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znModerator
znModeratorTook over Tampa team near bottom of NFL in spending & won 10 games in 2010. Bucs didn’t have another 10 win season between 2006 & Tom Brady
Falcons have requested to interview him so they must think he can be more than the interim
Why dont you say what you actually want to say https://t.co/XjNsuuIGZq
— Kevin Demoff (@kdemoff) January 13, 2024
znModeratorBlaine Grisak@bgrisakTSTRams safety Quentin Lake ranks fifth in yards per snap in the slot and fourth in fewest yards allowed.znModeratorBoth teams got exactly what they wanted from it.
Thomas Shelby@ramsfan1987Both is the only right answer. LA got a ring and Stafford looks to be lasting longer than most expected, playing at this level in 2024, and the Lions got a QB on the rise and picks to make the team better. Both would be worse off without the trade.znModeratorroberto clemente@rclemente2121most wins by a rams hc: mcvay passed knox in wk13 vs cle and is now only 2 gms behind j.robinson – if the rams reach/win the cc gm, mcvay will become the rams all-time win leader. most games coached by a rams hc: mcvay can tie knox w/ a win today, and pass him next week.znModeratorPro Football Reference@pfrefThe winning starting quarterback of today’s Lions/Rams matchup will become the first quarterback ever to win a playoff game against a team for which he previously started a playoff game.znModeratorIt may have something to do with Brad Holmes and Les Snead. 2 of the top-5 GM’s in the league. https://t.co/bnABA5zrPD pic.twitter.com/83VTFc4wgA
— Rams Brothers (@RamsBrothers) January 14, 2024
znModeratorI'm shocked at how often the Browns' defense not only served up C.J. Stroud's preferred single-high coverage on a platter, but gave Stroud no disguise and late movement to work though. Very static with easy reads, and Stroud made some THROWS. pic.twitter.com/8JwNKmkOiD
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) January 14, 2024
znModeratorPatrick Mahomes, who is 28 years old and is in his 6th year as a starter, now has more playoff wins than Aaron Rodgers.
— nick wright (@getnickwright) January 14, 2024
znModeratorA message for Matthew Stafford from @Eminem. pic.twitter.com/LJO3np0xSw
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 14, 2024
znModeratorHere are my favorite comments on Wms from this thread. In fact I think this is the best thread on Wms in the entire internet.
Consistently runs with the right tempo to let blocks develop. Has the burst to plant his foot and take advantage of holes created….He will press the hole when needed or throttle back to allow his blocks to develop….quickness and burst to take advantage of holes created
i like especially that he’s so efficient with his touches.
kyren is the biggest revelation of this offense.
The Rams averaged 14.25 points per game, and were 1-3 without Williams. With Williams, the Rams have averaged 26.375/game, and are 5-3. It appears that he is a difference-maker in this offense.
Kyren is the best red zone weapon that the Rams have had in quite some time.
I’m just astonished at how he quick-slithers through traffic, and then bursts.
Williams and Nakua are, like, all-pros at this point. Seriously. Amazing.
In some ways Williams is the most interesting/fun RB to watch/analyze in a long time.
Great vision and contact balance. Makes a ton of good decisions on the fly, and tacklers miss him going through the hole.
just constantly putting the offense in favorable situations to keep them in rhythm.
roberto clemente@rclemente2121 k.williams ranks #1 in run success rate among all rb for 2023 – he also ranks #1 for the 2010-2023 fourteen-year stretch.
I cant remember ‘enjoying’ watching ‘the way’ a RB runs this much since Faulk. And since Faulk had more talent, its almost ‘more’ fun to watch KW because he’s doing it with less raw-measurable-talent. Its often a subtle nuanced talent. And it took me a while to ‘see it.’ But once you see it, you just have to smile on almost every run. Whether its a one yard gain or a fifteen yard gain he’s ‘do’in shit’ out there.
January 14, 2024 at 12:43 am in reply to: hiring/firing around the league (including Carroll & Belichick) #148664znModeratorWhen was the last time a player threatened to req a trade if a specific coach wasn't hired?
Seems a pretty big deal. https://t.co/hnozoEZBfy
— Sam Monson (@PFF_Sam) January 13, 2024
znModeratorKevin Dotson proved to be one of the best trades in the NFL this year. The former Steeler had his best season yet and was deserving of all the accolades. Dotson
Dotson graded one of the top Guards in the league according to @PFF.
I love his ability to finish plays! Great motor pic.twitter.com/fFg2dTEfLv
— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) January 13, 2024
znModeratorI mean WTF does one do with that ? What is he? He’s like….a platypus. w v
Yeah Foles is a weird one. In a different way so is Wentz. For some of the same reasons and some different reasons.
