Rams season previews: yeah but they gotta win

Rams Preview: Case Keenum won the QB job, personifies team’s uncertainty

Vincent Bonsignore, Los Angeles Daily News

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20160907/rams-preview-case-keenum-won-the-qb-job-personifies-teams-uncertainty

It’s funny how things work out sometimes.

When the Rams left Southern California for St. Louis 21 years ago they did so with an uncertain quarterback situation befitting an organization that never seemed to nail the most important position on the field.

They return to Los Angeles with the same uncertainty.

Welcome home, guys.

Uncanny how you look remarkably like the team that kicked us in the gut to make a Midwest money grab more than two decades ago.

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Some things never change, apparently.

With all due respect to Case Keenum, who has played well this offseason and rightfully won the starting job over future face of the franchise Jared Goff, he isn’t Russell Wilson or Cam Newton or Tom Brady or Eli Manning or Philip Rivers or Ben Roethlisberger or any other current NFL quarterback you can hand the keys to with confidence they can guide the team to respectable places.

At his best, Keenum is a game manager capable of stabilizing the position and keeping the Rams in games. And considering he has started 15 games over his four-year career and never more than eight in one season, it’s a hunch to assume even that.

There simply isn’t enough sample size to say definitively he will consistently do that.

So we hope.

And cross our fingers.

Sounds kind of familiar right?

From James Harris to Ron Jaworski to Pat Haden to Vince Ferragamo to Jeff Rutledge to Dan Pastorini to Bert Jones to Jeff Kemp to Dieter Brock to Steve Bartkowski to Jim Everett and beyond, the Rams over the years knelt at the alter of the Football Gods praying they could squeeze out just enough from the young to the old to the has-beens to the never-were’s to the would-be saviors and the seriously flawed to lift the team to the next level or over the finish line.

The Rams over the years always had wildly talented rosters, but unable to land their Roger Staubach or Terry Bradshaw they operated a revolving door that welcomed in new candidates as quickly as it hurled the previous ones onto the street.

Aside from a brief period of brilliance provided by a lightning bolt named Kurt Warner and the stability of Marc Bulger, it was more of the same in St. Louis.

Lest we forget the Tony Banks and Sam Bradfords and Kellen Clemens of the world.

And as the Rams return to the region they called home for 46 years, it’s deja vu all over again.

So take your place among all the others, Keenum. It’s a crowded room to be sure.

Here’s the thing, though.

Even while the Rams conducted a quarterback merry-go-round through the 1970s and 1980s they won a ton of football games. In fact from 1973-89 they won eight division titles, reached eight NFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl.

They never quite got it right at quarterback – at least not the long-range answer – but they managed to field highly competitive teams nonetheless.

Into that kind of world steps Keenum, who doesn’t do any one thing especially well but does enough things satisfactorily that he can be trusted.

Yes, the Rams drafted Goff first overall with the hope he’d start sooner rather than later. But it looks like sooner is going to take a lot longer than expected.

That might be disappointing, but it’s not the end of the world.

The Rams always knew they had Keenum in their back pocket, fully understanding he isn’t Newton or Wilson but more than convinced he can be a missing piece that enables them to finally move beyond the 7-9 teams they’ve been recently to a potential playoff contender.

It’s a tip of the cap to Keenum, certainly, but also the belief in the infrastructure in place around the quarterback position.

The Rams boast a defensive line as good as any in the NFL led by All-Pro tackle Aaron Donald and defensive end Robert Quinn.

The linebacker group is young, fast and athletic with Mark Barron and Alec Ogletree a pair of playmakers poised to step into stardom.

And running back Todd Gurley is as good as it gets and operates behind an offensive line that grew considerably over the course of training camp and preseason.

“That’s a good young roster they’ve built,” a prominent NFL assistant coach told me recently. “The pieces are in place. If the quarterback can just be solid, they have a chance to be a good team.

Keenum isn’t a star, but neither was Brock or Haden or Ferragamo, and all three of them won division titles and advanced their teams deep into the playoffs.

Dare we dream that Keenum can be to Gurley what Brock was to Eric Dickerson or Haden was to Lawrence McCutcheon back in the day?

The NFL assistant coach I spoke to felt so, pointing out the roster in place is one Rams coach Jeff Fisher can win with.

“There’s a recipe in place that he’s proven he can succeed with,” the coach said. “Look, Jeff Fisher didn’t forget how to coach. This is a team right up his alley with a spectacular talent like Gurley – who is special – and a very good defense. If the quarterback can be effective – he doesn’t even have to be a star – just steady. It could be a good year.”

Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?

It never meant the ultimate prize back in the day.

But the Rams won a bunch of football games.

Can Keenum be to the Rams what Haden, Ferragamo and others were to run-first, defensive-minded Rams teams of the past?

It sure has a familiar ring to it.