ZN,

Good quote.

Yeah, I’m afraid Miller is a rental. And not even a full season. Less than half, plus the time needed to learn the playbook, and heal from his own injuries. I’d be (happily) shocked if they re-sign him.

Which brings up another issue. A team may be able to make the “all in” thing work, if they have cap room. If they can consistently sign FA players that make up for the lack of all of those early picks. But the Rams have been in cap hell for a long, long time, and, unless I’m wrong, there isn’t much light at the end of that tunnel. Add to that, if the Rams don’t make the playoffs, and win, players may not want to go to LA. The hope of winning now was a huge draw, giving players (I’m guessing) visions of super teams.

That seems to have been a mirage, unfortunately.

I’m still good with the OBJ pickup, because it didn’t cost them a pick. He’s obviously hurt too, and he probably won’t re-sign either. But they might get a comp for him. I really don’t know if late-season pickups are eligible. Hope so, etc.

Anyway . . .

Zooey,

Is the intro yours, or Gabbard’s comment on the quote?

I hope she didn’t actually say it’s some kind of “proof” that American isn’t racist, and the system works.

As you can tell, I’m not on twitter.

wv wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

WV,

What’s your take on the conventional wisdom with regard to “human nature”? I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately about evolution, biology, traits, etc. . . . and have discovered that the tide is turning. As in, the old ways of seeing humans as inherently violent, selfish, and hopelessly cruel, are being countered with a ton of evidence to the contrary..

===========

I think zn’s wording/thots on this were what I always return to.

Years ago, he basically taught me that ‘human nature’ is plastic,
adaptable.

Cooperation and Competition both are ‘human nature’.
So any ‘system’ can plug into either and ramp up or suppress either,
to an unknown-extent.

One of the reasons I’m a doomer, is because, I dont believe
its at all likely, that human-brains that have been born-and-raised
under generation-after-generation of capitalism, can be…um…’fixed’.
Too much damage. Damage is too deep.

But who knows.

w
v

I may have done a poor job in summing up recent readings, and given the wrong impression. I wasn’t saying that they give us hope that we can make a better go of things under the current system. My take is they point to our ability to thrive under alternatives to capitalism — and I’ve always believed that if there is such a thing as “human nature,” our history of living communally for so long points toward a socialist alternative being “natural,” and our current capitalist system as obscenely “unnatural.”

Our adaptability makes that shift all the more likely, in my view. We seem to be able to adapt all too well to bad situations. It makes sense to me that if we switch to beneficial alternatives, to egalitarian, cooperative, fully democratic economic forms — where everyone but former billionaires would do a thousand times better — adaptation would be all the easier.

The key takeaway for me is that we’ve been told for generations how rotten we supposedly are, innately. Recent science shows this isn’t at all true. We’re actually hard-wired to live in “socialist” settings, not capitalist. We’ve just “adapted” to the latter, IMO, after centuries of bloodshed and domination by the super-rich. I still have hope that future generations will reject capitalism entirely, and go with what suits us better.

Anyway . . . I think you guys would get a lot from Bregman’s book, and the others I’ve mentioned.

I think using post-apocalyptic film and fiction is a good place to start. To me, most of the assumptions made regarding plausible scenarios are based on received conventional wisdom, most of which has been proven wrong, especially in recent years. If there is an ideology behind that CV, and I think there is, it’s predominantly centrist to right-wing.

Recent readings like The Goodness Paradox, by Richard Wrangham, The Social Instinct, by Nichola Raihani, and the one I mention above, Rutger Bregman’s Humankind, all debunk streams of that conventional wisdom. Each book cites hundreds of studies, and points to dozens of other books in the field. It’s also interesting to me how easy the debunking often is. Much of it involves careful readings of actual notes to experiments like the Milgram shock and Stanford Prison experiments, or captain’s logs for first encounters with non-Europeans, like Easter Island. As Bregman shows, the leaders of those experiments were caught in bold-faced lies when that digging was done, and participants interviewed, and first encounter notes for the Native peoples of Easter Island are a 180 from what we’ve been told.

Columbus, for instance, marveled at how peaceful and generous the Caribs were, as was the case for most of these encounters. Tragically, that realization led him to instantly see them as ripe for slavery.

