The Rams saying goodbye to many veteran starters this offseason to create cap space wasn’t unusual compared to the rest of the league. Every team is forced to make tough roster decisions, but it’s been a long time since the Rams were the ones doing the cost cutting.
With the Rams taking a hiatus from trading first-round picks to sign star players, many NFL experts are assuming this will be a rebuilding season in Los Angeles.
But GM Les Snead winced hearing the word “rebuild,” as he watched coach Sean McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford work with a group filled with rookies and second-year players. (The Rams opened training camp with nearly 40 rookies.)
“It’s hard to say you’re going to rebuild when you still have Matthew Stafford, Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp,” says Snead. “You could rebuild your ass off and never have those three players, so it’s kind of hard. … I don’t know what to call it, but it’s not a rebuild.”
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
The Rams do have an impressive core group, with Stafford, Donald and Kupp being three of the best players in the league at their respective positions. But Donald might see more two-man blocks than usual this season due to an inexperienced defensive front.
Rookies Kobie Turner (defensive tackle), and Byron Young (edge rusher), are in line to start this season. Michael Hoecht, an undrafted 2020 free agent, played at interior defensive lineman last training camp, but he’s now expected to start as an edge rusher. Christian Rozeboom, also a ’20 undrafted free agent, has primarily contributed on special teams, but he’s now probably the team’s No 2 linebacker—next to Ernest Jones, one of the few Rams defenders with starting experience.
The Rams’ offense appears to be in better shape with Stafford, Kupp, tight end Tyler Higbee and right tackle Rob Havenstein, but their season could quickly be derailed if the starting offensive line struggles the way it did last year. They do, however, have a few intriguing rookies in guard Steve Avila, a second-round pick, and wide receiver Puka Nacua, a fifth-round pick who has quickly impressed his teammates and coaches.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
“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.”
The Rams paid the debt by trading cornerback Jalen Ramsey, releasing linebacker Bobby Wagner and edge rusher Leonard Floyd, and not re-signing their homegrown players, such as defensive tackle Greg Gaines.
But Snead doesn’t expect to continue paying cap-space bills next offseason. With how many cost-cutting moves Los Angeles has already made, Snead expects to return to his aggressive ways of adding star players in 2024.
“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.”
The Rams have plans to swing big next year, but Snead doesn’t expect his team to bow out of this season, either. In addition to holding on to Stafford, Kupp and Donald, it also bodes well that Los Angeles recently signed veteran safety John Johnson III to aid the inexperienced defense.
“Players like that, at the end of the day, they’re the heartbeat of this ecosystem,” Snead says. “So, if you come here, you can be inexperienced, but there is a feel here, ‘Oh, we’re going to play good football. We’re going to be competitive, we’re going to stress opponents.’ We’ll look up at the scoreboard at the end of games and see where it stands, but I think because of those players and what they’ve done, that's our culture. Culture that actually knows that it can be successful.”
The 2023 Rams are hard to explain, but perhaps they fall somewhere in the middle of the ’21 Super Bowl champion Rams version of themselves, and the 5–12 version in ’22.
