The Rams are a team who generate a lot of discussion. They have a new home in Los Angeles, a new QB in Jared Goff, and a future that could go one way or the other.

For the 2016 season the Rams relocated to Los Angeles, where they had been previously between 1946 and 1994. Originally the Rams, founded in 1936 where they were known as the Cleveland Rams up until 1945, when in 1946 they moved to Los Angeles. The Rams were in Los Angeles for a total of 48 years where they won two NFL championships (pre-1970 AFL-NFL merger), seven Conference Championships (NFL National, NFL Western and NFC), 11 division championships (NFL West, NFL Coastal and NFC West) and made a total of 21 playoff appearances.

It’s clear that the Rams have a lot of history in Los Angeles, and this further amplified by there being a total of 16 people (players, coach and owner) from this period in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Some of the former members of the Los Angeles Rams include Jerome Bettis, Joe Namath, Ollie Matson, Andy Robustelli, and Dick “Night Train” Lane. In 1995 the Rams then moved to St. Louis where they were for 20 years. During this period they won Super Bowl XXXIV in 1999, two conference championships (NFC), three division championships (NFC West) and made a total of five playoff appearances. Yet again, the Rams returned to Los Angeles in 2016.

Jeff Fisher became head coach of the Rams in 201,  and it can be said that he hasn’t had a good time coaching the Rams. Fisher hasn’t had a winning record and hasn’t made the playoffs. Since joining, the Rams have gone 7-8-1 (2012), 7-9 (2013), 6-10 (2014) and 7-9 (2015). Fisher did improve the record for the Rams in his first season in going 7-8-1 in 2012 compared to the previous season under a different head coach of 2-14 in 2011. With the move back to Los Angeles, many have been questioning whether Fisher is actually good enough. He hasn’t really done anything so far. The 2015 season really sums up the situation with the Rams. According to ESPN, the Rams on offense were last in net total yards and last in net total yards on defense.

Simply moving to Los Angeles doesn’t really change any of this. The Rams have some really talented players in Todd Gurley, who was the 2015 offensive rookie of the year, and he also went to the Pro Bowl in his first season. On defense the Rams have Aaron Donald, who can be regarded as one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL. In addition they have Alec Ogletree, who is emerging as the leader on defense as was shown in Hard Knocks, Robert Quinn who has reached the Pro Bowl (2013 and 2014) and was the NFC Sack leader in 2013, Michael Brockers who recently signed a three contract extension worth $33.125 million and $17 million guaranteed, and cornerback Trumaine Johnson, the NFC Interceptions Co-Leader in 2015. It’s clear the Rams have some good players, but it seems that they are wasted with the current state of the overall team.

Finally, we have to look at their new QB in Jared Goff. It’s a bit hard to judge Goff at this stage as he has only played in pre-season. But we can look at his stats when he was at college. Over three years, Goff has total of 977 pass completions, 1,568 pass attempts, 62.3% pass completion rate, 12, 195 passing yards, 7.8 yards per passing attempt, 96 touchdowns, 30 interceptions, and a 144 passer rating. In his final season he was first team All-Pac-12.

It’s clear that Goff is talented, otherwise he wouldn’t have been the first overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Being picked first in a draft is going to add a lot pressure, especially to a quarterback. It has to be said that Goff didn’t have a great pre-season. During pre-season, Goff went 22 of 49 passing (44.9%) for 232 yards with two touchdowns, two interceptions and three fumbles. A poor pre-season to say the least.

However, it has to be said that many didn’t expect Goff to be the starting quarterback week one of the NFL season. That wasn’t realistic. To start the season Goff was named as quarterback three but after the week one he moved up to quarterback two. Goff needs time to develop into what hopefully for L.A will be their franchise QB.

The Los Angeles Rams are currently in a bad place, and if they continue the path they have been going on, then they are going to struggle further. The Rams are a shadow of their former selves.