center in the 4th round and when they got Hopkins instead - I was pretty much furious.

And Hopkins has pretty much done crap although I have to say Hopkins did well in the Super Bowl.

Again - I want a late round OL in every draft and an OL chosen in the top 4 every other year except when we lose an OL in the "other year". Then I want an OL in the 4th round that year too.

 

[Tano]

I dunno... the Niners use a lot of higher picks on the DL and it works for them. If they had a better QB they would be a 13 win team.

This team needs a better DL. They rely so much on Donald to do everything for everyone. You can't get by on late round try hard guys. The NFL is all about pressuring the QB and it takes special players who can do that consistently considering that offensive holding is just about legalized nowadays. So it's hard to find those guys after round 5.

I don't think it's as difficult to find guys who can block though, again considering the rules favor the OL so much. It's easier to develop later round picks into quality OL. That's why so many OLs are filled with late round picks...especially on the interior.

Yeah but the 9ers offense sucks too but their OL seems to be okay with their back-ups

As others have stated, I want good depth in our OL

Evans and Kolone are NOT good depth

 

[Tano]

One other thing - I told a few people at work before the year started - that if the Rams lost 2 or more offensive linemen that we would suck because our backups are just terrible.

The only back-up I thought might be decent is Alaric Jackson. Thankfully he has been decent.

I thought maybe Anchrum would be possibly decent too but haven't seen him come in.

Edit - Forgot Anchrum is done for the year.

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

two botched td throws in the same drive near the endzone.

completely misses higbee then doesn't even throw to a wide open henderson right in his sight line and almost throws a pick.

what's wrong with stafford this season?



.

 

[Tano]

.

two botched td throws in the same drive near the endzone.

completely misses higbee then doesn't even throw to a wide open henderson right in his sight line and almost throws a pick.

what's wrong with stafford this season?



.

Well on the second pass - Henderson never looked back.

And Stafford had to get rid of the ball.

 

[Tano]

Damn you Goff .... oops Stafford

 

[Merlin]

Allen would be a backup on many teams, maybe Edwards, maybe, Noteboom probably.

The issue is depth. We’ve seen other teams plug in backups with good success. The Niners backups were much better than the Rams backups. The Buccaneers backups have been much better than the Rams backups.

I think the hang up for some is seeing these other teams plugging in guys and not skipping a beat.

Yeah the 9er DL were playing depth but our OL couldn't handle them.

I am sure the Rams will do a lot better on both sides of the ball in a few weeks when they see them again. But just once it would be nice to beat them them the fuck down. I am tired of every shit player on Shanny's roster playing smarter, harder, and better than our boys. It is beyond fucking old.

 

[PhillyRam]

Yeah but the 9ers offense sucks too but their OL seems to be okay with their back-ups

As others have stated, I want good depth in our OL

Evans and Kolone are NOT good depth

Their offense is sub par because of the QB.

 

[Tano]

Their offense is sub par because of the QB.

And I agree with you

 

[Kupped]

Allen would be a backup on many teams, maybe Edwards, maybe, Noteboom probably.

The issue is depth. We’ve seen other teams plug in backups with good success. The Niners backups were much better than the Rams backups. The Buccaneers backups have been much better than the Rams backups.

I think the hang up for some is seeing these other teams plugging in guys and not skipping a beat.

I'd change the top line to "some" for Noteboom and Allen.. they're both solid players. Edwards isn't getting better.
Here's the thing.. with no injuries? Whose to say that Edwards keeps getting on the field.

I think you're mistaking the 9ers line doing good with the Rams D line not doing enough.. and the 9ers getting the ball out. Other than the one busted run.. they didn't move the ball on the ground.

Scheme.. and the Rams utterly failed in that department.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I'd change the top line to "some" for Noteboom and Allen.. they're both solid players. Edwards isn't getting better.
Here's the thing.. with no injuries? Whose to say that Edwards keeps getting on the field.

I think you're mistaking the 9ers line doing good with the Rams D line not doing enough.. and the 9ers getting the ball out. Other than the one busted run.. they didn't move the ball on the ground.

Scheme.. and the Rams utterly failed in that department.

I still think they are missing a dominant piece to the line. Maybe it’s at LG. Jackson has been doing well despite being out of position. He’s next to Havenstein. What do they have from Center, LG, OLT? A lot of average with some players having specific weaknesses.

I don’t know if you noticed this or not but to me it seems that McVay gets attached to some guys. It’s why I really didn’t think they’d trade Woods. It’s not hard to see where the weaknesses in the offense lie. They need improvement on the left side or interior of the line and at running back. Both things could have been addressed in the last two drafts. Instead they gambled on luxury and developmental players like Atwell and Harris.

 

[AvengerRam]

Occam’s Razor: It’s the OL (overall talent, depth and injuries)

 

[Kupped]

I still think they are missing a dominant piece to the line. Maybe it’s at LG. Jackson has been doing well despite being out of position. He’s next to Havenstein. What do they have from Center, LG, OLT? A lot of average with some players having specific weaknesses.

I don’t know if you noticed this or not but to me it seems that McVay gets attached to some guys. It’s why I really didn’t think they’d trade Woods. It’s not hard to see where the weaknesses in the offense lie. They need improvement on the left side or interior of the line and at running back. Both things could have been addressed in the last two drafts. Instead they gambled on luxury and developmental players like Atwell and Harris.

Looked fine the last two weeks before they had two more injuries on the line... and they looked fine with a backup center.

We have no idea how this line actually looks healthy this year.

 

[Kupped]

I still think they are missing a dominant piece to the line. Maybe it’s at LG. Jackson has been doing well despite being out of position. He’s next to Havenstein. What do they have from Center, LG, OLT? A lot of average with some players having specific weaknesses.

I don’t know if you noticed this or not but to me it seems that McVay gets attached to some guys. It’s why I really didn’t think they’d trade Woods. It’s not hard to see where the weaknesses in the offense lie. They need improvement on the left side or interior of the line and at running back. Both things could have been addressed in the last two drafts. Instead they gambled on luxury and developmental players like Atwell and Harris.

They drafted Akers and another RB this year.

They brought in Jackson last year.. and we see how that's working.. and drafted Bruss this year. They year before that they drafted Anchrum and, to me, he looked like he had figured it out at guard and was the primary backup.

These are developmental Olinemen and it seems they were headed in the right direction. The only guy on the roster who you'd say is just bad is Evans... and I don't know why Edwards isn't improving.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

Looked fine the last two weeks before they had two more injuries on the line... and they looked fine with a backup center.

We have no idea how this line actually looks healthy this year.

They haven’t been able to consistently run the ball for years. That’s not fine imo.

 

[Kupped]

They haven’t been able to consistently run the ball for years. That’s not fine imo.

Fair enough.
I think that's been as much about the RBs the last two years as anything else. The run game, when Akers or Henderson was healthy in 20 was good.