St. Louis Rams: Current Offseason Grade

[Robocop]

http://nflspinzone.com/2015/03/18/st-louis-rams-current-offseason-grade/

St. Louis Rams: Current Offseason Grade
by Robby Sabo 5d ago
The 2015 offseason has been very kind to Jeff Fisher and his St. Louis Rams. What should their offseason grade look like?
With a little under two weeks left to opening day for baseball, the people in St. Louis are starting to become more anxious.

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Because of the long standing history and wild success of the Cardinals, the city of St. Louis will forever remain a baseball town. So much so that the Rams look to be heading out of town – Los Angeles as one of the potential destinations.

Despite the terrible relocation news for the Gateway City, they can feel incredibly optimistic about their team.

The 2015 offseason for the Jeff Fisher’s Rams has been a distinct positive.

The biggest splash is of course acquiring who they feel is a franchise quarterback. Nick Foles was shipped out of town by that mad scientist known as Chip Kelly, in exchange for the enigma that is Sam Bradford.

Oh yeah, and St. Louis general manager Les Snead also squeezed a valuable second-round pick from Philly in 2016 and a fourth rounder for this draft.

IT’S NO SECRET HOW THE NFL AS A WHOLE FEELS ABOUT FOLES: INCREDIBLY DIVIDED.
Because this is Bradford’s final season of his massive rookie contract, the Rams are only on the hook for $3.595 million (guaranteed money which now becomes dead). The beauty is the $12.985 base salary the Rams immediately opened up.

This allows a ton more flexibility for Snead and Fisher as they navigate through the rest of free agency. The transaction possibility to surely head their way during the draft will also become more abundant now.

It’s no secret how the NFL as a whole feels about Foles: incredibly divided.

Half the personnel decision makers feel he has the potential to be a franchise guy. While the other half, however, feel he’s nothing more than a number two.


Regardless of how it shakes out, he’s better than a guy in Bradford who is completely useless due to an extreme amount of injuries. Even if Bradford does stay with Kelly in Philadelphia, and starts off hot in 2015, fans will always be waiting for that other shoe to drop – which is a tremendous amount of unneeded, extra pressure (in Philly of all places).

The Rams also picked up a pretty solid big man in the middle in defensive tackle Nick Fairley. Agreeing to a one-year, $5 million deal, he’ll slide right into a role in a 4-3 scheme that fits his skill-set perfectly (as long as Fisher works his magic on the often times troubled young man).

Even though soon to be second-year man Aaron Donald is a stud at the starting 3-technique spot, Fairley can provide so much in a relief effort, and especially in pass situations alongside Donald in the interior.

MORE FROM ST. LOUIS RAMS

• 3/13 - St. Louis Rams: Making The Case For Evan Mathis
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• 2/24 - St. Louis Rams: Drafting Kevin White Fills Immediate Needs
• 2/20 - St. Louis Rams: 5 Questions Worth Asking

The re-signings of wide receiver Kenny Brit and tight end Lance Kendricks keep the offensive weapon depth up to snuff. The other two acquisitions noteworthy include linebacker Akeem Ayers and quarterback Case Keenum.

Nothing earth shattering has yet taken place in the Rams’ world. However, once you take a gander at what’s happening around them in the NFC West, St. Louis’ offseason feels a whole lot more exciting.

Simply put, the San Francisco 49ers are a mess. Stud linebacker Patrick Willis retired, shortly to be joined by youngster Chris Borland. The rapid decline of performance in 2014 and the personnel grouping this offseason is downright startling.

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Colin Kaepernick will never again masquerade as a legitimate NFL quarterback again without the genius gameplanning of Jim Harbaugh. Jed York is going to rue the day he chose Trent Baalke over Harbaugh, and the bits and pieces we’ve already heard from new head man Jim Tomsula already supports the argument.

The Arizona Cardinals, while still immensely talented, haven’t improved at all. In fact, losing Antonio Cromartie to the New York Jets, and not knowing what Carson Palmer is going to provide coming off another major knee surgery is highly problematic.

The Seattle Seahawks are still the Seahawks. With the Jimmy Graham acquisition they’ll now have an explosive element to the offense.

Aside from Seattle, St. Louis is looking prettier by the day.

Current Offseason Grade: B+
The Rams still have a ton of work to do. The great news is getting out from under that crippling Bradford contract just took them from having little to now salary cap room to now having just over $13 million, via Spotrac.

The word around the facilities will continue to be “development,” but now flexibility is present should a sensational opportunity present itself from now through the NFL Draft.


- kinda ignored the gaping holes in the line currently but w/e. I want a Rams v Eagles playoff game!

 

[Greg Stone]

"Because of the long standing history and wild success of the Cardinals, the city of St. Louis will forever remain a baseball town. So much so that the Rams look to be heading out of town – Los Angeles as one of the potential destinations."

What a crock.

 

[HometownBoy]

"Because of the long standing history and wild success of the Cardinals, the city of St. Louis will forever remain a baseball town. So much so that the Rams look to be heading out of town – Los Angeles as one of the potential destinations."

What a crock.

Truly, but people will keep shitting that out no matter what happens. Easy justification, with no need to proof it to people since they already buy it anyways.

STL is an anything town, just like any other place you have to earn the right to a solid, consistent fanbase. Just no other team has done that yet. Rams haven't even come close to even sniffing it, the Blues are close, they just really need to seal the deal in the playoffs.

 

[Angry Ram]

"Because of the long standing history and wild success of the Cardinals, the city of St. Louis will forever remain a baseball town. So much so that the Rams look to be heading out of town – Los Angeles as one of the potential destinations."

