the Rams trade away one of their best defensive players and uh I'm going to defend it the Kings will go into training camp knowing they PID away the best farm system they ever put together and on the court the James family has one rule don't call LeBron Dad good morning I'm James this is your daily dose of sports and snark for the greatest sports city in the world Los Angeles this is the faithful angelino's Morning Report so it's August 28th 2024 one more shift up in this turd Farm before I'm mosy home can't wait to do it so if you like being in the know about LA Sports cck to Clack the like button cck to Clack the Subscribe button there's a notification Bell hit that it'll let you know when we drop new content sharing is caring let people know exist and by all means comment now before we go through the news and notes look at the scoreboard Baltimore 3 Dodgers 2 just a bad night for the Dodger offense sh Otani was the only guy to collect more than one base hit meanwhile today Baltimore is at the Dodgers again at seven Walker buer is 1 and4 with a 6.09 ER Corbin burds 12- six Z is 3.28 lafc is at Seattle at 730 in the semifinals of the US Open cup lafc a tournament for a cup is it too soon and New York is at the Sparks at seven the Sparks made WNBA history the other day nobody in league history scored 110 points in a game and lost until they pulled that stunt in Dallas on Sunday but let's get to the news Ram's general manager Les Sneed has a saying and no it's not F them picks I guess he has two the other one is if it's inevitable make it immediate clean break the Rams rid themselves then of a defensive captain and play caller in super short order when they sent linebacker Ernest Jones and a sixth round pick to Tennessee for a 2026 fifth round pick no the return is not much and uh yes the idea of getting rid of a guy who is about to enter his physical prime and coming off a career year kind of makes you wonder if Sneed was on shrooms but we thought the same thing last off season when the Rams sent Jaylen Ramsey to Miami for a draft pick and a tight end that nobody had ever heard of so here is why the trade happened because it is startling Jones had a career year last year when the Rams had torn their defense down literally to the nub Jones was entering last year Jones was entering the last year of his rookie contract which meant he was due for a raise which leads to the question how much do the Rams actually value their inside linebackers and the answer is I don't think they do I really don't the one time in the Sneed shaik Bay era that they went out out of their way to land an elite inside linebacker was Bobby Wagner the Rams did not qualify for the playoffs that year they were buried under the salary cap by about 5,000 lbs of medical waste but once they got rid of Wagner and by the way I'm not saying he was a bad guy or the problem the Rams returned to the playoffs the next season which was last season in other words they allocated what resources they had to what they absolutely needed strong inside linebacker play is a luxury to this team in my opinion because I spent a lot of time yesterday reading about the Rams defense keep in mind there's a new defensive coordinator in Chris schula who worked under Wade Phillips Brandon Staley Raheem Morris schula is is is not saying he has never said that he wanted to reinvent the Rams defense and it apparently resembles what Phillips used to run so you might say okay well James the Rams ran a 34 with Phillips that means you need two pretty damn good inside linebackers not so Phillips would line them up in a 3 four on first down but if the defense held firm and forced second or third and long what would happen is Phillips would have the weak side linebacker cheat to the line of scrimmage in other words it became a 43 and because of that you did need multiple inside linebackers we're going to get into the minutia here moreover the Rams took a fifth defensive back and purposefully lined that defensive backup as a hybrid safety linebacker EV of end we've been talking about it for years the so-called star position that Brandon Staley had jayen Ramsey was the star position so what it also means is that the weak side linebacker becomes significantly more important to the Rams than an inside linebacker luxury position Byron young is therefore more important to the Rams defensive scheme than Ernest Jones the Rams simply don't want Playmakers at inside linebacker all they want to do at inside linebacker is get guys who can make tackles and Rams coaches are good at teaching the fundamentals so now we had been talking up this undrafted rookie Omar Spates for the last couple of days I'm not going to say he's the new starter but he did make the team so do the Rams front do the Rams folks in the front office get the benefit of the doubt you could absolutely say I'm drinking way too much hopium here I'll hear you out but after what they accomplished last season when they tore the defense apart maybe they do deserve the benefit of the doubt on this one Earnest Jones the play caller of the defense gone now if you haven't had enough goofiness from the Rams and I say that by the way as a Rams fan they're kind of goofy sometimes they named Kiren Williams as their lead punt returner you heard me the leading Ball Carrier as if he isn't getting head hunted enough is now the punt returner the tackle the the the crash test dummy on on special teams McVey pitched the idea as a way for Williams to get more touches which is something you would say for the guy at the end of the roster which is why the guys at the end of the roster are on special teams right I mean when it's it's your leading Ball Carrier this is kind of like saying you know what not enough people