LA Rams must resist myopia over personnel decisions

Patience is a wise choice right now

The LA Rams offense is the poster child of NFL continuity. The Rams offense of 2020 played together in 2019.  While many players struggled a year ago, it was the Rams organization committing to a mulligan of offensive linemen may be the greatest factor that has truly catapulted the team’s ability to move the ball and score back to the upper tier of the NFL rankings.

In short, while other teams added rookies and free agents, the Rams stuck with their players. That gamble seems to be paying off handsomely. It was the right choice in a  season where training camp and face-to-face encounters between coaches and players were limited to the bare minimum.

New newness

The Rams defense does not have the benefit of familiarity. Even veterans are learning a new defensive scheme.  That is compounded significantly upon those players who are young, trying to learn their role in a new defensive scheme and are trying to play more defensive snaps than they had in the past. This is a young defense. While the defensive line is intact, the secondary is playing together for the first time.

The most unfamiliarity with the speed and physicality of the NFL happens just behind the defensive line.   In short, the Rams linebackers are very young and inexperienced.  In fact, the Rams two starting inside linebackers had never started an NFL game for the Rams defense before.  And while the players are new to their roles with the Rams starting defense, imagine the challenge of making introductions with ten other players. This Rams defense is a work in process.