I am glad they resigned Curl. I was hoping they would. I would also like to keep Durant. I’d let Witherspoon and especially Williams go at this point, and invest in some draft picks/UDFAs back there.

A common point that emerges in all of these blabbering videos is that the Chiefs got quite a “haul” in draft picks which just makes me wonder about Snead’s negotiating ability. There have been a number of trades over the years where I have questioned how much the Rams gave up, or how little they received in player/picks swaps. Someone in one of those videos mentioned that they had a conversation where people had speculated that the Chiefs would trade McDuffie and a pick in exchange for a 1st. They ended up sending McDuffie and nothing in exchange for a 1st and then some.

And I think it was Chris Sims who said that the Chiefs are $8 million OVER the cap RIGHT NOW. There is no way in the world they were going to keep McDuffie after this coming season, and so they HAD to trade him. Now.

Of course, not all 1st round picks are the same. The Rams gave the 29th pick to the Chiefs. That’s not the same as the 13th pick. But I gotta think that nobody inside the Top 20 would part with that pick for a guy in his contract year when there are a lot of good CBs in this draft. So who else is going to make this trade?

I don’t know. I don’t think the Rams overpaid, particularly. Especially since I am not familiar with McDuffie. Not sure I even heard of him, let alone formed an opinion based on watching him play. A 5th and a 6th are not great picks (although the Rams get important contributions there pretty often), and next year’s 3rd is going to be an inch or two from being a 4th anyway. So I’m not arguing that the Rams overpaid. And if McDuffie neutralizes the opposition’s #1 WR more often than not over the next 5 years, then the trade could go on the Top Shelf of Rams trades.

I just wonder if the Chiefs would have taken less.

zn wrote:

Rams Wire@TheRamsWire
Quentin Lake and Trent McDuffie were high school teammates in Southern California

The same high school that produced Amon-Ra St. Brown, Matt Barkley, Matt Leinart, Todd Marinovich, and Bryce Young.

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:

I don’t qualify. I have only 29 quarters, so I’d need to work 3 years outside of education to qualify

???

You paid into SS, how is it you don’t qualify?

It’s only been for 1 year that teachers qualify AT ALL. It used to be that if one drew a teacher’s pension, that made one ineligible for SS regardless of how much money/time one put into the system. That just changed, but the minimum qualification for SS is 40 quarters of contributions. If you don’t have 40 quarters, you don’t qualify, and your money goes to someone else. I don’t make the rules.

EDIT: Oh. Maybe the CA teachers pension works differently. I have only 29 quarters of work prior to becoming a teacher. While teaching, I am exempt from paying into SS. Instead, I pay a comparable (slightly more, actually… 8 or 9%) amount into the CA teachers’ pension.

• This reply was modified 4 months, 1 week ago by Zooey.

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

Enjoying old-age, memory-loss, caretaking,
propagandized savage-populations, and
capitalism’s complete destruction of all life on the planet.

How old are you guys.

I just turned 72.

I ain’t nowhere near retiring though.

I’m 65.

I retire at the end of May. Lotta reasons. I’m tired. I burnt myself out by running a theatre while teaching English half time. I gave up theatre after Covid levelled my program, and teaching English full time is less work than what I was doing, but I damaged myself by over-working for 18 years.

I’m also fed up with AI and with these young whippersnappers’ shorter attention spans and higher apathy levels. I don’t feel like I’m teaching much any more.

Finally, because of my age and years of experience, my monthly pension will increase insignificantly even with another 5 years of work (which I am not up for anyway). And as it stands, I would only make about 10 grand a year more by working full time than I will by retiring. The pension isn’t great because the salary isn’t great (I work in a “poorer” district), but living on the cheap overseas for a few years is part of my financial plan. There are a lot of places I can live under budget and actually save money by adventure travelling while I still am physically able.

I may go back to teaching part time in college depending on the pay, but I don’t know yet. My only firm plan is to exercise and get back in shape, and start taking weekly day hikes around the area. I live on the American River canyon, and there are miles of trails I’ve never hiked. And Lake Tahoe is only an hour away.

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:

Gary Klein@LATimesklein
McVay on Aubrey Pleasant: “…just felt like it was going to be in the best interest of both parties to be able to move on. “

In other words… the definitive answer to the question about Pleasant is, “we”re sorry but there is no one here at this time to take your call.”

Yeah, but what changed? He left the Rams, and was hired back. Worked for them 7 out of 9 years.

After 7 years, it’s suddenly, “Well, we just thought it would be better for all of us if we started dating other people.”

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:

Listened to a 10-minute segment on 9ers radio station this afternoon fretting about a piece Albert Breer wrote speculating on Maxx Crosby trade destinations. Apparently the Rams were one of three (?) teams he thought Crosby might get traded to.

I don’t like the idea. I would rather have them pay their own developing FAs with their not-all-that-great-when-you-think-about-it cap space. Crosby would cost picks and big cap space.

Problem is that they have a bunch of guys that are going to cost big cap space. Can’t keep ’em all.

