We can shoot down at least one of the hottest NFL rumors right now

(1) - Rams punch list is already overloaded

As I had pointed out in this article, this Rams team has a number of areas that need to be addressed. On the offensive side of the football, the Rams ground assault needs far more attention than the aerial assault. And that should take a much higher priority on any effort made by the front office to improve this team.

Getting rookie running back Blake Corum involved in the offense costs nothing and could bring significantly positive results. So if the team is itching to 'do something,' that would be a no-cost first step.

But there are many areas that need to be addressed on defense. This teams run defense is abhorrently awful. That's not an overreaction. 32nd place out of 32 NFL teams means that there are no worse defenses at stopping the run. Sadly, the defense has faced the fifth, sixth, eighth, and 29th rushing offenses in their first four games. In Week 5, this rushing defense faces the second ranked rushing offense.

In that framework, any effort by the front office to add a wide receiver does absolutely nothing to benefit this team.

Perhaps even worse is the fact that the newly assembled secondary is just not effective yet. We anticipated a settling in period for the group, as the team added so many new players who had no experience playing for this defense in this secondary. And so, all of the vital chemistry and communication has been late in arriving.

Complicating those challenges is the fact that the team's veteran leaders, safety John Johnson III and cornerback Darious Williams, have been injured and have not had the opportunity to set the tempo for the pass coverage.

Even now, the team is preparing to welcome Darious Williams back to the active roster. That is by no means a sign that the team can now speculatively dabble in adding other players.

Focus on the task at hand. If a player will not upgrade their ILB position, their pass coverage, their run defense, or their rushing offense, it's best to put that on the back burner.

As always, thanks for reading.