Thursday at 5pm on the west coast the NFL will drop its schedule for the new season and while we know who the Rams will be playing, the fun part will be seeing when certain opponents fall on the schedule. The Rams have the AFC South and The NFC East along with their own division, New Orleans, and Minnesota. One of their games will be against the Cardinals in London as well. The highlight of all these games will be the first match up of Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. Sure, this doesn’t have the appeal of say Brady vs Manning or the early Rivers vs Roethlisberger match ups but it will be an early referendum on two of the biggest draft moves of the decade. Jared Goff is coming into this season with a lot to prove as he had one of the worst rookie campaigns in history. For Wentz, he has a chance to not only make the Rams sorry for not taking him but with Eli Manning and Kirk Cousins not long for their current teams, a chance to prove Dak Prescott isn’t the only good quarterback in the NFC East.
The Rams and Eagles both traded a king’s ransom in draft picks in order to acquire Goff and Wentz respectively only for the Eagles did that trade appear to work out immediately. Not only did Wentz get off to a good start before hitting the rookie wall but they were able to trade former starting quarterback and former Ram injured reserve Sam Bradford to Minnesota (who also play the Rams this year) for a first round pick. Goff came at a steeper price because the Rams have a ton of pressure on them to nail their 2nd and 3rd round picks because they represent the best chances the Rams have at acquiring talent to put around Goff. The Eagles have a first rounder this year and were able to add Torrey Smith and Alshon Jeffrey while the Rams settled for Robert Woods. The other minor subplot is the coaching battle between veteran offensive coordinator and second year head coach Doug Pederson of the Eagles and offensive wunderkind Sean McVay of the Rams. There is a lot yet to write in the Goff vs Wentz story but for now this will be an interesting look at two franchises that gambled on their future.
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