to me what happened is woods has out performed his own history since signing with our rams. was that because of woods, watkins, cooks, goff, gurley or mcvay? probably all of the above.
woods average about 50 catches and about 600 yards per year during his 4 seasons in buffalo.
does that warrant paying the guy #1 wr 2nd contract money at the time of the renewal. I don't think so. seems the market did not either.
however, i'm guessing the rams fo saw the same deeper analysis, situational stuff zn saw at the time. and felt the probability of success was great enough to pay him #2 wr money, not expecting him to be a #1 wr. clearly they kept looking for a #1 wr as evidenced by watkins and cooks. the fact that they were more than right on woods is very exciting to me as it leads me to believe their pro scouting department is firing on most cylinders as opposed to half or less like many nfl teams:
- is everyone happy with whitworth?
- i know a lot of us pissed all over suh during the regular season but he handed in a step function increase in performance during the post season and really, should we have expected something different? i mean, guys like suh at the point he signed with the rams are usually looking for 1 thing - a ring. and really want to get there and participate in a big way.
- i give guys like watkins a pass because of bringing them in so late in the off season or fowler brought in during the season. i do look for fowler to surprise this year though since the rams pushed to get him back. sure seems they see something. but because of these two and peters i would not say the rams fo hits on all of their fa signings, but what team does?
- nrc is another one. don't care about the saints pi no call. stuff happens. plenty of stuff has gone against the rams. it's part of the game and even in that game it went both ways. aside from that infamous stuff, nrc has also more than covered the cost of his contracts so far with his performance imho.
- talib. a tough one but was the injury his fault? was it sneads? can you predict that? seems to me he had a calming effect on the secondary if not the entire defense when he was on the field. especially in the post season. glad he made it back for the superbowl run. not so sure we make as far as we did without him. i just hope he mentors the bejezzers out of david long while he's still around. can you imagine david long's raw ability with yoda teaching him the ways of the force?
- peters. another tough one but i think the kid played injured and out of his element in press coverage a lot of the last season. i have a tbd on this one but i'm pulling for the kid. i think he can prove to be a great one in the long haul. just a hunch, nothing more. there's just something about him to me.
- heck, austin blythe belongs in this bucket. i did not expect what we got out of him at g this past year. did you before the season? i know there's reason to knock him for his superbowl performance but how much of that was on sullivan and how much of that was on belichick?
sorry for the wall of words but to condense, i think we as the ram fans base have a lot to be grateful for and excited about based on what the fo has been doing the past couple of years.
and so it's with great anticipation i look forward to the impact that clay matthews and eric weddle will have over the next 2 years not only on the field but in player development afterwards. thank you snead.