To many, post #5,000 is a milestone. For me, post #2828 has great spiritual significance, as it represents the duplicate number of the greatest player EVER to wear the horns in the history of our storied and beloved franchise. A few thoughts on post 2828:
1) I love this board. Thanks again to Dez and the Mods for making it all possible.
2) Marshall Faulk will be back for at least one more year.
3) We need help at tight end, but not at the #11 pick. We NEED defense if we are going to contend. No team in the cap era has a weapon at every position on both sides of the ball. The key is balance. Our defense was awful last year and while we added some help, we lost our best run stuffer and have not replaced him. We are very very dependent on the emergence of jimmy kennedy and that scares me a lot more than having one less offensive weapon.
4) Bulger and
steven jackson will both have great years If the offensive line blocks for them.
5) Ditto point #4 as to our red zone productivity.
6) Wilkins is money. I love the guy. However, i think his kickoffs are often short and that hasnt helped us coverage wise.
7) The emergence of our young players on defense is even more important to the success of our team than the addition of the guys we signed. Bartell, Hargrove, Chillar, Kennedy (first and foremost), Groce, OJ etc. These guys dont have to all be stars, but they have to improve.
8) Injuries, which are largely luck, are critical to the success of any nfl team. How our injured guys return to action is also important to us, namely butler and fisher.
9) Can
leonard little assume a dominant role again? Hard to say. Pass rush from the other side would sure help.
10) Defensive backs in the nfl, within a pretty broad range and with a few notable exceptions, are as good as the pass rush. I dont care how good you think your corners are, if the qb has all day to throw, the defense is going to have major problems.
11) The QB cant throw from flat on his ass. Given time, bulger is as good as anyone. I like the idea of less 4 receiver sets. Same point with the tight end argument. I will gladly trade less weapons for more time for bulger to throw. I think holt, bruce and curtis are going to be open down the field 99% of the time if bulger isnt getting killed. Jackson/Faulk are outstanding checkoff options.
12) I miss tom nutten. One of the guttiest guys ever to wear the horns.
13) We will move the ball plenty. The key on offense is the red zone, and as i already stated, that will be all about the offensive line.
14) Back to the offensive line. If productive, and jackson gets the running game going (i believe the two go hand in hand) bulger will be even more effective. Play action has been virtually non existent for us for two years since we havent been able to establish a running game. If we are able to effectively use play action, we will get more big plays.
15) I am concerned about
torry holts knee. We need him 100%. I think he showed a lot of guts last year but came back too soon and was never quite right after the colts game.
16) I appreciate that reasonable people can differ, but i dont want bulger trying to make tackles after an INT unless the game is on the line and even then, certainly not leading with his throwing shoulder, heat of the moment or not.
17) Ferrotte and Stussie were excellent signings for depth. I hope neither of them sees the field on game day this year.
18) Incognito, while a riddle wrapped inside an enigma, has nothing but upside at this point for the rams.
19) The expectations that some people have on this board for the rams drafting history are absurd. The idea that we are not producing pro bowlers consistently in the second and third round is the exact same thing that fans of every other team can say. The fact that we arent consistently producing starters from the middle rounds is no different than anyone else. I am not saying that we are the greatest, only that to listen to some of the people on this board, you would actually have to believe that we, as fans, pure amateurs, actually believe that we know as much as professional scouts. Judging the draft before three years out makes no sense and hindsight is always 20-20.
20) You can not have an elite understanding of the nfl today if you dont take the time to understand at least the basics of the salary cap. Listening to people rant and rave about who we should and shouldnt sign and the trades we should make with no consideration of the cap implications is my #1 pet peeve on this board.
21) Arch will make the espn highlight films with his blitzing and unblocked tackles on the qb, forcing a fumble here and there. He will make some big hits. He is also among the most overpaid guys in the league and it was wise to let him go. He cant cover and has a degenerative back problem.
22) We should have kept pickett, he was a bargain for what green bay paid.
23) The book is open on manu. I am not giving up yet. I hate that he is not at the off season workouts and i do agree that we need help at the position. Not showing up at the offseason workouts to date when he has a chance to make a fresh start with a coach that uses a tight end actively in the offense is the single dumbest off season decision i have ever seen a rams player make.
24) I like pisa a lot, but i still think he is very weak in pass coverage. I have no idea why people never seem to point that out and talk about how terrific he is, while they make the argument that pickett only looked good because the rest of the defense was that bad.
25) I am not a marmie fan, and i am happy to see him gone. However, blaming him for all our problems on defense makes no sense to me. Coaching matters at the margain, the players have to execute. We missed so many tackles over the last couple of years with runners right in front of us that the scheme was not the sole or even primary cause of our problems. Note bobby april as coach of the year at buffalo. Better coach? Nope. Same guy. Better players.
26) Lovie Smith was an overated defensive coordinator. Did he improve our defense? Sure. We were the worst in the league when he took over. Watch the tape of the carolina playoff game. Note how the defense collapsed at the end of the year. We couldnt stop the run. He didnt make adjustments. He looks great in chicago, they have a lot more talent. Thanks to love for both jamie duncan and damione lewis.
27) The best thing to help our defense will be more scoring of tds from the offense, which comes back to red zone conversions. If we are playing with the lead, our defense will have it a lot easier and we can be more aggressive.
28) I really love marshall faulk, and i also love plenty of the guys on this board.
Ramming speed to all,
General Counsel
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