...some recent critical mistakes and a recommendation. Sorry for the length:
As they approached 2007-2008, the Rams were at a cross-roads. An aging, declining team rampant with back loaded contracts and no real depth. Strip it down and take your lumps? Absolutely. Enter Demoff. Absolute coup to land him. Very bright young man with an excellent future.
The problem was that stripping it down meant losing badly in the three most historically expensive draft classes. That upped the ante for those draft classes at least 10 fold. Blow one top 2 pick in that era and you're in trouble. Blow more than one and you're dead meat. Merely ending up with a third (irrespective of how you did with the first two) and you're probably in a dangerzone with a slim chance of immediate recovery.
The unfortunate reality of having those three toxic contracts was that the club was in trouble even if they hit on all three guys. I posted a lot on this at the time of each of those picks. They were the substantial equivalent of paying the three players franchise player money...every season....for the duration of their multi-year contracts....irrespective of how they turn out as players. As I said before, a player busts and you're hurting. Two busts and you're dead for years. Hit a single or a double and then a bust and you're dead. And here's the sad part- hit on all three and you're still in trouble in terms of franchise building. A hit would unlock full value escalators, and when it comes time to extend the player the last thing you can do is ask him to take a pay cut. So a very good player with one of those contracts becomes a top 3 highest paid in league player...and you can't do that with all three guys in a salary cap era. Ariz experienced this exact problem with Fitzgerald and had to let Bouldin, Dansby & co. walk.
So what do you do then? It's 2008. Belichick, Brady and McDaniels just blew the top off the league with a brand new innovative offense, only to lose to Spags and the Giants. You are fortunate enough to be able to land Spags as a enter the draft season with the #2 pick. Jake Long isn't an option and you're wide open in terms of needs. I submit that this was the most critical juncture in recent franchise history and I think they blew it. As much as I like Chris Long, and as well as he played, it was very easy to see that he's be a LDE and didn't have the skill set to ever live up to that contract. You simply cannot take a player with LDE upside #2 overall.
Not a great draft class by any stretch of the imagination, but you had a squeaky clean franchise QB staring right at you in Matt Ryan. At the time, everyone in the building and everyone around the league knew that Bulger was done. They couldn't release him in 2008 but they sure as :!: could have drafted Ryan, let him sit for 6-8 games (or the whole year for that matter) and then take over and release Bulger the following year. IMO franchise malpractice was committed in 2008 when they committed to Bulger instead of turning the page, and in the process passed on a franchise QB, and then kept the pick, and used it on a player with limited upside incapable of ever living up to the contract. One draft pick represents the culmination of several poor, damaging decisions at a critical time for the franchise.
Enter 2009. Offense still trending upwards across the league. Roster still paper thin and of course the team is once again drafting in the top 2. You figure out that Chris Long can't play RDE (duh), so you move him to base end. With the draft coming up you still have needs all over. IMO Count II of franchise malpractice occurred when they drafted J. Smith with the second toxic contract. At this point I can't really comment on what 428 would have done because 428 (on record) would have drafted Matt Ryan , and then history would have been so substantially altered that you can no longer take things year by year. However, with heightened importance on the second toxic contract pick, the franchise swung and missed badly with J. Smith. He had upside, but setting aside the concussion problem, the kid could never really get the lead out of his legs. Again, this decision alone is enough to cause severe damage to the franchise. Coupled with the prior year's debacle, and the "rebuild" was now well on its way to failing.
Enter 2010. Passing offenses still trending upwards rapidly. By now even Spags mentor and diehard ball control disciple Tom Coughlin is watching from the sidelines as his OC and QB sling the ball around nearly 70% of the time. The Rams had another top 2 pick. I find no fault whatsoever with the Bradford decision. In fact, I think the front office did a masterful job in making sure that the player ended up a Ram. At this point, despite the two strikes, the thought is that the franchise may have bottomed out and be ready to start to improve. The roster was still paper thin, but they did add a young tackle short on size and power and athleticism but long on effort and decent feet. A smartly designed, nurturing offense, improved defensive play and a soft schedule leads to a 7-9 season.
