32 in 31: St. Louis Rams

Another year of 32 in 31. Sports News on Tap takes the month of August and September to preview the National Football League. We spend every day of the month looking at a new team and how they will fare in 2013

The St. Louis Rams have not made the playoffs since 2004 when they finished 8-8, and they feel like there is something brewing with new coach Jeff Fisher.  The Rams had five more wins last season finishing near .500 which is classic Fisher, but I digress. They had a great draft in the 2013 season and some people believe this might be their year to head back to the NFL Playoffs.

OFFENSE
Is it put up or shut up time for Sam Bradford? He played quarterback for St. Louis for the last three years so maybe he still has another year before we reached that level, but it is getting close. With Steven Jackson leaving the team, Bradford is finally the man. He is the go-to guy and the pressure is directly on him.  He had his strongest season, but that is not saying much right now. All of his numbers were up since his injured 2011 season and his rookie year.

Bradford finally has a strong assembly of wide receivers and tight ends.  They drafted two receivers from West Virginia in Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey, both can be different types of receivers for the Rams. Many people are high on Chris Givens having a big year for the Rams this season as the other receiver. Jared Cook was one of the few acquisitions for St. Louis and he might be a player whose ready to have a massive season.

Probably my favorite sleeper of the year is Daryl Richardson. I feel like he will be a revelation to many people this season. Richardson had 475 yards of rushing last season with a 4.8 clip as a backup and I think we will see a big season from him being the second option for the St. Louis team.

DEFENSE
This team seems to have a lot of defense players people forget about when talking about competent defensive players. Chris Long probably should not have been taken second overall, but he is a pretty damn good defensive end. People do not make much fuss about him because he just does his job. Long takes his lunch pail to work and plays his ass off. The same can be said for guys like James Laurinaitis, a strong linebacker who does not get much credit.

They took chances on both Janoris Jenkins and Alec Olgetree. Both them were highly recruited out of high school and ran into some legal troubles in college then right after college. Jenkins was a great player for the Rams last season and Olgetree is getting a lot of hype out of the gate. This is a little different, but the Rams brought Courtland Finnegan on the team, a player whose as chippy as they come by but he has not been a bad value for the Rams.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Weird thing to say about Special Teams, but they have young promising talent with Greg Zuerlein and Josh Hekker.  Austin will probably be the kick and punt returner for St. Louis for long time to come.

KEY ADDITIONS
OT Jake Long, TE Jared Cook - The Rams did not do much in the offseason in terms of free agency, but they added two big names who can help the Rams offense. Long is a near-elite tackle if he stays healthy although that has been hard to come by in the last couple of years.

KEY SUBTRACTIONS
RB Steven Jackson, WR Danny Amendola, S Craig Dahl, WR Brandon Gibson, LB Rocky McIntosh, S Quintin Mikell, OT Barry Richardson, OG/C Robert Turner

RAMS DRAFT PICKS
WR Tavon Austin, LB Alec Olgetree, S T.J. McDonald, WR Stedman Bailey, OG/C Barrett Jones, CB Brandon McGee, RB Zac Stacy - We did not mentioned McDonald or Jones, but I have a feeling both players can contribute to the team this season.

GAME TO WATCH
Sunday December 1st at San Francisco 3:05 pm - The last time these two teams met in San Francisco, they had a tied game. This is not really worth nothing except it shows St. Louis is not afraid to play the Niners on the road.  It could be important in an early December game.

WIN TOTAL
7-9 - They are so close to being a playoff team. If everything clicks for this team, they could squeeze into the playoffs.

Charlie.