The St. Louis Rams have a lot of barriers standing between them and contention in 2012—they were among the worst teams in the NFL both on offense and defense, which is a nearly complete list of the things you can be bad at in football, and they've got an entirely new system to teach to a partially new team—but things aren't quite as diffuse as they seem at first. Their offensive woes are about more than just their quarterback, but they'll be dangerous no matter what if they can finally figure out what to do with Sam Bradford.
That is: The Rams' offensive problems aren't Sam Bradford's fault, exclusively, but they are almost all tied to figuring out how to make him more effective going into his third season as their quarterback-of-the-future. So putting Jason Smith and Rodger Saffold on high alert, drafting Brian Quick and Chris Givens and even Isaiah Pead, deciding on Steven Jackson's role as he (hopefully) gets less direct action per game—those are all attempts to treat the various problems that have together made Bradford look marginal at best.
If they've fixed enough of them that the cascading effects of the solutions free even a little of the talent that's been obvious since the Rams drafted him first overall, the situation at the Edward Jones Dome could change in a hurry.
More St. Louis Rams coverage hand-picked from SB Nation St. Louis, where we're still waiting to buy that Sam Bradford shersey.
- Speaking of the situation at the Edward Jones Dome, the chances for public financing of the Rams' stadium proposal seem increasingly dire.
- And speaking of ways to make Sam Bradford look better, it appears that Jeff Fisher's new offense looks a lot like Pat Shurmur's old offense.