Rams get new start, but old questions remain

The Los Angeles Rams have not been to the playoffs since 2004, when the team was based in St. Louis. That year, the Rams went 8-8 and beat the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Wild Card round before getting trounced by Michael Vick and the Atlanta Falcons. Nobody could know the pain awaiting the fanbase.

Since then, Los Angeles has been without a single winning season. The Rams have been a rudderless ship throughout much of the past decade, accumulating high draft picks but often wasting them on fool’s gold. In 2012, general manager Les Snead acquired three first-round draft picks from the Washington Redskins, giving up the second-overall pick which would become Robert Griffin III. Snead made a brilliant move, as Griffin turned out to be a bust. However, the resulting bounty has yet to produce a winning, finally costing head coach Jeff Fisher his job before Week 15 of last season.

Snead was aggressive last offseason, moving up to the top spot in the draft to take quarterback Jared Goff. Goff began last year as a backup to Case Keenum, only to take over the job for the final seven weeks and play horribly. The rookie completed 54.6 percent of his throws with five touchdowns and seven interceptions, to go with a 5.31 yards per attempt. While some of those struggles can be attributed to a bad roster and an old system, red flags are still present.

Heading into 2017, Sean McVay has taken over the reins, charged with getting both Goff and the overall program back on track. McVay is the youngest head coach in the league at 31 years old, but comes highly-regarded after spending seven years with the Washington Redskins including the last three as the offensive coordinator.

The Rams have some talent, but it has yet to be developed into a winning team. Aaron Donald is arguably the best defensive player in football, while Todd Gurley, Alec Ogletree, Trumaine Johnson, Tavon Austin and Andrew Whitworth dot the roster. Nobody is mistaking Los Angeles to be a sleeping giant in the NFC West, but if McVay can install a better, more advanced offensive scheme, there could be a spike in both points scored and wins.

Los Angeles faces a long climb back to the top, something that Rams haven’t been to since Kurt Warner burst onto the scene in 1999. If McVay can prove to finally be the right hire, that climb can start with a young quarterback, an extremely young head coach and a dynamic running back. Of course, that’s a lot of ifs.