Dialing the binoculars to the NOW

You make an almost excellent point, Jimmy. However, you forget that the acquisition of Whit is also a RIGHT NOW move.

Been sitting here thinking about the ESPN complaints that we are messing up our future. There is a certain amount of merit to seeing things that way. Watkins will be either a rental or an added cap pressure. We may find ourselves scrambling for CBs at some point. And if we remain bad this year yet again, the early 2nd will be missed.

But that's clearly the view of a guy outside Ram Nation. As the Bad Guy puts it in that thead (link) draft picks often don't work out. And we are sick and tired of a FO using the "youngest team in the league" excuse on perpetual ineptitude. "Wait til next year" doesn't get it done any more, with us oldsters or with the LA market.

Obviously, that market, the competition with the Chargers for the fans, and the impending completion of the new stadium have shifted the priorities for the team. Playing out the string in StL, the Rams were content to bumble along and play for draft HRs. They are no longer willing to sit back and hope for the best. They want to start showing results. A skeptic might complain that a sudden reversal to "gotta win now" urgency might be unsound in the long term.

But when I look at the list of risks above, I just don't feel much anxiety. So we miss out on a 2nd. And maybe we have to scramble for a CB. Not much of a price to pay to be relevant again. Getting Whit, Sully, Woods, now Watkins, and a hotshot young coach ... those are the moves of a FO that feels that a couple fortunate tosses of the dice actually could enable its team to win now. Of course, the dice may not come up. Whit is old and both Sully and Watkins have health questions. But, with decent health for those guys, they sure seem like good bets to pay off right away.

On the other side of the coin is the fact that ours is a moribund team, stuck in a culture of losing decades old. What does such a team need? More than anything, it needs to actually start winning. Suppose we do that. Suppose we win 9 or 10 games and sneak into the playoffs. Suppose that, after that season, Whit retires and Sammy doesn't re-sign. I'll take that trade-off in a heartbeat. Give us a HC and QB with some wins on their sheet and you have something to build on. A lot fewer holes to shore up than what we faced after last year.

I keep coming back to a single theme that fans would do well to remember. The NFL is constantly in a state of short-term churn. Teams DO rise and fall very quickly. They are rarely crippled by lost draft picks--look at how quickly WASH recovered after giving us those picks we wasted. There is no intrinsic reason why a 4-12 team one year can't reverse their record the next, especially if they get some lucky match-ups.

I think the NE example ought to teach us a major lesson. Bellichek wins year after year for one reason above all others: every year he is willing to boldly re-invent his roster. Bellichek doesn't build toward 4 years from now. He keeps what he likes, picks up some new pieces, and ruthlessly culls the rest. He has been relentlessly successful year after year because each year he maximizes the now.

Our long run as a bottom feeder has perennially looked at the future and let the team off from responsibility to the NOW. We fans are, I think, beginning to understand this. Year after year, I've watched posters project IMPROVEMENT from draft picks and expectations of unit development. I haven't seen as much of that this year, and many voices among us have sworn not to be fooled again. We know what it's like to realize, again and again, that we bought a sack of fool's gold. No one, Hopester or Doomster, want's to hear "youngest team in the league" again.

Now, of course, a good team will build a roster's core over time and a couple of snagged vets cannot compensate for roster foolishness. Someone could probably build a pretty good argument taking my points in their opposite directions.

I guess all I am really saying is that, for this old Ram fan, nothing is more important for this franchise than to start winning some damn games as soon as humanly possible. We need to get off the canvas and start earning some competitive respect again. And you do that with numbers of impressive wins. I'll happily let Draft '18 and next year's secondary take care of themselves next year.

For all I know, these moves won't work. But I am really pleased to see the FO taking its shot at winning. THIS BLEEDING YEAR! We will earn respect no other way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2017 11:58AM by RFL.