St. Louis general manager Les Snead and coach Jeff Fisher knew they couldn't make the Rams roster whole in one offseason. So they focused on getting extra draft picks, building depth and making a few units on the team as strong as possible. Starting with the defensive line.
Jeremiah: The Magnificent Seven
Daniel Jeremiah lists the seven most dominant players in the league today, with one caveat: No QBs allowed! **More ...**
Snead believes the Rams have the makings of a difference-making group after taking Michael Brockers out of LSU at No. 14 overall in last month's draft.
"We've got two young ends," Snead told Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in reference to Chris Long and Robert Quinn. "We've added [Kendall] Langford. We've got Darell Scott coming back. Bam! You throw in Brockers, and all of a sudden that unit gets strong. Now the DL becomes a dominant unit."
It's not a bad point. At this time a year ago, we were talking about the Rams pass rush as one of the most promising groups in football. They did a great job getting to the quarterback in 2010 and there are pieces in place for a dangerous unit. The Rams secondary has gone an even more dramatic transformation with the addition of top-shelf cornerback Cortland Finnegan and second round pick Janoris Jenkins.
"That's not a bad pairing -- good defensive line and a good secondary," Snead said. "That usually means the quarterback's got to get things out fast, and you've got tight coverage."
Give this team some outside linebackers and a passing game on offense, and perhaps this Rams rebuild won't take so long.