When the search for a QB finally ends, teams can an finally succeed

No one (especially no Rams fan) has to remind anyone who follows the NFL that the presence of a good starting QB is the single most important ingredient to a team's success.

Bad teams become average teams with a good starting QB.
Average teams become very good teams with a good starting QB.
And very good teams become top level teams with a good starting QB.

Add an excellent to great QB? The team is in the hunt for the Superbowl nearly every year that he stays healthy. All of this assumes, of course, at least competent coaching.

Subtract a good starting QB from a good team? Usually, disaster. Witness Houston and Green Bay this year. Suddenly non-apparent flaws in other areas become exaggerated.

The Rams have found a good starting QB in Jared Goff; whether he steps up in the next couple of years to the excellent or elite class no one knows. He certainly seems to have the physical and mental tools to be able to.

But finding that QB does something else that the Rams did last year (without knowing for sure, yet) and should enjoy for the next several years (because the evidence is now in); they can draft offense according to the particular skill set and preferences of the QB and the system he runs best.

A team looking for a QB is always in a state of change. They are unsettled; never quite "there". Trying a little of this and a little of that. And, as is obvious, using lots of draft capital to acquire your QB has at best about a 50/50 chance of succeeding. I'd argue it is far less than that. The reality is that often a QB taken in the top 5 isn't necessarily the best player; he's simply the best available QB.

Last year, the Rams assumed Goff would be their starter and so they acquired guys that would go with the system that McVay planned to institute and the player they assumed (fingers crossed) that would emerge under his tutelage. The bet paid off.

But after a full season in the system, and with the growth in Goff, McVay and company have a far better idea of exactly what he does well, can do better with a little more training and experience, and so draft players that work best within those circumstances......and can do so for the next decade.

When the search for a QB ends, it changes a great deal for a team. It doesn't guarantee success; but the odds increase dramatically because the draft and even FA acquisition can be far more focused (at least on the O side of the ball) rather than just trying to get generic "better players".

Snead has to be licking his lips, knowing that in the next draft he has an opportunity to solidify his team (at least his offense) through the draft for years to come.

My guess is that LT will be high on his list (Whitworth isn't getting any younger), as might TE (I think Higbee is adequate at best). Mid-list, OG. WR? No way. Somehow or another the Rams are simply overflowing with young up and coming WRs. Can you imagine the luxury of drafting an LT and letting him develop for at least a year behind Whitworth and the coaching of Kromer?

Ah, the advantages of having your QB in place and especially when he's so very young.