Are you impressed with their offensive line? Some fine work by dzram shows they were middle of the pack by the end of the season. [
ramsrule.com] And yes, I know middle of the pack isn't what anyone (including me ) is looking for ... but they went from the basement at the beginning of the season to middle of the pack by the end. With all the youth and minimal time playing together it's hard for me to think they already reached their peak. I don't know what their peak is, but they were four clicks from being top 10 by the end of the year
Here's dzram:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I did a deeper search and I know why you felt they were middle of the road. The improvement was continuous and you're probably subconsciously remembering that.
In the last 6 games, the rank was 22/32.
In the last 4 and 5 games, they ranked 16/32.
In the last 3 games, they ranked 14/32.
So the way they were performing in pass blocking the last 20 - 25% of the season was middle of the road and trending towards becoming an above-average blocking OL.
Are you impressed that they might not be able to keep free agent Cooper Kupp on the team next year? Part of the reason they let Gurley and Cooks go this year was to clear up cap space for next year. They will have the money to sign Kupp, JJ, and Ramsey if they want to.
Are you impressed that we are so salary strapped that we couldn't sign a top free agent? That doesn't bother me much. The top teams in the league rarely have the money to sign top free agents. In fact, the top teams in the league are the ones who lose top players to free agency because they have so many good players they can't keep them all. That's the team I want the Rams to be: so flush with their own talented players that not only can't they sign top FAs, they get to pick and choose which of their own players to keep (and then get multiple comp picks the next year to keep feeding the beast). NE has made a dynasty doing that. Let's be more like them instead of more like the Dolphins, who have the room to sign whoever they want.
Are you impressed that we no longer have Gurley, Fowler, Robey-Coleman & Littleton on our roster? I wish Gurley was still on the team. If he was healthy he would be ... so I guess that boils down to 'I wish Gurley was still healthy'. The reality is he's damaged goods. Yes, the Rams made a mistake signing him to an extension 2 years before they needed to, but I do not want my team throwing good money after bad just to cover up their earlier mistake. As to Fowler, Robey-Coleman, and Littleton: the Rams could have kept 2 if them if they wanted to and they chose to let them go - it wasn't that they couldn't afford them. The Rams could have kept RBC and either Fowler or Littleton for they money they spent on Floyd and Robinson. Why did they go this route? Well, the defense finished 20th in the league last year so maybe that's it. If nothing else they have a new DC who has a different idea of how to deploy a defense and my guess is these three guys aren't great fits.
AlbaNY_Ram
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2020 08:09AM by AlbaNY_Ram.
