Rams appear to be throwing support behind an unlikely quarterback
British actress Miranda Richardson, an outsider to the city, had a pretty good quote about Los Angeles that seems fitting this Monday.
“You can have a laugh in Los Angeles,” she said, “or you can weep in Los Angeles, depending on your attitude towards it.”
With the Los Angeles Rams coming back to town in 2016, this attitude might be helpful for the locals when considering their current quarterback situation. According to Rams GM Les Snead, appearing on the NFL Network Monday morning in advance of this week’s league meeting, there will be some carryover from the STL days.
Beginning of the season. That usually means Week 1. Of course, there also was the “as of now” qualifier, but …
We don’t know if the Rams are trying to drive fans away or what, but this is a curious approach to excitement building. Maybe Snead is assuming that the fans of L.A. have yet to have the full Case Keenum experience and, thus, have yet to know that disappointment.
It also could be a red herring for the team’s real approach, some secretly veiled plan to acquire a far more sexy name at the position. Or perhaps the team really does like Keenum, who won three of his final four starts and played moderately well down the stretch, and is planning to build around him until they get something better.
Worth noting: Picking a quarterback based on how much excitement and season-ticket hype he drives is bad business. We know that. But we also know that Keenum, even with a solid run at the end of last season with a limited Rams offense, has yet to show that he’s capable of running a franchise for the long haul. The Rams have some cap space and draft ammo to make a big move, but so far they mostly have been lying in the weeds while relocating the franchise to the west coast.
Drafting Sam Bradford didn’t work out. Trading him for Nick Foles was a swing and a miss so far, even with a draft pick added and (some) salary shed. There’s no evidence yet that 2015 third-rounder Sean Mannion is even in the QB picture now. Picking up Keenum for peanuts has turned out to be one of the better moves the franchise made at the position in recent years, although it’s a bit relative now.
The Rams seem to have faith in Keenum. But does L.A. have faith in him yet? Well, no, likely not, but he appears to be getting the first crack at earning it. We’ll see if more laughs or cries follow.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
