2016 NFL Free Agency: Grade the Rams Very Rams-y Day 1 of Free Agency

Day one of the 2016 NFL league year started pretty rough for Rams Fans.

Defense: C+

The team's 'Priority A'  fell apart in a hurry as Janoris Jenkins backed his Brink's truck up to the New York Giants and Rodney McLeod got a massive deal from the Eagles. While those losses hurt the team, the Rams would have handicapped themselves down the road by matching those contracts.

Enter Priority B.

Those blows were softened later in the day by the announcement of Mark Barron returning to the team (on the same terms that they offered JJ) and William Hayes re-signing on a team-friendly deal. Hayes coming back is a huge win for the DL and it's easy to argue that the Rams needed Barron to return more than any other player after moving Alec Ogletree to MLB.

While the Rams secondary now has 2 vacancies (one if you have faith in E.J. Gaines returning to form) the Rams retaining Hayes and Barron helps ease the pain. The strength of the defense has been held - mostly - intact. They were smart enough to know their financial limitations and retained the key players that were most needed in Gregg William's defensive scheme.

Offense (D)

On the offensive side of the ball. Jeff Fisher is all-in on the status quo for 2016. They gave Case Keenum a first round tender while not even kicking the tires on Brock Osweiler or Robert Griffin III. They're clearly not interested in upgrading the position.

On top of those moves, the Rams brought back Brian Quick (link) and Tim Barnes (link). Given they are reasonable enough contracts, but the lack of urgency to upgrade the offense it beginning to get very concerning. Consistency is clearly more important to Fisher than improving.

The only thing keeping them from a failing grade here is their commitment to developing the OL - albeit 3 years too late.