For the first time in many years, Rams opponents have no idea who to block

I know that we have just shy of two months to wait for football, REAL football, to arrive. But the LA Rams have a lot of new faces on this roster, and there is only so much patience to go around in the offseason. So let's be brutally honest with ourselves. After the glorious rookie seasons of NT Kobie Turner and OLB Byron Young led all rookies in quarterback sacks in 2023, the waterpump of optimism was primed for lofty expectations for 2024 rookies to do the same.

It only threw gasoline onto the bonfire of optimistic expectations when the team drafted the dynamic duo of OLB Jared Verse and DT Braden Fiske with their first two selection in the 2024 NFL Draft. The front office in two consecutive drafts, had invested four of their top five picks into the defensive front.

The results have to be amazing, don't they?

That is the thing that Sporting News author A.J. Schulte is looking for from the teams youg defensive front:

After a lack of drafting highly to restock the group in the past, the front office certainly made it a point to reload the pass rush in the past two drafts. While we have cited the top four of five draft picks in the past two draft classes addressing the team's defensive front, that is only part of the story. The team addressed the defensive front with five of 14 picks in 2023, and with four of 10 picks in 2024. That works out to nine new players out of 24 draft selections in two years.

That works out to nearly 42 percent of the past two drafts.

While that is worthy of oohs and aahs unto itself, we have not really gotten to the best part. With so many new and unproven players on the team's defensive front, who can opposing offenses truly target in terms of their blocking schemes?

Do the offensive linemen double up on NT Kobie Turner, knowing that he can beat double teams routinely? Do they chip at OLB Byron Young, hoping to keep him at bay long enough to get off a pass? Do they go at DT Braden Fiske in the hopes of frustrating the rookie defensive lineman? Or to they send two offensive linemen at OLB Jared Verse, in hopes that he has not yet mastered the art of defeating NFL double-teams?

But even if they do all of that, they haven't accounted for NT Bobby Brown or Tyler Davis. Nor have they taken into account the rising stock of DE Desjuan Johnson or the potential of rookie DE Anthony Goodlaw.

And if there are many options up to me, someone who follows the Rams roster, what chance do opposing offensive coordinators have at guessing correctly?

The Rams' defensive front has a colony of hornets prepared to swarm opposing quarterbacks right out of the gate. And as offensive linemen learn how to block one, two more rush at the quarterback to take his place.

Grab your popcorn, folks. The show is about to begin.

And thanks for reading.