The Thursday Night Football game between the Rams and 49ers is a game between two teams that are not all that good. The Rams have a lot of hope, the 49ers have a great front office, but neither one of these teams will have a chance in terms of going to the playoffs this season. However, these two teams will overtake the Cardinals and Seahawks in the very near future. The Seahawks will be consumed by infighting and a lack of cap space. The Cardinals will simply get old and their best players will retire, and the Rams/49ers game will feature the class of the NFC West.
How can there be hope for two teams that were once considered the absolute worst teams in the entire NFL? We are not talking about breakout performances for players. We are talking about the potential of each team.
The Rams have Aaron Donald
If the Rams can keep Aaron Donald happy, they will have a very good offense for a long time. The team must have a defensive unit that can get their offense back on the field because the offense needs practice playing in the NFL. Having Aaron Donald makes the offense better even though he will never carry the ball, throw a pass, or score a touchdown from that side of the ball.
The 49ers have depth
The 49ers are already working on building depth through the draft.
They made a number of amazing picks in their first draft under this current regime, and it is important for them to continue to draft players who will fill out their roster. The team will have a considerable amount of talent on it for years to come, and they will have enough players to fill out all the packages that are required to play both offense and defense.
Someone who loves the 49ers should take solace in how the team's front office has done its job.
They are state rivals
The Rams are now in-state rivals of the 49ers, and this rivalry will make the games a bit more interesting. It is hard for the 49ers and Rams to hate each other when they are thousands of miles apart, but the Rams are now just down the coast from San Francisco.
The rivalry will likely pick up some steam over the next couple years as both teams improve. If the 49ers trade for or sign Kirk Cousins, the rivalry between Cousins and Goff could produce a lot of great games, and we might see these teams play for playoff supremacy in the very near future. Thursday night's game will probably not be that good, but it will be an amazing game that shows us what the rivalry will look like in the future.