Bregman also deals with “kill rates,” which I find fascinating and remember from earlier books. For most of human history, soldiers have avoided killing one another when at all possible. This continued all the way through WWII, when it was discovered that most never shot at the enemy. That discovery led to intensive training and psy-ops to make sure that they did, starting pretty much with Nam. It’s also the case that German soldiers for the siege of Paris were aided by the equivalent of crystal meth.

Bregman talks of a gun-autopsy of Gettysburg that showed the vast majority of rifles were never fired in that battle.

Anyway, there is far too much to sum up in this post, so I’ll leave it there. I do highly, highly recommend the books I’ve mentioned, especially Bregman’s.

https://www.rutgerbregman.com/books/

WV,

I understand your take and it has a ton of merit.

For me the mega-issue is essentially, Capitalism/Racism/Patriarchy
concentrated through the lens of neoliberalism is destroying
any chance for ‘justice.’

That’s the big picture for me as well. However, I think we can do both. I think it’s possible to focus on the trees, and then zoom out to see and think about the forest too. Systems. Historical context. Larger implications and foundational rationales. Max and minutiae. IMO, there is no reason why one has to prevent the other.

It’s also worth noting that the political right is focused on a couple of trees, never the forest, and it acts on their view of those coupla trees, violently. Ignoring their individual acts, in my opinion, just adds more fuel to their fires, and emboldens them to become even more violently aggressive. It just makes it more likely that they’ll see non-threats like the 1619 Project, CRT, BLM, “Dems are communists!” as THE only things that matter in their world, and the (supposed) reason their fever dreams aren’t completely implemented yet.

In short, we can zoom in and zoom out, as needed, case by case, and via systemic analyses. At least I think we can. Perhaps I’m just fooling myself, though . . .

I’ve been kinda harsh on Stafford too, and maybe that’s not fair. I just don’t see the kind of accuracy, especially on deep passes, that I remember from his Detroit days. I’ve recently read he has back problems, and that makes me think that may be the reason for his underwhelming passing. Anyone who has back issues knows how painful it can be. It’s not something you can just tough it out. That’s always been the football mentality, but a bad back is a different animal. It can be bad enough to where you literally can’t move.

Ankle issues too. So much about passing is foot placement. So both of those together?

Anyway . . . there are other problems with the Rams, of course, and I think the lack of SJD is huge as well. I’ve always thought the Rams should have invested in a monster DT long ago, a Vita Vea type who can just play the unmovable object in the middle, thus freeing up Donald even more.

Hopefully, they figure all of this out, and make their “all in” strategy work. One thing seems certain to me, though: they have to change their offensive and defensive schemes. What they’re doing isn’t working. One possible curve ball? Play Perkins now and then. Shut gun set with the options of taking off or passing.

Some general general manager thoughts on teambuilding, postgame:

Obviously, there’s gonna be exceptions, and “hidden gems” out there late or after the draft, but for the most part, the best athletes/players go first. The guys who check all the boxes go early in the first. It’s beyond rare that teams will find trifecta players late: great athlete, great production, great motor. And you’re almost never gonna find players with all the marbles late: great athletes, production, motor, plus “intangibles” like leadership, etc. The longer the draft goes on, the fewer boxes each player can check, with rare exceptions.

So the more years that go by with the Rams out of contention for the best players, the thinner the roster becomes. Yes, they’ve done an amazing job with pickups here and there — like Woods, and strong late picks like SJD — but, the rest of the league gets a better shot at getting the better players, year after year. That gives them an obvious competitive advantage over the Rams.

The best way to overcome this disadvantage, paradoxically, is to win championships, cuz then free agents will want to play for the Rams. But the roster may be too thin for that now, after all of their recent injuries. Hope I’m wrong. Hope McVay and company shock the NFL and bring home all the bacon. Not trying to be coy about that, either.

I was thinking the same thing, Zooey.

The numbers of the fallen seem unusually high for the Rams. I hope they’re at least reviewing all practice and training room procedures. At least. Diet, too.

