from PFF: https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/fantasy-football-darrell-henderson-long-term-fantasy-stock-is-sky-high-with-the-rams

YARDS AFTER CONTACT PER ATTEMPT

Yards per carry is an imperfect metric that fails to divorce offensive line play from running back play. Yards after contact per attempt, however, adds more context and gives a more accurate representation of a runner’s ability with the ball in his hands, independent of the blocking in front of him.

Since we began tracking college players in 2014, there have been 1,332 instances of a running back totaling at least 65 carries in a single season. Of those 1,332 seasons, Henderson’s 2018 season (on 214 attempts) ranks best in yards after contact per attempt (6.16). His 2017 season (on 128 attempts) ranks second-best (5.60).

Among all running back seasons with at least 200 carries,Henderson’s 2018 season is 21.8% better than the next-best season on record.

Add it all up, and Henderson might not get a bell-cow workload in Year 1, but his ability and landing spot add up to a sky-high long-term potential.

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PFF: Rams invested in depth at key positions in the 2019 NFL Draft, set themselves up for long-term success

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-rams-invested-in-depth-at-key-positions-in-the-2019-nfl-draft-set-themselves-up-for-long-term-success

After losing to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl last season, the Los Angeles Rams were in the enviable position of not having any glaring needs come draft day. As such, they moved back three times before their first selection came with the 61st overall pick. When Friday night ended, the Rams had added four players on Day 2 in an effort to build out depth throughout the roster. Even without needs, the path to seeing the field for each may come sooner rather than later.

Washington safety Taylor Rapp was the first name written on a Rams draft card this year, and with the Eric Weddle signing, it’s a position that doesn’t necessarily qualify as an immediate need. That is if the Washington star really stays at safety.

Rapp is not only one of the draft’s most effective box safeties, but he’s also going to a defense that has employed former safety Mark Barron at linebacker the past five seasons. At 212 pounds, Rapp could more than hold his own in such a role. Last season, Rapp earned an 89.8 coverage grade, allowing only eight catches on 18 targets for two first downs.

From there, the Rams selected the best outside-zone runner in the draft class – the concept which the Rams ran more of than any other team in the NFL last season. On 53 outside zone runs over the past two seasons, Darrell Henderson gained 569 yards and broke 16 tackles. His 10.7 yards per carry on those runs led the nation. Scheme fits don’t get too much better than that.

The Rams wrapped up the third round with a couple of PFF favorites. David Long was the single-most lockdown cornerback in the country over the past two seasons. He fell due to size concerns, but it didn’t matter at Michigan, where he allowed all of 18 catches over the two-year span. While the Rams have three established starters in place, both Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib’s contracts expire after this season. He’ll likely see work in dime packages right out the gate.

Oklahoma tackle Bobby Evans capped off the day as the Rams addressed another value position. His own Sooners thought enough of him in 2017 to start him over early-second round pick Cody Ford at right tackle. That year, he earned an 86.2 overall grade while going 80.0-plus in both run and pass blocking. Evans kicked over to the left side in 2018, though, and struggled mightily with the transition – something we’ve seen regularly in our grading with offensive lineman making such a switch. His hands were a mess flipping sides, and he routinely opened the door inside for opposing defenders. However, the talent we saw in 2017 didn’t just go away, and he now has valuable practice to be the Rams’ swing tackle.

It was a draft strategy that we here at PFF can applaud wholesale. Instead of seeing their Super Bowl demise and thinking they were one impact player away from changing their fate in 2019, Les Snead recognized that their window is longer than simply this season. The Rams filled out the roster with depth that can step right in if injury luck swings against their favor next season and will set them up to deal with players retiring or leaving in free agency down the line.

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Big time. Nickell Robey-Coleman kept his promise to his mom, who passed away before he left for college, and just earned his degree from USC.

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Adam Schefter@AdamSchefter
Dolphins are signing CB Xavien Howard to a record five-year, $76.5 million extension that includes $46M guaranteed, making him the highest paid CB in the NFL, sources tell ESPN. It’s the largest extension for a CB. Since becoming a 2nd-round pick, Howard has gone to one Pro Bowl.

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Interesting market to monitor if you’re Rams CB Marcus Peters, who is going into the final season of his rookie contract. Peters has 22 career interceptions, is a two-time Pro Bowl selection, one-time All-Pro and 2015 Defensive ROY.

Originally this was in a different thread but it belongs here.

Hanifan, Boudreau, Kromer … OL coaches & drafting linemen

I don’t know how much responsibility these guys had in particular drafts, but as a rule, OL coaches are heavily involved in picking linemen at draft time. I’ve said before that Kromer is good at it (and has been for a while) so let’s do the numbers.

With Kromer, I do his years as the OL coach in Oakland (2002-2004), New Orleans (2009-2012), Chicago (2013-2014), and Buffalo (2015-2016). That’s 11 years. I don’t do every year for Hanifan and Boudreau. With Hanifan, it’s with Washington (1990-96) and the Rams (97-2003)…which is 14 years. With Boudreau I do his first stint with the Rams (2006-7), his stint with the Falcons (2008-2011), and his 2nd stint with the Rams (2012-2016)…which is 11 years.

I count as hits players who became starters at one point and stuck in the league as starters. I don’t do career back-ups.

With that criteria I get this:

Hanifan, 21 OL drafted, 6 hits 28.6% (including Pace and Tucker…he was better w/Vermeil there).
Boudreau, 18 OL drafted, 7 hits. 38.9%
Kromer, 12 OL drafted, 9 hits. 75%.

Though with Kromer, in his last 4 years before the Rams–with Chicago and Buffalo (2013-2016)–he’s 100% (4 for 4).

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JackPMiller wrote:

I’m hearing that Dak Prescott is on the verge of signing a contract that is going to be worth $30 Million per year. I’m guessing the guaranteed money is the only thing that needs to be worked out.

30 M sounds like the market number for qbs up for 2nd contracts. Last year it was around 28 M.

Agamemnon wrote:

once he makes his cut, he’s decisive and extremely hard to bring down, which makes him a perfect fit for the Rams’ outside zone system.

More on that:

.

One of interesting things about this is the 'vision' it takes to run OZ effectively is different from a lot of run concepts. Some backs simply don't have the discipline to hold the line, make one cut, and get upfield. Henderson obviously does. I fux with the vision pic.twitter.com/C4pd24i99s

— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) May 8, 2019

IMO this article is a big deal and an important read.

Even though Benoit squanders a lot of it.

My own take: McVay didn’t have the kind of confidence he needed for this one game, and that filtered down into the offensive players. In contrast, Wade has beaten BB before (eg. 2015 championship game, where Denver held Brady to a 56.5 qb rating) and his confidence was felt by the defense.

Xs and Os are important, but while the complaint about LA is that they ran a predictable offense the Patz had figured out, on the other side of the coin the defensive players say the Patz offense did nothing really new or different and in fact they were prepared for pretty much everything New England did.

In some ways McVay got ahead of himself in terms of team development, so they won a lot and ended up in situations they actually weren’t ready for. The same kind of hesitant offense we saw against Atlanta in 2017 showed up in the superbowl in 2018. Meanwhile we did not see the Atlanta game when the Rams played either Dallas or New Orleans in the playoffs. (For that matter compare the Vikes game in 2017 to the 2018 Vikes game.) McVay’s great virtue I think will not be that he’s so innovative, though there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s that he will learn from mistakes. I don’t know for sure how true that is yet but I have a hunch it’s pretty true.

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Silver (vid, last post): Matthews not happy with the Packers. All that aside, the news: Colts and Ravens were interested in him but he took less to play with the Rams.