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With the NFL Draft and free agency frenzy behind us, we can better evaluate how the Los Angeles Rams’ roster has improved - or worsened - over the course of the 2016 offseason. We’ll kick off the series with the most important position in all of sport: the Quarterback.
Quarterbacks
Case Keenum
Jared Goff
Sean Mannion
Dylan Thompson
Nick Foles
Analysis
While some acquisitions, like the recent signing of quarterback Dylan Thompson, may go unnoticed or be easily forgotten, it would be virtually impossible, even for non-Rams fans, to have missed them drafting Jared Goff with the top pick in the 2016 NFL Draft...along with what they had to do to make it happen. They don’t call it "blockbuster" for nothing.
The Rams, while regularly stout on the defensive side of the ball, have struggled offensively for the last several years, and largely in part to substandard quarterback play or injury woes. The team took what they felt were the necessary steps to address that and selected the draft’s top prospect at the position.
Better, Worse, or Same?
Better. It remains to be seen when Jared Goff will be named the Rams’ starter, but for now at least, it appears it’s Case Keenum who's being penciled in as the team’s QB1. ESPN’s John Clayton recently predicted that Keenum would indeed get the start but that "Goff gets to start in the first two months."
That could very easily change before the Rams take the field against the 49ers in Week 1 on Monday Night Football, though nothing is certain. Jeff Fisher has shown great confidence in Keenum, regularly mentioning how Keenum was "a blocked field goal away from winning 4 straight" at the conclusion of the 2015 season.
Regardless of whether or not Goff gets the nod in early September, the Rams are better off simply from an experience standpoint, with Keenum and Sean Mannion both having full seasons - to familiarize themselves with the offense - under their belt.
Nick Foles, who was absent during the teams OTA’s, apparently wants to be around the team as much as they’d like to have him around. None. And that’s pretty much the exclamation point on how much better the Rams are at the position in 2016.