You know who this year's team reminds me of??

[Angry Ram]

The 2010 Houston Texans. That team was expected "to take the next step" and get to the playoffs.

The only difference is the Texans sucked on defense while this year's Rams stink on offense.

They had a ton of key guys on IR last year on D: Mario Williams, DeMeco Ryans, Mike Briesel (starting OG), David Anderson, Conner Barwin, Ben Taint. All in all 15 guys on IR. Their "best" CB was Kareem Jackson, a rookie that everyone labeled him a bust b/c of his play.

What they did: Signed Jon Joseph and stuck w/ Kareem. Now they are the 2nd best 2ndary in the NFL. Drafted guys like Watt, Reed to help their D. They also stuck w/ Kubiak. And hired Wade Philips to coach it all up.

Look who's on IR this year: Schaub, Leinart, Williams + some depth guys. Total: 12. 4 of them are rookies, and one of the rooks is a punter. Actually upon more research only 1 of those rooks was even drafted. They are very lucky they didn't have more defensive guys hurt. Andre Johnson doesn't count, b/c he has played after his injury and is gonna be back @ least for the playoffs.

Now I'm not gonna say the Rams are gonna go 13-3 next year. They are gonna have to have a great draft and good FA signings. They will also have to somehow, someway have to avoid the injury bug. They will also have to make a decision on McDaniels. Either it was a failed experiment or Kroenke/Devaney/Spags/whoever has to have enough confidence to keep him around. But the point is they should have a chance to stick w/ the system and see how it all works out and adding more talent.

 

[-X-]

Good research. It really only takes a few key injuries to screw up your plans, and you've illustrated that very well. Problem with the Rams is that they're not at the point where they have enough depth to overcome not just a few injuries, but over 20.

I think McDaniels is going to be okay if he stays. He was affected by the truncated off season as much as everyone else. Maybe more so. I don't think he had the time to properly evaluate what these guys could do, and maybe he had just a little too much faith in his system "as is." The preseason production might have given him a bit of a false sense of what they could do as well. I'd really like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but there can't be a whole lot of explanation for an entire group of guys regressing in one year. That's far too big of a *coincidence*. Let's hope he can have the benefit of a healthy group of players next year, an entire off-season, and one Justin Blackmon.

 

[Angry Ram]

I too was hopeful b/c of McD's history on offenses. He's had chances but they've blown up in his face. He needs to adjust the offense as injuries mount or guys get healthy or to hide poor play. We'll see.