Tag: rams rankings

PFF ranks Rams’ OL, pass rush and secondary all in top 3 of NFL for 2020

The Rams were among the best teams in the NFL at these three spots.

The Los Angeles Rams came up short of their goal to win a Super Bowl this season, finishing 10-6 and losing in the divisional round to the top-seeded Packers. It was a disappointing ending, but there are still plenty of positives to take away from how the Rams played in 2020.

For starters, they had three of the best position groups in the NFL with the offensive line, the pass rush and the secondary performing at very high levels. Those groups were led by the likes of Andrew Whitworth, Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, but there were other unsung heroes that helped propel the Rams, too.

Pro Football Focus ranked every team’s offensive line, pass rush and secondary from the 2020 season and the Rams were in the top three of each.

Rams O-line ranked near bottom of NFL entering 2020 season

PFF isn’t very high on the Rams’ offensive line heading into 2020.

There are a handful of position groups on the Rams’ roster that look especially weak. The offensive line is certainly among them after seeing how disastrous the unit was for most of the 2019 season.

As of now, only left tackle is set with Andrew Whitworth penned in as the starter. Rob Havenstein is likely to regain his job at right tackle, but the other three positions are very much up in the air.

The absence of OTAs and minicamp sure didn’t help the offensive line, either, leaving only training camp and possibly two preseason games to determine who will enter Week 1 as the starters. No matter which direction the Rams choose to go, though, it’ll be an offensive line ranked near the bottom of the NFL on paper.

According to Pro Football Focus, it’s currently the 25th-best line in the league, ahead of only seven other teams, only one of which made the playoffs last year (Seattle).

No offensive line took as big of a step back as the Rams, a team that dropped from one of the league’s best to 31st during the 2019 regular season. They had eight linemen pass protect at least 250 times and only left tackle Andrew Whitworth put up a pass-blocking grade better than 61.6. Whitworth took a step back overall, grading at 72.8, his lowest since 2008. He remains as one of the better tackles in the league, and he’s been fantastic since joining the Rams, but he’ll turn 39 years old during the season.

PFF notes that Austin Corbett had a better grade than Joseph Noteboom at left guard, but his mark of 51.8 was only 71st among all guards. Austin Blythe’s grade also dropped from 73.4 to 50.3 in the last two years, putting him among the worst guards in football.

Even Bobby Evans, who many fans were pleased with at the end of last season, posted a grade of 49.4 at right tackle – hardly an inspiring enough number to make him the clear-cut starter over Rob Havenstein.

PFF ranked the Rams offensive line 31st in the league last year, so technically this is an improvement. But it’s clear the unit has a lot to prove before it’s considered even average by the NFL’s standards.

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Rams are 24th in Touchdown Wire’s summer power rankings

The Rams continue to slide in offseason power rankings.

It wasn’t exactly a successful offseason for the Rams – certainly not one filled with marquee additions to the roster. Rather, it was more about subtractions. The team cut ties with Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Clay Matthews, Nickell Robey-Coleman and lost Dante Fowler Jr. and Cory Littleton in free agency, opening the door for plenty of competition in camp.

As a result, the Rams have been slipping in power rankings across the internet this spring and summer with analysts showing little confidence in L.A.’s chances of bouncing back from a disappointing 2019 season.

In Doug Farrar’s latest power rankings for Touchdown Wire, the Rams are once again in the bottom half of the league. More specifically, they’re 24th, which is where they were ranked after the draft in Touchdown Wire’s poll.

Here’s what Farrar wrote about the Rams, which includes some reason for hope, but also concern about the team’s win-now approach.

The Rams team that lost Super Bowl LIII to the Patriots at the end of the 2018 season seems very much in the rear-view mirror. Running back Todd Gurley and receiver Brandin Cooks are off to other teams, leaving catastrophic cap hits in their wake. Jared Goff and Aaron Donald combine for 2020 cap hits of more than $50 million, and while Donald has proven unquestionably that he’s worth whatever you pay him, Goff has not. Add in the lack of high draft picks as an inevitable price of the team’s win-now philosophy a couple years back, and the reckoning begins now. There’s still enough talent on the roster and in the coaching staff to make the Rams league-average if everything breaks right, but if it doesn’t, last season’s 9-7 record may seem like a relatively pleasant memory.

No one in their right mind will complain about the contract Donald got from the Rams a few years ago, but the team has come under some criticism for the deal it gave Goff. He was really good in 2018, but after signing his extension last offseason, he regressed considerably and didn’t exactly look like a top-10 quarterback like he’s paid to be.

