Threads

Hot

Threads

 Posts Forum list
  • To unlock all of features of Rams On Demand please take a brief moment to register. Registering is not only quick and easy, it also allows you access to additional features such as live chat, private messaging, and a host of other apps exclusive to Rams On Demand.

How do you really feel about the draft & UDFAs

oldnotdead
Okay, guys let's hear how you honestly feel about the draft, more specifically the players drafted and the new group of UDFAs. Has your opinion of the team and their season prospects changed?

I loved the draft. This team definitely improved. Avila is a huge piece of that OL wall. Whether he stays at LG long term or moves to center. I think they might be looking at him as a LG long term because they signed a center in McAlister or they can extend Shelton. They can move him to Center next year and play Maginn at LG. I like Maginn a lot. He plays with a nasty demeanor which you need. With McClendon, Maginn, McAlister, Thomas, and Toner they have a lot of OL combinations options and what looks like some serious depth.

I really loved Young and frankly was shocked he fell all the way to the third. This guy has some serious potential and IMO he will be an upgrade to Floyd. Now you add in Hampton to play SAM behind him and this pass rush potential really has changed. That is on top of Hoecht, Hardy and Mathis. I see Mathis as a better version of Keir Thomas and see him playing behind Hoecht. Like the OL they have a lot of combinations they can play in rotation at edge.

With this potentially being Donald's final season, Turner is obviously looked upon as their 3T of the future. I think combined with Murchison and Brown that IDL could be very good after Donald retires be it in 2024 or 2025.

I really like what both Z. Evans and Hodges-Tomlinson bring to the Rams. Both are underrated talents, who I think will play bigger than their draft position. HT is as close to being a lockdown SCB as you are going to get. Evans could be that missing piece and it offers the Rams security depending upon what happens with Akers after this season. Personally, I would like them to extend Akers but who knows if they will or if he will warrant it. Regardless I think the Rams are truly 3 deep at RB this year.

I love what Nacua and Allen bring as two important role players this year. Allen might give them that TE who can catch and block. Nacua gives Stafford another tall Z/Y receiver for Stafford with good hands.

I think they got a solid P and will have a very good PK regardless of who wins the kickoff.

The Rams got better and deeper where they had to. This is going to be a good team this year. My faith in Snead is unshaken.
Click to expand...

Around The League: Can Aaron Rodgers Actually Pull This Off?

ROD-BOT

Can Aaron Rodgers Actually Pull This Off?​

The Jets are taking a massive gamble that Rodgers can replicate Tom Brady's immediate Super Bowl run with his new playoff-starved team.​

If you can't get the real GOAT, store-bought is fine.

That's what the New York Jets are hoping, as they look to end a 12-year playoff drought by bringing in one of the other best quarterbacks to ever play the game.

The spirits were high at Florham Park last week as Aaron Rodgers was introduced as the Jets' new starting quarterback, but the expectations are higher.

After a standoff that started to seem like it might never end, the Green Bay Packers finally shipped Rodgers to the Jets in return for a second-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, and a conditional second-round pick in next year's draft that can easily become a first-rounder,

Even with Rodgers' massive contract included, it's a small price to pay for the chance to win a Super Bowl, something the Jets haven't done since Broadway Joe was delivering on his legendary guarantee more than 50 years ago.

But can Rodgers actually pull it off?

I mean, he's a four-time NFL MVP right?

And didn't Tom Brady just do this exact same thing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a few years ago?

It's true, of course, that Brady signed with the Bucs in 2020 after 20 unfathomable years with the New England Patriots, joining a team that hadn't been to the postseason in — you guessed it — 12 years, and immediately led them to a Lombardi Trophy in his first season with the team.

But to expect the same thing from Rodgers in New York requires ignorance of much context.

For starters, Brady had already won six Super Bowls in New England, a long track record of proving his team could get the job done when it mattered most. Rodgers has just one ring to show for his 18 seasons in Green Bay, and that came more than a decade ago. Since then, Rodgers' teams have made it to the conference title game four times, and lost all of them. The last one was a home loss at Lambeau Field to Brady's Bucs.

For all of Tampa Bay's struggles prior to Brady's arrival, Bucs general manager Jason Licht had actually built an incredibly strong roster on both sides of the ball, a huge selling point that helped convince Brady to sign with them in the first place. Brady had one of the NFL's best wide receiver tandems in Pro Bowlers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, his Hall of Fame buddy Rob Gronkowski at tight end, and a star-studded defense that stifled Rodgers and Drew Brees on the road in the playoffs before holding Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs without a single touchdown in a Super Bowl blowout.

Brady may have faced his own opposing-quarterback gauntlet in the playoffs that year, but it might pale in comparison to what Rodgers will have to navigate in the AFC this year. Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert will all have something to say about Rodgers and the Jets waltzing their way to a conference title.

Now, the Jets aren't without talent, by any means. They have some of the most promising young players in the league in cornerback Sauce Gardner, defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, wide receiver Garrett Wilson, running back Breece Hall, and offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker. They have some solid returning veterans in linebacker C.J. Mosley, defensive end Carl Lawson, cornerback D.J. Reed, and some others. They even added some quality help in free agency, particularly at wide receiver with Allen Lazard (Rodgers' former teammate in Green Bay) and Mecole Hardman.

But to compare that group to Evans and Godwin and Gronkowski and Lavonte David and Shaq Barrett and Vita Vea and Ali Marpet and Ryan Jensen and Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh and Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tristan Wirfs and Carlton Davis III and Jamel Dean . . . well, that's a stretch, to say the least.

