Residual results - A.J. Feeley's role

One of the more uncomfortable subjects we've discussed recently has been the potential scenario with the Rams owning the first overall selection in the 2012 NFL Draft and whether or not it makes sense to draft Andrew Luck.

While just about everyone on this site is in consensus that it makes little to no sense, it's a topic that deserved some discussion partly due to Luck's ridiculous draft stock but also partly to Sam Bradford's play this season. Now that the Rams have their first win, it's seemingly a hypothetical that won't bear out with the Rams now into a much more enjoyable portion of their schedule than the first eight weeks were. There is, though, another hypothetical that I thought I would raise and it deals with the same duality.

If Sam does sit again this week and A.J. Feeley leads the Rams to a second consecutive victory, do the Rams ride the hot hand?

Some very uncomfortable thoughts after the jump.

Multiple NFL teams are dealing with QB controversies, chiefly among them my boy TEBOW (all caps all the time). The Redskins are quickly coming back to reality trying to decide the lesser of two evils in John Beck and Rex Grossman. The bottom line is the win column. If you're winning, your quarterback's generally safe. If you're not, then you usher in the Christian Ponder era a bit earlier than anticipated. What about the Rams?

Consider this: these Rams shouldn't require a huge offensive output to win games; they won four games last year scoring 20 points or less. Will you win your division at that level of production? Of course not. But you can win a handful or so if your defense shows up. And that should probably be the height of expectation with AJ Feeley as your quarterback on this team.

So with Arizona next on the schedule followed by Cleveland, Seattle and Arizona again, this is a favorable month on the schedule. It's not implausible that a Feeley-helmed Rams team could get three wins out of that quartet if Bradford remains sidelined. And if (and I recognize this is a lot of ifs, but some speculation is healthy) that is the case, how much pressure begins to sit on the shoulders of that #8 jersey?

I'm not saying we should start A.J. Feeley every week. And yes, as soon as Bradford is healthy, he should resume his starting role. But the injury isn't a negligible one. With another acceptable performance from Feeley (if Bradford is out yet again this weekend), I expect the subject will be raised from multiple respectable voices.

And as uncomfortable as it may be, it's an absolutely crucial balance that Spags will have to apply to the waiting game. It's a lose-lose balance, but it's one he'll have to play correctly if he doesn't want to lose his job.