The Los Angeles Rams were supposed to have another rebuilding year in 2023 – a year to continue making payments on the mortgage taken out to win the Super Bowl 18 months earlier. There were questions around Matthew Stafford’s return from injury and reports coming out of the Rams camp that he was struggling to connect with his younger generation of teammates.
In late October after losing to the Kenny Pickett-led Steelers, the Rams fell to 3-6 and it looked to all the world as though the preseason predictions were correct. However, after a week 10 bye, the resurgent Rams finished the regular season 7-1 losing only to the AFC No. 1 seed Baltimore Ravens on a walk-off punt return in overtime. Stafford was back playing at a high level, and the emergence of rookie superstar Puka Nacua along with second-year player Kyren Williams added a certain dynamism to the offense. Defensive playmakers Kobie Turner, Ernest Jones, and the omnipotent Aaron Donald became a thorn in the side of offensive coordinators league-wide. The Rams were just a play or two away from upsetting the Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Wild Card Weekend in a season that was meant to be a transitional year.
The Rams Are Entering Another Super Bowl Window
The Current Reality
Rams GM Les Snead has previously talked about his four “weight-bearing walls” of Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and the aforementioned Donald. All four of these walls are in their 30s, and for three of them, that spells the second half of their current careers at best.
The duo of Snead and McVay have previous experience with aggressive offseason strategies. Since McVay was hired in 2017, players acquired via trades have included Marcus Peters, Sammy Watkins, Aqib Talib, Brandin Cooks, Von Miller, Jalen Ramsey, and Stafford himself – all of whom are household names to football fans across the country. Sprinkle in the free agent signings of Andrew Whitworth, Robert Woods, and Odell Beckham Jr, and it felt as if the Rams were playing Madden with the salary cap turned off. Over three years, they assembled this team with a final push on the gas pedal to get them over the line of winning Super Bowl 56. Stafford remains the only quarterback not named Brady or Mahomes to win the Super Bowl since Nick Foles at the end of the 2017 season.
Teams spend years being cautious and drafting correctly to win championships. Indeed, the Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty is built off this strategy. Coaches, analysts, and media alike frequently discuss cliche phrases like “trust the process” and “build through the draft,” but the stark truth remains that most teams fail to get over the hump. To reach the mountaintop for most teams requires a shrewd, pragmatic mentality, aggressive moves in the right areas, and, let’s face it, some clever manipulation of the salary cap rules.
For a team that has a sniff of winning it all, the smart play is to go all in and mortgage your future as the Rams did in 2021. One Super Bowl title is worth more to a team, fanbase, and certainly an owner than a multitude of regular season or playoff wins. If a shark smells blood, it will investigate, probe and attack. Snead and McVay have a proven history of being sharks, and they will currently be smelling blood.
With the aging weight-bearing walls, the Rams have a small period where they can still expect these players to perform at a high level, whilst also enjoying the luxury of some outstanding young talent still on their rookie contracts. Snead must realise that there is no point in wasting this situation; the time to win is now.
2024 Offseason Moves
So the question then shifts. How can the Rams be aggressive this offseason to make a push for the Super Bowl again? 10 draft picks in the upcoming draft give Snead the ability to maneuver and leverage for trades. It would not be surprising to see the Rams trade their first-round pick as they have done for the past eight seasons in a blockbuster trade for a proven NFL star. Snead has already noted it is “a little too early to tell” if the Rams will use their pick.
The biggest weakness for the Rams this past season was the secondary, however, they are in luck with All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr, and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed and Jaylon Johnson are all scheduled to hit the open market with the Rams having roughly $40 million of cap room to play with. The offensive line, which was much improved in the second half of the season, is still missing the Whitworth-like presence that anchored the Rams offense during 2021. Adding a bona fide pass rusher to pair with Donald, Turner, and Byron Young could bring the defensive line up to the next level. Or adding a wide receiver through the draft or free agency to truly take the top off of the defense could be in the offing. There are multiple options open to Snead if the mindset is to be aggressive, as it has been in the past.
Whatever happens this offseason, it is clear that the management has reshaped the franchise in a season and a half, and the Rams should be contenders for the NFC title and beyond next season. Snead and McVay have a chance to recreate some of the offseason magic that led to them hoisting the Lombardi in their own stadium, and they will have to look to add the final pieces of the puzzle required to take advantage of this small but definitive window.
There is a chance for the Rams to compete for their third Super Bowl title in the coming years, and with proven winners at the helm in their general manager, head coach, and quarterback, who’s to say they won’t be lifting more hardware in the not-so-distant future?
Main Photo: Junfu Han – USA Today Sports
