FanPost

Just not gonna get all pumped up yet

Done it too many years in a row. I was sure last year we were gonna win between 8-10 games with Bradford, Jackson, Long, JL, etc. Then BOOM total fail. I'm not gonna get all disappointed this year.



Reality quickly set in last fall. Spags and Devaney had a crappy draft and then assembled a pathetic group of castoffs like Sims-Walker, Cadillac, Leber, Poppinga, Bannan, etc. to round out a team that should've been 1-15 and earned the 1st draft pick this year.

I'm grateful that Fisher and Snead are in charge now. At the very least we have a seasoned coach who knows how to "almost" win a Super Bowl. But these guys were left to deal with a lotta warm sewage. Thankfully, they've taken a dump and sent King, both Browns, Bartell, the aged Hall, Gary Gibson, CJ Ah You, Norwood, Bajema, Feeley, Bell, Jones, etc. and all the previously mentioned duds out on STL.

Even so, I find it very distressing that Brandon Gibson is still a Ram, and Brandon Lloyd is not. One guy can catch, one guy can't. We lost the best WR on the team and we reached past a number one WR in the draft. We've given Sam two rookies, Pettis, Salas, Gibson, DX, Smith and Amendola as primary targets. And there's just a tad bit of room for our TE's Hoom and Kendricks to improve a little. Unless the rooks come through, that's a pretty sorry bunch of targets for franchise QB to rely upon. Furthermore, we've entrusted Bradford's safety to the likes of Jason Smith, Rodger Saffold and an unknown RG to be named later. Isn't that deja vu all over again? I'm certainly not under-rating Wells or Dahl, but that's only 2 out of 5.

Has Jackson got any gas left in the tank at age 29 and after taking such terrible beatings for years? Is Isaiah Pead even remotely a replacement for Jackson? Do they have anybody to open holes for them besides Wells and Dahl?

IS the Rams' front four really that good? I've got to see it to believe it. Long will get a lot of pressures and sacks, but can he stop the run? Can Quinn stay off the gound and stop either the run or pass? Certainly the replacement of the inept trio of Robbins, Bannan and Gibson by Brockers and Langford is a plus. At least it should be enough to prevent us getting gashed up the gut by RB's - especially with JL there in the middle. But, once again we've got two terrible weaknesses; both OLB's. Since Long and Quinn are not known for their expertise in stopping the run, the OLB's become that much more important. We're hurting at OLB. But at CB, we excell with Finnegan, Jenkins and Gordy. I wouldn't give Fletcher a chance to tear his ACL a 3rd time. Murphy is just backup material. At safety, Mikell is 32. Seems like we were one year removed from just about paying Atogwe $5-6M and he didn't last but one season with the skins.

So for all the above reasons, and a damn tough schedule, I'm NOT gonna get all hyped up and optimistic this year. I'm NOT guessing winning record or playoff run. We might win 6 games, or if everything bounces our way, say 7 games. It will take Fish a year or two to fill the holes and take out the remaining trash. I'd honestly be kinda happy at 4-12 IF we could somehow beat NE, SF, Seattle and Arizona.