Season Storylines

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  • #101658
    Avatar photoZooey
    Moderator

    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?

    #101659
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    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.

    #101684
    Avatar photoZooey
    Moderator

    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.

    #101687
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    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?

    #101754
    Avatar photonittany ram
    Moderator

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

    #101758
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    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

    #101759
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    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?

    #101785
    Avatar photoInvaderRam
    Moderator

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

    #101786
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

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

    I think it’s possible. As it stands AD got the sack record for DTs after getting off to a slow start.

    This includes games he missed, but in 2017 and 2018 combined, first 6 games (3 from each season) he had 2 sacks and 6 qb hits. The next 12 games in 2017 (he took the SF game off) he got 10 sacks and 22 qb hits. In 2018, next 13 games he had 20.5 sacks and 40 qb hits.

    Thought experiment…what if we gave him his “up to speed” numbers for the whole season, both seasons? In 2017, that would be 12.5 sacks. In 2018, it would be 24 sacks and 49 qb hits for the season.

    So, slow start–first 6 games both seasons combined = 2 sacks, 2 hits.
    Next 25 games both seasons combined = 30.5 sacks and 62 qb hits.

    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 (more on the coach here: http://theramshuddle.com/topic/i-think-this-is-a-big-deal-new-dl-coach-henderson-the-hands-on-approach/ ).

    Sounds good to me.

    ..

    #101787
    Avatar photoInvaderRam
    Moderator

    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, 6 months ago by Avatar photoInvaderRam.
    #101790
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

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

    I know what you mean. This could diminish his numbers.

    But as I know you know, even without the numbers an AD on the DL demanding double teams makes for a better defense, even if others get the stats. An up to speed AD doing all that presumably means it all starts sooner.

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

    ….

    #101803
    Avatar photoInvaderRam
    Moderator

    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.

    #101923
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    3) How will the reconfigured defense perform?

    This is shaping up to be quite a story, actually.

    We keep getting reports that the D is going to rely more than previously on mixing in different sub-packages, and also on player versatility, making it easier to disguise what they’re doing. Wade is cooking something up.

    In fact that’s exactly what they did in the superbowl, playing a defense that did not allow Brady a TD (one of the few times that has ever happened to him in the post-season). They mixed things up, disguised coverages, and took advantage of subpackages that showcased the talents of a lot of different players.

    And since then, they added players, and some youngsters are maturing.

    Here’s yet another bit on this:

    Myles Simmons

    Even at the slow speed, it’s easy to tell the versatility of the defense. The Rams had different players blitzing and were consistently changing things up in coverage. It’s likely going to be tough on offenses to figure out which players are going to rush — especially in known-passing situations

    That’s from an OTA report, posted here on June 5 in this thread: http://theramshuddle.com/topic/otas-izz-here/#post-101922

    #101928
    Hram
    Participant

    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

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