Peter King on the Bengals game and other Rams stuff

I don’t think Fisher is being entirely honest when he says: “Mannion isn’t ready.”

He really can’t be worse than what they have. I think he’s more concerned about destroying Mannion’s confidence for the future by having him play with this dysfunctional offense. And he may not be wrong. This season is lost. I get it.

But they also have to decide what the quarterback situation is going forward and Mannion is part of that. They won’t know with him sitting on the bench. So while I get the concern, I also think they need to see how he holds up in this miserable situation. No one is expecting miracles. But what does he bring? How cool can he be?

It’s worth looking at.

I don’t know if he’s really ready or not. But does Foles look ready? Is Mannion struggling to learn the playbook? maybe–but we haven’t heard that from anyone. Of course he doesn’t get the snaps but that’s up to Fisher. My point,I guess is that it’s up to Fisher to get him ready–if he chooses but I’m not so sure he wants to do that because of the state of the offense. Is that a good thing? I don’t know. Maybe long term it is. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

But I look at a team that needs a QB right now because Foles doesn’t look at all like even the average, game manager type QB I hoped he’d be. He’s had some moments, for sure. But he’s had bad moments more. So to me, I look at what this team has and if I’m a realist, I make some decisions going forward. And the same goes for Robinson. What have they got there? And I don’t care about potential. When you are picked 2nd in the draft you’d better be ready to go–and he hasn’t been.

And I see very little to indicate he will suddenly “get it” and be the all-pro LT that someone of his draft selection status should become. I don’t even see a functional part right now. He may have all the ability in the world physically but that’s not going to cut it now. I hope he makes it at guard, I really do. But for now–that is a position with a big problem IMO.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by PA Ram.

Here’s the coaches solution for 4 years running. Saffold! What a nightmare.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by bnw.

zn wrote:

bnw wrote:

Here’s the coaches solution for 4 years running. Saffold! What a nightmare.

I don’t think there’s any coaches control over the OL injury situation.

This can’t be ignored—in 2 years they added 8 young linemen and only 1 (Donnal) had a prior injury history. But 7 of the 8 so far have been injured, including 3 out for the season in the space of 2 games (Brown, Williams, Donnal).

The odds against that are astronomical. It has nothing to do with the coaches.

Meanwhile both Reynolds and Havenstein have played well. Predictably a young line struggled, but there was no way to predict the injury situation in 2015 any more than there was a way to predict it in 2007 (when it was far worse than it is now.)

I do not remember Havenstein playing well.

I’d get Mannion ready to go right away if I thought he could do any better than what they have. I’ll defer to the coaches. I mean, I wondered why Keenum wasn’t in there a week earlier, and then I see Keenum, and man, he’s just awful. So, they tried to get Foles back on track as long as they could. It didn’t work. So, you try Keenum. Who makes me yearn for Austin Davis. I bet Mannion would struggle, too.

There’s just no good place to go on offense. And, now the defense is starting to struggle at times.

We’ve got ourselves a full-on meltdown, and there’s not one QB on this team who can turn it around. It’s going to take a lot of players playing better, and getting healthier.

Perhaps Fisher is concerned about how the veterans will receive the news of starting Mannion while the team isn’t yet mathematically eliminated. Players might take it as a waving of the white flag by Fisher. Just guessing.