The bulk of the ‘rebuild’ is gonna have to wait until the offseason when Snead has both cap dollars and premium picks, but there are a few things that I think could be done right now that could make this team a genuine playoff contender.
In no particular order:
McVay should authorize LaFleur to yell in his ear during games whenever McVay goes off the rails with excessive pass calling at the expense of the run. When Rams run the ball, they win. When Rams get pass happy, they lose. It’s not complicated and McVay shouldn’t overthink this. McVay’s willingness to change here is critical to team success. Can’t be overstated.
McVay needs to deliberately focus on enhancing his 12 set playcalling effective immediately. It will only enhance his run game and consequently his TOP, plus give opposing D’s something more to worry about defending. That’s 3 good reasons for it right there. It’s critical that McVay both runs and passes out of 12 sets to be unpredictable to D’s, of course. And I recommend giving this Allen kid some snaps while he’s at it. I suspect that Allen could be a gem if given opportunities. What does McVay have to lose?
Hoecht isn’t working out as an OLB. Square peg meet round hole. Morris is asking him to do things that he’s not capable of doing and that’s classic coaching failure. The solution? Not sure. Maybe Snead can bring in a journeyman? Or Morris can keep rotating players in until someone can halfway play the damned position? But currently Hoecht is an example of Einstein’s definition of insanity, namely keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. Opponents are gonna continue to abuse him as long as he’s playing that position.
Morris should also take a good hard look at his CB deployments. Is Cobie Durant really working out at ‘star’ or slot, or whatever the hell position he’s now playing? And can he even make tackles when needed? And what about Derion Kendrick and his crippling penalties? Witherspoon is shining but perhaps Durant could be better at outside CB? Or Tomlinson? Or Shelley? Shake up that starting CB lineup other than Witherspoon, dammit! What do you have to lose?
Safety is not a major concern but I do think it could benefit from some tinkering to upgrade from Fuller. Experiment with JJ or Lake a little bit. Again, what’s to lose?
Other than possibly bringing in a journeyman edge, all the above moves are internal and could be implemented immediately in the Cards game.
Thoughts?
