Last February, Rams general manager Les Snead said that "deleting" quarterback Sam Bradford was not the answer before dealing him to the Philadelphia Eagles for Nick Foles.
This offseason, he is having trouble convincing people that the team is absolutely content in potentially rolling with Case Keenum as their Day 1 starter, but speaking on NFL Network's *NFL HQ *on Monday, Snead made his strongest declaration to date on the Rams' quarterback situation.
"Case is going to come in and be our starting quarterback (at beginning of organized team activities). He earned it," Snead said at the Annual League Meeting in Boca Raton, Florida. "We were a slumping football team at the end of last year. He comes in and wins three out of four. And basically drove us down to kick a game-winning field goal to win four straight and we missed it."
Coach Jeff Fisher bolstered those comments, appearing on on NFL Total Access with Wyche and Dan Hellie later in the day.
"Les and I are on the same page," Fisher said. "(Keenum) comes back as our starter. We're going to give Nick a chance to compete as well. ... It's a position we need to upgrade, but I know we can win games with Case."
To be fair, it's ridiculous to hold Snead's words from last year against him when it comes to his current quarterback situation. Snead had to tread lightly during the end of the Bradford era and likely did not want to blow up a chance to get rid of a quarterback he didn't want and still net a second-round pick in the 2016 draft. Maybe trading Bradford wasn't even a real possibility at the time.
Either way, the Rams find themselves in a spot where they are selling themselves on a fourth different opening-day starter in as many seasons. Last year, Keenum started five games, going 3-2 with a 60.8 completion percentage, four touchdowns and one interception.
As much as Snead will get mocked for his enthusiasm, the current NFL landscape shows no reason to dismiss Keenum above a third of the NFL's projected opening day starters in 2016. College quarterbacks are not coming out of the draft pro ready and the backups who hang around longer and get the chance to learn the position end up becoming more valuable. Is it the franchise savior the team has been looking for? No. But is it any worse than allowing the team to enter camp without a clear idea of who the starter might be?
