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He wouldn't have said it if he didn't believe it.
Shortly after being drafted, new Rams offensive tackle Jason Smith had a conference call with the St. Louis media in which he couldn't help but be optimistic about the 2009 season.
“Obviously, they are at the bottom; they want to be at the top," Smith, as quoted by Bill Coats of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said.
"I could feel that when I was there. I could feel that talking to the guys and then I had the opportunity to go watch the team work out and I’m feeling like I’m part of them. I’m saying, ‘Why not us? Why not us? Why are we not the ones?’ And I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m not even there yet.’
"But why not us you know? Why not me? Why not today? Why not this game? Why not this year? Why not this playoff? Why not this Super Bowl? Let’s make dreams and visions become reality.’”
So the question remains—why not the Rams?
The precedent is certainly there. Just a year ago, the Miami Dolphins went from one-win cellar dwellers to 11-game winners and playoff participants.
And they're not the exception. The NFL's salary cap creates a great deal of parity and presents the opportunity for upward mobility for wayward franchises such as the Rams.
Every team, the Rams included, approaches each new season with hopes of a winning season and a Super Bowl ring.
So how can the Rams realistically contend in 2009?
First, it must be established how many wins the team will need to earn a playoff berth.
The woes of the NFC West have been well-documented in years past, but the Arizona Cardinals surprised everyone by making it to the Super Bowl after going only 9-7 in the regular season.
They enter the season as the team to beat in the West, but no team is without its problems.
The Cardinals continue to have contract issues with standout wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who wants to be paid like his teammate Larry Fitzgerald. That can only be a distraction for a team trying to make it back to the Super Bowl.
Kurt Warner is also getting up in age, and his durability is constantly in question. In the event of a Warner injury, will Matt Leinart be able to lead the team to success?
The Seattle Seahawks suffered to a 4-12 record in 2008, and while part of those struggles were due to missing key players on both sides of the ball, they could face adversity with the transition from Mike Holmgren to Jim Mora at head coach and the absence of stud linebacker Julian Peterson, who was traded to Detroit in the offseason.
The San Francisco 49ers went 7-9 in 2008, but they enter 2009 with a quarterback who has only attempted 367 passes in his eight-year career.
Pair that with an underwhelming offensive line on paper and the worst takeaway-to-turnover ratio in the NFL and there is no guarantee the team will duplicate its relative success in the West.
The door may be open for the Rams, but any team winning the West will most likely need another nine-win season.
So that leads us to the next question: How do the Rams get to nine wins?
They've already begun the process by adding veterans Jason Brown and James Butler and drafting Smith and James Laurinaitis, but you don't win games in May.
For the sake of order, lets break the season down into four quadrants and analyze just how the Rams could make a Dolphins-like turnaround.
Quadrant I: Tough schedule right out of the gate
Week 1 the Rams travel to Seattle. The Rams got embarrassed in Seattle in Week 3 of 2008 but should have won the second meeting in St. Louis, which would have given the teams a split on the year.
Split or not, it's Seattle's home opener and most likely a win for the Seahawks.
They travel to Washington in Week 2 to face the Redskins. In 2008, the Rams got their brief two-game winning streak started by going into Washington and winning after the bye week.
The Redskins addressed their 2008 problems the only way Dan Snyder knows how—by throwing money at anyone and everyone. Albert Haynesworth is a beast in the middle, but team chemistry still takes time to develop.
With so many additions and subtractions, it's unclear what this Redskins team will look like early on.
Call it a hunch, but I'll give this matchup to the Rams.
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