Enter 2011. Backed by even more rules to protect QB and receivers, the league continues to witness unparallelled passing numbers. Ownership solidifies under Kroenke. Shurmur leaves and its clearly time to take the band aid off and open up this offense to hopefully join the ranks of the elite franchises that are shredding defenses week in week out and winning superbowls. The Rams complete an absolute coup and land McDaniels, uniting the two rising coordinators from that spectacular Patriots Giants superbowl. Despite the two earlier strikes, the arrow is finally pointing up rapidly for the franchise.
Enter the lockout. I am not going to go through the intricacies of the issues that are created when attempting to install a new offense in a lockout shortnened off season....nor am I going to go through the problems the players had in executing the system, or the effects that the injuries have had on a still paper thin roster (especially to the offensive line, secondary and QB position)...this post is already long enough. Let's just say that this season was a miserable clusterf combination of terrible developments. Add it all up, right or wrong, and I gotta call it strike 3. Time for overhaul.
I gotta say....I like the guy, but its time for Devaney to be replaced. The Rams need new direction, especially heading into this critical draft, they need experience in allocation of franchise assets, they need to avoid busts and bunt singles with expensive picks, they need more success in the mid to late rounds, they need an occasional aggressive, intelligent acquisition, they need to move up and down the draft board to acquire more picks and move into talent clusters, they need skillful acquisition of free agent talent as soon as they've got the room in the pro forma....essentially they need what Devaney cannot deliver. It's time for him to go. The snail like pace of the acquisition of talent and depth cannot continue any longer. Sure everyone's jobs have been made tougher by the cap...but the first two strikes were voluntary, and the pace with with talented has been added even under those parameters is unacceptable. Add it up and you're looking at failure.
Time to hire somebody who can get this team more good players. And by the way....Spags and McDaniels didn't forget how to coach. That superbowl was still one of the best games I've ever watched. The train appears to be a coming strong, and not stopping one way or another, but you hire a czar and you might be able to keep these coaches in some capacity while finding a GM who can get you better players. At this point, that seems highly unlikely.
As they approached 2007-2008, the Rams were at a cross-roads. An aging, declining team rampant with back loaded contracts and no real depth. Strip it down and take your lumps? Absolutely. Enter Demoff. Absolute coup to land him. Very bright young man with an excellent future.
The problem was that stripping it down meant losing badly in the three most historically expensive draft classes. That upped the ante for those draft classes at least 10 fold. Blow one top 2 pick in that era and you're in trouble. Blow more than one and you're dead meat. Merely ending up with a third (irrespective of how you did with the first two) and you're probably in a dangerzone with a slim chance of immediate recovery.
The unfortunate reality of having those three toxic contracts was that the club was in trouble even if they hit on all three guys. I posted a lot on this at the time of each of those picks. They were the substantial equivalent of paying the three players franchise player money...every season....for the duration of their multi-year contracts....irrespective of how they turn out as players. As I said before, a player busts and you're hurting. Two busts and you're dead for years. Hit a single or a double and then a bust and you're dead. And here's the sad part- hit on all three and you're still in trouble in terms of franchise building. A hit would unlock full value escalators, and when it comes time to extend the player the last thing you can do is ask him to take a pay cut. So a very good player with one of those contracts becomes a top 3 highest paid in league player...and you can't do that with all three guys in a salary cap era. Ariz experienced this exact problem with Fitzgerald and had to let Bouldin, Dansby & co. walk.
So what do you do then? It's 2008. Belichick, Brady and McDaniels just blew the top off the league with a brand new innovative offense, only to lose to Spags and the Giants. You are fortunate enough to be able to land Spags as a enter the draft season with the #2 pick. Jake Long isn't an option and you're wide open in terms of needs. I submit that this was the most critical juncture in recent franchise history and I think they blew it. As much as I like Chris Long, and as well as he played, it was very easy to see that he's be a LDE and didn't have the skill set to ever live up to that contract. You simply cannot take a player with LDE upside #2 overall.