I delve into the arcane reaches of knowledge in discussing Foles, and using a combination of advanced physics, French crimonology, and the Japanese samurai code, I have deduced that the most significant and scientifically rigorous term we can use to describe his career is—
“streaky”
I can show the math if you want but I assume that won’t be necessary.
…
znModeratorbut i wouldn’t even consider him a veteran starting caliber qb.
“Starting caliber” can be and mostly is assigned retrospectively. We say that kind of thing about a qb after they prove that’s what they are. Or we say they’re not, after they prove they’re not.
You can maybe guess that about him beforehand (which DV did–that’s why he wouldn’t budge on him being the #2 in spite of Martz not wanting that).
But we know a qb is that by how they played, past tense. So it’s retrospective.
Either way the question wv asked was, was he a veteran. And I say yes. By which I just mean he wasn’t a rookie. Far from it in fact. He wasn’t a rookie when he started his first game in 99. Absolutely not.
Some argue Goff could have been better as a rookie if he had a decent offensive coaching staff. Which is probably true.
Nevertheless all the gray areas aside, that’s 65 games with qb issues. The one year that maybe people can argue about is 2016. That would make it 58 games without a starting caliber qb.
If I even forget about Goff, Fisher had OL issues and/or no starting caliber qb for 58 games, and in that span he went 24/34, a winning percentage of 41.3%.
McVay had severe ongoing issues at qb and/or OL for 16 games in 2022. He went 5-12. A winning percentage of 29.4%.
Is Fisher a better coach than McVay? No one ever says so. And quite rightly. BUT. He would have done better than he did if he had both a starting caliber qb and a relatively healthy OL for more than just 15 of 73 games (not counting Goff’s starts in 2016). This is reinforced by the fact that even the better coach, McVay, did not do as well as Fisher did under those particular adverse circumstances. 41.3% v. 29.4% under the same specific conditions.
Neither a Fisher nor a McVay does well under those conditions. Why? Because pretty much no one does.
Without those conditions Fisher probably would have won more than he did. Which is not saying he’s as good a coach as McVay. McVay is better than virtually every Rams coach except IMO Vermeil, and to me Vermeil and McVay have different strengths and they’re a tie.
znModeratorBut to the larger point about Fisher, yeah, he was kilt by injuries. Fisher could have been Robinson-level I think, without the bad-luck.
I agree with that.
As for this, it gets into all sorts of gray areas:
Well, DV had Kurt. Do you consider him a veteran in 99?
Yes. I do. He wasn’t a veteran starter before 99 but he was no newbie. By 99 Kurt had been in a Green Bay training camp his rookie year (94). From 95 through 98 he played in the Arena league and then in NFL Europe. In 98 he was a Ram and went through a whole training camp and then was on the final roster all season. In 99 Martz didn’t want Warner as the #2 qb and DV insisted (in fact it’s Martz who tells that story). So Vermeil had some sense of what he could handle.
In the 99 season Warner was a 28 year old who last played college ball in 1993 and had played in 2 other leagues and had been to 3 NFL training camps. So he kind of defies our categories.
i wouldn’t consider goff to have been a grizzled veteran qb either at the time.
When I usually discuss this as I have for years I am very precise about saying “veteran starting caliber” qb. I mean this point has come up before with Rams fans who harbor absolutely no good feelings about Fisher so any even tepid little defense like the one I offer sets off firestorms, or has done so anyway. So over the years I was very precise about saying veteran starting caliber qb. The way I was using the term “veteran starting caliber qb,” it excludes pure rookies. And as phrased it excludes anyone who was basically not good enough to get and maintain a starting qb role (Clemens, Hill, Austin, Keenum, Mannion, Wolford, Perkins, and Rypien to name a few starting in 2015). IMO it also excludes Foles. Since it’s a retrospective designation, it can include both Warner and Bulger as “starting caliber” since in fact, they were. (And neither was a starter as a rookie.)
Is Wentz a starting caliber qb? I would argue that like Jeff George he brought a lot of controversy with him where he went but still should be considered starting caliber. Wentz also got injured a lot. Banks in the end, in contrast, proved he wasn’t a starting caliber qb.
Maybe a simpler way to put this is a franchise qb. That is someone who came back multiple times as a starter and was seen as such until the end.
Who is a franchise qb by that definition? Warner, Green, Bulger, Bradford, Goff, Stafford, and Mayfield. Of those, 2 were elite (Warner, Stafford) and 4 proved to be good to very good (Green, Bulger, Goff, Mayfield).
Controversial? Are they or not? Foles and Wentz.
Absolutely not? Clemens, Hill, Austin, Keenum, Mannion, Wolford, Perkins, and Rypien.
znModeratorMy favorite performance against Detroit may always be @sj39 willing the Rams to victory in 2009. Both teams were desperate for a Win but I don’t think anybody was going to deny Steven Jackson this day.
