I'm really looking forward to seeing the changes to both the O and the D this year. It doesn't appear that the Rams are just going to stand pat with the same schemes.
On offense, while we are all sad to see Woods go, trading him and putting Allen Robinson in his spot is a harbinger of significant changes to the passing game that McVay is cooking up. AR1 has a totally different game than Woods and is more in tune with Stafford's strengths. Combining him with Vanillatron, who has morphed from a possession-slot WR when we first drafted him into an all-around stud is going to make for a much different pass offense than the one we saw during the first few years of the McVay era and that still had plenty of influence on this most recent season. McVay is evolving his offense before he absolutely has to, before defenses have caught up with it, and that's a great thing.
I would like to see some changes in the running game though. Namely, I'd like to see a re-design to prevent so many plays where a RB gets hit in the backfield before he really has a chance to get going. That probably means some adjustments to the blocking scheme, although I don't think we'll see wholesale changes there (especially with Boom and Allen coming back). If there is one thing I'd like to see brought back, it's more jet sweeps, although I don't know if we have anyone on the roster as good as Woods was on those.
On D, I have a lot more confidence in Morris given the spectacularly good way he finished off the season. There will be some adjustments with Miller gone and Wagner coming in, but I really like the latter move because it is going to make the D very stout in the middle. Wagner lining up behind AD is going to be a nightmare for opposing offenses, and that will be even more amplified now that Jones has a year of experience under his belt. There will likely be a dropoff on the edge opposite Floyd now that Miller is gone, but I have faith that Morris can figure it out being in his second year here and having shown he can figure out how to beat the 9ers in the NFCC by taking away their strengths with the ILBs we had. I really think our D has a chance to be better than it already was this past season, and that is a scary thought for those teams that will have to face it.
