The St. Louis Rams are coming off their worst three-year stretch in franchise history. Having only recorded six wins over the past three years, General Manager Billy Devaney deemed it necessary to build their team around f o r m e r – Oklahoma quarterback and first-overall draft pick Sam Bradford. Having done little else in free agency and trades, the team is banking on improvement from the young players of last year’s team.
Patrick Olds
-Opinions Editor –
The St. Louis Rams are coming off their worst three-year stretch in franchise history. Having only recorded six wins over the past three years, General Manager Billy Devaney deemed it necessary to build their team around f o r m e r – Oklahoma quarterback and first-overall draft pick Sam Bradford. Having done little else in free agency and trades, the team is banking on improvement from the young players of last year’s team.
Through the first two preseason games, the results were mixed at best. The past preseason game changed that sentiment after the Rams beat the New England Patriots in New England on Aug. 26. Bradford threw for 189 yards and two touchdowns. He started by taking the Rams on a 72-yard t ouc hdown drive that e n d e d with a touchdown to rookie tight end Michael Hoomanawanu.
Former MVP quarterback Rich Gannon said about Bradford’s performance in an interview with Sporting News, “I thought he looked really good, I thought he threw the ball well, and his locations on his throws were good. When you consider who he was up against — it was on the road, against Tom Brady — I thought he responded and played really well.”
Impressive indeed, many national pundits are buzzing about Bradford and are giving the Rams great odds to eventually return to elite status. One of ESPN’s NFL reporters, Chris Mortensen, has been tweeting that he has heard from football people around the league that the Rams’ future is bright with Bradford.
Aside from the promise at quarterback, the Rams have made it a priority to build from the inside-out. They have stacked their offensive line with young talent and veteran presence while doing the same on the defensive side. Offensively, they have drafted two bookend tackles in Rodger Saffold and Jason Smith and on defense they have added former Super Bowl Champion Fred Robbins and second-overall pick from 2008 Chris Long.
Mortensen has posted his comments on the Rams via Twitter.
One of the comments he made had to do with how underrated he believed the offensive line was and how he thought it had a real chance to be good. If that’s the case, Bradford will see the field sooner rather than later.
What the team lacks in proven playmakers, they make up for with depth. They are without a true number one wide receiver, but have five or six young receivers, not including Donnie Avery who went down against the Patriots. He is expected to miss the entire season with torn ligaments in his right knee.
Before that happened, the Rams signed former University of Missouri wide receiver Danario Alexander to a contract earlier in the week. Coincidentally, he is looking to bounce back from a knee injury that cost him the opportunity to get selected in the draft.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz alludes to the fact that this is not an elite caliber team. However, with the recent approval by the NFL owners to allow Stan Kroenke’s purchase of the Rams, along with the promising young players on the roster, this team has nowhere to go but up this season.
