The Los Angeles Rams were one of the NFL's most active teams during the 2018 offseason.
The Rams seemingly swung one trade after another, bringing in Marcus Peters from the Chiefs, Aqib Talib from the Broncos, and Brandin Cooks from the Patriots -- all before the draft. Not only that, but they also signed Ndamukong Suh after he was released by the Dolphins. And all this after they were the NFL's highest-scoring offense last season.
Despite all that scoring, it's arguable the Rams' defense was actually just as good. LA ranked sixth in Football Outsiders' DVOA on both sides of the ball, for example. And with all the new talent on hand (and hopefully, a full season of Aaron Donald), the defense should be even better in 2018. Especially since it gets to practice against the offense.
Those practices kicked off this week, and two of the new additions are impressed by what they saw. "We got an introduction to that McVay offense," Talib said, per ESPN.com. "It was crazy." Peters agreed: "It's crazy unique."
With all due respect to Peters, I don't think something can be crazy unique. As President Jed Bartlet once said, "Unique means one-of-a-kind. Something can't be very unique." If it can't be very unique; then I think it follows that it can also not be crazy unique.
But that's neither here nor there, because Peters is more concerned with what practicing against that ... crazy unique offense will do to prepare his unit for the season. "It's going to make us a whole lot better because the up-tempo and his play-calling style is crazy unique," Peters said. "It's going to cause for us to be on our toes a lot."
If the team figures out a way to put all the talent it has in position to succeed, and the offense and defense make each other better through practicing against each other, the Rams will have to be considered one of the favorites in the NFC in 2018.
