tweets … 10/30 & 10/31

Aaron Donald mic’d up.. 💪🔥 pic.twitter.com/BHyjCWufCF

— Footballism™ (@FootbaIIism) October 29, 2019

Top PFF grades from Rams' win over Bengals: Okoronkwo, Reynolds impress

On defense, it was Troy Hill leading the way. He earned an overall grade of 85.5, which landed him a spot on the PFF Team of the Week. Ogbonnia Okoronkwo deservingly got a high mark from PFF, too, recording 1.5 sacks in the game and looking like a starting-caliber edge rusher.

Herzog wrote:

zn wrote:

Top PFF grades from Rams’ win over Bengals: Okoronkwo, Reynolds impress

On defense, it was Troy Hill leading the way. He earned an overall grade of 85.5, which landed him a spot on the PFF Team of the Week

Oh man was I wrong about him…. or was I? I’m confused… I thought he looked bad

The consensus is that overall Hill played well. He has had bad games in the past, and he had a couple of iffy moments against the Bengals, but overall this year he is playing well. The Rams apparently think so because him playing well allowed them to do the Talib trade. Or, Talib salary dump disguised as a trade.

Behind Hill, they have Robey-Coleman, Williams, and Long. That bodes well for the future. Odds are Hill is the starter next year and the other 3 continue to contribute and get better.

With Ramsey, Hill will attract a lot of attention. Onslaughts of it, really. If he just holds his own, he’s fine and so is the Rams D.

Troy Hill was a top performer for the #Rams defense in Week 8! 💪 pic.twitter.com/ZnogTGfl4a

— PFF (@PFF) October 28, 2019

Jim Nagy@JimNagy_SB
Whenever a team hits on undrafted free agents it almost NEVER has anything to do with the general manager. GM’s rarely ever to dip into UDFA level players. When a team hits on a UDFA it’s almost ALWAYS the result of excellent work by an area scout.

LMU93
It would serve the Rams well to use all three- Fowler, Matthews and Okoronkwo- in rotation. It’s great that Okoronkwo has shown up a bit the past two weeks but Matthews is clearly their primary guy there. But they rightfully want to limit his snaps so timing is good. Plus longer term ideally Okoronkwo continues to develop so that if/when they lose Fowler in 2020 they still have some talent there (with more to backfill).

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from Pro Football Focus midseason highlights: Rams offense
https://www.therams.com/news/pro-football-focus-midseason-highlights-rams-offense

L.A.’s offense continues to produce at a high level, grading out in the top half of the league. The running game, which has gotten contributions from Todd Gurley, Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson Jr., also grades out as one of the NFL’s 10 best.

Perhaps coincidentally, the unit had its two best performances in each of the last two weeks, according to PFF, as the Rams have mounted a two-game win streak. Their offensive grade of 78.0 against the Bengals and 78.6 against the Falcons bested the previous top two marks of 77.5 against New Orleans in Week 2 and 75.2 against Seattle in Week 5.

Additionally, L.A. has a top-10 run game in the eyes of PFF despite facing four of the scouting service’s top 10 run defenses so far this season: the Saints (83.5, fourth), the Buccaneers (80.8, fifth), the Seahawks (77.4, ninth) and the Falcons (77.1, 10th). Its top performances came against the Panthers in Week 1 (76.1) and Saints (73.8).

Rams Talk@TalkRams
Fun facts: #LARams OLB @dantefowler already tied his career high in tackles in a season, past his career high in tackles for a loss and is 1.5 sacks away from passing his career high in sacks in a season. Still eight games left in the 2019 regular season! Final stat predictions?

Louis Riddick@LRiddickESPN
Chuck Noll had Terry Bradshaw. Bill Walsh had Montana and Young. Jimmy Johnson had Aikman. THEY ARE ALL HALL OF FAME QB’s!! THAT’S HOW IT WORKS!

Vincent Bonsignore@VinnyBonsignore
On flip side, you’re talking about a s—-load of other great players/HOF’s around those QB’s, many of whom were handpicked by the coaches you are subtly implying road coattails. Football is the ultimate team game.

And that team aspect reaches all the way to the leadership in place that picks players and assembles teams. A process of which coaches have tremendous input in identifying and selecting and developing. THAT’s how THAT works.

The Athletic LA@TheAthleticLA
Why did the Rams trade Aqib Talib? They knew he was leaving anyway, they like their young corners and the chance to create significant salary-cap room was too much to pass up,

Vincent Bonsignore@VinnyBonsignore
If you’re the #Rams, would you rather get that $4.25M back to use toward future? Or let it sit on Injured Reserve?

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
Rams were not scheduled for any activity today, but Cal Lutheran (the site of their practice facility) was closed today because of the Easy Fire. It has been headed in that general direction and several Rams coaches/staffers live near the evacuation zone. Stay safe, all.

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Don’t interpret this as “the #LARams deserve All-Pro honors up front.”

However, hard though it may be to accept, only Mahomes and Carr have a lower sack rate than Jared Goff.

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from Touchdown Wire’s 2019 NFL All-Underrated Team: https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2019/10/31/the-most-underrated-players-in-the-first-half-of-the-2019-season/16/

Dante Fowler Jr., EDGE, Los Angeles Rams

Selected with the third overall pick in the 2015 draft out of Florida by the Jaguars, Fowler struggled early on to live up to any of his monstrous potential as his raw athleticism was taken to task by more experienced blockers, and injuries and off-field issues affected his growth as a player. He was a pretty decent disruptor at times, but after missing his entire rookie season due to a torn ACL, he never managed more than eight sacks in a season. Perhaps the best thing that could have happened to Fowler was a 2018 mid-season trade to the Rams, where he was given one task by defensive coordinator Wade Phillips: Pin your ears back and go get the quarterback. In 2019, Fowler has done that better than at any other point in his career, with 6.5 sacks, two quarterback hits, and 33 quarterback hurries. Now, Fowler has become a fully-loaded pass-rushing monster, able to take blockers apart with speed and force at the edge, or a quick inside move to demolish on stunts and twists.

Mike Cahill@FA_Cahill
Sack rate is more dependent on the QB than it is the OLine

Vincent Bonsignore@VinnyBonsignore
Part of the reason why Jared Goff has been sacked an NFL low 12 times while attempting the second-most throws in the NFL.

But let’s not get it twisted. Overall quality of QB play is very related to offensive line play. Yeah, there are some Superman’s that can overcome pretty much everything. But even those guys usually get got at some point.

PFF 2019 Midseason NFL All-Pro Team: https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-pff-2019-midseason-nfl-all-pro-team

DI AARON DONALD, LOS ANGELES RAMS

We don’t care about the ‘low’ sack total (even though five is still a lot for a DT). Donald’s added a new dimension to his game this season – edge rushing. 52 of his 476 snaps this year have come outside the tackles. Donald has earned an overall grade over 90.0 in every single season of his career.

CB MARCUS PETERS, BALTIMORE RAVENS

Even though the Rams dealt him away for seemingly pennies, it wasn’t because of Peters’ on-field. He’s allowed only 11 catches on 265 coverage snaps this season – the fewest receptions per coverage snap of any starting cornerback in the league. He’s also picked off three passes, including a pick-six in his first game with the Ravens.