I don't think it means we have another three years before we're able to overcome injury to the extent we're seeing this year. I don't think ANY team overcomes that kind of injury and still wins. Maybe they win more games than the Rams have, but they don't win enough to be a playoff team.
Further compounded by this was the inability to sign veteran free agents in 2009 and 2010. It just couldn't be done at all. 2009 there was no money, 2010 there were no free agents. This year they tried to shore up multiple positions at once, but all that does is put a myriad of new faces into schemes that they had ZERO time to practice. When you lose 1000+ reps due to a truncated OTA period, then you're going to learn on the job. And learning on the job is hard enough. It becomes harder when you're trying to learn the offense and defense that went toe to toe in SB XLII. Those are the schemes that took an undefeated team to the SB, and the defense that stopped it. This isn't Harbaugh taking away sight adjustments from the QB and running the ball relentlessly. This is two very highly complicated schemes. And it's supposed to be effortless with 7 free agents and 4 rookies on a team with a sophomore QB?
I mean, seriously, people REALLY need to think about this. And that's all I'm asking.
Is Spagnuolo flawless? Absolutely not. I have a HUGE problem with the way he's developing the roster, and some of his tentative game-time decisions. But I will NOT - under any circumstance - blame him for the state of this Rams team. Young, injured, full of vets who can't get acclimated, and full of rookies who haven't figured it out totally either. Built entirely from scratch (minus 2 guys) with two extremely bad years to be drafting high or trying to sign veteran starters.