NFC West
Rams Early Season Review
By Jimmy Ng
Oct 3, 2007, 13:01

Wow. I think that just about sums up the Rams season thus far, a major disappointment from both a real-life and fantasy perspective, considering the immense expectations placed on them before the season. They now reside at 0-4, with no semblance of any offensive fluidity, and the usual porous defense. This was not how the season was projected to go for the Rams, who were predicted by many experts to contend in the NFC West(with the main rival being Seattle), and some(though not many) even predicted the Rams to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

What is the main reason for this collapse? Well, as many have said, it starts up front. A great strategy for both real life and EFS football. Great teams have always succeeded by dominating the game in the trenches, and this is no exception in EFS football. Orlando Pace’s season-ending injury has decimated the explosive offense, and this has had negative effects on the defense, who wished to minimize their weaknesses by staying off the field as long as possible. The Rams, predicted before the season to be the source of many fantasy superstars, have disappointed.

Marc Bulger came off a career year, poised to get better. With the addition of Brian Leonard, Drew Bennett, Randy McMichael, and Dante Hall, he now had more weapons than he could use. However, some fantasy owners, focusing entirely on the stats from last year, forgot how injury prone he has been in the past. The Rams QB(whether Warner or Bulger) have had success only when given sufficient time to throw the ball. In cases where the line has not been able to accomplish this task, this has led to both disastrous seasons(Warner’s last one), and disappointing ones(Bulger’s 2005). I expected this year to be a fairly interesting one for him, as I felt he would regress a bit to the mean in terms of getting sacked more, with that increasing the chances of injury, versus the fact that he now had a great cast of offensive weapons. Due to my injury concerns, I was unwilling to predict an even better year for Bulger.

Unfortunately, the worst case scenario has occurred, as the tackle (who has protected him every year since he entered the league) is now out for the year, and as a result, Bulger has suffered a rib injury that has hampered his effectiveness and limited him to 16.00 PPG, which won’t get it done. Should Bulger ever have to miss a game due to injury, Gus Frerotte would step in, but he would be unlikely to provide much more that league-average production, if that.

UPDATE 10/3/07 11:15 AM PST: Bulger will be benched for Gus Frerotte this week against Arizona. We’ll see how this affects the Rams going forward, but if it helps Bulger heal up, it will be a good long-term move.

Injuries have also played a role in Stephen Jackson’s disappointing year, as expectations were high after he led the NFL in yards from scrimmage and a 90-catch! season for a RB. I expected him to regress a bit, as the team would rely a bit less on him in the passing game with the addition of all the new weapons on offense, but this could easily be compensated for with more scoring opportunities due to the improved offense. 2000 total yards from scrimmage, 15-16 TDs should’ve been easily attainable for a player of Jackson’s caliber. Well, Jackson had two disappointing weeks to open the season, before picking it up a bit, and now suffering a fairly serious injury, that will sideline him at least through Week 5, possibly longer. I would consider his lack of production to be the biggest disappointment among the “Big 5” backs, a group that I consider to be LT, Larry Johnson, Shaun Alexander, Frank Gore, and Jackson himself. Jackson and LT were on teams that were expected to have good, if not great offenses, as opposed to the other three, whose lack of production may be a result of their team’s horrible offenses. The fact that LT is still healthy, while Jackson is hurt, makes him the biggest disappointment this year. Hopefully, Jackson will return healthy and salvage this season - maybe 1400 yards, 12-13 Tds on the season would be a fairly optimistic projection considering his status now. Brian Leonard was a rookie who was considered by many to be a sleeper to target in EFS rookie drafts, as he was projected to do a solid job of reducing Jackson’s workload. Well, the rookie finally has his chance to shine, as Jackson may be hurt for an extended period. Despite a mediocre first effort against Dallas, I expect him to show reward his EFS owners’ faith in him with a big effort this week. His overall numbers on the season will depend on Jackson’s health, but I do expect the Rams offense to rebound in the upcoming weeks(as long as Bulger stays healthy), and he should put up solid numbers if he is needed to handle the starting job the rest of the season.

The WRs/TEs have been major disappointments as well. Torry Holt was projected to be his usual, consistent self, but has been unable to put up the numbers due to Bulger’s poor year. Isaac Bruce was the official #2 WR on the Rams depth chart at the beginning of the year, but was expected to relinquish that role to newcomer Drew Bennett at some point. Still, Bruce could’ve been expected to put up 700-800 yards in that high-powered offense. That doesn’t look to be the case anymore, and he might lose some playing time to the youngsters later in the season if the Rams are out of contention. Bennett was expected by many(including me) to play a major role in this offense, possibly putting up a 1000 yard season, and 7-8 Tds. The last time he had even a decent passing quarterback throwing to him(Billy Volek), he put up monstrous numbers. Hopes were up upon his arrival to the Rams, but he has been a horrible disappointment so far, limited to 62 total yards on the season. I expect him to pick it up later in the season as he becomes more familiar with the offense and shakes off his injury concerns. Dante Hall, the “Human Joystick” as referred to by Shannon Sharpe last week, was expected to replace Kevin Curtis as the speedster in the Rams offense and special teams. He had a big kick-return touchdown last week, but his role in the offense will be fairly minimal from a fantasy perspective.

The last major free agent acquisition, Randy McMichael, was the one I expected to be the best of all. In fact, I considered his signing to be one of the best FA signings this year in the entire NFL, in terms of increased fantasy value from the year before. With the consistent Holt and veteran Bruce on the outside, Bennett and Hall in the slots, and Jackson in the backfield, I figured defenses would have too much to focus on, and leave McMichael the middle of the field for himself. If he still bore any resemblance to the TE who was one of the better pass-catchers in the league just a couple years ago, I expected him to have a breakout year, as the best TE the Rams have ever had on that team since Kurt Warner first took snaps under center. Unfortunately, he too has disappointed, though I expect him to have a decently average year when all is said and done. The main caveat for all these RBs/WRs/TEs returning to form is Bulger’s continued good health of course

The Rams offensive line is now in flux without Pace. In his stead, Alex Barron will move to left tackle to protect Bulger’s blind side, and he could man this position for the next ten years. Other than Barron, no other Rams starter has a firm grip on his job, as the coaching staff is continually tinkering with the lineups to get the best possible results. In the rotation at guard are Milford Brown and Claude Terrell. Starting at center will be Brett Romberg. And, now due to an injury that will sideline tackle Adam Goldberg for at least a month, the Rams are down to 4th-stringer Brandon Gorin at right tackle.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Rams were expected to be somewhat improved, though I was the ones who was fairly pessimistic regarding this improvement. The main addition of course, is first round pick DT Adam Carriker. Unfortunately, the overall defense has continued to remain disappointing (Carriker has 3 solo tackles, no sacks), though there are several standouts.
They include:
(all numbers are for players played IN position)
DT Clifton Ryan (available in some leagues in UFA and PS) 17.50 PPG
IB Will Witherspoon (not great for an IB) 18.00 PPG
OB Brandon Chillar 14.75 PPG
S Oshiomogho Atogwe 20.00 PPG
S Corey Chavous 18.75 PPG
S Ronald Bartell 16.75 PPG

As you can see, even some of their standouts are significantly below league-average.
It seems like it’s been forever since the Rams defense last had several players on the team making plays, getting picks, and causing fumbles. This year probably won’t be one of those years, as the entire defense only has one interception(by Atogwe). You can expect the usual - middle linebackers making tackles, but the Rams defense will not be the source of any outstanding IDP this year.

Well, this ends my early-season review. I guess there’s only one good thing to tell those EFS owners highly invested in these Rams players - there’s nowhere to go but up.

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