Fantasy Football Daily - Los Angeles Rams with Cameron DaSilva | 2023 Franchise Focus Podcast

Episode Date: July 24, 2023

The Rams' all-in push for the Super Bowl was expected to result in some lean years... but maybe not so soon. Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) of @TheRamsWire joins Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) to discuss LA's thinning roster, the health of Matthew Stafford, and who is expected to catch passes here outside of Cooper Kupp. Want to join a high-stakes dynasty league -- or any other high-stakes league? All new FFPC users get $25 off their first FFPC league of $35 or more, including dynasty orphans, using our affiliate link: ⁠https://myffpc.com/cms/public?affid=fantasypoints⁠ ⁠FANTASY POINTS PROJECTIONS ARE LIVE⁠ FOR ALL STANDARD AND PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS! Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. ⁠Use our code FANTASYPTS⁠ to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! ⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points Podcast, brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Back to the franchise-focused podcast series on the Fantasy Points Podcast Network. I'm your host, Joe Dolan, and our long journey is coming to a close. 32 teams in 32 days, occasionally skipping a day here and there. But essentially in one month, we have a podcast for each NFL team, starting with the AFC East and now wrapping up with the NFC West.

I hope you enjoyed this journey as much as I did. I hope you learned as much as I did. Getting intel on camp battles, potential sleepers, injuries, who's going to be back early in training camp, who might not be back until a little bit later in the summer, contract situations. All of that has been covered. I just want to thank all of my co-hosts for scheduling these.

It was not a fun job scheduling the podcast. Once I started recording them, that's when I really started to enjoy it. Scheduling and getting people all on the same page was not the most fun, but everybody who I had on this podcast was so excited to join me. And it was such a pleasant experience once I got these things scheduled that I really can't imagine not doing this next year, even though it was a massive stress item in my life. But I think the fruits

of the labor have really borne out here with all the information that we have acquired throughout the franchise focus podcast series. We also, by the way, if you just listen to this and you're not subscribed to fantasy points dot com, we also did an accompanying

article for all 32 NFL teams in which we broke down, did a full breakdown of every player projected on those 32 teams, including John Hansen's final thoughts and how he's approaching all the teams. So I want to thank everybody for reading those articles. Tom Broly, Ryan Heath, Jake Tribby contributing to those articles. The guys did a wonderful job.

Tom Brolly also did a full betting preview for all 32 teams. The guy is just a machine, so I really hope you check that out. And finally, we launched the Fantasy Points Data Suite last week. And to say the reception's been great is an understatement. I think the industry is enjoying it, and I think the industry is seeing the potential of the fantasy points data suite. If you haven't signed up for the data suite and given a look at everything that the tool can do, you can go and sign up for a free seven-day trial. It will not charge your credit card for seven days,

and you can decide that the data suite is something you want to add to your fantasy football research this year. It has been a big research month here with the franchise-focused podcast series and the fantasy points data suite. I hope everybody is along for the ride, and I hope everybody is ready for training camp in the preseason. That is what this series was leading into. And without further ado, here is our final division, the NFC West. Welcome back to the franchise focus podcast series here at fantasy points.com. This is not the last one that you will hear, but it is the last one I'm recording here. And it's been quite a fun and challenging undertaking.

And I'm so thrilled to welcome Cameron De Silva to the program. to talk about the Los Angeles Rams. He is the managing editor of the Rams Wire. You could follow him on Twitter at Cam De Silva. Cam, thank you for joining me here. And thank you for being so open to scheduling. I know it's getting close to training camp and everybody is preparing to get busy. But thank you for doing this. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Glad to join. So, Cam, the Rams obviously, look, we know the less Sneed, F them, picks, you know, T-shirt and all that. And I think there was a very much an open understanding that the Rams were going to have to pay the tax that they paid to go to the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl. I just don't think Rams fans expected it to be so soon and so spectacular in the way they paid the tax.

