Anything could happen.

Poll

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How much improvement do you think is possible this year?

	Dramatic improvement vaulting us into contention
	Substantive improvement bringing us to the verge of contention
	Significant but very limited improvement
	Marginal, unsubstantial improvement
	No meaningful improvement

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One of my hobby horses is that just about anything can happen every year. When people get excited about pick ups that might seem to raise the ceiling a few degrees, I always warn against thinking that way. Anything bad can always happen.

But, it works the other way, too. Especially when you have the scale of turnover that we are seeing in this off season. Anything GOOD can also happen.

Look. We have a HC who is clearly superior as a leader of offense to what Fisher ever was. We have a FO that is clearly committed to making upgrades in the areas we know we need upgrades. Now, today, I see we've picked up a couple solid, vet FAs ... at WR and LOT.

And we have a young QB who showed tremendous quality in college and flashes last year.

There is no inherent, inevitable reason we can't turn the offense around dramatically this year. No reason at all. Consider one factor: the impact of drops on Goff's competitive instincts.

Is it not the case that, in several games including the preseason, Goff made fine, impressive throws early in the game, watched WRs drop the ball, and then slid into ineffectiveness the rest of the game? Now, think about it. Doesn't it make sense that a green QB making big adjustments to the NFL would tend to flinch after making a play and watching WRs drop the ball?

To me, Goff last year was playing in a fog due to 1) inexperience AND to 2) lousy preparation from the coaches and a lack of confidence in 3) his OL and his WRs' ability to 4) get open and 5) catch the damn ball. That's a lousy hand to try to play. Is it any wonder he struggled?

A QB has to have confidence in himself and in the scheme, his OL and WRs. You can't execute without that confidence. Without it, you can very easily look like something you don't want on your shoe.

Now, let's say that Goff discovers himself next year playing with COMPETENCE in the offensive coaching scheme, OL, and WRs. Let's say the coaches create schemes that get WRs open. And let's say that the staff cracks down on lazy WRs and gets them to play with responsibility for actually catching the ball. (I personally believe that a slack coaching hand leads to slack performance and balls dropped by slack WRs who are normally capable of catching the ball.)

Under these conditions, Goff could easily get his head on straight. This would free up his talent and could easily lead to a dramatic jump in performance.

How big a jump? I dunno. Because, remember, anything could happen. NONE of the above might happen. Our vet FAs might get hurt, our HC might be in over his head ... anything bad could happen.

But, see, my point is that anything GOOD might happen just as easily. I mean, not '99 good 'cause I don't think we'll ever see that again. But there is no reason why a synergy of competence might not lead to performance beyond what we might dare to hope. It COULD happen!

Remember: NFL teams often vacillate dramatically in performance from year to year: down AND up. Rarely does a team improve marginally but steadily, year by year. Teams that move from a lowly position to contention tend to make a big jump when things come together. You can all think of cases of this through history, especially in the FA era. Do NOT assume that the best we can hope for is marginal improvement. I actually think that's less likely than anything else. If we don't get a lot better, I doubt we'll get much better at all.

If ... IF ... McVay puts together a capable scheme appropriate for our offensive personnel, if his staff consolidates a decent OL unit, if he gets WRs and TEs to get open and hang on to the ball ... if those things happen ... then I don't doubt that Goff will suddenly start playing very good, productive football. And we'll shatter the ceiling of low expectations by as much as, in recent years, we have fallen woefully short of unrealistic expectations.

Personally, I have a feeling that McVay is going to lead a resurgence of Ram football that will make us all smile.

Anything can happen. Anything good can happen. Hey ... it really could!