have had a free shot at taking your head off I don't understand this move at all you can presume that this will also give rookie blade Corum more Touches at running back where you would imagine Williams would get it apparently Williams is still the lead back but uh does sound a little risky meanwhile talking a little hockey this will never stop pissing me off I'm not even going to front just a couple of years ago the Kings minor league system was the Envy of the entire NHL and now having squandered multiple prospects in a series of boond doggle trades for where the Kings got back players who don't even like playing hockey the athletic have dropped the Kings all the way down to 21st 21st farm system in in the NHL every preseason I would tell you about these prospects back for the last couple of years who may not have superstardom in their future but they were considered at least to be locks to make the NHL and be productive in the NHL you know people like Gabe vardi and and and all a couple of years ago the athletic reviewed the king's farm system and had almost 20 prospects 20 that the athletic thought were pretty strong shots to make the NHL maybe not be super stars but make the NHL and play well now seven seven and yeah one of those players they listed is already an NHL regular so he really doesn't count not as a prospect Quinton Byfield is not a prospect Quinton bfield is an NHL regular now yeah the Scribe does like defenseman brand Clark who should make the king's roster this year but after Clark they forecast the Kings as having maybe one Surefire NHL player in the near future just one leftwing Liam greenre who has size and skill but can't skate kind of important when you play hockey right Liam green tree and by the way they say the same thing about Brant Clark all this skill can't skate I mean they can skate not fall down it's not going to look like Sylvester Stallone and tah Shire in the ice skating scene in Rocky but I mean skate like an NHL and after that you have four guys who they think will get a few games in the NHL but not necessarily stay right-winger Alex lafier uh U jamson there's a defenseman yakob Dvorak and goalie Carter George so yeah in the grand scheme of things golf clap for Rob Blake put together an elite farm system we were all just envisioning more cups going up into and more Championship banners going up into the rafters and bra Blake P it away well done C LeBron James told the press that he will not let his son bronny call him dad while they're on the Lakers and the Press heard this and asked surely you can't be serious to which LeBron PL replied I am serious and don't call me Shirley LeBron said bronnie can call him 2 three he can call him Braun he can call him goat you can't call me dad but you better call me the greatest player of all time but I do give LeBron a point an important point in one respect this is how he explained it quote we cannot be running down the court and he'd be like Dad push the ball up Dad I'm open unquote yeah he's right that's a little weird it almost sounds like the Lakers would be pulling up to the gym not in a luxury bus but in a white van you know what I mean it's just weird like LeBron is so nothing is going to describe how old LeBron is I actually would think if if if his kid was running up and down the court saying Dad I'm open in NBA game the Lakers would probably drop 140 points and Brony would be able to finally get open shots to open path to the rim because the other team would just be doubled over laughing there were two maybe three semi surprises from the Chargers on roster cutdown Day none of them had to do with Easton stick despite the cat Walling of charger bloggers um the kind kind of sort of eye raising cut was tight end Donald parum and by eyelid raising I mean your eyelid kind of fluttered and then you rolled over and went back to bed uh last year parum who's a former XFL player had his best season three touchdown catches the thing is with Jim Harbaugh the Chargers are putting a lot of value on run blocking the Big Splash for the bolts and free agency if you remember it was Will disley he was the best blocking tight end on the market they also waved running back Isaiah Spiller who parl a dream second half against the Rams into an ex in in an exhibition game into a short-lived career I mean I don't hate the guy when I say that but this is why you shouldn't go bananas over somebody who just goes nuts during a preseason game and compiles a lot of stats it doesn't necessarily mean you're all all of a sudden going to have this great NFL career finally While most teams keep six wide receivers on the roster the Chargers buck that tradition they're going to keep seven SEI foko and USC product Brendan rice both made the team it was forecast as a competition between the two guys for a sixth and final spot now keep in mind the Chargers roster is going to change during the course of the Season obviously they might eventually go back to six so they make the team now we just don't know if this is a permanent deal one reason the Dodgers offense might have stunk the stunk of a septic tank yesterday is because they sat Freddy Freeman to give his injured finger some extra rest so he'll probably be back in tonight but you let me know what you think in the comments thread are you okay with the shape of the Rams defense without one of their leading tacklers how upset are you as a Kings fan knowing that that roster the Cavalry is not going to be coming from the wior leagues anytime soon and if you enjoyed the content don't forget to subscribe to faithful angelinos we're talking LA Sports every single day here thank you for watching I'm James we'll be back tomorrow Faithful angelinos is a Kean Cel queso production take care