Is there more reasons to be optimistic about 2023 as opposed to what happened in 2022? too. Yeah, I think you're going to see a really young, inexperienced team on the field initially this season. It's just a lot of rookies and second year players are going to have to step up. But last year was kind of just an anomaly of injuries and really just shuffling the offensive line way more than the Rams expected to. So that kind of just sent things into chaos. And Matthew Stafford's elbow injury was a bigger deal than I think some people understood and I want to say it was less neat or Sean McVey even said it he said I don't think people understood I think we kind of underestimated the pain that he was going through with his elbow

injury last off season and he didn't he didn't throw in the spring and then when training camp came around he only did individual work he didn't do the team drills that they were doing so it's hard for him to build chemistry with with Alan Robinson and some of his other receivers but this year you're going to see Cooper Cup obviously carry the offense along with with Matthew Stafford, hopefully get some better play out of Cam Acres now that he's solidified as they're starting running back with Daryl Henderson gone. But the defense is the bigger question. You need guys like Kobe Durant to step up and rookie Byron Young to kind of provide some pressure off the edge. I think expectations are low.

So this is almost like a 2017 all over again for the Rams where you're coming in with low expectations. Sean Nguet's first year, not really sure what to expect. from the offense and the defense as a whole. But there's some optimism with the young players that they do have. Let's talk about Matthew Stafford's health. What is the, what's the update on that? I know the word retirement was kind of floated out there. I think he was pretty quick to squash that.

But what is the update on his health? And is he doing more this year than he did last year? Yeah, for sure. He's been a full participant so far during OTAs and Manny Camp. And he's expected to be a full go in training camp. So it seems like he's miles ahead of where he was last year. The elbow is behind him, and that's not an issue anymore. Obviously, the bigger concern was the back injury that he suffered last season that

shut him down for the rest of the year. But there doesn't seem to be any ill effects from that going into this season. What about Cooper Cups health? He was not a full participant during OTAs and minicamp. Kind of took some time. He had a baby, so he was away from the team for a little while. Then he got back at the end of minicamp and did some work. on the side and was doing individual stuff, but he's expected to be fully healthy for the start

of the season two, which is a good sign. He and Aaron Donald had that same kind of ankle injury with surgery to repair the issue. So both of them are expected to be fine for the start. So I talked to John Chapman, who hosts the 49ers podcast about the 49ers. And I found it really interesting that with what's going on now in the running back market. The fact that, you know, you understand what happened with Sequan Barkley and Tony Pollard and Josh Jacobs. And yeah, a lot of the articles that you're saying is like, you know, blame Shanahan, blame McVeigh for, you know, what's going on.

And then I noticed about Kyle Shanahan, he seems to value the individual who plays the position more than anything. He doesn't view it as replaceable. The Rams has spent significant resources in the Sean McVeigh era drafting running backs, and Sean McVeigh has been very hard on his running backs. So how do you square that with the fact that maybe this system makes it easier to play for a running back, see C.J. Anderson in that Super Bowl run versus the fact that Sean McVeigh seems to be very hard on guys. We've seen guys like Darrell Henderson and Cam Acres end up in the doghouse. So how do you square that? What's the, what's the,

the juxtaposition there. Yeah, it's a funny, it's a funny balance because so many people want to blame Todd Gurley and the Rams for this whole running back situation and with the way that all of this has worked out. I think Melvin Gordon even said blamed Sean McVeigh and the Rams for the way they handled the Todd Gurley situation. But that was really just, they gave Todd Gurley that big contract and it obviously didn't work out, but that wasn't something that they expected to happen.

He just had that kind of arthritis in his knee and it just wore down, war down. and he wasn't the same player. And obviously the C.J. Anderson kind of sub in during their Super Bowl run and their playoff run that year, kind of opened some eyes to, hey, we can get a guy off the street in week 15 that comes in and produces as well as Todd Gurley did when he was not 100%. Why spend all this money on running backs? But you're right. I mean, Sean McVeigh, they love, Sean McVeigh and the Rams, they love running backs. They've taken Daryl Henderson.

they took Kyron Williams. They took Zach Evans this year. Cam Makers was a second round pick. Obviously Todd Gurley's contract. So they've sunk plenty of assets into this position. And they haven't gotten great returns out of it since Todd Gurley was cut. But they're continuing to try to find that workhorse back. And they think they have it with Camakers now.

