OzRam
Thought I’d share an email I got from Jourdan R.
On enjoying a few of her recent Podcasts, Tweets and Athletic articles, along with the discussion about them on this board I found myself writing an email to tell her how much they’ve been appreciated! To be honest I can’t remember the last time I wrote an email to a sports journalist. I thanked her for her insight into the Rams this year and threw a few article suggestions her way.
Anyway, thought I’d share her reply:
Hi Dave, apologies for my delayed response – I wanted to make sure I really had some time to sit down with your kind words and great questions!
I am just so thrilled to be here. I appreciate covering an organization full of people who believe that one should always be learning and seeking new knowledge, and new ideas. I feel as if I have learned so much even since I got here in July. Football is my entire life, and I love it dearly – so it’s nice to be in a space where everybody is generally as amped as I am (or more!). I also really appreciate what you said about my coverage. I believe that it’s my job to make you, the fans, feel as if you are right here with me as I see what is happening with the team. I love suggestions, feedback and interactions because I always want to push myself to be better, as both a person and as a journalist, and I think this is such a productive space in which to do that.
As to your questions…I hope to at some point have enough gathered material to produce a solid feature on Staley’s defense, however as you can imagine it’s a little tricky since I’m not actually allowed to report specifics about calls, schemes, terminology etc. per the rules of my credential! So I’ll hope to find some way around that at some point.
With Cooper…I think it’s simply a lack of availability of someone else who they would trust as much as Kupp, although there have indeed been some questionable decisions on his part.
If I were the coach, I would give Samuel Sloman two more games (both in reasonable conditions) to show he is progressing. I worry, I think, about his kickoff precision as well as the low trajectory on PATs and short FGs. If he isn’t showing progression I feel like you can’t linger too long on a project that isn’t working, especially as the margin of error in the NFC South is razor-thin.
Re. A’Shawn, still looking at a midseason return for him (good news in terms of their division schedule). A’Shawn is more of a space-eater than others on the roster, who are longer and leaner and perhaps more well-suited as interior pass-rushers. A space-eater basically sits down in a couple of gaps and helps occupy enough of the offensive line to not only free up the edge players, but also to allow room for Aaron Donald to roam a little freer. This would also work if they use A’Shawn as a nose, then put Donald and Michael Brockers on either side of him. Would be seriously hard to account for all of those guys at once, plus the dudes coming around the outside. A space-eater does also allow linebackers to run more freely. I think many of the missed tackles you see are from guys who are taking bad angles because they are a little out of position. Being able to more easily get to your responsibility would mean not taking a bad angle to the point of contact – I believe these linebackers have so much potential, and perhaps could be getting a bit more help.
Another big difference-maker could be in helping enforce a little more gap accountability in the run game. I think all of those areas are potentially places he could help – now they just have to get him healthy and ready to go!
I hope these answers were helpful to you. I so appreciated your kind note. If you would like, feel free to also share them in the forum as I know others may have similar queries!
And please, thank everybody for me for such a warm welcome. I am so excited for us to learn together – and hopefully watch some kickass ball along the way.
All my best,
Jourdan Rodrigue
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Agamemnon
