Rams Off The Clock: The Real Work Begins Now

The Los Angeles Rams have the NFL Draft in their rear view mirror. Now the real work begins to put a winning team together in LA.

The Los Angeles Rams are getting well deserved high grades for a draft that hit the mark. It was predictable, and in the good way for a team who’d become predictably inept. The long overdue firing of Jeff Fisher has given way to optimism courtesy of Sean McVay. Now, in the afterglow of a long NFL Draft Weekend, LA appears on the verge of something bigger and better: Winning.

https://twitter.com/RamsNFL/status/858537458492882945

Is that a lock after this weekend?

Next: Los Angeles Rams NFL Draft Grades For All Picks

Not at all, but it’s hard to ignore the potential for the Rams to be reasonably better than not just last season, but better than the nearly 5 years under Fisher.

Fresh faces and fresh voices can do that, can inspire that.

Coach McVay is delivering that tenfold.

A lot will happen between now and the opening weekend of the 2017 NFL season. Everything the new-look Rams do will scrutinized, hyped, and over hyped. Potential will be off the charts.

It should be after this draft.

Los Angeles is grading anywhere from B on the high end to B- on the low end. How that ultimately shakes out come the final game this upcoming season remains to be seen.

Most intriguing is the youth beginning with a new head coach, a second year quarterback, and at the skill positions of tight end, running back, and wide receiver. Even if the Rams only manage one more win than last year, the future potential for this organization seems very high. And for those of us who wondered if Goff can live up to his draft status, a still fair question, Los Angeles has provided him the tools to get better this season.

But beyond the draft, and beyond Goff, McVay becomes the trigger-man on how far this team goes. So for those of us who have said, “as goes Gurley, so go the Rams”, moved on to “as goes Goff, so go the Rams”, have now graduated to “as goes McVay, so go the Rams.”

He is now the proverbial straw that stirs the drink in LA.

That just feels right.

It’s said that the face of a college football program is their head coach, and in the NFL it’s their highest profile player.

I don’t know if that works in Los Angeles with the Rams, unless or until someone emerges as not just the leader, but the legitimate face of the franchise.

It still isn’t Jared Goff, it isn’t Aaron Donald, and it certainly isn’t Todd Gurley.

More from Ramblin' Fan

• Looks like Rams DC Raheem Morris won’t be the HC for this team
• 4 LA Rams villains we want to see blow it in the AFC and NFC title games
• LA Rams coaching staff shake-up summary
• Rich Eisen talks NFL HC search and LA Rams candidates
• Found this draft data interesting as LA Rams head for 2023 NFL Draft

That’s a good thing, because when you’re starting over, turning the page, and remaking a franchise, you want that guy or guys to seize that mantle, not have them appointed by the media.

For now, it only makes sense that “the guy” is a 31 year old head coach, not to much older than his starting quarterback.

In LA, it’s just different.

If they start winning, that will be different too.