Season Storylines

Zooey wrote:

It’s early, but there isn’t much else to do at the moment, so fwiw….

I invite a rigorous board war on the top 5 storylines for the 2019 season.

Mine:

1) How much can Gurley contribute, and for how long? Both for this season, and his career.
2) Will Goff continue to improve, or has he hit his ceiling?
3) How will the reconfigured defense perform?
4) How about that reconfigured OL?
5) Will McVay learn to adjust to the Bears/Patriots defensive schemes?

A lot of that is “we won’t know till we find out” territory.

But I am going to guess.

1. If Gurley has an underlying condition (arthritic?) he can actually contribute for a while, until it flares up and he has to sit (and get injections). A lot of people don’t remember this, but Faulk sat out the 2001 pre-season with knee issues on his surgical knee. He ended up having a good season. He retired before the 2006 season, but his output did not really start declining until 2002. So if that is any kind of guide, Gurley has at least a year or 2, assuming he does have some kind of condition.

2. Goff will improve. No ceiling yet. The question will only be, where is his ceiling? Is it a very good qb in the mold of someone like Ryan? Better than that? Elite? Less than that–good with flashes but never a top 5 guy? (Flacco and Eli in their best years).

3. I think this defense will be the best Wade/McVay Rams defense yet. Maybe even a top 10 D.

4. I think the OL will be fine. Not as strong as it was to start the year last year but (injuries aside) it will finish stronger than last year’s OL finished.

5. If the 2018 Vikes game is any indication, when McVay gets a 2nd shot at something, he shows that he has learned. If people remember, the 2017 Vikes game was that year’s Chicago game.

If it turns out I am wrong about any of that, I will man up and do the right thing–namely, invisibly edit the post to make it look like I wasn’t wrong. This I swear before all my huddle brothers. Solemnly.

Zooey wrote:

I actually meant to start a Board War on what the top 5 stories ARE, not a war about how they will play out.

I agree with everything you said, so…see?…no board war. No fun.

Oh. Okay.

Well, I like YOUR list! In fact I don’t think there could be a better one.

So no board war.

If you want a board war, you have to do something more controversial.

Like this:

Jared Goff–McVay puppet, or just a pure draft bust? Is he worth a big contract since McVay can get similar production out of anyone?

…

I just think the figureheads McVay and Goff, are still coasting on what Fisher built.

Granted there IS a good argument that Fisher was just coasting on what Spags built. But I dont wanna go there at this juncture.

w
v

can donald challenge the sack record again with a full off-season with the team.

zn wrote:

And he’s not only active and getting up to speed this spring/summer, which means he starts the season fast and in game shape, he also has a new DL coach who is working on correcting issues with his game.

the only thing i see holding him up is the development of the players around him.

if fowler, ebu, and ogbo can develop under henderson, that’ll take production away from aaron. good for the team but bad for donald.

my early guess is he’s even better than last year although it may not necessarily reflect in production.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by InvaderRam.

zn wrote:

My official position on all this is, can’t wait.

ha. seriously. should be fun to watch.

and on the other hand. if the guys around him are more effective, maybe that forces offenses to focus on donald less, and he doesn’t see so many double teams…

as you say i can’t wait.

zn wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

Will Jared Goff’s performance as ‘young Bill’ in the upcoming film, “Bill and Ted 3” outshine his performance on the field?

Does the sun set in the east?

Only when you watch it with mermaids