This year’s Dream Team hasn’t had a dream start. After entering the season as the overwhelming Super Bowl favorite, the Los Angeles Rams are 2-4 and lagging well behind the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West race. Los Angeles’ latest loss was its most disappointing yet, with the Rams being on the wrong side of the biggest upset of this NFL season when they lost to the Arizona Cardinals last week. So, what in the world is happening in Los Angeles, and will the Rams be able to snap out of it? We asked people around the league that question, plus their thoughts on Jalen Hurts’ health situation as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback is out for the year with blood clots. Here’s what we learned. Eric D. Williams: League sources I spoke with were not necessarily surprised by the struggles of the Rams to start the year. However, those folks I talked to also believe that the Rams are built to rebound because of the person leading them: head coach Sean McVay. “Everyone loved their roster construction this summer!” an NFL front office executive told me. “They were the Dream Team. I\u2019m not overly critical of it, though. There are pros and cons to doing it that way. They are older and therefore more susceptible to injury or a steep decline in performance. “They had some bad luck in a couple of games. Now they\u2019ve got the Kobie Turner injury. They have never had depth and that is the reason for the poor special teams play. I still think they will be OK. They have an elite coaching staff.” Three of L.A.\u2019s four losses came in the final moments of the game, including an overtime loss to the Buffalo Bills where\u00a0kicker Harrison Mevis had a game-winning field goal attempt blocked and then was released. So, the Rams are close. But they also have the fourth-oldest roster in the league, so injury concerns were an issue when the season started, and the Rams have lost a handful of foundational players to the injured reserve, including Myles Garrett, Davante Adams and Turner. “It\u2019s a combination of bad luck and relying on an older roster,” a league source who has seen the Rams in person this season told me. “They easily could have won the last two games. \u2026 They should be 3-3 or 4-2, but they\u2019re 2-4. The roster isn\u2019t amazing, but it\u2019s not bad at all. “Missing kicks is missing kicks. They got a bad call in Denver. The most surprising thing to me is they couldn\u2019t score more this past game [against the Cardinals]. Aside from that, it\u2019s nothing shocking. The margins are small. And they have mostly played some good teams.” The schedule does get easier. Three of L.A.\u2019s four losses came against playoff teams from last season (49ers, Broncos and Bills). Over the next four games, Los Angeles faces teams with a combined record of 6-17-1. A longtime scout told me he\u2019s concerned with McVay\u2019s long-term prospects for the rest of the year, though. “The pressure of going all in for the Super Bowl like they did in the past with the \u2018F\u2019 them picks\u2019 and winning in that year is intensified by themselves, the fans and the media,” the scout told me. “Also, the sportsbooks! Couple that with the Myles Garrett trade and injury, Puka Nacua\u2019s offseason antics and the unretiring of Aaron Donald and that added to the pressure. “Now you\u2019ve got the unforeseen injuries and bad FG protection. Plus, throwing the ball so much and not establishing an offensive identity by an offensive guru head coach. Just a perfect storm for a coach to fight his way out of it. I\u2019d like to know who Coach McVay turns for guidance. Who\u2019s his Football Muse?” Ralph Vacchiano: A lot of questions still remain about how the Philadelphia Eagles handled quarterback Jalen Hurts after he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his calf two weeks ago, and why they let him play the next day. But one thing seemed clear to many around the NFL, even after tests discovered more blood clots in Hurts\u2019 lungs: The Eagles weren\u2019t going to willingly risk their quarterback\u2019s life for a game. “I find it impossible to believe that if doctors told the Eagles it was too risky for Hurts to play, that they would\u2019ve let him play,” an NFL executive told me. “Even if Hurts insisted, they wouldn\u2019t have taken that kind of risk. We\u2019re not talking about a sprained ankle here. It\u2019s serious stuff. “We all want to win, and we\u2019ll do almost anything to win, but we\u2019re not monsters.” By all accounts, the Eagles aren\u2019t either. Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL\u2019s chief medical officer, said on Tuesday that “I have great confidence \u2026 and believe that everyone acted with an abundance of caution.” And when the Eagles announced on Monday that the additional clots were discovered and Hurts was headed to injured reserve, it came in a joint statement from the team and Hurts\u2019 agent, Nicole Lynn. That\u2019s not necessarily a sign that the Eagles did everything right. But it was a strong signal that Hurts\u2019 camp didn\u2019t have a problem with how things were handled. “You don\u2019t think she\u2019d be screaming bloody murder if the Eagles somehow screwed this up?” another NFL executive told me. “She\u2019s aligned with the team on this. And from everything I\u2019ve heard, they really are comfortable with how [Eagles general manager] Howie Roseman and all the doctors handled it. Trust me, if they weren\u2019t, we\u2019d all know.” That doesn\u2019t mean mistakes weren\u2019t made, though, which is why the NFLPA is calling for a “full investigation” even after the NFL has apparently exonerated the Eagles. Even some outside doctors, who notably weren\u2019t part of Hurts\u2019 evaluation, have gone on record questioning how he was allowed to play after the first clot was discovered. “I\u2019m not a doctor, so maybe they\u2019re right,” the first executive told me. “But Howie didn\u2019t make the medical decision on his own. There\u2019s no way he overruled his medical people. So if doctors and specialists say he can play, and he wants to play, what are you supposed to do?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This year’s Dream Team hasn’t had a dream start. After entering the season as the overwhelming Super Bowl favorite, the Los Angeles Rams are 2-4 and lagging well behind the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West race. Los Angeles’ latest loss was its most disappointing yet, with the Rams being on the wrong side<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}