And with Darrell Henderson gone, it's really his backfield. And they're going to use him pretty heavily, I think, this season. And Tyron Williams is going to make. in and maybe the rookie Zach Evans. So let's talk about Kamakers. What was the issue with him at the beginning of last year with McVeigh? And how did he kind of flip that on its head by the end of last year where he was essentially operating as a bell cowback?

Yeah, they never said specifically what it was. Rahim Morris kind of opened up the most about it and just said it was a disagreement with the RAM system. And it probably had to do with the change that they made at running back's coach, where They had Rashad samples come in and he was their new running backs coach and there might have been a little disagreement between him and Cam Acres. And McVeigh mentioned a couple of times, I think, that he wanted to see more urgency and essentially more effort out of Cam Acres when he wasn't carrying the balls. So things like blocking and the little things that you expect from the running back position. So he got in the doghouse for a couple of weeks and after Darrell Henderson was cut, which was a huge support.

at that point in the season. Acres really took over and was that starting running back that he was towards the end of his rookie year and showed that he can be a workhorse back and do it all in this offense. I think one of the things that might be unanswered in fantasy football, Adam Schaefter, before that opening game last year against the bills, comes out on, you know, on NFL countdown. And he's like, by the way, keep an eye out for Kyron Williams.

Adam Schaefter does not say that if Adam Schaeftor. doesn't know something. And then Williams, I think, proceeded to get hurt on the opening kickoff. What do you think Adam Schaefter was alluding to with Kyron Williams? And why did we not see that when Kyron Williams ended up coming back later in the season? I think there was a good chance he was going to be at least their number two running back. Sean McVeigh said it. He said how excited he was for Williams before he got hurt.

And he said multiple times since then that he was going to be a big part of their offense. And I think the Rams wanted to use him as more than just kind of a third down back. And when he got hurt on that opening kickoff, it was really disappointing. And then he came back. And I mean, he dealt with injuries throughout his rookie year from OTAs on. So he never really got started. But he's a player they really like. And he doesn't have the greatest athleticism.

He's not like a breakaway guy. But he's small. He's shifty. He's a good blocker. He's a good receiver. So I think this year, they're kind of looking at him as that third down back who can who can catch some passes and do the dirty work of blocking.

It's just disappointing that he never really got off the ground last season as a rookie. Van Jefferson also another guy who dealt with injuries. I mean, if you're talking about a Los Angeles ram on this podcast, chances are they dealt with injuries last year. He's kind of one of those guys who I think he's an old school scouts kind of receiver, right? He didn't test out of the building, but he's a coach's, I mean, he's an NFL receiver son, also a coach's son. He's a route runner.

Do you think Van Jefferson has the chops to be the Rams number two wide receiver? And essentially, they're number one outside wide receiver with Cooper Cup predominantly lining up in the slot. Yeah, I do. He had a good season in 2021. He had 50 catches somewhere around 800 yards. And that was really as the number three receivers. So last season just never really got a shot. Obviously, Alan Robinson was there.

but more importantly, he missed the early part of the season with two knee surgeries. So a delayed start for Van, but he's, like you mentioned, he's just kind of a well-rounded receiver who can run routes. He has better speed than he tested in the 40. The Rams, what they weighed his scouting report on more heavily than the 40 was his tracking time, his GPS tracking time at the senior bowl. And he was one of the fastest receivers on the field. So they like his speed. The problem with him is he might be able to get behind the defense and kind of create a big play. But he's not always the most physical at the catch point.

