The cyrstal ball on this year's Rams team is awful cloudy. I am pretty sure that this isn't a Super Bowl team, and I'm fairly confident that we won't earn a top-five pick in the draft this year (unless it's the Redskins'). Beyond that, while I have certain expectations that I call "realistic," I'm not willing to count anything out.

Three things are clear: this is a very new team, a very green team, and a very young team. Those might all sounds like the same thing, but they're not. 

Let's start with the obvious: this is not anything close to the same team that the Rams fielded a year ago, from top to bottom. Stan Kroenke cleaned house after his first season as full owner of the Rams, and wooed Jeff Fisher by promising to stay out of his way while he hired a coaching staff and general manager that fit his vision.

In fact, the Rams are almost a mirror image in 2012 of their 2011 squad.

2011: we had a pretty old roster coached by a very inexperienced coaching staff entering a season filled with playoff expectations.

2012: we have a very young roster coached by an extremely experienced staff playing with almost no expectations at all. (Except for a certain quarterback, perhaps...)

One of the marked differences between the 2011 and 2012 versions of the Rams is in their offensive approach. We are transitioning from Josh McDaniels' supposed mad genius (we got the "mad" part) to a ground-and-pound philosophy coordinated by Brian Schottenheimer. In a way, we're waging an AFC East rivalry in our backyard, pitting the Patriots against the Jets in a sort of fantasy role-playing game.

And the Rams have fully embraced their Jets' role in this game, injecting a lot of green into the blue and gold offense. Even pariahs like Wayne Hunter can find a trade here, peddling their knowledge of the offense for the time being.

However, even among the seemingly favored free agent acquisitions, youth is pushing age of the roster. You need look no further than the decision to release former Jet Kellen Clemens, a de facto second quarterback coach for Bradford, and go into the season with only undrafted rookie Austin Davis in the backup job.

Let's look further at the shocking youth of this team - the Rams have transformed from one of the oldest to the very youngest roster in the NFL. 16 rookies are on this team, five of them slated as full time starters (counting special teams) and six more slated for a heavy workload. And of the "veterans" on this team, many are still playing on their rookie contracts. 

Jeff Fisher already letting his players and fans know - this many be a strange season, but it will never be boring. Photo by Getty Images.

Bill Parcells once told Peter King that he spends 50% of his time worrying about the bottom five guys on the roster. So too Jeff Fisher, who on the eve of the regular season has just cut the man slated to start Game 1 at left guard, and one of his quarterback's comfortable targets in TE Michael Hoomanawanui, in order to sign a pair of higher-potential unknowns for his offensive line. 

It is still early in the get-to-know-you process for Rams fans and their new coach, but we're learning a few things about him already:

Fisher cares about talent over continuity. "Continuity" is one of football's sacred cows, particularly on the offensive line. Any disruption in continuity appears to us outside observers as a sign of imminent disaster, as obvious and terrifying as a solar eclipse to a medieval farm boy.

Continuity also has a pernicious internal gravity that allows coaches to keep guys in their jobs long after their sell-by date. Even for an interim starter like Quinn Ojinnaka, holding his place in line for a physically gifted but raw rookie like Rokevious Watkins, the general coaching tendency is to keep the guy in place until the youngster has definitively won the job. The promotion can then be handled with all formal pomp and ceremony necessary to ensure the team and its fans that Continuity has indeed been preserved.

Ojinnaka was released in the middle of an informal team barbecue. Hey kid, wipe your hands and come over here, you're one step closer to a starting job.  

Fisher cares about talent over scheme fit. Not to say that Fisher is going to bring in obviously odd parts, but unlike the Spagnuolo world, we don't have guys clinging to the bottom of the roster for years on end based on their ability to do one thing well. (But then again, we do still have Craig Dahl on this team, so take this with a grain of salt.)

