There will be ample opportunity to discuss offseason moves and the draft in detail after the season.
But some generalities for now?
Gotta ‘fix’ the OL. Not gonna sugarcoat it. I like Jackson and Hav at OT, but our interior 3 positions all need upgrades pure and simple. FA and/or draft I don’t care, although proven FA’s would be quicker.
Other positions that need upgrades at varying degrees of urgency but all below OL priority:
RB (draft 1 every year)
Backup QB (just one, release both Wolford and Perkins)
TE (probably 2)
Edge (get 2, one by FA and the other via draft) Draft an edge every year until they hit paydirt).
CB (draft one every year)
Safety (might need 2)
Some painful decisions as follows:
Get what they can for Atwell, but probably will have to simply release him.
I would keep AR for another season. Hard to trade him cap-wise, anyway, and I’m seeing some growth between him and Stafford.
I would trade Floyd. He’s just a shadow of his former self and his upcoming cap hit will be a real burden. Cap savings can be better spent elsewhere.
Restructuring Kupp makes some sense IF Snead uses the money wisely.
Keep our 2nd and 3rd if at all possible. Rams desperately need low cost quality players at multiple positions. Someone may have to physically restrain Snead to save him from himself.
Snead needs to do a serious eval on his scouting staff because overall results in the 2nd-4th rounds have not been as good as needed and not as good as many other teams. A crucial component for success of his strategy of trading 1sts for players requires getting great (not just ‘pretty good’) players at least occasionally in those rounds consistently.
Particular emphasis in such an eval needs to examine scouting deficiencies at OL, RB, TE, and certainly Edge. Rams have sucked in those 4 critical areas for years.
McVay needs to take a hard, even ruthless look at his asst coaches with particular interest in their respective results. Can’t let friendships get in the way here. Some of these assistants have let him down. For example, I think Coen has been a monumental disappointment and has to go. Look at the results of O’Connell from last year to Coen this year.
Hope and pray that Morris gets hired away as a HC. Rams need the comp picks desperately and Morris’ strategy makes me crazy, anyway. Hire Fangio if he’s interested?
McVay should rethink his profiles for RB and OL players. Perhaps he’s asking Snead to find the ‘wrong’ types at these 2 positions for today’s NFL. Poor Ram running game for years suggests that this is the case.
Bottom line is that there will almost certainly be large turnover in player roster AND coaching roster come next offseason. We need the 2017 version of McVay willing to make fundamental changes to that 2016 player roster and coaching staff. Anything less probably won’t do. The good news is that McVay has done it before so why not again? More good news is that McVay has proven more than willing to part with non-performers in the past.
Whew! Felt good to get all that off my chest.