Hard to believe but Matthew Stafford was there to witness as a rookie QB pic.twitter.com/6LF73fQyz2
— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) January 12, 2024
znModeratorBlaine Grisak @bgrisakTSTWhen Stafford, Williams, Nacua, and Kupp are on the field together, the Rams average .18 EPA per play…That’s tied for the 9th-highest mark since the 2000 season..With a .16 EPA per designed rush, the Rams are tied for 1st since 2000.znModeratorBlaine Grisak@bgrisakTSTAaron Donald is now an 8x first-team all-pro which is the same as Lawrence Taylor and Reggie White. Cemented among the Greatest of All-Time!znModeratorStu Jackson@StuJRamsRams DT Aaron Donald named First-Team All-Pro, WR Puka Nacua and RB Kyren Williams Second-Team All-Pro by Associated Press:.
It's so cool to see these young bucks get their just recognition around the NFL landscape..
Congratulations on being named NFL All-Pro's @AsapPuka and @Kyrenwilliams23!!! pic.twitter.com/q4KapXRXRd
— SeattleRams (@seattlerams_nfl) January 12, 2024
znModeratorLions … are currently blitzing at a 35.2% clip on third and fourth down, the second-highest behind only the aforementioned Giants.
Blaine Grisak@bgrisakTSTRams starters weren’t very sharp in Week 17 against a Giants defense that blitzed heavily. Over the back-half of the season, the Lions went from 17th in blitz-rate to 4th. On 3rd and 4th down, they are behind only Wink Martindale. Stafford is 14th against the blitz in 2023.znModeratorI should be more cognizant of Allen, but he was before my Rams Fan time. I started with 70s Knox.
I can’t comment on him because my rule is I have to see them. But that doesn’t mean I dismiss him. It’s just a restriction on what I personally feel I can say. But I listen to people who point out all his virtues as a coach.
For the people from my time, as I said I put DV and McV in a tie and at the same time don’t quibble if somebody favors one.
Afterwards for me come 70s Knox, Robinson, and Martz. Martz was more dynamic and innovative and successful than the other 2, but Martz was also toxic in some ways, and was hampered by the ascent of Zygmunt.
Then a tier down, Fisher. Fisher could have done better if he ever had both a relatively healthy OL and a veteran starting caliber qb at the same time. Out of 80 games with the Rams he had both things at the same time for 15 games. He;s absolutely not DV/McV level, but then neither DV nor McV excelled when in the same bad circumstances–ie. not having both a good veteran starting caliber qb and a relatively healthy OL at the same time (that covers 98 and 2022).
The bottom of the barrel guys are–in alphabetical and so actually no particular order–Brooks, Knox 2, Linehan, and Spagnola. It is true that both Lineola and Spagehan dealt with qb and OL injuries on massive scales, but, they had profound issues as head coaches too. With them, it goes this far with me–there were things I didn’t like about either of those 2 as head coaches, so even if they had relatively healthy teams with healthy qbs, and won some games, I would still downgrade them. Spagnola is a top coordinator (Chiefs) but he wasn’t head coach material back then and most likely won’t be in the future. Linehan was just a bad Zygmunt hire. IMO Zygmunt just wanted a placid yes-man as a balance against his years with the more combative Martz. IMO it’s a good policy to downgrade anything that suited Zygmunt.
znModeratorThis is from the full article (by Tice), which is here: Rams “reset” is ahead of schedule
This bit is about the Lions game and so fits here too:
The Lions went from blitzing at the 17th-highest rate in the first half of the season to the fourth-highest rate and are currently blitzing at a 35.2% clip on third and fourth down, the second-highest behind only the aforementioned Giants.
The Lions defense will also be an interesting matchup for this Rams unit. Because while this Lions unit still ranks just 24th in combined explosive and successful play rate since their bye week, they rank ninth in success rate defending the run against three-wide-receiver personnel groupings. That’s what the Rams run almost exclusively (more than 95% of their snaps). But in the Rams’ favor, the Lions are pretty poor in defending the duo run concept, allowing the fourth-most EPA per play against it.
The Lions pass defense can still be up and down and is always susceptible to explosive plays because of the preference for playing man coverage or blitzing, which could play right into Stafford’s hands (no quarterback loves to gash blitzing defensive coordinators more than Stafford). But being simple is also a no-go against a thrower of Stafford’s caliber. It will be an interesting chess match to watch play out in the passing game, with the run game coming down to how quickly the inconsistent Lions linebackers can fill the run (or how Glenn can change the picture on the Rams offensive line). Luckily for the Lions, the one gigantic thorn in their side this year, having to defend out of their base defense with three linebackers, will likely not be a thing picked on by the Rams and their light personnel groupings.
