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Rams43
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dzrams
I appreciate the optimism, 43!
I too think we have far fewer holes this year than I recall in recent memory. Feels good....
If they get an OLB or two and some OL depth, I'll feel they hit a home run this off season.
Personally, I have little concern about the LB'er situation.
I expect them to add some pieces in the draft but I think the LB corp as is, is no worse than last year.
It actually may be better b/c last year's backups in Ebukam and Longacre were arguably better than Barwin and Quinn.
At any rate, the LB corp is the worst positional unit but that was also true last year. An addition or two and we're set.
I share your take on our LB situation, dz.
I just watched the Ram-Titans game and I’ve gotta tell ya that Quinn played poorly, indeed. Including 2 costly penalties, I might add. Won’t be all that hard to replace.
Barwin wasn’t impressive either, tbh.
I’m optimistic that fresh faces at LB could execute Wade’s schemes significantly better.
Agree on Barwin. He wasn't impressive, none of the LB were in reality.
My rationale in simple terms: The LB'ers sucked last year, they will probably suck this year, the backups were objectively just as good as the starters in 2017.
I figured I should back up my take with some objective data...
Longacre vs. QuinnLongacre got 5.5 sacks in 379 snaps for a 1.45% sack rate.
Quinn got 8.5 sacks in 631 snaps for a 1.35% sack rate. The first 10 weeks of the season, it was a miserable .67% sack rate. His four game late season explosion made his final numbers respectable but he wasn't consistent throughout the year.
At his rate if Longacre is the starter, he's very close to a 10 sack guy. Not bad for a guy that lacks athleticism and is supposedly only backup material.
When you look at the number of tackles per snap, Longacre was again the more productive player.
Bottomline: By objective data, Longacre was the consistently better player throughout the year against the run and pass.
Ebukam vs. BarwinEbukam got 2 sacks in 351 snaps for a .56% sack rate.
Barwin got 5 sacks in 656 snaps for a .76% sack rate.
Barwin was better than the rookie but neither player excelled in garnering sacks. The hope for Ebukam is based on his raw talent and elite athleticism.
In the tackles per snap category, Ebukam was far better than Barwin and he had a forced fumble to none for Barwin.
IMO, the clear reason the Rams didn't bring Barwin, AO, and Quinn back (for two of them didn't just let them walk in free agency but actively traded them) was because they feel they already had replacement players on the team who could at least match their production with a fraction of the cost.
