A few take aways from Jourdan's newest article

Jourdan summarized an interview with Les Snead on the Athletic.

Most of it's highlights have already been posted.

What interested me was that he emphasized how NOT extending Jones at this time had to do with the strategy of picking up new players to add to team strength and so they wanted to save the money from a possible extension to pay the new acquisitions.

They were so concerned about perhaps losing Dotson that it led to evaluating many OGs and its how they found Jackson. When they were able to sign Dotson they liked Jackson so much, and liked the idea of moving Avila to Center (which he played so well in college), they made the move to try and sign Jackson and they were able to.

He was candid that they were well aware how bad the Rams' kicking game was and they intend to remedy that.

DT would be looked at in the draft and depending on how an available DT was rated on their draft board at the time each round's pick came up would inform them on the choice they might make. In other words, they are not going to "reach" for a DT or overdraft one but they are definitely in the market in the draft to sign a DT (or two). It highlights to me that their strategy in their first 3 or 4 picks is Edge and DT, and that they are probably going to try to solve CB in FA so that they don't have to take a CB in their first 3 or 4 picks. But, of course, they also won't reach for an Edge if a CB is rated higher on their board.

They have known for several weeks that they would have to play defense differently now with AD retired, and so Shula was very much involved in making a strategic decision on just how they would go about it. My take is that they plan on not having quite as much interior line QB pressure and so will emphasize a little more outside pass rush. And, they want a versatile DT more than a just a giant body run stuffer or a slick pass rusher.

He said that while they are keeping Hoecht, they will indeed be adding an Edge rusher and that Hoecht will probably play a more situational role (ideally).

They don't intend to restructure Kupp or Stafford.... at least at this time. Their only concern about Kupp is that he is so intent about coming back fully healthy and good as ever is that he might over train. And that Kupp was very upset at how hampered he was last year with injuries that led to such a down year for him. I think he meant the over train comment as kind of tongue in cheek as no doubt Kupp's training program is carefully monitored by the Rams conditioning staff. But I also think that because it opened the door for Nacua to emerge as Stafford's new go-to WR, from a competitive standpoint that REALLY bothered Kupp to more or less lose that status for himself. Yet, this became a silver lining kind of thing because it gave Nacua the opportunity to become a top NFL WR, and now if Kupp can return fully to health, the Rams will have essentially two top tier #1 WRs.