What if…? The LA Rams Matthew Stafford era is better than expected?

Working with explosive materials requires a very steady hand, patience, a lot of expertise, and a bit of faith. Why faith? Well, you handle, mix, pack, and prepare explosives with great care, and then you must have faith that you’ve done everything correctly in order to generate the explosive results you’d hoped for. It’s highly regulated because it takes learned skills to handle, and use the stuff.

The LA Rams offense is a bit like that this year. It’s a combustible mixture that everyone hopes will go off in a violent burst of offensive production when the LA Rams flip the switch. Will it be able to put it all together with one flip of the switch? If this offense does, some might view it as the exception rather than the rule. All this time it has had the likes of Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Tyler Higbee, and even welcomed back Van Jefferson. This year the arsenal includes DeSean Jackson, Tutu Atwell, and Jacob Harris.

However you fall on the should they or shouldn’t they play their starters in preseason games, one thing is definitely clear. Scripted plays and controlled scrimmages do not replicate the speed, intensity, or physicality of an NFL game. They just don’t. As a result, most are leaning on the ‘show-me-before-I-believe-you’ side of the optimum spectrum about these LA Rams. While I get it, and it makes perfect sense for those who react to below-expectation performances with intense emotions like anger or rage, it’s still a bit disappointing.

After all, what if the Matthew Stafford era of the LA Rams is better than expected?

The city of Los Angeles has a way of rejuvenating careers. You need to look no further than that of NBA’s Lebron James, whose signing with the LA Lakers brought another NBA Championship to the trophy case. Matthew Stafford has been buried on the Detroit Lions for years. Do some still ask why he didn’t win it all there? Yes.

The answer? Simply stated, he didn’t have the type of organization that saw a way to build a championship team there. It was good at times, very good once or twice. But the elite players were too few and the mistakes were too many.

It’s a bit different here in LA. This season has the feel of something special.