He's not like a 50-50 guy who's going to win these jump ball scenarios. So I think really to get him going to need to work him more on these intermediate routes and kind of just get him into the flow of the game a little bit more rather than going to him on third and 10 where he's expected to make a, a big catch down the field, get him more involved with Cooper Cup in the slot and kind of spread the ball around a little bit more to get him feeling comfortable in the offense. So even if Matthew Stafford stayed healthy last year, it probably wasn't going to be a pretty offense for the Rams. We saw that before he got hurt. And the offensive line was a big part of that. And not only did they not have a lot of high level talent, but everybody got hurt too.

What's the outlook for the offensive line are the reasons to be more optimistic for the Rams offensive line in 2020. Yeah, obviously health is just the primary thing that everyone is going to be looking for for that offensive line. It's not that they don't have talent. It's that they don't have like these top end starters. They have plenty of competition across the board. Rob Havenstein at Wright tackle is going to be the starter. He's not going to face any competition there. But at the other four spots, the Rams don't know who their starter is going to be.

So it's going to be wide open in training camp. You're going to have Joe Note Boom and Alaric Jackson competing at left tackle. The loser of that battle could move inside the guard and be a starter there. At guard, you have Steve Avila, their top pick this year. You have Logan Bruss who's coming back from a torn ACL. He was their top pick last year. At center, you have Brian Allen and Coleman Shelton competing. So it's just really a huge mixture of players who can play a variety of positions.

And the Rams are just going to need to find the best find. combination and kind of make it work from there. They don't have like a Pro Bowl guard or an all pro left tackle like Andrew Whitworth anymore, but they do have a lot of bodies and guys who have gained experience, especially last year with so many injuries where you have backups getting thrust into starting roles and gaining that valuable experience. Is that a place where, you know, always in the NFL in the summer, there are surprising veteran cuts on the offensive line.

Is that a place where the Rams could potentially look? or is that really dependent on how this competition goes? You mean picking up someone who was cut? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think for sure. I think you could look there. I think you're going to look at edge rusher, maybe cornerback. It's going to kind of depend how training camp goes.

They've really been of the mind that they like the guys that they have. And we kind of saw that in the draft the last couple of years. Obviously, they prioritized it with Avila and Logan Bruss. But it's not like they've gone out and signed these big name free agents along the offensive line. and they like the guys that they bring up and develop and they turn into starters. So if they do go out and sign a veteran who was cut, I don't know if you expect him to start week one. He might just be kind of a backup and insurance guy just in case one of the younger guys gets hurt, but for sure some position they can look at.

I think I don't know if you play fantasy, but I think you've known throughout the years, Tyler Higbee's kind of had these stretches where he's getting eight targets, nine targets, 10 targets. And then he goes through stretches where he has one target, zero targets, two targets. Is a lot of that because of the offensive line lows? Or is Higbee just a guy who's never been able to consistently put it together? He's one of the hardest players for me to rank every year from a fantasy football perspective. Yeah, he is. I mean, he's kind of like a high floor, low ceiling type player from a fantasy perspective, just because he's not the most explosive tight end. And he's not like the most elusive after the catch where he's going to turn a short pass into a big gain.

He's not Kelsey or Kittle in that way. But he's a big part of the offense, not only as a blocker, but a receiver. And he doesn't really have any competition at the tight end position this year. There's no Gerald Everett. Obviously, he's been gone for a couple of years. So Higby's been the guy for the past couple of seasons. And he's just not going to be a guy who's going to get you 25 points in a given week, really. even with the volume just because he doesn't pick up a ton of yards.

But even though he's dealt with some injuries, he stays relatively healthy and available throughout the season. And like you mentioned, some stretches. I think it was at the end of the 2019 season, he just erupted and had like three 100-yard games. And yeah, he went nuts. And it kind of came out of nowhere. But I guess you can expect that sometimes from him,

but more steadily he's going to be like a three-four catch, 40-50-yard guy. So we established that Van Jefferson is going to be one of these starting outside wide receivers for the Rams. And Sean McVey, obviously throughout his Rams tenure has been a very heavy 11 personnel guy. Do you expect the 11 personnel to continue? And if that's the case, who's going to be the third receiver, also a guy who's going to be playing on the outside? Yeah, that's a good question. They don't really know right now.