But Goff can still prove he’s worth that $134 million deal by bouncing back in 2020 and playing closer to the way he did two years ago than he did last season. That probably won’t happen if the offensive line and running game don’t improve, but Goff has to overcome issues such as those at some point.

Rams slotted outside top 20 in early 2020 power rankings

The Rams were ranked low on the list, behind the Bucs and Falcons.

The Los Angeles Rams learned this past season that having success in the NFL isn’t a given. Just one year after reaching the Super Bowl and looking like one of the best teams in football, the Rams regressed and only won nine games in 2019, missing the playoffs.

It was a stunning result for a team that went all-in, trading away Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib, and replacing them with Jalen Ramsey. Massive extensions for Jared Goff and Todd Gurley have left the Rams in a difficult spot financially, as has Brandin Cooks’ inflated contract.

Heading into the 2020 season, the Rams have plenty of talent but even more questions to answer. Dante Fowler Jr., Cory Littleton, Michael Brockers and Andrew Whitworth will all be free agents, and Gurley’s future with the team appears to be in doubt.

As a result, Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire put the Rams in the bottom half of the NFL in his early 2020 power rankings. They were ranked 21st, to be exact, behind the Bucs, Steelers, Falcons and Chargers.

Here’s part of what Farrar wrote about the Rams.

The Rams’ all-in, short-term, win-now philosophy almost bore the best fruit at the end of the 2018 season, if only Sean McVay’s team could have beaten the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. After that didn’t happen, a whole lot of other things didn’t happen in 2019. First of all, the Rams didn’t make the playoffs, finishing with a 9-7 record after a 13-3 mark the year before. Jared Goff didn’t develop as a quarterback — in fact, he regressed in several areas as opposing defenses seemed to figure him out. A cautious approach to Goff’s future didn’t happen; last September, the Rams gave Goff a four-year, $134 million contract that included an NFL-record $110 million in guarantees. That’s a major commitment to a quarterback who has proven very little regarding his ability to succeed outside of McVay’s structure.

It’s not all doom and gloom for the Rams, despite the negative factors working against them. Aaron Donald is still arguably the best player in football, Goff looked like a franchise QB in 2018, Whitworth appears on track to play another season in Los Angeles and Ramsey is roaming the secondary in front of a safety tandem of John Johnson and Taylor Rapp.

There are a lot of teams with less talent than the Rams, many of which are above them in these power rankings. But the salary cap limitations and uncertainty surrounding Gurley make the Rams a difficult team to project moving forward.

NFL Week 11 power rankings: Rams continue to fall after 4th loss

The Rams dropped out of the top half of Doug Farrar’s power rankings this week.

The Los Angeles Rams dropped their fourth game of the season on Sunday, falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-12 at Heinz Field. This week’s loss continued a troubling trend of inconsistency on offense, despite getting – and wasting – outstanding performances from their core group of defenders.

They seemed to be making progress against the Falcons and Bengals, but this weekend against a tougher opponent proved the Rams have not improved much at all. They dropped further down this week’s power rankings as Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire doesn’t see them as one of the 16 best teams in the NFL.

They’re No. 18 in his Week 11 power rankings after losing to the Steelers on Sunday afternoon.

After the Rams went 13-3 and reached the Super Bowl last season, head coach Sean McVay was the toast of the league. What a difference a year can make, and not in a good way. In a 17-12 loss to the Steelers on Sunday, McVay’s offense converted just one of its 14 third-down attempts. The Rams’ drives: Punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, fumble, punt, missed field goal, interception, interception, field goal, punt, punt, downs, interception. At one point, McVay pulled Jared Goff from the game, installed backup quarterback Blake Bortles, and then tried a fourth-down pass from punter Johnny Hekker, which was intercepted by safety Terrell Edmunds. Goff completed 22 of 41 passes for 243 yards, no touchdowns, and two picks of his own. Goff has a completion rate below 60% in each of his last five games, nobody seems to know why Todd Gurley isn’t getting the ball, and Cooper Kupp didn’t catch a single pass on a season-low four targets. The league may have figured out McVay and Goff, but McVay and Goff are helping their opponents with some truly ugly football.

Right ahead of the Rams are the Steelers, who are also 5-4. Behind Los Angeles are the Cardinals, who are better than their 3-6-1 record indicates. Now, it’s not as if the Rams have fallen below .500 or have become one of the worst teams in football, but given their talent level and expectations, 18th is certainly disappointing.

Even the Titans (No. 16) have moved ahead of the Rams and they have far fewer star players than Los Angeles. It’s just that they’ve gotten better play from their quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and more importantly, their offensive line.

The Seahawks are No. 6 after beating the 49ers on Monday night, while San Francisco ranks second.

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