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Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse — a survey of fans across the NFL. Throughout the offseason, we send 32 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Los Angeles Rams fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.
When last we checked in on FanPulse, Rams fans were panicking in the midst of a two-game losing streak. Suffice to say, the Rams erased those concerns with a playoff run that took them to Super Bowl LIII with the Mystery of Todd Gurley’s Knee becoming the stuff of legend.
Rams fan confidence ended strong at 93% of respondents saying they were confident in the direction of the team after Week 17. And now on the other side of free agency, that number is still high at 98%. Not surprising.
I was a bit surprised at the results of the second question with 85% of respondents saying the Rams had gotten better over free agency.
While the Rams brought in some quality veterans to bridge roster gaps with guys like S Eric Weddle and LB Clay Matthews while retaining EDGE Dante Fowler, Jr., on a one-year deal and bringing QB Blake Bortles in to back up QB Jared Goff, the Rams moved on from LG Rodger Saffold III, C John Sullivan, DL Ndamukong Suh, ILB Mark Barron and S Lamarcus Joyner. While fans tend to be overly, irrationally optimistic as a whole (all but three fan bases suggested they “got better” in free agency), I was surprised to the degree Rams fans were. That’s not to suggest the Rams got worse in free agency, but to be nearly unanimous despite the caliber of the players we lost was a bit of a surprise to me.
In the end, our FanPulse results this week just confirm what we all knew coming out of the 2018 season.
It’s a good time to be a Rams fan.