Here’s Jacobarch…
Here's my take on this...
Since Staley came aboard the Rams in 20' the Rams adopted his Defense. Which is primarily zone, with a star player essentially roaming the field as a type of hybrid SS/LB following the opposing QB's eyes. Ramsey is the logical player for this position. He has a nose for the ball and can lay the wood when playing at the LOS. I can remember a handful of games where he came up with the INT to seal the game.
Staley was the Commode and chief of this defense, you could tell McVay was hands off and let him do his thing. He's honestly one hell of a defensive mind... Now we have to remember that Morris inherited this defense, and it's scheme, and for whatever reason McVay wanted to keep this defensive scheme intact with the hire of Morris. Morris didn't call this type of defensive scheme when calling plays for the Bucs or Atlanta. While he did run a zone heavy D he did not incorporate the star role until he came to the Rams. So this is not his bread n butter
The reason why I'm bringing this up is, this is now McVays defense. He obviously made the decision for better or worse to continue with this scheme. With the loss of players like D Williams, Fuller (to injury), SJD, and Von Miller etc this defense had no chance of being what is what last year or years prior. Not to mention players are now exiting their primes and will continue to age and slow.
I believe the Rams woes are based on losing personnel, players aging out, and Raheem not play calling to his strengths.
Coaches are often wrong about playing one player over another. Take Evans for example, the man shouldn't be on a NFL roster. Yet the Rams have kept him now for 3 seasons in hopes he would develop. But facts are he's been a hinderance in every way possible. The only reason why he's still on the roster is because he's a 3rd round pick and optics are important to a HC and GM.
Rapp, is another player who is either playing out of position or should be a back role type player. One thing I'll say about Rapp is he looked a hell of a lot better when playing with Staley in his rookie season vs Morris. So I'm gonna chalk that one up to the Rams failing to develop a decent player and Morris being out of his element with this defensive scheme, See above.
As far as Ramsey losing a step. I think not. I think he's a victim of his own success. While playing with the Jags, and when brought over to the Rams he was mainly man vs the other teams top WR/TE threat. Obviously that changed when the Rams defensive scheme changed. But in short, I'm a believer if you're not solely working on that craft you will become rusty and a liability, which we have seen over the last two seasons when Ramsey switches over to man coverage.
My main conclusion about this is the Rams are playing the Wrong scheme. This scheme is solely setup to play when playing with a lead. Which is a whole other discussion. But announcer after announcer some of whom are ex QB's say this about the Rams. Keep playing ten yards off the ball every play and the offenses are going to slowly drive the ball down the field. And that gentlemen is exactly what we're seeing. Death by a thousand paper cuts.
Sometimes I wonder if coaches know more than some of the Fans. X's and O's they surely know more than we do. But at times, many times in fact coaches keep players playing above others due to their draft status, rather than on the field success. I mean I could name a hundred players that were top picks that flunked out of the NFL. So yes coaches are very fallible as you pointed out. Coaches often get into trouble or fired because as I pointed out above. optics.
A coach I like to use as an example of this is Pete Carrol. Matt Flynn and Russel Wilson, by all accounts Flynn was supposed to be the Seahawks starting QB of the future. The Hawks drafted Wilson in the 2012 3rd round as a potential fail safe or backup and the rest is history.
Point is Coaches like Carrol don't give a @#$%& about optics and his record speaks for itself. Love him or hate him, he's a great coach and talent evaluator. I mean look what he did with Geno Smith this year. A QB destined to ride the bench for his career is now one of the best QB's in the NFL. This isn't by luck.
