"Big 4 Roles" and the Rams

So that old saying in the NFL about the 4 key roles (QB, LT, Blindside Rush, CB ) being the most important focus, where you can basically make do at other positions since they're easier to fill, has changed a bit over the years. Like for example if your RT is bad teams aren't shy about lining up their best rusher over the top of your weakness. Or another example being that a modern QB can't really put up a great passing attack without defenses stacking specifically against it (which means you need running game threat for balance purposes). Or even that teams are more apt to isolate and attack a poor CB3 relentlessly nowadays until you adjust. But I do think it still does a good job of quickly encapsulating the most difficult to find roles and allowing a look at how a team measures up.

One obvious caveat here is that a great player at a different position can still move the needle and even compensate for a weakness, and we have the best example of all in Aaron Donald lessening the importance of a rush because he adds so much threat on the interior. We could even go farther and observe that a great 3T is one of the hardest things to find in this league, but for purposes of looking at the Rams against that old template I'm not gonna get too wrapped up in all that.

Either way let's take a look at how the Rams stack up in this (possibly archaic) way of looking at a roster...

QB: Jared Goff (85/100). Many will disagree but I think the Rams are good here. They have a young QB with good length of team control and high end throwing ability who has done some good things in his young career. He's not elite yet. But I think he is on his way to that level assuming of course that the Rams can fix their protections. If those protections look good I believe he will have a career season and establish himself among the best at his position.

LT: Andrew Whitworth (80/100). The concern with him is his age as well as the talent behind him. I am far from sold on this storyline that Boom can take LT. So we are in a position where we are hoping Whit can hang on. And in terms of him hanging on... Looking at his production from 2018 to 2019 there was a significant dip in his run blocking ability, as well as his ability to handle power rushers. Down the stretch in 2019 McVay compensated with boots to keep the guys like Bosa in check, so that is going to factor in here IF Whit struggles again. I give him that 80/100 based on who he is, the pro that he is, but age is undefeated and the sands of time are running low.

Blindside Edge: ????? (65/100). This is the Rams' biggest area of concern when viewing this roster from this perspective. Now as mentioned before AD affects the impact of that group with the pressures he provides. But this remains an area where we'll probably see big dropoff from Fowler (who I would put around 85 btw and that's outside of factoring AD in). I'm bummed about the knee deal with Lewis and hoping it's not a big deal, however the reality of that means we're probably back to hoping Okorongkwo can step up opposite Floyd. Floyd, btw, probably won't be considered on the blindside due to his strength and fit vs the strong side of the formation.

CB: Jalen Ramsey (95/100). Jalen had a bit of a down season for him last year. But whatever we might attribute it to (there are plenty of things to blame) the fact remains that I expect this guy to regain his elite status with an exclamation this season. This is a big, big, big season for him. Shutdown is what we're going to get, question is whether the team can get him signed. But for 2020 we're in very good shape here, and even have excellent overall depth at CB as well.

TOTAL: 81. This is the range of playoff teams that get in but aren't necessarily real threats to win it all. Now if you were to change our blindside edge by 20 or so due to AD it would move us to 86 which isn't really a big difference overall; I'd still consider the Rams to be in the same rough category. That said if someone does step up and give us a respectable level of play on the blindside the bar would move a bit more because then you have AD over the top of that, like we had with Fowler last season if that makes sense.

Also we can look at this from a roster perspective into next offseason and see that both LT and Blindside Edge are big needs. Granted we don't need to look at it this way to see that, but this does press home the importance of those positions in your mind compared to our current situation. And if the Rams can't sign Ramsey things change considerably for the worse.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2020 09:30AM by merlin.