Mike Hoomanawanui appeared to be a perfect scheme fit for Brian Schottenheimer, a block-first tight end who can release and rumble upfield, carrying a soft pair of hands with him to be a safety valve in the passing game. And while Big Mike didn't have an astounding camp, he was as comfortable as an old shoe for Sam Bradford. However, the coaching staff found other players in Matthew Mulligan (blocking) and Mike McNeill (hands), and Bradford to his credit immediately made himself comfortable with them as well.

Hoomanawanui's injury history - particularly his concussion history - puts a big damper on his upside, particularly when taking crushing hits over the middle is a natural part of the job description. Being able to fit the scheme for just a few games out of the year isn't that appealing to any coach.

Fisher cares about talent, period. This is a full-on rebuild, and the Rams have been refocused on a mission that has been largely neglected, if we're being honest, since 1998. That mission: restocking the shelves with as much talent as you can find. They know, as we know, that this team is far from being "one player away" from anywhere.

Fisher isn't willing to concede wins, but neither is he willing to get trapped by bad roster habits spawned from the "win-now" mentality. Get younger, get faster, get stronger, period. Get fresh wood and lean heavily on a well-salted coaching staff to carve it into the likeness of a winning football player. Get enough of them, and you've got a winning football program.

At least, that's what I think I know, after watching his team for just a few weeks.

Chris Givens in particular stands to pick up plays that might otherwise have gone to Greg Salas.

The New York Jets have a cavalier attitude toward their draft picks, having already waived four of their eight selections from the 2012 draft. The Rams' 2012 picks and college free agents have no such worries: an astounding 15 rookies are on the roster, with 10 slated to start or make major contributions this season.

However, for most Devaney-era draft picks, job security is a foreign concept. After the Jason Smith trade, roster cut-downs, and a pair of transactions this weekend -- cutting Jerome Murphy and trading Greg Salas for a draft pick in the distant future -- only 10 of Devaney's 26 draft picks remain on this team. And the ice may be awful thin under some of those as well. Here's a table for reference:

As far as raw numbers are concerned, 10 players (5 starters) out of 3 drafts isn't vey good. But the bulk of Devaney's highest draft value acquisitions remain on this team, and with Steven Jackson and Chris Long, form the core of talent that Jeff Fisher inherited.

And Fisher has hardly been slashing and burning his way through Devaney's team. Most of that work was already done for him, as low-ceiling guys and one-dimensional system players that didn't fit the system were churned out prior to Fisher's arrival.

That said, Fisher did bring a commitment to competition with him into Rams Camp. He and Les Snead made it their mission to stockpile draft picks, and scour the ranks of college free agents. Of the ten players drafted, nine have made the roster and each -- even 7th-round running back Daryl Richardson -- will have a chance to make major contributions to the team.

Try! I’m known for trying to do almost anything when it comes to the St. Louis Rams. In doing so, I’ve learned a great deal. For instance, Photoshop doesn’t really capture the majesty of a Rams game ticket, or at least that’s what the guys at the stadium entrance have told me on more than one occasion… Call it Kismet or Karma, I’m left with tailgating in the parking lot of the Edward Jones Dome most Sundays, though the quick chats with law enforcement before I’m politely escorted away after presenting my current ticket “masterpiece” have become kind of a ritual…

“So you actually paid a guy for this?” The nice St. Louis policeman waved the ticket I’d tried to use in my face.

“Yup! I paid a guy named Will Horton…He’s over there somewhere,” I pointed vaguely off in several directions. The policeman’s rookie partner followed the wavering line of my pointing hand. “You should go find him. When I left he was selling tickets to a bus load of Nuns… Can I get a refund for my ticket?”

The veteran cop elbowed his newbie partner who was still scanning the crowd for the now infamous “Will”. “You want a refund for this?” He rolled his eye, “This ticket is worse than the last time you tried this…” He pointed at a few minor glitches in the ticket’s appearance. “…For instance, most tickets have the name of the opposing team printed on them?”

I took a quick look at the ticket he held two inches in front of my face. “St. Louis Rams vs. THEM. I don’t see a problem," I replied. All opposing teams are “THEM”, aren’t they?

