Los AngelesRams

The construction, which is the subject

17 rated players against a league average of 14.3, with the seven starting slots at 73.9, 94.9, 66.5, 99.7, 87.9, 57.4 and 36.5.

Two receivers at 99.7 and 87.9, a lead back at 94.9, and two tight end slots in the fifties and thirties. That is a club that has spent its money at the positions it throws to and declined to spend it at the position it does not. Whether that is right is a question about the scheme, and the scheme throws at 0.56 with a pass efficiency of 0.84, which is among the highest in football.

The age curve, and why I am not worried about it

Value-weighted age 27.9, 30 of 32, with only 19% of the rated talent under twenty-five. Second-oldest in the division and third-oldest in football by that measure.

I believe an ageing top of a roster is a deliberate trade rather than a warning sign and I will defend it against the age curve, because a club that treats picks as currency has decided that a live present is worth a thin future and it has been right about that before. A youth premium applied to a club built to win now is a premium priced for somebody else's plan. This site publishes the age number and does not editorialise about it, which is the correct amount of comment for a page to make.

The quarterback slot, which is the actual argument

Matthew Stafford rates 73.9, 111 of 457, and carries 28% of the club figure. The scheme profile's quarterback input reads 0.72. Pass efficiency 0.84 is a top-three figure in football and it is achieved with a player rating in the seventies.

Those three numbers are the whole case in miniature. The offense is efficient, the man running it does not rate like an efficient offense, and the difference is scheme, receivers and a line at 20 of 32. A club figure that reads only players will always miss that, and I would rather name the miss than pretend the thirteenth-place finish is a scandal.

The defense, and how it got there

Forward composite 2.28 at 1 of 32, best in football. Backward: pass defense 1.06 at 8, rush defense 0.58 at 12. Both top twelve, so this is not a projection contradicting a record. It is a projection extending one.

A defense that improved through acquisition is worth more than one that improved through variance, and the backward and forward numbers agreeing is the closest a page gets to telling you which kind this is. 11 of 17 games indoors, 6 of 32. Strength of schedule 20 of 32 counting easiest first, the middle. The bye is week 11.

So the case is a front office's case: the best projected defense in football, a top-seven blended rating, eleven indoor games, a top-three pass efficiency, and the sixth-rated skill player in the league. The skill group ranks thirteenth because it is old and thin at tight end, and both of those were chosen. This is the year the trade is supposed to pay, and the page says the club is holding what it paid for.