Are the St. Louis Rams finally ready to break out of their shell on offense?
Wideout Brian Quick suggested this week that new play-caller Frank Cignetti Jr. has made adjustments to the milquetoast attack we saw under former coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.
"Oh man, we have some stuff," Quick said, per ESPN.com. "It's going to take some time but it's coming. He has a lot up his sleeve and together as an offense we are going to put it together and it's going to be fun."
The Rams are expected to add zone-blocking elements to their ground game, but Quick appears to be hinting at more. Perhaps the team will find a better way to display the gifts of third-year wideout Tavon Austin, the former first-round pick who has been held to 71 catches for 660 yards over two seasons. Or maybe the reboot will address the entire passing game, which saw its leading receiver catch only 48 passes last season after hauling in just 40 in 2013.
Either way, we still expect the Rams to smash teams with the run. The combination of rookie Todd Gurley and second-year back Tre Mason gives St. Louis an intriguing pair of runners in a division ruled by the ground game.
As the team's quarterback coach over the past three years, Cignetti knows better than anyone what plagued this team: chaos under center. Sam Bradford played just seven games over the past two seasons, leaving middling arms Austin Davis, Shaun Hill and Kellen Clemens to run the show.
No matter what the newfangled attack looks like, St. Louis desperately needs new quarterback Nick Foles to stay on the field and give the Rams a much-needed dose of stability. That would be new for Foles -- who was a hot-and-cold act in Philly -- but at just 26 years old, he has plenty of time to change minds.
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