[ramsman34]

A1 - is that from Ourlad's? I see Young, Kizer, and Howard as the main ILBs. Don't see Floyd inside ever. Kizer, Obo, Lewis, Ebukam outside. Everyone else fighting for roster spots on ST's at best, with Polite, Patrick, Lawler, Johnston having the best shot at back-up spots. Reeder gets cut I think. Normally, I would guess the 53 after watching/reading about training camp and preseason. I have no idea how to evaluate/guess this year.

[PARAM]

I couldn't tell you where they're gonna play but LBs? We got a lot of them.

The Rams site has them listed as LB and OLB

Kizer, Howard, Young, Reeder, Johnston, Bituli, Rozeboom and London
Patrick, Okoronkwo, Ebukam, Floyd, Lewis, Polite, Lawler and Reaves.

That's 16 guys for 4 spots and 4 to 6 backup spots? Somebody gonna get cut.

What can we expect as far as position allotments?
7 Defensive lineman? 8? 6?
9 Linebackers? 10? 8?
10 Defensive backs? 11?

New DC. Lotsa new faces. Hell yeah, I'm excited about the defense too. Almost as much as I'm excited about the offense!!!

[actionjack]

I think there are reasons to be optimistic and reasons to pessimistic.

The positives are the Rams were able to add some decent players thru FA Floyd and Robinson, retain Brockers and add some quality defenders in the draft Lewis and Burgess.

But a lot of questions remain:

The Rams lost 46% of their sack production from 2019, who will replace that? Obo and Ebukam combined for 5.5 sacks in 2019, hopefully more playing time will increase production a lot. Lewis IMO is a huge key, amazing athletic ability, but he has got to stay on the field to have an impact, and that is a big if. If Lewis can make an impact, I would feel much better about the pass rush.

The Rams have extreme inexperience at ILB, just a big question mark. Could be fine especially with the amount of big nickel we may play, but still a big unknown. Quality Tight ends are gonna be a problem for our defense.

Safety, losing Weddle from a physical standpoint was not a big deal, but from a mental one, it is big. Who is going to call the defense this year? Can JJ return to form after a major injury. Can Rapp take it to another level as he becomes the full time starter? Did he learn from those two back breaking plays that cost us the niner game. I think so, I am a big fan of Rapp from his Washington days, but his lack of experience is a concern on the back end.

And finally can Staley indeed be an upgrade over a HOF coach? Will Staley be able to adjust game to game and have success? I think he can, but the lack of on-field practice time due to the virus is concerning to me.

I just hope we soon are talking about actual play of the field soon, practice or whatever.

[Elvis]

The biggest negative which Dick already mentioned is a new DC and no real off season program. This is where they usually do a lot of the installs.

But yeah i'm pretty jacked to see what we got...

[snackdaddy]

The detractors point the losses on both offense and defense. Both players and coaches. Defensively, we were pretty bad at times. Maybe some changes would be a good thing. Fowler's sack totals were inflated by 7 sacks in 3 games. Which means he had 4.5 sacks in 13 games. Was he really an impact player?

Littleton was a good player for us. But I never viewed him as an impact type talent. To me he was the classic undrafted over achiever. A good story. He parlayed that into a nice life changing payday. Good for him. But honestly, were these two irreplaceable? I don't see it. To me the biggest difference is the inexperience guys like Kiser and Lewis will have. For the Lewis the impact level talent is certainly there.

[safer]

I'd rather we kept Littleton and didn't sign Floyd. oh well............

[69RamFan]

The biggest negative which Dick already mentioned is a new DC and no real off season program. This is where they usually do a lot of the installs.

But yeah i'm pretty jacked to see what we got...

I'm sure they have been doing a lot of training through virtual meetings...
Going over the playbooks and schemes,,,

having those guys training at home in their backyards...

Last year, OTAs started on the 20th of May, which is today....

I have this feeling, they will start OTAs by the 1st of Jun since Gov Newsom is starting to pull back on his original rules, since he is getting flack from all of the ppl in California to get back to work...

So instead of having a month off after OTAs... it will be a couple of weeks off, then Training camp...

The question is,,, where are they going to hold training camp this year,,,
Will they come down to Irvine/UCI (I'm hoping so, so I can go do some evaluation.... ) or just stay up in Thousand Oaks???

[PARAM]

But a lot of questions remain:

The Rams lost 46% of their sack production from 2019, who will replace that?

That's misleading. Not that you are trying to mislead anyone. Just the numbers are misleading. Yes, they lost 46% of their sack production but 65% (of that 46%) occurred in 3 games. And in those 3 games, the Rams as a team, had 14 sacks. In the other 13 games, the Rams had 36 sacks and Fowler had 4 of those (11.1%). So really it's not as dire as it sounds. Donald had 2.5 in those games Fowler had 7.5 and in the other 13 Donald had 10. The defense can make up for that sack loss IMHO.

But Fowler also played the run pretty well. We will miss that. I think the bigger question is can somebody replace that contribution while also producing sacks? We'll see.

[actionjack]

The detractors point the losses on both offense and defense. Both players and coaches. Defensively, we were pretty bad at times. Maybe some changes would be a good thing. Fowler's sack totals were inflated by 7 sacks in 3 games. Which means he had 4.5 sacks in 13 games. Was he really an impact player?

Littleton was a good player for us. But I never viewed him as an impact type talent. To me he was the classic undrafted over achiever. A good story. He parlayed that into a nice life changing payday. Good for him. But honestly, were these two irreplaceable? I don't see it. To me the biggest difference is the inexperience guys like Kiser and Lewis will have. For the Lewis the impact level talent is certainly there.

I think you will see the impact of losing a player like Littleton, he defended the middle of the field pretty well and got sideline to sideline. We dont have that anymore.

[ramsman34]

Littleton's production will be divided between players who will be maximized by scheme, I believe.

One thing is for sure - team speed on defensive should be excellent this season and beyond, while collectively light on experience. The defensive front is going to cause problems for opposing offenses. Pass coverage as well as open field tackling should be quite good as well. I believe Staley will be able to generate pressure with exotics (front looks, stunts, twists) and won't have to rely on blitzing.