Can the Rams Win the Super Bowl?

By Darian Vaziri

 

On January 12, 2016, the St. Louis Rams moved back to Los Angeles after 20 years in Missouri. Growing up in Los Angeles, the NFL was always kind of an after thought for me. Yes, I would follow and watch the Playoffs here and there, but I never supported any team. I was patiently waiting for the day that the great city of Los Angeles would finally get a team back. It did not matter if it was the Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Jaguars, Raiders, or Rams. The first team that came back would be my team. I will never forget that day when we got the Rams. It was one of the greatest days for me as a sports fan. Finally the NFL logo was associated with Los Angeles yet again. It was surreal. Although the majority of Los Angeles probably would have been happiest with the Raiders coming back, the Rams are Los Angeles’ original team.

 

Coming back to Los Angeles for the 2016 regular season, the Rams had not made the playoffs for 11 seasons! But to be honest, I did not even care to make the Playoffs our first year back, nor did I expect it. We were just happy to have a team. I was fortunate enough to attend the first four home games and I noticed a lot of things very quickly. Having spent so many years away from Los Angeles, most original Rams fans are in their 40’s or 50’s. A lot of the younger generation just adopted a random team from somewhere else during the Rams stay in St. Louis. The stadium was not sold out, and often had a lot of fans from the visiting team. The Rams have to build their fan base in LA, and I am confident kids nowadays will be Rams fans since they are growing up with a team in their city. However, the most obvious way to build a fan base in Los Angeles is winning. Now that the Rams are in a city like this, they can attract big time players. The new stadium looks like it will be out of this world, opening for the 2019 regular season. That will really make it feel like a new team and new era. I do not think they will have problems selling out then.

 

Now to the football side of things. The Rams began their first season 3-1. They went on to lose 11 of their next 12 games to end the season. Defensively, we were really good. There were many games where we just could not get enough help from the offense. Jeff Fisher’s style was very conservative, boring, and hard to watch. We started out with Case Keenum starting at QB, and he was not awful. But we knew he was not going to really take us places. Finally, after we were eliminated from playoff contention, number one overall pick Jared Goff was inserted as the starter. I did not expect much from him, considering our offensive line was god awful. More than anything, that was the reason the Rams were a bad team in 2016. Todd Gurley would have little to no room to run, and Goff could not hold the ball for more than three seconds without being forced to scramble or get sacked. It really showed how essential the O-line is for a great offense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entering the 2017 season, the Rams fired Jeff Fisher which was a move that fans were really hoping for. In comes 31 year old Sean McVay, who was the offensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins the last three seasons. Clearly, bringing McVay in, who is an offensive mind,  was the complete opposite from Fisher. Jared Goff was the day one starter under a new head coach with new offensive philosophies. The Rams also brought in Center John Sullivan, and 3x Pro Bowler Andrew Whitworth from the Cincinnati Bengals. Whitworth despite being 35 years old, was still one of the best offensive lineman in the league, and would look to improve LA’s awful O-line.

 

The changes were immediate as the Rams began the season with a 46-9 thumping of the Indianapolis Colts. We only scored over 30 points once in 2016, and now under McVay we open with 46. That would be the story for the rest of the season, as the Rams became one of the best offensive teams in the league. Yes, we went from one of the worst to one of the best in the span of one year. It was completely night and day from the previous season and I think there are two major people to thank. Firstly, Sean McVay who ended up leading the Rams to an 11-5 record, an NFC West title, and the Playoffs for the first time in 11 seasons. His fresh philosophy and up-beat personality earned him Coach of the Year honors. He completely made our offense look like a different team from the previous season. Secondly, Andrew Whitworth, who was a Pro-Bowler yet again, and made our Offensive Line much better. Now, Todd Gurley could actually have space to run, and boy did he run. Gurley regained the hype from his first season, with an incredible bounce-back season under McVay that earned him Offensive Player of the Year honors. He rushed for a total of 1,305 yards and 19 total touchdowns. 6 of which, were receiving Touchdowns, which just goes to show the versatility of Gurley and how well McVay utilized him. Of course, we can not forget about Jared Goff’s second season. A season in which he showed some of the doubters that he is not a bust, and that he can be elite in this league. He finished the regular season with 28 Touchdowns and 3,804 passing yards.

 

Despite the large improvement, I did not expect our young team to take us too far in the playoffs. We ended up bowing out to the Atlanta Falcons in the Divisional game 26-13. We made too many mistakes, especially on Special Teams, that cost us the game. But it is okay, we will learn and come back next season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This season, the Rams will look to build on the success of last year, with a potential Super Bowl run. Yes, I think the Rams can win it all. My target as a fan, is to at least go to the NFC Championship game. We have an extremely talented and balanced squad that we improved over the summer. One thing the Rams have not had since they have been back in LA was a great secondary. They have quickly tried to fix that by picking up two of the best Cornerback’s in the league. A Super Bowl winner with the Broncos in Aqib Talib and 2015 Defensive Rookie of the Year Marcus Peters. With those two in the secondary, and Ndamukong Suh pairing up with the best defensive player in the league in Aaron Donald, the Rams should be extremely hard to score against this year. Donald is the type of player that you have to put two people on at all times, and now with Suh alongside him, it will give offensive lines a lot more to worry about. Sadly, we could not hang on to two of our better defensive players in Defensive End Robert Quinn and Middle Linebacker Alec Ogletree. Hopefully, the additions will outweigh the subtractions.

 

I am a bit concerned about the loss of Ogletree. He was the vocal leader of our defense at Middle Linebacker and we have not really replaced him. But we will see how it goes. Other than that, our offense should keep improving with our 4th year running back and 3rd year quarterbacks confidence, sky high. Our second year Head Coach Sean McVay will have learned things, and will make adjustments. More than anything, it is a year where we have some experience under our belt, and expect to do big things. Last season, we were kind of the surprise team. This time around, everyone knows we are a threat and will be preparing more accordingly. Look for sophomore receiver Cooper Kupp to build off his rookie season. He will be joined by Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods as our first choice receivers. Yes, we do not have a Pro Bowl receiver, but we have Todd Gurley. I do not need to say much more.

 

I think the one thing that could really hold the Rams back from achieving big things this season are Injuries. It is football and injuries come very frequently. If Goff gets hurt and has to miss a couple of games, or Gurley gets injured, or even Aaron Donald, we could be in real trouble. So fingers crossed for a healthy season, and hopefully one that will last deep into the 2019.