Quote
BearlyThere
Quote
Rams43
It’s all about departing FA’s, incoming FA’s, draft picks, and a possible trade here or there. IOW, impossible to predict with current info.
OTOH, I see no reason not to predict a top 5 D for next year.
Is it all about the players? I feel like coaches make the biggest impact on a team trending up or down (see breakdown below)
McVay was able to turn around a primarily Fisher roster simply with better coaching/scheme. They made a few personnel changes like Whitworth over Robinson and Woods over Britt that made a huge difference but it was a lot of the same guys.
Staley came in and made a huge improvement immediately with a similar roster to what Wade had. He made a few great changes like allowing rookie Fuller to play over higher drafted guys in Rapp/Burgess. Williams was a heck of a find that Staley trusted over high draft picks. Floyd flourished over anyone's expectations.
Can the Rams reload again with similar talent? Will there be a leadership void without JJ? Will their be a coaching void without Staley?
It seems like you attribute talent as the #1 determiner of defensive performance? Not judging, just want to understand your thought on this.
I would probably break down cause of our #1 defense to:
- 40% Coaching.
- 30% Talent.
- 15% Injury luck.
- 15% Leadership.
When you have veteran players, Leadership weighting goes up ~10pts and Coaching weighting goes down ~10pts.
I’m very high on Coach Morris. I think he’s gonna throw in some wrinkles but they’ll be smart ones. Not worried about the coaching, IOW. Apparently the departed promoted Asst coaches have already been replaced which indicates to me that the Rams already had their guys lined up if needed.
Core of D will be the same.
Snead will be the same although Holmes/Agnew are now gone.
So, barring injury, why not a top 5 D this year?
