McVay’s ever morphing O philosophy by PARAM…

Here’s PARAM…

When the Rams hired McVay, we heard about his 12 personel, his commitment to the run and play action. He inherited an in-his-prime Todd Gurley and an inexperienced Goff in his second year. The best tight end on the roster was Higbee in his second year. His first draft pick was Gerald Everett and we know he didn't realize the potential McVay envisioned for him. So the Rams ran the ball early and often and that helped Goff with the play action.

Then before his second year at the helm had finished Gurley's knee was a huge issue and the Rams offense laid an egg in the Superbowl. I gotta believe they didn't believe Gurley was done but clearly he was. Losing Saffold and Sullivan and inserting Noteboom at LG and Allen at C and their subsequent injuries is the belief most common of the Rams failures that year. But Gurley's performance in the passing game saw a bigger drop off than his running. He went from 59 receptions @9.8 to 31 @ 6.7.

Still, with or without Gurley the Rams scored 79 TDs on the ground from 2017-2020. Last year they managed just 10. That is probably due in part to the upgrade at QB and partly because the new RB, Akers missed almost the entire season. In the past 3 years (2 with Goff) the Rams offense went more pass heavy. Is that why McVay decided to make the change at QB? It was a smart move in any event.

So......are the Rams going to continue that trend or run more this year? I think we can expect more of the same. After averaging 4.1 per carry through the first 15 games last year, the last 6 games (including the postseason) they ran 167 times for 463 yards (2.7). Losing Higbee in the postseason surely played a part. Mundt was gone after 6 weeks but even without Mundt they ran 211 times for 925 yards (4.4) from week 7 through week 15. Obviously Higbee was the bigger loss.

So instead of drafting a tight end or two, they cut Blanton and will probably roll with Higbee, Hopkins and Harris while carrying 7 or 8 receivers. Perhaps Hopkins is a better blocker now than he was the last two years. Perhaps we're going to see a lot more passing. Either way, I don't think the Rams 2022 offense is going to resemble what we thought we were getting in 2017. And I'm fine with that. When you have a QB like Stafford and a receiving corp like the Rams have, why wouldn't you pass it all day? Particularly if you have a solid defense. But if the offense gets back to that run first offense, we're going to need a stellar effort from the new OL starters, Hopkins and Harris.

Thoughts?