This past weekend was huge for injuries league-wide, apparently, and this ties into my own hobby horse:

The NFL has too many games, and puts its players at too much risk. It will never happen, I know, but I wish they’d go back to 14 games, end the preseason, end Thursday games, and stick to Sunday and Monday only. IMO, that would radically improve the quality of the games, the season, and protect the health of the players a great deal more.

I honestly have no idea why the players agreed to 17 games — well, beyond the extra money, of course. But that was short-sighted. You don’t get that next big contract if you’ve been hurt too often, or badly enough. In the long run, playing more games will cost them money, and literally shorten their lives.

Does anyone else think the Rams seem to be getting hit inordinately by the injury bug these days? It’s been a wave, and a lot of them seem to be “non-contact.”

I hope coaches and staff are looking into practice methods, training room, etc. etc.

Seems like far more people being lost for the season than usual.

And, yeah, this makes the OBJ signing the stuff of genius. I also think the Rams should rethink the idea of four-wide sets now.

Stick with Kupp, OBJ, Jefferson, and perhaps two tight ends, if they go empty backfield. Or, go six o-line guys, one TE, etc. They can’t forget to protect Stafford. If he gets hurt, the Rams “all in” is for naught.

I think this is a smart move by the Rams. Making it a one-year audition will help with morale among the receivers, especially Jefferson. They shouldn’t be concerned that OBJ will be usurping their roles, cuz this is basically a one and done deal. It’s a Super Bowl or bust thing, and he’s likely only here for half a year.

It’s also apparently not for much money, and the Rams should receive a comp pick if OBJ doesn’t re-sign with them next season. That’s huge, IMO.

Unless . . . unless there is some kind of rule that says mid-season deals don’t qualify.

I have no idea.

Opposing defenses are going to be in turmoil as to which guy to double. Should free up Cupp and Woods and Jefferson to be even more effective. The talking heads on NFL Today were saying OBJ may well be the third or fourth guy and get the third or fourth corner, etc. They loved the move in general, but they said the Rams must win this year. Must. Win. Now.

Man, that’s a real shame. They need him now, too. And because he’s already 24, he doesn’t have as many years to develop as some. Tutu, for instance, is 22. Giving him a red shirt year won’t be as tough. Same with Akers.

But a second-year guy at 25 just has a shorter window, and this will hurt his gaining much needed weight.

That’s some tough luck.

Ag,

I don’t know the cap as well as you do, but it seems to me the Rams put themselves in another pickle. They’re almost at the point where they can’t even afford to sign First Rounders, which may be at least part of the reason why they’re so quick to dump them.

Am I off on that one?

If that’s the case, then some of their strategy is forced on them, which is never a good thing.

I do get the concept of “win now,” while they have the window. Donald is 30. Stafford is mid-30s. Floyd will be 30 next year, I think. They were smart to trade for Ramsey when he was 25 or so, which is pretty much ideal. So he has a bit longer at his peak. But time, overall, is running out. So I get that. Still, I think the Rams could have talked and chewed gum at the same time. They could have used that strategy here and there, retained more picks, kept refreshing the roster, etc. And then they have to hit it on Second Rounders, always.

Creed Humphreys sure looks like the better pick right now, for instance. He’s playing lights out as a rook. I’m happy that Allen seems to be playing good football, but if they had drafted Humphreys, they’d just have that much more flexibility along the line, and perhaps at least one more asset to trade for picks, etc.

Anyway, the Rams may well win the Super Bowl this year. I think they have a great shot. But I also want them to have a future beyond this season. It will take some serious magic to keep things going, given their cap and the dearth of early picks. But if any team can do it, the Rams can. They may well be the best in the league at finding hidden gems after the Draft, etc. etc.

Good point, Zooey.

So the Rams wouldn’t be able to turn right around and trade him. They could, however, audition him this season and then make the trade next year. This could work, because . . .

His stock is low now. If it weren’t, the Browns wouldn’t have had any trouble finding a trade partner. And why did his stock drop? He was barely used. Which means the Rams could target him often, deep, especially, and they have the QB and coach to make him look a thousand times better.

Then make the trade. And that would also eliminate the issue of the “fib.” It would be basic NFL business at that point.

If memory serves, Antonio Brown went from persona non grata to a real asset for Tampa Bay.

That’s basically the recipe.