Rams Fans United - Los Angeles Rams Fan Discussion Forum

Last year, opposing teams ran the ball 386 times against the Rams and passed the ball (or were sacked) 574 times.

That's a 60/40 split in favor of passing plays (which would actually be even more skewed if I had easy access to the number of runs that were actually busted passing plays).

There are many reasons, of course, for the skew. Most teams pass more than they run the ball, and the Rams often played with a lead.

My question is... how much does/should this impact how the Rams allocate assets (cap room, draft picks) on defense?

One could argue that it provides an argument in favor of allocating primary assets to pass rushers and DBs, while filling positions like NT and ILB with lower priced role players.

Perhaps, that's exactly what we're seeing thus far. The Rams have released an ILB (Barron) are allowing the de facto NT go (Suh), while they have signed a pass rusher (Fowler) and a DB (Weddle).

If this is a trend, it will be interesting to see if it continues as FA and the draft progress.

Way too many variables for even me to compute in my spare time. Which is getting less and less by then day as was just able to go back to 7 days a week Saturday. Damn, I should be on the Rams payroll as I have some great ideas several of which would be vetted and used with success.

Rams1PlateSince1976 wrote:Way too many variables for even me to compute in my spare time. Which is getting less and less by then day as was just able to go back to 7 days a week Saturday. Damn, I should be on the Rams payroll as I have some great ideas several of which would be vetted and used with success.

You need to develop a healthy dose of insomnia and SQUIRREL!!! A.D.D.

The quarterback is the most important guy on the team.
Points come out of the passing game.

The Rams went from a team that played decent defense and couldn't pass a lick to a team that was one of the best offenses in the NFL because of the passing game. They brought in a lot of receiving talent and expedited the development of Goff. Two postseason berths and a Superbowl appearance.

It's pass (QBs, WRs, pass pro OL) and stop the pass (sack masters, cover corners, etc).

Also, we shouldn't think the Weddle signing was all about stopping the pass. He's pretty good in run support too.

As far as allocating the money on the defensive side of the ball....stop the pass/contain the run.

Avenger: Don't know what you mean by squirrel. I took care of insomnia when I turned 50. Go to bed about 10. Read for about 10 minutes then fall asleep. Wake up about 3. Read a bit. read a bit more. snooze a bit. read a bit. snooze. Up well before sunrise as tired as I was when went to bed..

Makes me think about my days doing frac work at Woodward Oklahoma. Never sure if I was drinking too much or not enough. Default answer doing frac work is always not drinking enough.

I actually think the biggest weakness on the Rams defense Last year was stopping the run.

I think adding Weddle was a factor in replacing Joyner. Fowler did help increase the pass rush last season but also is good in stopping the run.

Releasing Barron was a cap move and he wasn't very good at stopping the run.

I think its a natural balance based off of salary cap structure. I also think the Rams are going to try to get better at stopping the run.

Its a passing league but first and foremost you need to stop the run game.

From what I've heard about Wade's defenses over the years, I believe he prefers good corners and edge rushers. We've got a couple good corners and Fowler's not a bad edge rusher. Donald makes up for the lack of edge rushers with his pressure from the inside so I imagine that is what we have. A couple good pass rushers and solid corners. Not to mention good safeties.

If we want to be better at stopping the run it would help if our linebackers can fill the gaps and make tackles. Until we prove we can stop the run teams will run on us. At least early in the game before they have to play catch up.

For some reason I have a feeling our offense might not be as explosive and high scoring. Teams have plenty of film on McVay's offense and Goff.
But our defense might be better overall. I still think our offense will be top ten though. It would be nice to have the defense at top ten too. Signing Weddle and bringing Fowler back should give us a chance to be better.

snackdaddy wrote:From what I've heard about Wade's defenses over the years, I believe he prefers good corners and edge rushers. We've got a couple good corners and Fowler's not a bad edge rusher. Donald makes up for the lack of edge rushers with his pressure from the inside so I imagine that is what we have. A couple good pass rushers and solid corners. Not to mention good safeties.

If we want to be better at stopping the run it would help if our linebackers can fill the gaps and make tackles. Until we prove we can stop the run teams will run on us. At least early in the game before they have to play catch up.

For some reason I have a feeling our offense might not be as explosive and high scoring. Teams have plenty of film on McVay's offense and Goff.
But our defense might be better overall. I still think our offense will be top ten though. It would be nice to have the defense at top ten too. Signing Weddle and bringing Fowler back should give us a chance to be better.

Things change quickly in the NFL. Teams know they can run on the Rams defense. Teams also burned the Rams for some big pass plays.

As far as the offense, the Rams run a bunch of plays from the same personnel and throw in movement to top it off.

I personally don't see the Rams offense being less than top 5 again.

If the Defense can step up than this team is even better than what we've already seen.

I keep coming back to the notion that the Rams will focus their attention in the draft on obtaining a pass rusher, first and foremost. That could mean an edge rusher or, alternatively, a pass-rushing DE (though I think they have a promising one in JFM).

When you look at the impact of sacks, they can really cover up defensive mistakes. How often do we see a team start a drive at the 25, get a couple of first downs, and then have the drive derailed by one big negative play? The good news is that there are enough pass rushers in this draft to have hope that a good one will fall to #31.

I don’t disagree with what you are saying Av, but I do wonder, do rookie edge rushers typically have immediate success in the nfl?