Wednesday, April 4, 2007
By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer
Depending on how you look at it,
Marc Bulger will enter the 2007 season with one of the most enviable positions in the league. As the quarterback of a Rams' offense that has added more and more weapons to an already potent group, Bulger will have to find a way to keep everyone happy.
So, what if the expected happens and Bulger has players from every position telling him they were open after every play?
“I have heard guards tell me they’ve been open before so there’s nothing I haven’t heard,” Bulger said.
After the emergence of
Steven Jackson as one of the best running backs in the league last season, it became clear that the Rams once again had one of the most talented offenses in the league.
Entering the free agent market, it seemed the Rams’ needs on offense were far more limited than defense. But because of the amount of money teams had, not many top tier defensive players hit the open market.
With that in mind, the Rams have added more top talent to an already talented offense. St. Louis quickly pursued receiver Drew Bennett and tight end Randy McMichael. Bennett gives the team a big downfield threat with the ability to go over the middle and fill in with Isaac Bruce and
Torry Holt in the slot. McMichael is widely considered one of the top five tight ends in the league and is equally adept at pass catching and blocking.
Those additions have taken the Rams offense from talented to downright loaded, on paper at least. And nobody could be happier about it than Bulger, who believes the changes made to the offense, could put the Rams offense among the best in the league and, potentially, the best he has played with.
“(It is) since I have been playing,” Bulger said. “That first year was pretty good in ‘01. With Steven, even without the addition of Drew, you could say that because Steven had 90 catches and improved throughout the year. And now with the addition of McMichael, we definitely have the most talent on our side of the ball we’ve had since I have been playing.”
That could be a good thing because it has been difficult to find impact defensive players that will improve a unit that finished near the bottom of the league in run defense last season. Should the Rams be forced to go back to the days of the 2000 season, they might just have enough firepower to outscore everyone.
Clearly, there is still time to improve the defense through the draft and perhaps another wave of free agency, but it doesn’t appear much more tweaking is necessary on offense.
Consider that with Jackson’s huge 2006 season, the Rams now have a player at each of the skill positions with at least one Pro Bowl appearance. And while it’s nice to have that much talent, it can sometimes be difficult to keep everyone happy.
“We throw the ball a ton; it’s not like we have one guy that will get all of the balls,” Bulger said. “Isaac and Torry have both been getting a lot of balls throughout their career. There will be balls to go around. It’s going to be nice to have all of those guys. That should take care of the Cover 2 problems we had with Isaac and Torry being double covered.”
Fortunately for Bulger, none of the new additions seem overly concerned with touches. The overlying theme out of McMichael and Bennett’s mouths is winning; something neither has done much of at either of his previous stops.
“It’s going to be fun,” McMichael said. “One thing about it is you won’t be able to double cover anybody. You won’t be able to roll coverages. I know a lot of teams try to take Torry away from us, but we have so many weapons now that will free him up even more I think.”
Indeed. Many teams did their best to take Holt out of the offense in 2006 by rolling coverages to his side of the field and forcing Bulger to take more underneath passes. That worked out just fine for Jackson to become more involved in the passing game, but with McMichael and Bennett in the fold, the Rams would like to see Jackson with closer to 60 or 70 catches than 90.
Having a pair of big targets like McMichael and Bennett should help open up things on the outside because of their ability to work over the middle of the field.
With a young, talented and improving offensive line, the offense needs only to add another young running back and perhaps a developmental receiver.
Regardless, the Rams are hopeful that their new additions will harken the glory days of the Greatest Show on Turf.
“I think we have improved our football team with the offensive players we’ve added,” coach Scott Linehan said. “That’s exciting for us. I think you can never have enough quality football players on your team. There’s not a player on the team that will be unhappy if we are having success on the field.”
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