It's such a beautiful thing to see an awful organization in the process of being re-born into a championship-caliber unit right before our very eyes. The competition that Tavon and Stedman will provide will force Chris, Brian, and Austin (Pettis) to elevate their own individual games. The fact that each of these receivers have their own strengths and weaknesses will help each of them to appreciate where each can contribute to the overall offensive effort. They will block for each other, run decoy routes to help the primary receiver on each play out, come together as brothers.
The selections of Olgetree and TJ MacDonald has probably elevated the Ram's defense into the NFL's Top Ten. Russell Wilson and CK won't be too eager to go scampering for yards on foot when they know they may have their heads taken off by speedy, heat-seeking missiles of destruction. I am including incumbent SS Darian Stewart and OLB Jo-Lonn Dunbar in that descriptive phrase.
The special teams got a major boost last year with our two rookie kickers. Now the return game will be turbo-charged by Tavon's presence. Any guy that can make people swipe futilely at air like he does will galvanize his blockers to go out of their way to keep defenders off him. It will automatically enforce discipline against stupid penalties because no one will want to have any of these beautiful runs come back because of some mindless error.
With Sam's first back-to-back season in the same system, Schotty will be able to finally open up the playbook with all these new dynamic pieces. Sam is gonna work these young fly boys out, TE's and RB's too, and have them all up to speed by Game One. The defense will be meaner and more effective, and the offense and special teams will both effectively receive steroidal injections from new talent, improved talent, and schemes customized to maximize that talent.
It remains to be seen just how much the new OL additions, the inevitable OL jelling, and the new blue- and red-chip weaponry will transform Sam's game. I have felt that with his intelligence and accuracy, if he was ever provided with sufficient talent around him that he would emerge dramatically as a true franchise QB. I saw this young kid play as a sophomore and saw how he sprayed the ball around to whoever was open with great accuracy and decisiveness. Now he will finally get to operate behind something approaching a first class OL for the very first time. By season's end, maybe the '9ers and the 'Hawks will not be automatically considered the best SuperBowl contenders in the wild, wild NFC West.