But this is why Rams general manager Les Snead and McVay traded for Stafford and why the Rams have evolved their attack. The potential questions or roadblocks that might have faced this offense (and team) before not only have answers but now have definitive answers. They have the ability to not only pivot but also excel at whatever they want to pivot to. It has led the Rams to the playoffs with a real chance to make some noise.
znModeratorfrom Lions writer: https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2024/1/11/24029804/rams-lions-preview-dan-campbell-betting-odds
Q: The Rams obviously know QB Jared Goff well given he spent his first five seasons in LA. Goff has played well in his third year with the Lions, passing for 4,575 yards and 30 touchdowns. Despite that, turnovers have been a major issue for him in the second half. What would be the ideal defensive gameplan for the Rams to slow down Goff and the Detroit offense to have any chance at an upset?
A: Pressure, pressure, pressure. Moving him off of his spot is the key to rattling Jared Goff because there’s not much to his game when he’s out of rhythm and left creating out of structure. Teams that can generate that push from the interior can especially make life very difficult for the Lions passing game.
From Week 11 through Week 14, Goff turned over the football nine times (five interceptions, four fumbles), and it was a product of pressure. In 2023, Goff finished t-8th in turnover-worthy play rate (5.4%) when under pressure, and the seven quarterbacks ahead of him aren’t the kind of company you want to keep: Mac Jones, Desmond Ridder, Gardner Minshew, Trevor Lawrence, Joshua Dobbs, Sam Howell, and Jake Browning. Goff’s six touchdowns to nine interceptions when under pressure sit in stark contrast to the 24 touchdowns and just three interceptions when kept clean.
But before you can get to Goff, you need to slow down the Lions dynamic rushing attack of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, two players who each accumulated over 1,100 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns. If the Rams struggle against the run, where they ranked 20th in DVOA, they’ll have less opportunities to get after Goff in the third-and-long situations they’d prefer to put him in.</p>
January 12, 2024 at 8:54 am in reply to: hiring/firing around the league (including Carroll & Belichick) #148639znModeratorWhat a quick rise it's been for Mayo. Awesome to see.
Also, he's now the youngest head coach in the NFL (by a month!), taking the title from Sean McVay. https://t.co/wZAjHPCVeA
— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) January 12, 2024
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Ian Rapoport@RapSheetWhile so much of the focus was on Mike Vrabel, the internal focus for the #Patriots was always on Jerod Mayo. It was written into his contract that he would be the successor to Bill Belichick. Now, he will be.znModeratori think at least in the example of gould i think more than anything it was the experience he brought. samples came in last year as a 28 year old i think. it sounded more like he was in over his head.
Some material from “the archive.”
Bit 1:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/story/2023-09-22/sean-mcvay-rams-cam-akers-trade-vikings
McVay had moved the much-respected Thomas Brown from running backs coach to tight ends to bolster the assistant’s resume in pursuit of an offensive coordinator job. McVay replaced him with Ra’Shaad Samples, a young coach with no NFL experience.
Early in the season, McVay called out Akers for a lack of intensity. He later exiled Akers for several games and the Rams unsuccessfully tried to trade him.
By December, Samples was encouraged to move on for an opportunity at Arizona State. Brown resumed coaching running backs and Akers finished the season by rushing for more than 100 yards in three straight games.
Last February, the Carolina Panthers hired Brown as offensive coordinator, and McVay hired Ron Gould as running backs coach.
Bit 2. This bit is a transcript from a Rodrigue podcast. The immediate topic here was, how the Rams had to rush to replace coaches after the super bowl in 2021, which meant they started later than usual:
He started to hire people who were green who he thought he could mold to be an extension of his own thinking on the kinds of core things he wants to do. Samples, the RB coach, came up. Brown was moved out of the RB room and then the issues start and (Rodrigue strongly implies) Samples wasn’t up to it. The RB room imploded. Now they didn’t have a coach with the tools to solve that (they then moved Brown back to RB). A lot of this also had to do with the fact that because they went to the super bowl, the position coaches McV wanted weren’t there anymore.
znModeratorznModeratorznModerator
January 11, 2024 at 8:28 pm in reply to: hiring/firing around the league (including Carroll & Belichick) #148627znModeratorI’m pretty comfortable saying Belichex was one of, if not the, greatest ‘defensive minds’ of the modern NFL. I think there’s a consensus on that.
Bellichick was a great D coach, no question.
(Now I am going into huddle style fake “outraged homer” mode, for fun).
But I will tell you what your beloved Bellichick never did. He never took his team to the playoffs with the league’s worst special teams unit. Worst in all phases. And with a tanking, beat-up old quarterback on top of it.
So maybe he’s not the greatest coach of all time after all.
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