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Rams43
Here’s BonifayRam...
In discussions here & many other social networks ....indicate this Rams OL unit is wearing down, performing slow, without power & plays tired as a unit the last two games. Can we state ....current OL has fallen off in performance? New fresh talented OL's will be needed in the near future. Snead will be forced to pay large cap funds $$$ for talented UFA's or utilize his dinky draft resources to select the needed new OL'ers.
OC John Sullivan who will be 34 yrs old when 2019 TC opens,is having big issues with strong DT's. Sully performance is most concerning in pass blocking. His time as a starter appears now to be closing. Starting RG Austin Blyth is Sullivan's probable replacement. Thus leaving a vacancy @ RG. Sullivan's cap cash hit this season was over $9 million.
Starting LG Rodger Saffold will be 31 yrs old & a UFA in a few months. His performance took a :eek:nose dive the last few weeks too. Snead stand a good chance in loosing him due to the fact that this 2019 UFA OG's is so poor & the FA market will be very high $$$ on what few UFA OG's are available. Very few teams are happy with their OL's & look to improve them ASAP in the off season.
Andrew Whitworth the oldest starting LT in the NFL when the season began & certainly looked like it last Sunday night. Is AW running on his old all pro resume fumes already?, we still have 3 games left in the season? We got this type of performance from him very late last season looks like it has arrive early this season:sadwalk:. Rams are contracted with AW for close to $16 million next season.
#1-Rams are seriously lucky in this area where they play 3 loosing teams to end the season. #2-Lucky that 2 will be @ home & the other @ State Farm dome Stadium in the southern desert of AZ. #3-Lucky to stand a high probability to have a bye the following week. #4-In addition the first playoff game will be @ home.
The above paragraph is sure to assist Kromer & his OL plenty of opportunities to get its act together. If McVay/ Kromer can repair & heal & rest up this OL enough to be able to go on to the NFC Championship Game in New Orleans the OL will have done its job. However its clear to me this current OL needs a major overhaul with new high quality component's parts in the off season.
I'm not the biggest fan of Bonifay's takes. He seems to overreact a lot to me. And I think he does it again here.
I don't think it's clear at all this OL needs a major overhaul. They've already started working on it and have key replacements ready to go. And I really don't think you can draw the large conclusions he's drawing based on 2 games. What about the previous 11 games where they were one of the top units in the league?
I agree with him on it appearing that Sullivan's days a starter are numbered. But they foresaw this and drafted Allen. Word is they are really high on him and he would be the likely replacement. Thus, no vacancy at RG. Blythe will stay put.
On Saffold, the Rams have as good a shot as any to retain him. When he resigned the first time, he said he appreciated staying with the same team and that was when we were losing. Now that we're winning, why wouldn't he want to play out his entire career with the Rams? I don't know why he would say we stand a good chance of losing him. IMO, if we offer him market rates - which we can afford - we have a great shot at keeping him.
Whit showed signs of slowing down last year but I haven't seen further erosion this year. It's about the same. If he doesn't retire, he plays out his contract. If he is gone, we already have NB as his replacement. We're in great shape for LT.
Both RT and RG are in good shape for the near future in Hav and Blythe who has performed surprisingly well this year.
It looks to me like we could use some depth but definitely not a major overhaul.