Not a great draft class by any stretch of the imagination, but you had a squeaky clean franchise QB staring right at you in Matt Ryan. At the time, everyone in the building and everyone around the league knew that Bulger was done. They couldn't release him in 2008 but they sure as :!: could have drafted Ryan, let him sit for 6-8 games (or the whole year for that matter) and then take over and release Bulger the following year. IMO franchise malpractice was committed in 2008 when they committed to Bulger instead of turning the page, and in the process passed on a franchise QB, and then kept the pick, and used it on a player with limited upside incapable of ever living up to the contract. One draft pick represents the culmination of several poor, damaging decisions at a critical time for the franchise.
Enter 2009. Offense still trending upwards across the league. Roster still paper thin and of course the team is once again drafting in the top 2. You figure out that Chris Long can't play RDE (duh), so you move him to base end. With the draft coming up you still have needs all over. IMO Count II of franchise malpractice occurred when they drafted J. Smith with the second toxic contract. At this point I can't really comment on what 428 would have done because 428 (on record) would have drafted Matt Ryan , and then history would have been so substantially altered that you can no longer take things year by year. However, with heightened importance on the second toxic contract pick, the franchise swung and missed badly with J. Smith. He had upside, but setting aside the concussion problem, the kid could never really get the lead out of his legs. Again, this decision alone is enough to cause severe damage to the franchise. Coupled with the prior year's debacle, and the "rebuild" was now well on its way to failing.
Enter 2010. Passing offenses still trending upwards rapidly. By now even Spags mentor and diehard ball control disciple Tom Coughlin is watching from the sidelines as his OC and QB sling the ball around nearly 70% of the time. The Rams had another top 2 pick. I find no fault whatsoever with the Bradford decision. In fact, I think the front office did a masterful job in making sure that the player ended up a Ram. At this point, despite the two strikes, the thought is that the franchise may have bottomed out and be ready to start to improve. The roster was still paper thin, but they did add a young tackle short on size and power and athleticism but long on effort and decent feet. A smartly designed, nurturing offense, improved defensive play and a soft schedule leads to a 7-9 season.
Enter 2011. Backed by even more rules to protect QB and receivers, the league continues to witness unparallelled passing numbers. Ownership solidifies under Kroenke. Shurmur leaves and its clearly time to take the band aid off and open up this offense to hopefully join the ranks of the elite franchises that are shredding defenses week in week out and winning superbowls. The Rams complete an absolute coup and land McDaniels, uniting the two rising coordinators from that spectacular Patriots Giants superbowl. Despite the two earlier strikes, the arrow is finally pointing up rapidly for the franchise.
Enter the lockout. I am not going to go through the intricacies of the issues that are created when attempting to install a new offense in a lockout shortnened off season....nor am I going to go through the problems the players had in executing the system, or the effects that the injuries have had on a still paper thin roster (especially to the offensive line, secondary and QB position)...this post is already long enough. Let's just say that this season was a miserable clusterf combination of terrible developments. Add it all up, right or wrong, and I gotta call it strike 3. Time for overhaul.
I gotta say....I like the guy, but its time for Devaney to be replaced. The Rams need new direction, especially heading into this critical draft, they need experience in allocation of franchise assets, they need to avoid busts and bunt singles with expensive picks, they need more success in the mid to late rounds, they need an occasional aggressive, intelligent acquisition, they need to move up and down the draft board to acquire more picks and move into talent clusters, they need skillful acquisition of free agent talent as soon as they've got the room in the pro forma....essentially they need what Devaney cannot deliver. It's time for him to go. The snail like pace of the acquisition of talent and depth cannot continue any longer. Sure everyone's jobs have been made tougher by the cap...but the first two strikes were voluntary, and the pace with with talented has been added even under those parameters is unacceptable. Add it up and you're looking at failure.
Time to hire somebody who can get this team more good players. And by the way....Spags and McDaniels didn't forget how to coach. That superbowl was still one of the best games I've ever watched. The train appears to be a coming strong, and not stopping one way or another, but you hire a czar and you might be able to keep these coaches in some capacity while finding a GM who can get you better players. At this point, that seems highly unlikely.
