Per ESPN NFL expert, only one team will have a worse defense than LA Rams

Per the last fantasy football projections from at least one NFL expert at ESPN, the Rams defense is going to be awful in 2024. Based on? Based on the fact that the Rams have a very young and untested group lining up on the defensive side of the football.

No, a bad projection from NFL experts does not mean that the sky is falling. In many cases, it simply means that the soothsayer is either relying too heavily upon the past to predict the future or ignoring the past completely. In either case, scenarios are imagined and then rationalized.

However far off the mark they may be.

Well, if getting glowing reports before the 2024 NFL season start makes you uneasy, then rest assured that the positiver projections for this LA Rams team are not unanimous. In fact, when it come to NFL projections from some sources, the disrespect from 2023 has carried over to 2024.

And perhaps grown in the process.

(click the embedded link to open the pdf file with 2024 projections)

But let's start with the happy news. The LA Rams are projected to have a potent offense in 2024. In fact, the Rams offense is projected to make the NFL's Top 10 offenses in 2024. So who is better? The Kansas City Chiefs (1) are projected to be the top offense this season. But offenses that are projected to be better than the Rams offense also includes the Baltimore Ravens (6), Cincinnati Bengals (4), Dallas Cowboys (7), New York Jets (2), Philadelphia Eagles (3), and San Francisco 49ers (5).

So which team's defense is projected to be worse than the LA Rams? None other than their NFC West Division rivals, the Arizona Cardinals. That's right, the LA Rams are considered the 31st-ranked defense in 2024, and the Arizona Cardinals are considered the 32nd-ranked defense for the upcoming season.

If true, it seems that the Rams and the Cardinals will be involved in a lot of shoot outs this season.

So where does the expert stray from logic? Well, the Rams play no starters or depth players in the presesaon. NFL experts tend to place a lot of emphasis on key players. And they fail to grasp the overal impact of an offseason. For example, the Chicago Bears drafted rookie QB Caleb Williams. That offense is given a ranking of 18th place as a result.

But pairing a pair of very talented rookies like DT Braden Fiske and OLB Jared Verse with DT Kobie Turner and OLB Byron Young nets a 31st place defense?

I understand that some team must end up at the bottom of the pile. But haven't NFL 'experts' learned their lesson yet? This team was at the most optimistic projections no better than an eight-win team in 2023. And yet, the Rams won 10 games, even after starting out as a 3-6 team. That season's defense was far better than expected.

This year's defense will be better than expected too,

As always, thanks for reading.