We Might Have Missed BIG Time (2017 Draft)

[Shake n Blake]

(10-22-2018, 05:49 PM)Jakeypoo Wrote: 1.) The teams have done those transactions also have made major personal moves that have helped there team. Also Marvin has taken a team that had a 4 win season the year prior twice to the playoffs the Next season.  Roster upgrades tend to go hand in hand with rebuilding teams.

2.) Lazor would have had 8 games under 20 as well if it wasn't for the Defense intercepting 4 passes and returning them to the 1 Kirk against Denver and  the 2 yard line by Dennard against the Titans, a TD by Jackson,  an a TD by Dunlap against the Colts. So it's not like we we're over powering teams with our offense last season. By the way that unit was crap and I think Lazor got the best out of them . So I don't really think it was his problem but the Defense did help them get past 17 a couple of times last season.

The moves you listed for the Rams weren't all that thrilling. I see bad teams (winning the off-season) signing better players than that, and they still wind up sucking just as badly. Maybe this article will help you understand the difference McVay has made:

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/11/16/sean-mcvay-los-angeles-rams-offense-jared-goff

Here are some excerpts:

Sean McVay’s Brilliant Offensive Mind Has Transformed the Los Angeles Rams

This much you likely know: At 31, Sean McVay is the youngest head coach in NFL history. This part you likely don’t: McVay is already the league’s best offensive mind. Period. That mind is what earned him his job with the Rams last winter, and it’s what has those Rams sitting atop the NFC West at 7–2. 

L.A. scored a mere 14.0 points per game last season, easily the fewest in the NFL, and finished below .500 for a 10th straight season. Through Week 10 of 2017, McVay’s Rams have more than doubled that average, up to 32.9, notching 72 more total points already than in all of ’16. (If the season ended today their points-per-game increase would be the biggest in the modern era.) And this all looks sustainable, given that Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick last year, has seen his passer rating climb from 63.6 (dead last in the league) to 101.5 (No. 7).

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Shanahan believed in marrying his running and passing games, such that all of his plays initially looked the same. The scheme that best fits this approach begins with an outside-zone ground game, where your offensive line moves in unison. Here, a defense typically flows with the zone blocking, which makes the scheme particularly conducive to play-action.


The best zone offense in recent memory? That belonged to the 2016 Falcons, coordinated by Shanahan’s son, Kyle, who’d been on that old Redskins staff with his dad. . . and McVay. Three days after Shanahan’s Atlanta offense played in Super Bowl LI, last February, McVay snapped up the Falcons’ quarterbacks coach, 37-year-old Matt LaFleur, to be his own offensive coordinator. (LaFleur was also on that Shanahan staff in Washington.) Together, McVay and LaFleur have adopted many of Atlanta’s zone-running and play-action concepts.


The play-action, in particular, has helped Goff immensely. The run fake (against predictable first- and second-down defensive looks) slows down pass rushers and manipulates linebackers and safeties. Under McVay, these are timing and rhythm throws, almost always with reads to just one side of the field. And it’s paying off. This season, according to Football Outsiders, the Rams are using play-action on 25% of their dropbacks (fourth-most in the league) and averaging 8.5 yards per play (11th-most).


Much of that play-action success stems from McVay’s play-calling rhythm. His feel for this is uncanny. Watching Rams film can be like reading a story with a great motif; everything correlates to an underlying theme. McVay will run plays on his third series that look like plays he ran on his first and second series—but only initially. They morph as they unfold.

McVay is a master too at conjuring up downfield route combos that complicate and blur the responsibilities of zone defenders. That feeling you get when you’re walking down the sidewalk and you realize your path is shared with an oncoming stranger—that’s how playing zone coverage against McVay’s offense feels. As a defender, it can put you in a bind.


So can McVay’s formations. This team, more than any other, aligns its receivers tight to the formation, inside the field numbers. Those tighter splits eliminate the sideline (an imposing 12th defender), giving each L.A. receiver a two-way go. Defenders must cover more ground and more route possibilities; because of the clustered spacing, they’re more susceptible to rub and pick routes. McVay builds a lot of these rubs and picks into the beginnings of his plays by aligning receivers close to one another, and those receivers get open quickly. It’s what the Patriots have perfected in recent years. It’s how you beat man coverage.


Something else McVay pilfered from the Pats: the use of presnap motion. Often, a Rams receiver will align wide and motion down into the clustered tight split. This puts defenders on their heels. They must play with more cushion, and their response almost always tells Goff whether he’s facing man or zone coverage. If a defender follows the motioning receiver, it’s typically man; if he doesn’t, it’s zone. This information is particularly valuable in McVay’s system, in which he’ll often have two sets of route combinations: man-coverage-beaters on one side of the field, zone-beaters on the other. He has an answer for almost everything.


Let’s be fair about this all: As primed as McVay is to take L.A. to the next level, he is overseeing a more talented group than the one Jeff Fisher led in 2016. Goff is a year older, the O-line is stabilized by veteran free-agent pickups at left tackle and center, the receiving corps is totally revamped.

The biggest difference, though, is the way this offense is being orchestrated. A commanding play-caller makes a quarterback more comfortable. And a comfortable quarterback is one who will play with pocket poise and decisiveness in those critical moments when play design alone isn’t enough. The Rams are still rebuilding, but with a gifted coach, the foundation for excellence is already in place.