Friday, February 25, 2011

2011 Offseason: St. Louis Rams

Former Broncos coach Josh McDaniels is the new offensive coordinator in St. Louis. He is a pass first coach, which might be good for Bradford. Sam Bradford threw a lot this season, but with a coach who is used to a pass first offense, he could help Bradford make better decisions on all those passes.

The one issue is that this could leave Steven Jackson out to dry. Jackson has been the heart and soul of the Rams for several years now and McDaniels will need to keep him an integral part of the offensive scheme if the Rams want their improvement to continue.

This is especially important considering who they are playing. They have to play the AFC North and the NFC East, in addition to the past two Super Bowl champions. Not an easy schedule by any means. Because of this, it will be all the more important to keep the offensive attack fairly balanced.

The main upgrading the Rams need to do this offseason will be on the defensive side, especially at linebacker. Steve Spagnuolo took the worst team in football and crafted a very good defense out of it. But they still have some weak spots and that linebacker position hasn’t seemed to generate a lot of pressure in the pass rush. It would be worth looking at that position with their first round draft pick.

The only other issue I saw was at wide receiver. They have some talented players, and they were often getting past opposing cornerbacks. Bradford was consistently getting the ball to them in places only they could catch it. But they didn’t always catch those passes. What’s worse, the absolute worst time for them to not catch those passes was against the Seahawks, and that was exactly when it happened. If the work stoppage lasts for too long, they may have to replace some of these players. Hopefully a new CBA will be reached soon and the team can get some good workouts in with these receivers before the end of the offseason.

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