In which preseasons were you most confident?

[AvengerRam]

My history as a Rams fan goes back to the mid-1970s. I know that some go back even further.

I was thinking about preseason confidence or, put another way, the years in which I felt most confident in the Rams' chance to win it all.

Obviously, the years 2000 - right after winning it all, and 2001 - when the Rams reloaded with three first round draft picks to bolster a defense that had struggled in the previous year, come to mind. I also felt pretty confident going into the 1985 and 1989 seasons. Most recently, I thought the Rams were contender going into the 2018 season.

Compared to those years, how would you rate your confidence level?

I'd say we're a contender. I'm not going to call us the favorite, by any means, to make or win the Super Bowl, but its not unreasonable to have hope.

Where do you slot your current confidence level, historically speaking?

 

[bubbaramfan]

 

[Rams43]

My confidence level is sky high right now.

We’ve seemingly got all the key ingredients in place for a strong SB run.

HC
QB
RB
WR’s
TE (at least one, anyway)
OL (even upgraded at OC)
DL
Elite secondary
At least one quality Edge in Floyd
ST just got tremendous infusion of talent under a quality coordinator
Roster has good depth throughout

Only 2 areas I have any qualms about are WOLB and maybe ILB in the sense of them not being proven above average caliber. That’s it.

So I could say that I haven’t felt this confident since the GSOT years.

Hot Damn!

 

[Merlin]

Cool topic @AvengerRam.

I think back to the '99 preseason. That entire offseason felt so different. To that point Vermiel had focused on churning the roster and getting rid of the quitters with brutal camps and then there we were in DV's year 3 with an addition of Marshall Faulk and a QB who might actually do the job in Green. Also the hire of a new OC who wasn't some barnacle from DV's old days. It just felt different to me. There was a charge in the air.

I feel the same way right now. Rams made a really tough pivot at QB to do what they did, that's not an easy thing and most teams would not even consider it. For me that dedication to winning and truly having the highest expectations is appreciated. And tbh this team might choke or maybe our new QB needs time to settle in with the high expectations and all that. But I doubt that happens. I have zero problem saying we're gonna win it all. Why not us. We have a rock solid core of great players at most of the key positions. We have great coaching. Fuck it man what team out there is going to be better than us end of season.

 

[Reddog99]

I don't have any memories of the GSOT to compare it to since Bulger and SJ39 were some of my first memories of the Rams. Even though we had all those losing seasons every year i got excited thinking this could be the year.

Anyways after the 2017 season I felt pretty confident for the 2018 season. My confidence in the 2021 season is about the same as just before the 2018 season but I think it's going to sky rocket seeing videos of these guys at training camp and practicing.

 

[Loyal]

I have a confidence at the QB position that I haven't had since GSOT. Goff was decent to good but seemed to decline after the Bears game in the Super Bowl season. Defenses made us rely on him instead of the run game to mixed results for us. I believe Stafford is tougher mentally and he seems to get through his progressions very well. With McVay's expanded playbook, I think Stafford will be so good that he may win the MVP. We should be able to beat any team in the NFL because we're better than they are!

 

[Tano]

I am fairly sky high too.

Stafford is better than Goff and I felt Goff would take us to the superbowl last year with a better center and Stafford probably doesn't need an above average center.

 

[oldnotdead]

My confidence is always high. But now with Stafford count me in among the pieces that think he's a difference maker. I liked Goff and still do. But experience counts in the NFL and the fact that Stafford has the confidence of McVay is all the difference in the world. McVay isn't a teacher. With Goff he felt the need to micro-manage, so I'm hoping that won't be the case with Stafford which will allow the offense to flow better.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Jeff Fisher era preseason is probably my zenith in terms of confidence, that man had a really bad habit of making us look like we were far more than we were in the preseason than what we were capable of in the regular season.

Contrast with McVay who doesn't give two shits about the preseason, it's sort of a funny transition. This is the best Rams team I've seen in person by far (I moved to the States after the GSOT years), so I'm just having fun with it now. I know we have a good team and a good coaching group, so I'm just excited to see the games now. As long as they're entertaining, I'm happy.

 

[Tano]

Jeff Fisher era preseason is probably my zenith in terms of confidence, that man had a really bad habit of making us look like we were far more than we were in the preseason than what we were capable of in the regular season.

Contrast with McVay who doesn't give two shits about the preseason, it's sort of a funny transition. This is the best Rams team I've seen in person by far (I moved to the States after the GSOT years), so I'm just having fun with it now. I know we have a good team and a good coaching group, so I'm just excited to see the games now. As long as they're entertaining, I'm happy.

Damn it. I want to win the superbowl. Screw the entertainment part

 

[bubbaramfan]

I haven't been this excited since the summer of '51 with Van Brocklin, Tom Fears, Tank Younger, Night-Train, and Crazy Legs Hirsch!

Ok, I'm old, but not that old, but Damn I would've been given what they did that year.

