Delusional fans of last year’s Rams, presumably before they saw Jared Goff in action. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

This season, I’m unveiling a new team-building strategy for fantasy managers, applicable in leagues of any size. I’ve run thousands of simulations, so I’m feeling pretty good about it. With my cutting-edge ZeroRams™ system, you will enter the draft room several steps ahead of the competition. The underlying math is very complicated, but the basic guiding principle is this: Rams are bad and you don’t want them.

OK, perhaps that approach is too simple. But in standard redraft leagues, if you avoid this team on draft day, you will not be filled with regret at the end of the year. Just quickly scroll down to the bottom of the post and check this team’s 2016 rankings in terms of yardage and scoring. Not good.

This year’s offense should be more inventive and far less predictable under new head coach Sean McVay and coordinator Matt LaFleuer, but the Rams have a long road ahead to reach mediocrity. Over the past three seasons, McVay served as the OC in Washington, working with Kirk Cousins; LaFleur spent the past two years as Matt Ryan’s position coach in Atlanta. Both coaches have excellent histories, clearly, and both are under 40. If you’re a Rams fan, I’m sure you’re happy to simply move beyond the Jeff Fisher theater of pain.

The critical short-term challenge facing McVay and LaFleur is to transform last year’s No. 1 overall pick into something that resembles a franchise QB.

When Jared Goff is slinging the ball…

…avert your eyes.

Last season, it wasn’t exactly a quarterbacking clinic in L.A. There’s no shame in struggling as a first-year NFL passer, but Goff’s numbers were dreadful over his seven starts: 155.6 Y/G, 5.31 Y/A, 54.6 completion percentage, 5 TDs, 7 INTs, 5 fumbles, 26 sacks.

Here’s the full list of rookie quarterbacks over the past 25 years who attempted 200 passes and averaged less than 5.4 Y/A:

Blaine Gabbert, 2011 – 5.36

Joey Harrington, 2002 – 5.35

Jared Goff, 2016 – 5.31

Ryan Leaf, 1998 – 5.26

Jimmy Clausen, 2010 – 5.21

Kyle Orton, 2005 – 5.08

Bruce Gradkowski, 2006 – 5.06

Donovan McNabb, 1999 – 4.39

McNabb aside, that is not great company. For comparison’s sake, Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston and Dak Prescott averaged better than 7.5 Y/A as rookies.

Goff worked behind a miserable O-line last season, of course, and he was throwing to a thoroughly unimpressive group of receivers. It’s not as if he was set up for immediate success. But he was also responsible for plenty of misfires and misreads — regrettable throws like this thing right here. It should go without saying that Goff is not ownable in standard fantasy leagues; one of your primary goals in a two-QB format should be to avoid him.

Kenny Britt led the Rams in every meaningful receiving category last year, but he left for Cleveland via free agency. Tavon Austin remains, but he’s coming off a season in which he averaged only 8.8 yards per catch. He had surgery on his left wrist during the offseason, but should be good to go when camp opens. Austin’s single-season high in receiving yardage is just 509, and he hasn’t averaged more than 10 yards per reception since his rookie season. He has only one career 100-yard receiving effort. No need to draft him, except in the largest leagues.

The Rams won the Robert Woods sweepstakes in the offseason, so, um … woo. Woods seems miscast as a No. 1 receiver, but he’ll presumably fill that role in L.A. He’s a reliable enough route-runner who can take a hit, but he doesn’t have exceptional size, speed or athleticism by NFL standards. He’s fine — not a special talent, but fine. He’s likely to see 100-plus poor-quality targets in 2017; Britt was targeted 111 times last year.

Second-year receiver Mike Thomas showed us very little as a rookie, unless you count this…

Mike Thomas is WIDE OPEN for the #LARams. And he drops it. #LAvsSEA pic.twitter.com/2wT0CNl2r9 — Chat Sports (@ChatSports) December 16, 2016





…and Pharoh Cooper did next to nothin’ (14-106-0). L.A. drafted a pair of receivers this year, Cooper Kupp and Josh Reynolds, who could have been interesting fantasy sleepers had they landed elsewhere. Kupp was a dominant four-year player at Eastern Washington, establishing career FCS records for receptions (428), receiving yards (6464) and touchdowns (73). Before you write him off as a small school wonder, note that he consistently did his best work against Pac-12 opponents. He should have the slot role immediately for L.A. Reynolds is an intriguing prospect with good size (6-foot-3), deep speed and leaping ability, but he’s more of a developmental project than Kupp.

Story continues