It's worth pointing out that the Bucs didn't even have to trade for Brady, and he signed a fairly team-friendly contract that allowed them more salary cap space to keep adding pieces around him. Yes, they pushed dead cap money to future years (something they're paying for this season), but they didn't have to give up premium draft picks for him.

If this doesn't work, the Jets will have given up way more than the Bucs did, mortgaged more of their future than the Bucs did, and without the same prize to show for it.

I can't blame Woody Johnson for looking at what Brady did in Tampa Bay and saying, "I want that." And if anyone's got a shot to replicate that kind of immediate success, Rodgers is probably the guy.

But these Jets aren't those Bucs, and Rodgers isn't Brady.

Maybe they'll surprise us. Maybe some unsung heroes will emerge, and maybe Rodgers will dig deep and find whatever extra it takes to push his team over the top.

But to expect anyone, even Rodgers, to do what Brady did, feel's like an expensive fool's errand.
Click to expand...

The First Draft Crush You Ever Had

Loyal
Mine was OJ Simpson. I wanted him so badly for the Rams in the 1969 NFL/AFL Draft. I realized that I must have been a fan of both USC and the Rams in 1968 when I was 4 years old. The Rams came in second in the Pacific coastal division and had no chance in getting the #1 overall pick in the draft in '69.

So who is your first Draft Crush, whether realistic or not?


A fun fact that the Buffalo Bills drafted OJ Simpson with the #1 overall pick and the Bills also drafted former Ram's QB James Harris in the same draft. Also, former Ram Fred Dryer was drafted by the NY Giants in 1969. Could you imagine Bills having Harris and Simpson on the same offense?
Click to expand...

Stafford Trade Finalized

Flatlyner
Here is the results:

Lions received:
  • QB Jared Goff
  • CB Ifeatu Melifonwu (2021 3rd-round pick)
  • WR Jameson Williams (2022 1st-round pick)
  • DL Josh Paschal (2022 2nd-round pick)
  • RB Jahmyr Gibbs (2023 1st-round pick)
  • TE Sam LaPorta (2023 2nd-round pick)
  • DT Brodric Martin (2023 3rd-round pick)

Rams received:

  • Matt Stafford
  • 1-Face-of-Rams-Super-Bowl-Ring.jpg


Who won that trade in the end? Rams

Without the ring, the Lions would have won this trade by a lot IMO. Goff and Stafford are a lot closer then they were and Goff has youth. Make no mistake, Stafford is superior, but, the gap isn't massive.
Click to expand...

Potential 2024 Rams

Allen2McVay
I am looking forward to this season. Very interested in how Sean McVay and the Rams' coaches (with a lot of new faces and men in different roles) do with a young roster. However, I believe this will be a fairly weak roster; and, for the first time in half-a-dozen years, my expectations are low. Really want to be wrong about these opinions. Hoping for a competitive team that is still in playoff-contention after Thanksgiving.

The Rams are the only team in the NFL that has yet to sign a single free agent from another team, and still seem both cap-strapped and cap-conscious. Accordingly, I am also looking towards the 2024 off-season when the Rams may be in the best position to re-load the roster.

This is a time when teams make decisions on fifth-year-options for former first round selections; and, in the past two days, three teams have passed on exercising their options on three athletic, young Linebackers.

Seattle / Jordyn Brooks. Baltimore / Patrick Queen. Arizona / Isaiah Simmons.

Three players I will be watching in 2023.

May re-visit this thread periodically because significant roster additions may not happen for the Rams until the 2024 off-season.
Click to expand...

Rams team concept '23 after draft

Pupped
So... whaddya guys think the idea is behind the roster construction?
Drafting Avila, Davis Allen and Zach Evans all point me to the Rams not kidding around when they say they want to run the ball more next year. I think the "light box" trend the Rams boosted is really prevalent around the league and the best way to fight that, if you don't have a truly elite passing game, is by being able to run the ball effectively.
The Rams have 4 tight ends on the roster and Skow.. and brought in a guy who *could* be a fullback.

The Rams talk about "complimentary football" a lot.. and I think they need to be more concerned with being able to sustain long drives this year than in years past where they were highly focused on "explosives."

Don't get me wrong.. explosives are still huge.. I just think they'll be getting a few more in the run game this year between Akers and Evans and with a legit Oline.

One of the reasons I think they'll adapt to this philosophy/approach... is that the defense just doesn't have a lot to be excited about or sure of this year. Man.. that secondary is SUSPECT.. so, to the MASSIVE chagrin of so many on here... I think the soft zones will be even more prevalent next year... in a desperate attempt to hold teams to field goals.

How they hold up in the run game is going to be crucial.. and a HUUUUUUUGE question. They lost Gaines, Floyd, Arob, Wagner and Rapp. These guys were huge in the run game last year.. and there are no answers right now with any real body of evidence to believe in.

I hope, hope, hope.. that Hoecht dropped about 20 and has worked really hard on understanding how to set an edge. If he can't.. yikes.

In short.. I'm saying I think the idea is a team that can hold onto the ball a lot longer on offense... and a defense that can, hopefully... hold teams to field goals. If they can't get great run defense out of who they have.. it's going to be an epically bad season on defense.
Click to expand...

Post Draft Perspectives?

badnews
Hey Rambro's
So I've been super busy with work and my daughter's wedding and I don't follow college ball or nfl draft reporting like I used to -
I see the players we grabbed, read the little paragraphs and that's about it...
I would really like to read some general overviews from ROD from your POV's on the draft as a whole, the expectations you have for these players and the grades you give them.... I'm just hoping for a thread I can find discussing this draft in review rather than digging through everything I've missed.

I realize it might be wishful thinking... Thanks
Click to expand...
Load more

Filter

Top Bottom
Back