Filed to ESPN: #Jets close to finalizing deal for Rams RT Jason Smith, league sources. RT Wayne Hunter part of deal. Smith, No. 2 pick '09.

— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) August 28, 2012

And with that, the de-evolution of the Rams' tackle position is finally complete. It cannot possibly get any worse. From having a future Hall of Famer in Orlando Pace in his prime just seven years ago, to Alex Barron, to Jason Smith, to Barry Richardson, to this. Trading the latest highly-drafted bust (and yes, we can officially call Smith that now) straight up for one of the very worst players in the NFL. 

There are ways to rationalize this move, particularly once the terms of the deal are released. If the Rams get a draft pick back as part of the deal, great. If this is a straight-up salary swap, then the Rams can cut Hunter and save themselves cap room compared to the cost of keeping (and potentially cutting) Smith. 

One way you cannot justify this move is in optimism for your starting tackle job, your backup tackle job, or any concern at all about Sam Bradford's health.

In signing Barry Richardson from the Kansas City scrapyard and acquiring Wayne Hunter, this is the "production" that they have accumulated at the tackle position.

20 penalties.

19 sacks.

17 quarterback hits.

68 pressures. 

That's your combined pass-blocking effort from Hunter and Richardson in 2011, two guys who somehow managed to start all 16 games for their teams. No matter how bad Jason Smith was in his time here -- and he admitted that at times he sees himself as "somebody who's not even capable of playing football" -- he was never as bad as this. 

Jets blogger Joe Caporoso describes Wayne Hunter, perhaps charitably, as "emotionally checked out" in New York. However you describe it, his play, or lack of it, illustrated a man who has completely given up trying.

Meanwhile, Paul Boudreau and the Rams did right by Jason Smith. They took a man who was broken, physically and mentally, and helped him rebuild. They taught him the subtler art of blocking, and put him in low-leverage situations until he started to get it right. I was half-hoping they might have been able to build him back into the starter's job here, but instead they built up his trade stock and sent him into a presumptive starter's job.

Now the Rams have to hope that the chemistry between Harvey Dahl and Barry Richardson works out. They have to plan on moving Rokevious Watkins into the starting left guard position sooner rather than later (fine by me) and relying on Quinn Ojinnaka to be the swing man. Because they no longer have a workable Plan B.

I guess the good news is this - it can't possibly get any worse.

There are nice ways to play off preseason losses. But after the Rams' first string offense and defense fell apart against an undermanned Dallas Cowboys team, playing without Demarcus Ware or their top three pass-catchers, being nice just isn't realistic. Jeff Fisher's new team regressed to a lot of bad habits that they retained from the Steve Spagnuolo era: poor positioning and poorer tackling on defense, and a complete inability to handle the pass rush on offense.

The latter breakdown falls on Sam Bradford, who saw his preseason stock plummet in a woeful 6-17 performance that was somehow both better and worse than the numbers suggest. On the positive side, Bradford did make a number of good plays - just not as many as he did a week ago. But on the negative side, Bradford again showed a susceptibility to fall apart mentally and mechanically in the face of a pass rush, an achilles heel that NFL teams will be happy to continue to shoot arrows at. 

It's nearly impossible to grade this game without comparing to the previous week against Kansas City's vanilla defensive set. Bradford looked like an All-Pro in that game, making four outstanding plays and no negative ones in his 16 snaps. This week, though, Sam's game grade takes a significant tumble. Here is my per-snap breakdown. 

As you can see from these grades, Bradford wasn't alone in the Rams' struggle to defeat the pass rush ginned up by Rob Ryan and the Cowboys. His receivers failed to bail him out on several occasions, as an examination of Sean Lee's game-turning sack shows.

Vernon Gholston's career high point might have come at the NFL Combine. It's been all downhill from there.

There is a time every year before the NFL season begins when we all wonder what's going on a little more than usual. Sure, we all ponder things like coaches and draft picks - not to mention free agents, but the thing that gets us scratching our collective heads comes later, doesn't it? Yesterday, the Rams gave me yet another chance to reach for the Blanton's as I grumbled, "Huh?"

