Sam Monson@PFF_Sam
Even in his final year, Aaron Donald was just on a different level.

Overall pass-rush win rate on 3rd and 4th down:

Donald: 28.6%
Nick Bosa: 28.1%
Myles Garrett: 28.0%

28% is a crazy number. For an INTERIOR player to lead the league is even crazier.

Shoutout to Dexter Lawrence who was 4th as a freaking nose tackle.

from https://ramblinfan.com/posts/how-long-can-the-la-rams-keep-iol-beaux-limmer-on-the-bench-01j2981rzqnf

Standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 312 pounds, Limmer is more athletic than many offensive linemen. But do not miss the fact that he is a circus strongman. He put up 39 reps of 225 pounds, which was more (5 more reps) than any other rookie prospect. That is very impressive for an offensive lineman.

Perhaps the most descriptive draft profile passage was found on NFL Draft Buzz:

“Ultimately, Limmers draft journey embodies the classic risk-reward scenario for teams in the market for interior linemen. His collegiate success and combine showings hint at a high ceiling, provided he can bulk up and polish the rough edges in his game. For the team that calls his name on draft day, investing in his development could unlock a linchpin player capable of anchoring their line for years to come.”
– NFL Draft Buzz

So why did he fall? Well, among the polished offensive linemen options, Limmer presented himself as a bit raw. After all, his pure power allowed him to dominate the competition he faced. But in the NFL, he will need to refine his technique, and is already on his way to doing so.

Keys from/synopsis of last post: focus on the secondary. The collected quotations in this synopsis will get a bit repetitive which is part of the point. This stuff explains why they loaded up on versatile veterans in the seconary: 

The “Fangio Defense” will always employ a two-high shells look before the snap. The two-high structure allows for flexibility in the secondary. The Fangio Defense uses the appearance of simplicity while encompassing a plethora of coverages, pressures, and assignments. …

his teams are known to be light on blitzing and with a structure based around two high safeties. These looks are predicated on stopping deep, explosive gains and living with shorter, underneath completions.

Though the Fangio Defense uses different matching rules and variations within coverage that combine man and zone coverages

From its two-high alignment, the defense can rotate into a variety of zone and man coverages.

One of the key features of Fangio’s defense is how everything looks similar before the snap.

Figuring out the coverage before the snap informs quarterbacks where they should look first and how to progress from read to read. Making the coverage look the same puts more pressure on quarterbacks to compute more information after the snap.

from https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2024/7/5/24192754/rams-depth-chart-offensive-line-steve-avila-andrew-whitworth?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=turfshowtimes&utm_campaign=socialflow
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OTAs the Rams voiced a lot of confidence in Avila as he makes the switch. Offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur voiced that nothing is ever too big for Avila and that the spring is all about learning opportunities. Sean McVay added to that by saying,

“He’s done a really good job. He’s really smart, really conscientious. I think (Offensive Line Coach) Ryan Wendell has done a great job of being able to teach him the big picture because of the amount of communication that is required of that center position. And then obviously having Matthew there is a huge bonus to be able to lean on him.”

zn wrote:

% of 3rd down incompletions which were due to receiver error:

28% – Joe Burrow

27% – Kyler Murray

26% – Matthew Stafford

I just think that was a combination of things, all unique to 2023. Higbee and Kupp being beat up when they were on the field and not their normal selves. Nacua actually being a rookie in certain ways in spite of not really being one in other spectacular ways. Robinson not really playing till the 2nd half of the season. Atwell not really being a solid 3rd or 4th WR type.

Zooey wrote:

Well, alright. I see that, and I agree with it. She is not an academic voice. It’s armchair op-ed kind of stuff, and a careful, responsible voice wouldn’t use the term “dementia” without meaning dementia. You know, I think that if I was reading that with my teacher hat on, I would stop a student in their tracks right there, too.

Well that’s a good reply. And I think implicitly you’re suggesting you like that genre of political writing more than I do. Which is fair. I think in this discussion I got set off. Thinking about it, I sort of realized I got set off because of the stories from my wife’s work. Mixed in with all the normal “X patient did this or that” stories are the stories of uncomprehending kids of elderly patients who are awful to parents with dementia. They do awful things either because they are inconvenienced by it, or insist the parent has it when they don’t, or deny they have it when they do (there are also many stories that contain those 3 listed elements that are also not horrible at all).

