It's always a relief when fantasy talk starts, because you know football season's not that far away.
A big thanks to Eric from Fake Teams for stopping by with his take on the Rams. His site and his style, in my opinion, combine to make one of the best fantasy resources on the web, so be sure to check it out, like say when you opt into the TST fantasy league.
One of the questions that really came up as difficut to answer with that thread was who will be the Rams WR#2. On the official depth chart it's Bruce, and that stands to reason. He's put in his time here, and he's entering his second year under Linehan. Bennett is listed at #3. Of course, injuries could change all of this in one hot second.
Since they signed Bennett this offseason, Linehan et al have touted his size and ability to get the jump balls in heavy traffic to address the Rams mediocre play in the Red Zone. Let's go quickly to the stats. Per Football Outsiders DVOA system, the Rams had a 39.7% DVOA for passing in the Red Zone, 8th best in NFL. That's not bad, and kind of makes you wonder why they made a costly upgrade in Bennett over Curtis. Then you look at the Rams play inside the 11 yards line, the "Goal to Go." Their offensive DVOA for Goal to Go was -4.0%; that's not Chad's GPA, that's 18th in the league. Per DVOA, that number iso below league average, and means that opposing defenses will stop the Rams more often than the Rams will convert in that situation. Not at all satisfactory for a team with the offensive weapons the Rams have, including the 2006 version. Bennett (and McMichael and Leonard to a lesser extent) all address that issue.
That gives us some insight into the roles Bennett and Bruce will play. I would think that Bruce will still be our possesion receiver, with Bennett getting more passes in those tight spots he was brought in to play. Bruce proved last year that depsite his age, he's quite capable of still having an impact on the field. I'd also venture a guess that Bennett will get 2-3 more TDs than Bruce. Of course, like we said, an injury would change everything, and as much as we do not want that to happen, it's nice to have this kind of depth, which is another great thing about bringing in a top flight WR like Bennett.
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Tye Hill is almost over his staph infection. Whew. He should be good to go come training camp.
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You have to like the sponge-like enthusiasm of rookie DT Clifton Ryan. He's soaking up all the info he can from the coaches and veteran La'Roi Glover. He better, because the Rams the way things stand right now, the Rams will be leaning on him pretty heavily on the D-line.
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I can't beleive that in the land of sausage and chocolate Tim Sandige can claim the food isn't condusive to keeping weight on the DT's petit 300 lbs frame. Get this guy some more schnitzel and two more brawtwursts!