Well... I am still a subscriber to Sports Illustrated. That's going to stop soon. I get a piece of bacon in my mailbox each morning which I usually flush right away. I took a look at it this morning due to the fact that we just had the hall of fame inductions this past Saturday.
What do I find? Don Banks has been in St. Louis recently. He doesn't want to go "I have seen the future of Rock N' Roll" on us now, but he does know what's going to happen in Ram camp. The quarterback dual between A.J. Feely and Sam Bradford, ain't going to make late August. By this, Banks obviously means that Sam Bradford will be declared the starting QB some time his week.
Folks, I have posted in highly-trafficked websites like BleacherReport.com many times regarding this subject. I warned everybody that the Rams were going to throw Sam Bradford head-first into the shark tank, naked as a Jay Bird. I declared that for the first time some 2 or 3 weeks immediately prior to the 2010 draft. I have continued to say the same thing since then.
Once again, I am correct. You won't get more accurate prognosticating anywhere. I am accuracy incarnated.
Whilst some conservative Ram fans have hoped that the establishment would have the good sense to keep him off the firing line for a few games--at least long enough to determine the offensive line can block Pop-Warner kids--I knew it would never happen. You don't take a kid #1, give him $50 million of guaranteed money to put him on the bench and get 0.000% impact out of him. The Rams are going to throw him in, even if it kills him.
Besides that, who else do they have? A.J. Feely? If this were a boxing match, we would call it a setup.
Don Banks makes it all sound so good. Everything is going great. Swimmingly, in fact. Very hopeful scenario. Bullets flying all over the place, dead in the hands, full stride, etc.
You just wait for that wet paper mache offensive line to give way and the injury to strike. Are you saying you don't trust the Rams offensive line, Dave? I don't trust them any further than I can throw them, and since they are all over 300 pounds, and there are 5 of them, I can't toss them very far at all.
Truth be told, you don't have the slightest reason to trust them either. When you say "the Rams line isn't all that bad", you are making a metaphysical declaration of faith. That statement is based on zero facts and fallacious reasoning.
- The last three years, the Rams have a had a QB rotation by medical triage. The least wounded QB took the field. When he got more wounded, the next-least wounded guy went in to spell him.
- All three Ram QBs finished 2009 beaten to a pulp. Bulger had a broken leg. Explain that one.
- The Rams offensive line has given up more than 40 sacks per year each year and every year for 10 years straight. This is a passing league. Sam Bradford is a passer. This fact matters to Sam.
- The Rams just flushed two starters from last season. Whilst they were bums and it was good to flush them, only one replacement was acquired: Rodger Safford, a guy with a back injury. It is lovely to shop at home for talent, but only if there is something in the refrigerator.
- Given a rejiggered line, you have no idea whatsoever of what you have right now. You don't know if they are better or worse. You just hope they are better. Yet you have no logical or evidential reason to expect they will be better.
- When challenged on this level, the minority of Ram fans who were desperate to draft Bradford, react very defensively. They site preposterous and arcane run-indexes that 'show' the Rams offensive line isn't that bad.
- Their reasoning is absolutely fallacious. You cannot site run indexes to show that a line can pass protect. In the case of the Rams' line, you cannot site run indexes to prove anything at all. The Rams run because Steve Jackson is a powerful punisher who gets lots of yards all by himself, with little or no blocking
- All apologies for the Rams offensive line must begin with the 40+ sacks every year for the past 10 years. They never do. Apologists for Devaney are forever avoiding this fact like the plague, understanding well that this is the absolute critical-flaw in the strategy.
Ergo sum, Sam Bradford is going to be thrown head-first into the Shark Tank, naked as a Jay Bird. Don't try to make it sound like it some kind of wonderful thing either. It is the immediate prelude to a season ending injury.
Before the draft was held, I pissed off Bradford-advocates by repeatedly posting fan-polls asking how many games Sam would start before suffering his season ending injury in 2010. The highest number you could select was 7. I stopped the count after 7. I set the over-under number at 3. I did all of this deliberately, and for good reason.
There ain't no way he's making it past 7 starts without suffering a bad one. It is more likely that the number will be 2-4. If you think I am wrong, you just make your case. I have made mine. We shall see who is right.
This is the reason I am dropping the NFL Super-Fan this year. I don't want to watch the travesty unfold.
Right now, I feel just a little bit like Winston Churchill during the time Neville Chamberlain was running the show. Whilst Devaney is announcing he has achieved peace in our time, I know it just 'taint so. Ad-meanwhile, little old lady Ram fans are approaching me on the street telling me they would put poison in my coffee.
