The St. Louis Rams’ run of five playoff appearances, two Super Bowl appearances and one win between 1999 and 2004 feels as long ago now as the John Robinson era in Anaheim.

Les Snead and Jeff Fisher are in charge of the turnaround and made a wise first move in converting the draft rights of Robert Griffin III into multiple picks to add new depth of young talent to the roster.

RealGM has been using a statistic called the Trench Counter to rank NFL teams since the 2007 season.

The Trench Counter accounts for average yards per pass, yards per carry, penalty yards, first downs and turnovers to determine how well teams control the game in the most meaningful ways.

The Rams rank 32nd in Trench Counter from the 2007 season through 2011.

Below are their season-by-season rankings, Trench Counter totals and actual record in parentheses.

2007: 29th, -6.8 (3-13)
2008: 31st, -9.8 (2-14)
2009: 31st, -11.6 (1-15)
2010: 21st, -1.6 (7-9)
2011: 31st, -7.0 (2-14)