It’s interesting to hear all these guys sound so confidently informed when half the time or more they’re just running on empty.

Like the idea that the Saints 2 tackles will help negate AD and Suh. (?) Well maybe when they’re both playing end.

Or the idea that the Rams played only 2 contenders so far. Depends I suppose on what you mean. So far they have played 2 4-3 teams (Minn, Seattle) and a 5-2 team (Chargers). GB is struggling for them but you can’t count them out.

I know that “refuting the other teams’s fans” can sound just like them. But while this is a confident sounding bunch, as often as not they don’t really know much about the Rams. For example some are still doing the “Goff is a system qb” thing.

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Daily Dose: How Dante Fowler Can Help L.A.

https://www.therams.com/news/daily-dose-how-dante-fowler-can-help-l-a

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Quotes & Notes 10/31/18: Dante Fowler’s First Day as a Ram

https://www.therams.com/news/quotes-notes-10-31-18-dante-fowler-s-first-day-as-a-ram

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My early story on Rams' trade for Dante Fowler: https://t.co/5q1R6GSNMH

— Rich Hammond (@Rich_Hammond) October 30, 2018

from The Logic Behind the Biggest Deals at the 2018 NFL Trade Deadline

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/31/nfl-trade-deadline-2018-takeaways-analysis

Rams get: DE/OLB Dante Fowler
Jaguars get: 2019 third-round pick, ’20 fifth-round pick

Los Angeles logic: The Rams’ greatest need was for an edge rusher, and injuries to Morgan Fox and Dominique Easley only heightened that. And in the team’s view, the price point made sense. The pick is conditional—it’ll be the highest compensatory selection or, if they don’t get third-round comp picks, the team’s slotted third-rounder. And they feel confident they’ll have comp threes, plural—one for Sammy Watkins, and another for Trumaine Johnson.

In that case, they’d lose a pick in the low 90s, and still have three picks in the first three rounds (their second-rounder belongs to Kansas City as part of the Marcus Peters trade). And if they let Fowler go in March, they’ll get a 2020 comp pick coming back.

There’s also the belief that getting away out of Florida will have a good affect on Fowler’s maturation (we’ll get into that in a minute). And his experience in college standing up and moving up and down the line make him a pretty decent match for what Wade Phillips asks of his outside linebackers.

Jacksonville logic: Remember when Jalen Ramsey got suspended? That wasn’t just about a fight or a tweet, but it was also a warning shot to the locker room. And consider this another. The makeup of the team has become combustible, and it’s the big personalities—like Ramsey, Yannick Ngakoue and Fowler—that make it that way.

So along with the fact that the Jaguars simply weren’t going to pay him as a top edge rusher, which made these known to be his final months as a Jaguar, there’s an element of addition by subtraction here at a position that’s strong regardless.

The Jaguars still really like Fowler as a person, and he has matured some from the kid who drew a bevy of fines in his first couple years, with a long history of unforced errors (like being late). But he still wasn’t there the Jags wanted him, and privately they agree with the Rams’ assessment that leaving his home state could help him.

The other blunt truth here is that he just wasn’t as effective as the other two. Ramsey has played 99% of the team’s defensive snaps this year, Ngakoue is at 70% and Fowler, who doesn’t play special teams, is at 32%. Add that together, and the idea of moving what would’ve been a decent comp pick up a year and tacking on a fifth-rounder in 2020 makes plenty of sense.

Jared Goff has the highest rate of attempts when time to throw is greater than 2.50 seconds (75.1%) among quarterbacks this season.

Goff has had time to extend plays with the help of his o-line. He’s been pressured on just 21.1% of those plays, 2nd-lowest rate in NFL.#LARams pic.twitter.com/diQ53uEsyn

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) November 1, 2018

Happy Halloween

Is this a rental?

Cause 2nd contracts for both pass-rushing 3/4 OLBs and 3/4 DEs are around 17 M. Though Fowler could be less for a lot of reasons, but not a whole lot less.

If he shows something in the rest of 2018 that could be what he’s seen as being worth in 2019.

So do they pay that? Or say good bye and add a guy in the draft or free agency this off-season? Or both?

…

Albert Breer@AlbertBreer
The 3rd-round pick the Rams sent to the Jags was designed to be the middle of three 3rd-rounders. The condition on the trade: it’s either the team’s natural 3 or highest comp 3. And LA expects to get comp 3s for Trumaine Johnson and Sammy Watkins.

Dan Hatman@Dan_Hatman
The beauty of their offseason build was their additions came from trades/cap cuts which allows for them to still get comps for their losses, which they are clearly using to keep working to win this season.

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Mike Clay
ESPN Writer

New Rams edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr. is a big upgrade over the likes of Samson Ebukam, Matt Longacre and John Franklin-Myers. Fowler had lined up exclusively at DE in Jacksonville’s 4-3 this season, but could align more at OLB in Wade Phillips’ 3-4. Either way, his job will be to rush the passer. Fowler had only played 38 percent of the Jaguars’ defensive snaps, when active, this season, so it will be interesting to see how he fares with more work. Meanwhile, 2018 first-round pick Taven Bryan will step into a larger role on the edge with Fowler out of the mix in Jacksonville.

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Bill Barnwell
ESPN Staff Writer

2015 third overall pick Dante Fowler never panned out for the Jaguars, as a torn ACL, off-field issues, and the emergence of Yannick Ngakoue kept the Florida product from reaching pre-draft expectations. Fowler did have eight sacks in 2017, but he has just two sacks with one quarterback knockdown this year. The Jaguars turned down Fowler’s fifth-year option before the year and now send him to the Rams for third- and fifth-round picks, netting Los Angeles badly-needed help on the edge. A hot stretch run from Fowler could net the Rams a compensatory pick in 2020, but this is a lot to pay for a half-season of a player who has been inconsistent as a pro.

Five Things to Know about OLB Dante Fowler

https://www.therams.com/news/five-things-to-know-about-olb-dante-fowler

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Albert Breer@AlbertBreer
DE Dante Fowler had become a combustible piece in a combustible locker room in Jacksonville, which colors the asking price for him dropping over the last couple months.

—

Jaguars cut bait with 'disappointment' Fowler https://t.co/dZHbtD0Dc9

— RamsNewsNow (@RamsNewsNow) October 31, 2018

wv wrote:

The Rams will go 11-0. And then lose three in a row. And in the playoffs, the NFL will make them play the Vikings in the snow, in Minnesota. And the Rams will blow a 17-7 half-time lead, and lose 23-20. And life will never be the same.

w
v

I am going to predict Seattle.

They’re tougher than people think, and it’s a division game, and they will have more at stake (wildcard), and the Rams have beaten them when they were the lesser team so it’s karma.

As for the rest of the league, Rams will incinerate them like a processed meat product in some industrial facility’s catastrophic conflagration event.