NFL Nation

          St. Louis Rams mailbag: Are Rams ready to compete?

          EARTH CITY, Mo. -- The St. Louis Rams will finally open organized team activities this week with the first session available to the media coming on Thursday afternoon.

          The roster is mostly built, but Los Angeles still lingers on the minds of many of you.

          As always, you can find me on Twitter @nwagoner. Please use the hashtag #RamsMail.

          @nwagoner: That depends on what you define as getting a stadium deal "done." All the way done means the city would have all of its bases covered including land acquisition and public financing, plus a commitment from an owner to provide the private financing piece of the puzzle. At this point, I tend to think it's very realistic that the city will get its part of the equation done with the public money ready and actionable sometime in the fall and the rest of the option agreements in place for the land. But I still just don't see a scenario in which Rams owner Stan Kroenke or any owner will have agreed to pay the private part of the project at that point. It seems more likely that part of the situation would be resolved after the league and its owners make it clear what project it wants in Los Angeles and what it thinks of what's happening in the home markets.

          @nwagoner: I don't think it's anything new to say the Rams have a competitive roster. This team has been competitive under coach Jeff Fisher. They were last season, as evidenced by victories against Seattle and Denver. But that's not really the problem. It's not about being competitive -- Fisher teams always are. It's about taking the next step from competitive (read: mediocrity) to being a legitimate contender. That's a different question entirely. Looking at this roster, I think there's no doubt they have the pieces in place on defense to be a contender, but they still have a lot of questions on offense. They should be better at quarterback, which would be an important step forward, but they have a lot of questions on the offensive line and the receiver group still has much to prove.

          @nwagoner: That is correct. At the time, it was referred to as the "NFL's Los Angeles Stadium Working Group Committee." The current "Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities" is a different entity, of course, with the potential for teams in Los Angeles now far more real.

          @nwagoner: Well, it's serious in the sense that it's just another road block that has been tossed up. I don't get the impression that the task force or those on the side of the stadium are too concerned with it, but anything that could potentially slow down progress on getting the financing in place has to be taken seriously at some level. The thing is, this is a situation that requires swift action. The sooner the task force can get the public financing in place, the better it's chance of convincing NFL owners that St. Louis deserves to have or keep a team. The longer that process drags out, the worse it is for those efforts. I don't personally know the politicians who are trying to block this, but if nothing else they seem to understand anything they can do to slow down the process will help their cause of trying to shut the whole thing down.

          @nwagoner: Well, to hear Jeff Fisher talk about Isaiah Pead at the owners meetings in March, you would certainly think so. Then again, to hear Fisher talk about Sam Bradford for about three years, you would have thought he was going to be the team's quarterback this year, too. The Rams have clearly been hesitant to give up on Pead after using a second-round pick on him in 2012. He's apparently healthy and it seems like he'll have a chance to at least compete for a job this season. Benny Cunningham has proved effective as a third-down blocker and kick returner, which means it's hard to see how the Rams would keep Pead at his current price tag as a potential fourth running back.