 

[den-the-coach]

In the summer of 73 being 7 years of age and understanding there was no more Roman Gabriel and the year before no more Deacon Jones, led me to consider changing favorite teams and going with Hank Stram's (always liked him) Kansas City Chiefs.

I recall, the Rams played against the Miami Dolphins in a preseason game that year and they were down 28-0 at halftime. Hadl looked old, fat & bald and the new young Head Coach from the Detroit Lions Chuck Knox, looked clueless.

James Harris started the 2nd half and rallied the Rams to two scores making the defeat a respectable 28-14, but at that moment I decided that whoever won the opening game that year as the Los Angeles opened that season on the road in Kansas City was going to be my team forever. I was ready to be a Chief fan because there was no way I thought the Rams could win that game.

Again being 7 was amazed how the Rams went up 23-0 in that game and won 23-13 and the rest is history so because of that sultry summer of 73 I take every season in stride and await the results starting September Morn.

 

[PhillyRam]

I remember telling my friends
in 99' that the Rams had a shot at being a 9-7 team with the way Trent Green was playing...
Never imagined they would go 13-3, especially after Green went down, but i was confident that they were going to be much better that year.

Most other yrs its always been the QB that was a huge concern up until Goff established himself in 2017. Then since 18' they looked like they were plugging too many hokes with stop gaps.

That seems to have ended outside of DJax this yr and he is just the 4th WR, deep threat role player.

So this is probably the most confident since the early 2000's and maybe 2018.

 

[FrantikRam]

2000, 2018 and 2021 are all tied for me.

I have more confidence in McVay now than I did in Martz since we had no idea how he would be as a HC.

But the preseason after you win the Super Bowl? With the MVP and OPOY in their prime and the best WR corp in the NFL? Anyone not putting 2000 in there with at least an honorable mention is crazy.

I think we're currently the best team in the NFL and I thought this in 2018 too, which is why they both are mentioned along with 2000.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Highest since 2000 for me.

There are plenty of reasons to be high. Every team has flaws... so we don't have to match up against some fictiouos perfect team.

I got confidence our guys are better than theirs. Now... we gotta go prove it.

 

[thirteen28]

In the 70's after I became a fan, I pretty much felt they were going to be in the mix just about every year ... and they were. It was a big adjustment in the 1980's after the dirty, filthy, communist satan worshippers up north started winning the division a bunch. But I had a lot of confidence going into '88 and '89. For '88, it was based off Everett and the offense finally showing that they had things figured out late in that season, and in '89 based off what we did in '88.

As far as '99 goes, I was confident we could turn things around, but I still saw 9-7 as our ceiling, before the Green injury. There was obviously a drop of confidence for a week or two after he went down, although once we were a few games into the season my confidence shot up to a higher degree than it was pre-Green injury, and for good reason.

I felt confident going into '17 that McVay would right the ship and at least get us above .500 and possibly to the playoffs. For '18 I was confident we could get to the NFCC and we ended up making it a game further than that.

I'm pretty confident now. I'm past the anger stage and well into the acceptance stage with the big QB swap and do think Stafford can do a lot for us, more for us at this moment than Goff could have, although I still think Jared will be a quality QB in this league going forward (and no, I'm not going to debate it anymore).

 

[rdlkgliders]

99' had a special feeling. Even though preseason is preseason it just felt like we had a very good offense and a solid defense.
That kind of tops the charts for me.

 

[SuperMan28]

I believe the 2013 preseason. Sam Bradford was going into his fourth year. For some reason the guy always seemed to dominate in August. I really liked Fisher and the chippy defensive mindset.

The season was in jeopardy when Bradford got hurt in CAR on virtually no contact while running out of bounds. The rest of the season was awful. That was crushing.

2014 may have been even worse. But I was really excited about 2014 too. Aaron Donald was exciting out of the gate. Amazing player. Then Gurley and Foles in 2015. That first game was fun. I was there. Lost a $500 bet the next week. That hurt.

 

[Selassie I]

Mine was Eric Dickerson's sophomore year. Without looking it up, I'm almost positive that was 1985. ED had just broken the rookie rushing record the year before and I was stoked.

I was so stoked... I decided to buy a notebook before the season started so that I could write down ED'S rushing yards for each game as soon as I could get my hands on the newspapers the day after the game. Back then... no internet and sports coverage was very lame and lacking. I'd buy 3 different newspapers to crosscheck his stats... the Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News Journal, and the USA Today. If I remember correctly, the USA Today took a day longer to release their stats than the local papers. I wanted to track ED's rushing yards more than anything... but I also kept track of other important Ram stats for each and every game that entire season.

If we would have had an actual QB... I know we would have won the SB that year. Fuck the bears and their defense back then. Hell, if we would have had a decent college QB we would have won the NFC Championship game against them.

My expectations going into that year weren't disappointed. Plus... ED set the 2105 yard rushing record that still stands to this day. I think my Mom still has that notebook.

 

[Mackeyser]

Someone will eventually break it, but nothing will ever erase that season