LA Rams: Why are coaches smiling over this team already?

The LA Rams coaching staff is present at team meetings. The coaches know what the team needs, and have the best vantage point to script the offseason shopping list.  Those same coaches have spent endless hours weighing in on who the team should add to the roster, and where that may have fallen short, what characteristics the team should add to fit the new general game plan.

Yes, they even witnessed the bounty of the offseason in their initial OTAs. So far, the word out of the LA Rams organization is “We got this.” Head coach Sean McVay has emphasized how happy he is more than once.

The first impressions of an NFL team’s coaching staff are so quickly ignored because, let’s face it, in today’s nebulous sharing of misinformation, untruths, and factoids, we have become a culture where we only open our minds to what we already believe and want to hear.

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If we are skeptical of the LA Rams’ chances this year, any statement to the contrary runs the risk of being shot down and ignored from the headlines alone. If we believe that the Rams’ chances are better than ever then an article that confirms that belief only needs to state that in the headline for us to take and run with it.

The changes in social media have done little to educate us all about the availability of knowledge and information. In many ways, it’s merely given us a pass to glance at information to validate whether or not we will accept that new bit of information as worthy of our time.   And that gives us the discretion over what is real (confirms our belief) and what is not (challenges our belief).

So here we are, and the Rams have completed their OTAs only. How are the Rams doing is only best answered by first asking yourself, how do you believe that the Rams are doing?  If you believe that the Rams are in bad shape this year, were you just as fretful when the Rams watched Dante Fowler Jr., Cory Littleton, Clay Matthews, Eric Weddle, and more leave the team’s defense before the 2020 season? Not only did the LA Rams defense find ways to make up the difference, but the team found a way to become the best defense in the NFL.

On the other hand, if you see a defensive effort that is led by All-Pro Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, you know that the defense suffers if either is hurt.  That lesson happened last year too.

All we have right now is the fact that the LA Rams coaches are smiling and feeling pretty good right now. Each of us can decide to join them and smile as well, or sit back with a bit of skepticism and wait for victories to pile up before we show signs of joy. In a culture of too much information, we struggle to react to too little. Perhaps, just this once, we should put on a smile. Just try it out for a moment. After all, we want to perfect our joy if the LA Rams have a great season. In the end, that’s what the coaches are smiling about.