Who knows what Crosby will cost. It won’t be as much as Micah Parsons cost, I wouldn’t think. And is he a significant upgrade over Young? I dunno that. In any event, if the Rams are going to mortgage something, I’d prefer a Jalen Ramsey to a Von Miller right now. An upgrade in the secondary and a healthy season, and the Rams are going to have the shortest odds heading into the postseason.

Listened to a 10-minute segment on 9ers radio station this afternoon fretting about a piece Albert Breer wrote speculating on Maxx Crosby trade destinations. Apparently the Rams were one of three (?) teams he thought Crosby might get traded to. They did not love the idea of Verse on one side and Crosby on the other. I never saw the piece, but I gather it’s speculative rather than grounded in insider information, but I dunno. I would guess any such deal would include Byron Young in the trade package.

wv wrote:

Los Angeles Rams
Munson was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the first round, seventh overall pick, of the 1964 NFL draft.[1] As a rookie in 1964, he started eight games for the Rams, leading them to a 2–4–2 record in those games.[1] On December 14, 1964, he connected with Bucky Pope for a 95-yard touchdown against the Green Bay Packers,[5] ranking as the longest pass play in the NFL during the 1964 season. The following year, he started the first 10 games for the Rams, compiling a 1–9 record, but missed the final four games due to a knee injury.[1][6] Munson eventually lost the starting quarterback job to Roman Gabriel and saw only limited action as a backup for the Rams in 1966 and 1967.

That explains it. He started with the Rams right before football entered my consciousness, not at the end of his career like Namath and Jones. I always think of him as a Lion.

As did I.

And… btw… wow

I did not know that Bill Munson played for the Rams. Not sure how I forgot/didn’t know that.

Never heard of Parker Hall or Billy Wade.

I see Joe Namath, Bert Jones, and Dieter Brock failed to make the chart.

A little surprised to see Bulger at 2. I would not have guess that, either.

Stafford. Already passed Goff, and he’s one healthy season from passing Gabriel.

Aaron Donald at #13 has to be the greatest draft pick in Rams history.

I know they got Deacon Jones in the 13th or 14th round – something absurd – but that was well before there was anything like the scouting that exists today.

From memory – I think most of the Rams’ HOF players were drafted higher than that. I guess there’s an argument for Kurt Warner, but Donald had longevity with the team which counts for something. I dunno. Just spitballin’.

zn wrote:

zn wrote:

J.B.’s end-of-season picks: A balanced, historic offense highlights an unforgettable 2025 campaign

J.B. Long

This is “the read” in this thread.

Is this going to be on the test?

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

I see. Well, there’s pluses and minuses to the Rams proposed changes. I kinda like a chaotic scramble for a busted up lateral. I dont think I’d want the rule to be changed to where only the QB can recover the ball.

The issue is that the play was blown dead, ref’s whistle. The defense stopped playing at that point. They can’t be in a situation where they have to guess if a whistle is real or if counts. They risk getting flags if they contest the ball and get physical over it. This rule as written basically says the whistle didn’t count, the ball was still live.

Not every defender is in a position to see whether or not it was a backward pass. They see an incomplete and the whistle blows.

Right. It used to be that a blown whistle killed a play regardless of whether it should have been blown or not. That was the rule for decades. I’m not sure when or why it changed, but I’m guessing it changed because instant replay showed that the ball was actually sometimes still alive, and should be ruled a turnover, and that supersedes the whistle. Which also has a logic to it.

Well, I hate it. By “it,” I mean the fact that the reversal may very well have changed the final outcome of the season.

That’s football, though. Down in N’Orleans, they still complain about Nickell Robey-Coleman.

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

If i really boil the 2025 season down to its essence, for ‘me’ it was — Stafford and Puka.

Lots of other stuff goin on, but that is what i will remember.

And like the Martz team, this one was a play or two away from a Ring.

w
v

To me it was a few big things, good and bad. None of this is a startlingly unusual take.

* Stafford had about the best year a Rams qb has ever had since I first started watching them.

* Nacua is the Rams offensive Warner Bros. style Tasmanian Devil

* This is about as good a Rams OL we’ve seen since 99/2000 and it’s made out of bargain parts. Ryan Wendell may be the best Rams OL coach since the famous Hudson Houck of the old Robinson/Dickerson days, and his signature OL included (when it had Hill at guard) 2 1st rounders, a 2nd, and a 3rd, the 3rd rounder being Jackie Slater, one of the best of all time. The Rams 2025 OL in its final form, with McClendon at ROT, consisted of 2 UDFAs, a 2nd rounder, a 5th rounder, and a 4th round trade.

* Rams defense got figured out and its effort to use a recycled secondary didn’t work in the end, though still it had its moments

* I have never seen special teams cost them so many games

And they still damn near won it all.

They’re in a good position to take another run at it in 2026. Injuries would seem to be the biggest potential derailment.

But. Lots of things can happen. So will this team cash in on the opportunity before FA desertions diminish their potential? Or will it go the way of the GSOT and have only one ring to show for it?