Chris Long Injury Hurts, but All Is Not Lost for St. Louis Rams

Chicken Little is currently rocking it in the 314, clucking at the top of his lungs that the sky is falling inside the Edward Jones Dome.

The St. Louis Rams lost starting quarterback Sam Bradford to yet another season-ending injury before the 2014 campaign even started. Then the year began with a 34-6 beatdown at home at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the team lost one of its best defensive players in that pasting, with defensive end Chris Long suffering an ankle injury that will sideline him at least two months.

Add it all up, and when ESPN released its most recent NFL power rankings, it was the Rams who earned the dubious distinction of being team No. 32 on a list of 32 teams.

With that said—while there's no doubt the season started about as badly as a season possibly can—for as bad as things look, they aren't as bad as they seem.

Of course, good luck telling that to Rams fans, who were already climbing into ovens before it was announced that Long would need surgery:

Rams' bloggers, such as Robert Forehand of Cover 32, are already rallying the townsfolk to grab their pitchforks and torches and head for the residence of head coach Jeff Fisher:

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Jeff Fisher has been a head coach in the NFL for 20 seasons, yet has had a winning record in just six of those. If someone underperforms at their job 30% of the time, would they stay employed very long? Of those six playoff seasons, Fisher’s teams have gone a rather unimpressive 5-6, with three of those wins on the back of the Music City Miracle.

Were the 2-14 years so bad that people will gladly accept seven-win seasons as acceptable because the Rams continue to field a team filled with young, raw players and have not banished the stars from the glory years of yesterday?

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However, before people get the torches lit and start up the mountain (when angry villagers storm a house, it has to be on a mountain) they need to just take a deep breath and relax for a moment.

Yes, the Long injury was a blow. As Jim Thomas of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, the Rams placed Long on injured reserve/designated for return, meaning the 29-year-old will miss at least eight games:

The thing is, blow though it may be, there may not be a team in the NFL better equipped to absorb it.

In defensive end Robert Quinn (who led the NFC with 19 sacks last year), tackle Michael Brockers, rookie Aaron Donald and Long, the Rams had arguably the most loaded defensive front in the NFL.

William Hayes, who will slide into the starting lineup in Long's stead, may not be an All-Pro, but Hayes is a capable veteran who recorded seven sacks for the Rams as recently as 2012.

That's only 1.5 less than Long had last year.

The quarterback situation is another matter.

Shaun Hill was a disaster for the Rams last week, completing 8 of 13 passes for 81 yards and an interception before exiting the game with a quad strain.

There was more than a little speculation that Hill's "quad strain" was more excuse to bench a struggling passer than significant injury, but while speaking with Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com Fisher both dismissed that notion and insisted that Hill remains the team's starter:

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I have not heard anything along those lines. I'm telling you the truth. I've never messed around with the quarterback situation in my entire career. I am speaking truthfully. He's got a quad strain and we took him out of the game, period. ... That's absurd.

If Shaun is able to play, he will be our starter. There's no issue there. Shaun's our quarterback, so if he's healthy, he starts, and that will be the case throughout the season.

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Of course, Hill has yet to practice this week and is very iffy to play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We'll see if Fisher's still singing that same tune if Austin Davis plays well on Sunday.

Hey, stop looking at me like that—it could happen!

Whoever lines up at quarterback, it appears he'll have at least one more reliable target in the passing game. Third-year wideout Brian Quick led the Rams with seven catches for 99 yards a week ago, and Fisher told Wagoner the youngster's improvement this year has been significant.

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I was encouraged. Brian came on. He made every catch. The only thing that he could improve was the facemask penalty. He’s learned from that. But, he was very productive. Made different types of catches, contested catches -- the third down catch where we ended up fourth and 1 and a half was a good catch, it was a good concentration effort.

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It's not really surprising that it took Quick time to acclimate to the NFL after playing collegiately at tiny Appalachian State, but it's very encouraging to see the light appear to come on, given Quick's impressive blend of size and, well...you know.

Let's be honest. The Rams were in a fight for third place in their division before any of this happened. They weren't serious contenders for a playoff spot.

In fact, the argument can be made that right now the worst is the best thing that could happen.

Think about it for a second. It's safe to say that just about everyone except Bradford and his agent believes that his time with the Rams is over. They made the quarterback equivalent of a $50 million investment in Betamax. Time to move on.

The prevailing thought just after Bradford got hurt was that Hill was just good enough to make a Rams team with a stout defense mediocre. Jeff Fisher may not have coached a lot of great teams, but he also hasn't coached many terrible ones.

And 7-9 (or even 10-6) doesn't get you in the Marcus Mariota sweepstakes.

So why not embrace it?

Root just as hard to lose this year as you will to win next year. Quick turnarounds happen with regularity in the NFL, but you have to bottom out first.

And besides, if you want the current regime to be given its walking papers, nothing says "clean house" quite like loss after loss after loss after loss.

It's either that, or hope Hill just had a bad game borne of a sore leg, or that Case Keenum gets up to speed quickly and can recapture a bit of the magic he showed fleeting glimpses of in Houston last year.

Because if the Rams can get even adequate quarterback play, that defense (which takes only a small step backward with Long out) will keep them in games.

The Rams may not make the playoffs themselves, but they can spoil a lot of fun for others along the way. Misery loves company and all that.

Take this week, for instance. If the Rams can upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a Bucs squad tabbed as a dark-horse playoff contender in many circles this year will be 0-2 and in full-on panic mode.

So rather than lament what could have been for the St. Louis Rams 2014, accept what is.

Pick a side: Spoiler or tank driver. And take some enjoyment from that.

And would someone please shut that chicken up?

Gary Davenport is an NFL Analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPManor.