The Los Angeles Rams’ aggressive team building strategy of trading high-value draft picks for established stars won them a super Bowl, but now the team is paying their debt.
The Rams were forced to part ways with several of their veteran contributors in order to get under the NFL’s salary cap. Replacing their star core is a group of young players who are hungry to prove themselves but lack experience in the league.
Les Snead believes that Los Angeles didn’t stray too far from the traditional path toward winning a championship, but did acknowledge that the team is now facing the harsh reality of remodeling the roster in 2023, via Gilberto Manzano of Sports Illustrated:
“I don’t think anything we did is any different than what a lot of teams have to go through,” Snead says. “The phase that you’re in is going to be somewhat cyclical if you have a veteran core. They’re going to get older, so when you move on because of age, and probably age is causing them to maybe be less productive, you do move on. Any time you pay players, and like we did, and other teams have done it, where you pay players at the top of the market, there’s an element where you have to push things out in the future, so that credit is going to come due.”
Although Snead admits that 2023 will be different from their normal approach, he is looking at the 2024 season as a chance to be opportunistic in the market again:
“We decided to use this year, so we could really next year, start doing exactly what we have done in the past,” Snead says. “But this was a moment to take a pause, so that we can continue being aggressive.”
Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald are all under contract for 2024, so that might be Snead’s last chance to make another run at a title with this current core. While the team could very well be competitive in 2023, all eyes in the organization are looking at next year as their comeback season.
Cooper Kupp discusses building chemistry with Matthew Stafford in training camp
Kupp’s health is already in question as he recently suffered a hamstring injury that will likely keep him out for the remainder of training camp. However, prior to hurting himself he discussed what it’s been like to build chemistry with Stafford, who came into camp healthy for the first time since being traded to Los Angeles.
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