It's going to be a competition between a lot of guys. Ben Scaronic is won, 2-2-at-well. as another. Their rookie Puka Nakuwa is going to compete for snaps right away too. And then they brought into Marcus Robinson and Tyler Johnson, two veterans who have started in the league before. So it could be any one of those guys. I think most likely it's going to be kind of a blend of them where Scoronic is a better blocker. He might work on first and second down when when there's a threat to run the ball. Two-two comes in when they need a big play or they need to stretch the field a little bit more. Nakuwa is kind of a do-it-all guy the way that Robert Woods was and some omen is being sent to me by

this light bulb right now. But it's going to be kind of a mix between those guys and DeMarcus Robinson and Tyler Johnson are kind of the wild cards in it because they do have experience that Nakua and Skoronic and Atwell don't. So let's talk about Nakua before we wrap this up. One of the things, he was a guy who our team was down at the Senior Bowl and Mobile and he stood out to a lot of guys. And then the Rams, I think some of the players have been talking him up from OTAs. What did they see from him? What did you see from him that suggests he might be able to get on the field early? Remember, this is a Rams coaching staff that changed what it did in 2017 when they realized they couldn't keep Cooper Cup off the field. So is there a chance that Pooka Nukuha

becomes not Cooper Cup, but a guy who demands that he plays more? Yeah, for sure. I mean, he's like I mentioned, he's kind of that do-it-all receiver. He's like a Robert Woods type where he can take these handoffs on jet sweeps and pick up chunks of yards that way. He's decent enough as a blocker to work in this offense, which is really what kept Cooper Cup on the field so often as a rookie because it was not that he was a tight end, but they realized that they could get some good production out of the running

game, even out of 11 personnel when you do have three receivers, all of whom can can block pretty well. So Nakua is a guy who he's slippery after the catch. He's pretty reliable with his hands. the biggest issue with him in college was just staying healthy and he wasn't able to do that much. So coming to the Rams and picking up their offense quickly, like his teammates and coaches have said and just the work ethic that he's shown, I think he's going to kind of carve out a role for himself early on in this offense. Cameron, before I let you go, I've been asking each and every one of my guests, kind of a sleeper on offense.

I know we've gone pretty deep on the Rams offense because we don't really know who's going to play. But if there's one player who stands out on this offense who might make a kind of, contribution for fantasy? Who is it? There's a few different guys, but I'll say two to at well. I've been down on him for a couple of years, but he showed a little bit last season on some jet sweeps and creating some big plays down the field because his speed is really just his best asset and kind of what's going to get him on the field at some point this season, I think he has a higher ceiling than Ben Skoronix.

So if he plays well in training camp in the preseason and kind of shows that he can be a true number three receiver and and create some big plays for this offense. He could contribute throughout the season and kind of he's going to be a tough guy in fantasy to project just because he's so reliant on big plays and scoring touchdowns. He's not going to be a high volume player. But if he gets rolling early on, he could be, I mean, the Rams brought into Sean Jackson a couple of years ago with high hopes of him being that field stretcher. And maybe Tutu can be that type of player for them this year.

His name is Cameron DeSilva. He is the managing editor at the Rams. wire. You can follow him on Twitter at Cam DeSilva. Breaking down the Rams Madden ratings. I know, Cam, it's not like the most, it's not the most glamorous work, but holy crap, do those articles get clicks. Yeah, they do. And fans who are going to play as the Rams this year in Madden are going to be disappointed. There's going to be a lot of 60s and 70 overall rated players on that team. And I'm sure the Rams themselves are upset as well. Thank you, Cam, for joining me. And thank you, everybody for listening to the franchise focus podcast. Like I said, I just recorded my last

fun, but you haven't heard the last of me. We still have the 49ers and the Seahawks to go. It's been wonderful talking to Cam. It's been wonderful talking to you. Have a good day, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoints.com.