[aeneas1]

I have learned in recent years never count the Hags out. They're like a butt ugly rat ass cat with 9 lives......

no doubt... they were a trianwreck last year yet managed to beat the 3-1 rams in l.a., then the 10-1 eventual sb champs, holding wentz and company to just 10 offensive points, only to fall just 1 game short of a 10-6 record and a shot at the postseason, fuckers... 2018 is gonna be a lot of fun, especially in the nfc west, who the hell knows how things will finally shake out?

[BuiltRamTough]

[ramsman34]

https://instagram.com/p/BhXQSurAWuo/

If AD's skin was green??? Just sayin'

[RamsFanSince82]

Last year the Seahawks used their first pick in the draft, No. 35 overall, on defensive tackle Malik McDowell. Now they’re likely to release him, before he has played a snap in the NFL.

McDowell missed his entire rookie season because of injuries suffered in an ATV accident, and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that the Seahawks are likely to cut McDowell soon.

It is unclear whether McDowell will ever recover sufficiently to be able to play in the NFL. It is also unclear whether the Seahawks are going after any of the money they’ve already paid McDowell, as teams sometimes do when a non-football injury prevents a player from playing.

Last year McDowell was arrested for disorderly conduct, in an incident that likely didn’t do anything to endear McDowell to the Seahawks’ brass.

[actionjack]

Poor drafting catches up with every team eventually, happened to the RAMS after the GSOT. The niners went away after their problems, now the seahawks and IMO the Patriots now.

[/zn/]

Their defense was bottom 3rd in most categories and I'm not sure they've improved much on that this offseason.

.

I dunno. I am not sure the ranking means much since the 2017 SF defense started at least 5 youngsters (ie. rookies, a 1st year players, and a 2nd year player). I think they only had 3-4 starters with 3 or more years experience. For all we know it's a developing unit that was just massively inexperienced last year.

[snackdaddy]

True, but I also remember years past when the Rams were one of the youngest teams in the league several times. I thought that meant they'd be pretty good in a couple years. But those young players were just lousy young players. You don't know. The 49ers don't know but so far they have not been very good on defense.

[Elvis]

The key thing here is how quickly things change in the NFL.

Last year at this time the Hawks were touted as the clear top team in the West and one of the NFC favorites while the Rams were thought to be at least two years away with a huge question mark at QB.

Many times things change dramatically in the NFL. You just never know when the magic will happen.

Exactly right...

[aeneas1]

Sure.
And who knows how much Sherman will help.
But... they’re also losing Foster.. possibly for good. Big loss for them.

the niners defense has ranked in the bottom 3rd of the league in offensive points allowed every year since harbaugh's departure, i.e. for three years straight (24th, 32nd, and 30th last season), who knows how long it will take them to right their defensive ship, you would think sherman is a step in the right direction, assuming he's healthy.

seattle's defense will be a very interesting story in 2018 - despite their tonnage of injuries last season they finished a respectable 14th in offensive points allowed, one notch behind the rams, and booked a top 10 average if you take away the 40 offensive points the rams hung on them... since carroll has been seattle's hc they've ranked 26th (carroll's first season) then 5th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 3rd and 14th last season.... sure would be nice to see the seahawks suck on defense next season, and equally nice to not see shanny dial up the same type of defensive turnaround that carroll did in his second year with the seahawks.

the cherry on top would be seeing the rams parlay their gaudy defensive personnel haul into the top ranked defense in offensive points allowed in 2018... the best they've booked since the league moved to a 16-game schedule (40 years ago) is 4th, in 1978, 1988 and 1999.

[HopHead Ram]

Sure.
And who knows how much Sherman will help.
But... they’re also losing Foster.. possibly for good. Big loss for them.

Exactly. How much will Sherman be able to contribute coming off a ruptured Achilles? I'm hoping very little. I think the bigger blow is the loss of Foster.