And speaking of genres I don’t respond to that well, to be honest, when I read my own “got set off” writing, I kind of cringe a bit. It’s not that I need to be rational all the time…it’s that my more irrational moments, aren’t good ones in my own eyes. I read people all the time who are really good when they’re set off. My being set-off makes me think I crossed lines I actually respect.

from: https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2024/7/2/24190991/rams-offensive-line-rankings-brandon-thorn

The Los Angeles Rams have invested more capital into the interior of their offensive line than any other team in the NFL recently, so you would hope that they have a top-5 guard and center trio going into the 2024 season. According to Brandon Thorn, a respected expert on offensive line play and author of the Trench Warfare newsletter on Substack, that’s exactly what the Rams have now.
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On The Athletic Football podcast, Thorn was asked to give four teams who aren’t getting enough respect and his final answer was the L.A. Rams:

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“I think this offensive line could be very good and that’s the Rams, that really starts with the interior offensive line which has a care this year going in to be one of the five best interior lines in the league. There’s a little bit of projection there with Steve Avila moving to center but he played center more at TCU than left guard, so I think that shouldn’t be too difficult of a transition for him. Then you have one of the biggest centers in the NFL, which is kind of cool, especially for what they want to do.”

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Thorn then goes onto talk about Jonah Jackson as a good signing as long as he’s healthy, and Kevin Dotson, giving the Rams “the most physically imposing interior in the entire NFL in terms of run blocking and considering what McVay has morphed into with this duo lead run game, this could be a lot of fun this year.”

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He then calls Rob Havenstein “unspectacular, but solid” and says that while A.J. Jackson has questions in pass protection, but is a “powerful run blocker”.

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Thorn not only sees the Rams as having a good offensive line in its own right, but that McVay finally has the right pieces in place to do what he wants to do in the run game with Kyren Williams and Blake Corum. That’s what could make the Rams a very dangerous team in the NFC.

Zooey wrote:

I think there are signals that he is headed in that direction, and maybe that’s where we disagree

Yeah that is where we disagree.

For example about 40% of people will have some memory loss after they are 65, but only a minority of those are quickly moving toward severe impairment, let alone dementia. (And there are other sign of the severe stuff.) And that kind of memory loss does not mean that the person in question is suffering from an overall, general, simultaneous severe decline.

However, again, that isn’t in itself an argument to “vote for Biden.” Even if I wanted it to be. Someone can decide that their idea of a president is someone younger who does not have those kinds of ordinary geriatric psycholgy issues and therefore has a more compelling preseence.

I agree with the  “imperial murder machine” stuff. That’s been true for a couple of centuries. Though I have to admit, that kind of bumper sticker diction never works with me. It just sounds like the extreme right turned upside down. I prefer lucid analysis. And of course people know the president doesn’t really run the country, but then…everything the Supreme Court is doing illustrates the fact that presidents actually can actually can have profound effects on our own lives and history. It’s not a simple thing. Johnson did a lot of awful stuff but then Thurgood Marshall was a blessing. There was nothing fake about that and the results have often mattered…even if they are always very mixed results.

I was just arguing though with her statement that the current president has dementia–which she did flat say. In fact her whole statement depends on that. See the president really does have dementia and that just proves that the homogenous oligarchy runs it all. To me that (again) just sounds like a Maga argument, but upside down. (As Chomsky points out, the oligarchy is frequently divided against itself.) To me it’s just bumper sticker talk and again, I tend to avoid people who talk like that, it just just feels creepy as opposed to enlightening or useful. And that admittedly let alone obviously, is not an argument either–it’s just personal taste.

I prefer it when the left acts like a big alliance. And in the present they all to different degrees really do recognize that the post-war empire was not a gift to the world. She strikes me as being a purist type who is always deliberately and judgmentally driving people away for not being “party oriented” enough. What I’ve never seen from her is dialogue. That’s just personal taste too so I will hereafter just drop it. 😎 Let a thousand flowers bloom.