What to get excited about this season

It has been too long since the Rams were a relevant team in the NFL. The weeding out bad apples and old vets has ended and the "New Era" has begun. We have some good players that we have drafted and some solid veterans to provide depth, a slight boost in talent, and grizzled veteran wisdom. We have some young guys who are hungry and are willing to put in the hard work that it takes to become a contender. I'm not predicting anything like the Rams will make the playoffs or anything...but I have reason to believe we should be improved and may be a contender after the next offseason.

1. Sam Bradford: For so long we watched the rattled Bulger throw bad passes and act like a scared kid in the pocket and a shy nerd in the huddle. Those days are over, Bradford has already assumed command of the huddle and already shown the extra effort by staying late and working with recievers.

2. Improved O-Line: Part of the reason Bulger became so battered was because of a porous O-Line...Jason Smith is now mostly healthy and should make a leap in his level of play, remember he was coming into his own when he got hurt. Saffold was taken with the 33rd overall pick and has already shown versatility and was widely considered worthy of a late 1st round pick. Jason Brown is a great center and Jacob Bell is an above average guard...the other guard spot we'll see what happens but I think it is about time Greco stepped up. (Also note that we have better depth on that front now).

3. Receivers: a young group with nothing but potential as of now yes, but things that show a possible breakout soon are there. After being bothered with injuries all the time and still playing Avery has bulked up and hasn't lost any speed and wide receivers tend to break our around year 3 (here's to hopefully hitting the 1000 yard mark!!!). Laurent Robinson is also healthy now and we all know the flashes he showed last year before injury...if he stays healthy he could step up BIG. Gilyard is a hungry rookie who posseses great quickness and agility and has good ball carrier vision and has ability as a returner. After that it's Brooks Foster, Amendola, and the two UDFA I'd look out for to contribute most.

4. D-Line: No game changers(besides Long who hasn't shown that ability just yet, but I strongly believe will) but we have a mixture of young and old here. In 2009 we drafted Dorell Scott who is a guy to watch out for...he has the talent and just needs to get up to speed in the NFL. On the D-Line we focused on run stopping this year With guys like Robbins, Scott, Ryan, and Hovan we should really be able to step up that area of the D. With some young DEs I don't expect much from anyone besides Long to be anything more than decent and that really only goes for Hall and Adeyanju...I expect next year we will take a high profile pass rusher in round 1 or 2.

5. Secondary: Bartell is healthy, Bradley Fletcher is healthy and he was also coming into his own as a starter. We resigned Atogwe and we still have Butler and Dahl from last season. Don't worry Kevin Payne I didn't forget you...he also brings some good run stopping ability and even some coverage opportunity. We signed Murphy who is another hard hitting CB that is hungry. Also don't forget about Dockery who is a proven nickle back that played under Spags before and I know there was some flack for Marquis Johnson in the draft but it was a late round pick and he was aquired to have another option at nickle back. So added talent level and depth in the secondary.

6. JL: should've got rookie of the year on D...2nd year in the system...what more can I say!!! Also note that we have better LB depth overall and guys like Diggs and Carpenter are improvements over Paris Lenon.

Soon I will post about what I am worried about for the Rams to be fair...