I agree that their expertise is to be questioned. Or at least how much thought or effort they put into a prediction like this. Like you, I wouldn't be that surprised at a 6-10 or 7-9 prediction, since it would be in line with what the Rams have done recently. I certainly hope for better than that, but I could respect such an opinion. But not 4-12 I can't.
I'm thinking that their reasoning probably goes like this: 7-9 team goes from vet QB to rookie QB and loses two defensive starters, so let's subtract 3 wins and call it 4-12. Yeah, that's deep. Or it may even be as stupid as "the Rams drafted #1 so they must be a really bad team, and a rookie QB isn't going to solve that in one season." So yeah, 4-12.
What they're not seeing is that the QB'ing for most of the year was horrible, so Goff is probably not a step down from what they had last year, and might be a step up.
What they're not seeing is that Quinn not only missed part of last year, but was ineffective for almost the entire year due to his back injury. If healthy, he makes Donald and the rest of the dline even more dangerous. So far he seems healthy.
What they're not seeing is that the Rams very likely have a replacement for Jenkins. Someone may step into McLeod's shoes, we'll see.
What they're not seeing is the effect of having nearly the entire oline come in this year with an extra year of experience and some added cohesiveness.
What they're not seeing is that getting rid of Cook is addition by subtraction.
What they're not seeing is that what the Rams found in Barron late in the year, will now be there for a full year. And if AO can transition to the middle, then the Ram LB core is suddenly very fast and athletic, compared to JL in the middle and no AO all of last year.
What they're not seeing is that even with Quinn ailing, AO out, Gurley not playing early and coming off a knee, and a mostly rookie make-shift oline, the Rams still were very competitive against the division, and still won 7 games, so how in the heck do they only win 4 this year?
Actually, I could go on and on, but the point is they apparently aren't considering any of that, and probably don't even know most of it.
The Rams have never come close to being as bad as 4-12 under Fisher, so why would they now that he and Snead are finally getting most of the pieces they want into place? It makes no sense.
They aren't Ram fans, and they aren't really paying attention.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2016 06:56AM by Saguaro.