What a crock.

Yeah I stopped reading right there.

 

[Fatbot]

Agreed, this writer sucks.

 

[RamzFanz]

A very misinformed article.

 

[LetsGoRams]

I live in STL, and I remember in the 70's and the early 90's when the Cardinals sucked, and it wasn't that much of a baseball town. I also remember in the late 90's and early 2000's when the Rams were winning and it was a football town. Bottom line, a city will support a team that wins and the Cardinals have been winning the last 15 years or so. There are a lot of Rams fans in this town, like me, who have stuck with them through thick and thin. To get 55,000 people in that dome after the last 10 years is quite an accomplishment in my opinion!

 

[Boston Ram]

Although I like what they have done so far, there is still one glaring need that has yet to completed. Until there is some solutions on the offensive line I would have to grade the offseason to date a C- maybe D+.

The good news is there is plenty of time and this project is hopefully far from completed.

 

[DaveFan'51]

Yeah I stopped reading right there.

I should have!!

 

[Robocop]

damn seriously who cares about the first couple sentences, I didnt think twice about it. everybody acting a bit childish. the point was just a positive article on the Rams offseason moves.

 

[LACHAMP46]

As a Dodgers fan, I see you guys as a great baseball town too....Seemed pretty good football town in 1999-2004 too...dome was LOUD...

FA Grade...inc...as in incomplete...never wanted any FA linemen...but sure as hell didn't wanna lose the QB without a nice draft pick...

 

[V3]

damn seriously who cares about the first couple sentences, I didnt think twice about it. everybody acting a bit childish. the point was just a positive article on the Rams offseason moves.

People aren't acting childish. The article loses credibility with statements like that. The whole, "St. Louis is a baseball town" schtick is line that gets passed around the nation by people that don't live here and don't bother doing any research. To top it all off, they don't even mention the fact that we have 2 starters for our O-line.

 

[lockdnram21]

People aren't acting childish. The article loses credibility with statements like that. The whole, "St. Louis is a baseball town" schtick is line that gets passed around the nation by people that don't live here and don't bother doing any research. To top it all off, they don't even mention the fact that we have 2 starters for our O-line.

But thus is a baseball town over everything. You could take rams and blues and most people would still be happy cause the cardinals are still here.

 

[lockdnram21]

I give them a B- because we resigned Britt got a Qb. Got rid of Bradford. We still need some lineman but I think we sign either Barksdale or Wiz and the rest in draft. I'm cool because we still have plenty of time

 

[Angry Ram]

But thus is a baseball town over everything. You could take rams and blues and most people would still be happy cause the cardinals are still here.

I can agree with you the Cardinals are the #1 team in St. Louis. That's fine. It's that whenever someone says "oh it's a baseball town" it means the people don't care about the Rams and Blues. Which in my experiences, is a bunch of bullshit.

 

[DaveFan'51]

damn seriously who cares about the first couple sentences, I didnt think twice about it. everybody acting a bit childish. the point was just a positive article on the Rams offseason moves.

Maybe, to some of us, He sounds a bit too opinionated, instead of reporting just facts!

 

[Robocop]

People aren't acting childish. The article loses credibility with statements like that. The whole, "St. Louis is a baseball town" schtick is line that gets passed around the nation by people that don't live here and don't bother doing any research. To top it all off, they don't even mention the fact that we have 2 starters for our O-line.

its RamblinFan there is no credibility anyways and they're all opinion pieces. the Rams have had 5 good years in 2 decades in St. Louis. The Cardinals have a larger fan base, a deep history and they actually win games. if a team is known nationally for something specific then thats what they get called. there's no reason to make such a big deal about it as if its some personal insult not to be known as specifically a football city. St. Louis isn't known as a football city cus it's a small market and a non winning team. It was simply an outsiders perspective of the Rams free agency. if i had known that all anyone would care about is one harmless sentence then I would've omitted it. crap on the actual grade and content all you want but for ppl to be caught up on a little statement like that is IMO a little over the top. And yes there are gaping holes in the line but FA isn't over and the draft hasn't started which is why the title says "current" grade.

 

[V3]

But thus is a baseball town over everything. You could take rams and blues and most people would still be happy cause the cardinals are still here.

If the Cards were a .500 team and the Rams were winning 10+ games, the hot ticket in town would be the Rams. There's more connection to the Cardinals because of the their history and winning tradition but to say St. Louis is a "baseball town" suggests we only care about baseball which is complete BS. The Blues are pretty much the Cubs of hockey yet the city still supports them.

St. Louis is a "sports town".

 

[Legatron4]

The whole "baseball town" thing gets annoying because it's so constant. Every fucking reporter makes a damn joke about it in their articles. It's not original or funny anymore. And yes, it is personal because loyal Rams fans who don't give a shit about baseball are not included in that sentiment.

 

[lockdnram21]

If the Cards were a .500 team and the Rams were winning 10+ games, the hot ticket in town would be the Rams. There's more connection to the Cardinals because of the their history and winning tradition but to say St. Louis is a "baseball town" suggests we only care about baseball which is complete BS. The Blues are pretty much the Cubs of hockey yet the city still supports them.

St. Louis is a "sports town".

From what I see majority of people don't care about Rams and only remember when they were in superbowl. I don't know about hockey cause I have no interest in it. But if rams were winning 10 + games and Cardinals were loosing ya rams would have hot ticket. But I bet u wouldn't be able to mistake Busch stadium for the away teams stadium like u can with rams.