Yup! Gholston's the name, and "you've got to be kidding me" is the game. Vernon Gholston... I have it on good authority (I'm a fiction writer, so I make things up!) J.K. Rowling dropped the Gholston character from her famed "Harry Potter" series because "It just didn't work out..."

Now before you start screaming at me to "cut the guy some slack" or "he's worth a look", take a short gander at his record of achievement since he entered the NFL with the sixth overall draft pick by the New York Jets in 2008. In fairness to the Jets, they drafted a defensive lineman that screamed potential. In his days at Ohio State, he set a record for sacks with 21.5. At 6'3", and 260 lbs, he was a touch small, but his measurable-s in the NFL Combine were impressive. He ran a 4.56 second 40 yard dash, 10'5" broad jump, 37 bench press reps, and a 35.5 inch vertical leap. Draft-nicks like Mel Kiper were comparing him to Dwight Freeney and John Abraham. When you're right Mel, you're...Well you never really right, are you Mel?

Gholston came to a Jets team longing for a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker. They needed a pass rush to compete in the tough AFC East. What they drafted turned out to be more a defensive version of Ryan Leaf than a Freeney. He had problems adjusting to the NFL. Two glaring weaknesses became apparent almost immediately: Vernon thought his brute strength would translate to the pros, and he never really figured out the mental aspects of NFL blocking schemes. He's failed to register a single sack in his career to date and became such a liabilty in pass coverage, he found himself riding the pine for the majority of his time in New York. To me, he's a classic case of thinking brawn translates to on field prowess. It just doesn't happen that way Vernon. This is the NFL, and the best of the best are students of the game, not just the weight room warriors.

Those stats I mentioned? Here you go:

Stats courtesy of NFL.com

Now when you consider his signing bonus of $2.025 million, and base salaries per year of $295,000, $2.9 million, $3.48 million, $4.06 million, and $4.64 million during his 5 year rookie contract, he doesn't seem all that expensive, does he? That's because there were contract escalator that would have increased the value of his contract to $50 million, but he never hit one of his marks. All he had to do was cause and recover a fumble, and he would have been $9 million richer. Just one fumble... Nada, none, zip - That's how many sacks he's had in his NFL career. If he makes the Rams roster, and he happens to get on the field to make a QB sack, Vernon may just break down and cry. He will most definitely try and keep the quarterback he sacked, but the referees should be able to explain things before he reaches the sidelines. "Put him down Vernon. No you can't keep him.., How about a cookie?"

Maybe Rams head coach Jeff Fisher is getting a little cocky? He and Rams General Manager Les Snead have taken on a couple of red flag rookies this season in the draft, so maybe they think they can do something with Vernon too? The thing is, Gholston isn't a problem child off the field - just ON the field. The Rams star middle linebacker, James Laurinaitis, has to be wondering if his fellow Buckeye alum is going to help, or hurt, a defense that seems on the verge of being something special. While the Rams do have a bothersome injury at defensive end (Eugene Sims lower leg injury; in a walking boot), they really aren't that shallow at the position. Plus, I can't help but think the Rams need a hybrid DE/OLB to compliment the duo of Chris Long and Robert Quinn as the "hand in the dirt" DEs.

Like I said at the beginning of this rambling treatise, it's that time of year. It the time when coaches reach for a veteran player in the hope they can get the best out of him. Last year it was Ben Leber for the Rams, or maybe it was Brady Poppinga? We see it every year, but it doesn't mean I don't shake my head in wonder on whom coaches will decide to roll the dice...

I'd like to thank Will for inviting me to pop in here at RamsHerd. For those that don't know me, I'm a life long Rams fan, and an Editor at Turf Show Times. I'm also the author of a newly published novel - Devin Briar. It's available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBookstore, Smashword.com, and any other site where great books can be found. I appreciate your support!