After watching every snap last year and this year I've come to the conclusion that the Rams simply have zero leadership. They are short in football smarts. They do not communicate.
Last year they had the communication on defense. They had leaders. They had trust in the guy next to them. Not this season. On offense there has not been leaders in a very long time.
Offense: The QB is short on the ability to read the defense. He does not look off a player. For such a simple offense you would think that he'd have an idea of where the next guy will be. He does not sense pressure well. The communication is below average for an NFL QB. This hangs the WR and OL out to dry.
Is there anyone out there picking up the next guy? If there is I'd like to know so I can watch it.
Defense had JL and CL last year. They had Sims rallying the troups and playing his heart out. Long is gone, JL is gone. Sims.....
Alex Ogletree has been an unmitigated disaster thus far. I say without sensation that he has little to no clue what an offense is doing pre snap and it's getting worse as offenses go into the game realizing that. He's an athlete with very little football IQ. He is rubbernecking instead of zoning in and feeling the play. He is easily eaten up because he's overthinking. When a brain is flooded and oppose creates a huge obstacle.
TJ McDonald is far too slow from mentally seeing the play go from run to pass. If it's any type of fake he will be out of position leaving his mates to clean up. He is much like AO and Barron. Since AO and the men in front of him are not diagnosing, setting up, and communicating he is even worse in diagnosing this year.
It's very telling that the man that is actually diagnosing and setting his mates up is Joyner. Joyner is a wizard in pre-snap diagnosing but he is not in a place to be the defensive captain.
The biggest issue is the leadership on the sidelines. Their is no accountability. Not with the stars and not with his front office. They built this team terribly. Every young guy that was acquired with the massive haul of picks were either misses, forced to walk due to cost or locked up to huge contracts. They do not want to be a farm team for the rest of the league so they are forced to pay up. In the process they snip the leadership guys. Also, they are back where they started because the important pieces were never filled. Every addition creates a subtraction. When a team sucks that is going backwards.
This regime must go. There must be evidence of improving. The ego must be removed from the equation. Square pegs must be removed from the tattered round holes. They must bring in a regime that is willing to put a player in position to succeed instead of their ego believing any player can play anywhere and said players can also do it in a square peg system.
