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Rams43
Safe to say that Rams are in a far better place on OL than seemed two months ago. Lol.
Wanna get into some possible offseason strategies?
For openers, I think that we may already be looking at our starting ‘20 OL except for Big Whit. Blythe could well be our C if he can be extended reasonably. Edwards and Evans could be 10 year starters. Even Corbett is looking promising.
So, I think OL is no longer likely to be among our top 3 picks. I do expect 1 or 2 OL picks, but I bet they are no higher than a 4th, assuming Blythe is extended. I doubt that McVay will ever again allow his OL strategy to suffer in any offseason.
Another thing. Don’t see the need to acquire an expensive Scherff type FA next offseason, either. Let Kromer keep finding and developing his youngsters coming in each year.
Which means that our 2nd and two 3rds can be DL, edge, S, RB, or any other darned position player that Snead/McVay like.
A functioning OL opens everything up. Duh, I know. But our recent reminder has burned that axiom into our memories in a way that won’t soon be forgotten. McVay’s memory even more so. It’s so dramatic that it almost seems like we have a brand new QB, RB, and TE, not to mention a playcaller that can once again use his entire playbook. Woods, Kupp, and Reynolds are once again feared weapons (don’t know what to say about Cooks).
Man, that’s a lot of bang for the buck from this ‘new’ Ram OL.
Hot Damn!
I concur that the OL is playing much better than it was 2 months ago. And it's very clear that a functioning OL opens everything up. Their recent play makes me more solidified in my belief that they must maintain a top OL.
However, I'm not ready to say yet that the OL is out of the woods, that it's good enough with the talented young pieces they have, or that they don't need a vet LOT or a Scherff next year. They have not been tested against a strong defense with a physical front.
Let's see how they do against SF in a couple of weeks.
Right now, McVay is helping the OL out a lot with bracketing the tackles with TEs and WRs. He's completely changed up the personnel to assist the OL. It's nice to know from a versatility standpoint that he can change things up and have them play a more power based game. But that comes at a cost. He's forced to take a lot of that WR talent out of the game. Cooks and Kupp only played 27 and 20 snaps respectively last night. That's not ideal.
Ideally, the OL is physical enough and strong enough to handle good front sevens on its own. That's what we had in 2017 when we had the league's best offense.
Until I see the OL adequately handle a Pats / 9ers / Steelers type front I would keep my options open on whether a premium free agent or draft pick were needed for reinforcement. Seattle is nearly the worst in the league at getting pressure. That's not a test.
