The Los Angeles Rams have regressed at a remarkable pace since their run to Super Bowl 52 back in the 2018 season.
The championship window for the Rams seems to have disappeared as quickly as it appeared. It’s hard to think that the city of Los Angeles was one win away from bringing home a Lombardi trophy behind one of the best rosters in the entire NFL and his since fell so hard from grace.
Now, the Rams find themselves in a horrid salary cap situation and a drought of draft picks to replenish the roster (only six in this upcoming draft, none in the first round). The highest the team will pick the Rams have right now is the 52nd overall pick in the second round, which is troubling considering the fact that the team missed the playoffs in 2019.
L.A. has lost some key pieces from that 2018 roster that carried them to the Super Bowl, including kicker Greg Zeurlein, outside linebacker (OLB) Dante Fowler Jr., inside linebacker (ILB) Cory Littleton, wide receiver (WR) Brandin Cooks and most notably, running back (RB) and former NFL Offensive Player of the Year Todd Gurley.
Other notable players from the 2018 campaign such as defensive end (DE) Ndamukong Suh and cornerbacks (CB) Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters are no longer on the roster. Despite still having defensive tackle (DT) Aaron Donald on the roster, the Rams tried to save their defense in 2019 by trading a lofty sum of two first-round draft picks (2020 & 2021) and a 2021 fourth-round pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Ramsey trade didn’t work out as well as L.A. planned, as Ramsey recorded career lows in games played (12), total tackles (44) and interceptions (1) en route to a disappointing finish to the season.
The Ramsey trade, in conjunction with other ill-advised contracts, have put the Rams in terrible spot. The Rams, after mismanaging Gurley and signing Cooks to a bloated extension, have released the former and traded the latter, but will wind up paying over $41 million of dead money to those two alone, though L.A. got a decent return for Cooks.
Gurley clearly wasn’t the same player in 2019 that he was in previous years due to his injury problems, especially with his knee. However, Gurley was previously signed to a four-year, $60 million extension with the Rams. In that deal, a lofty $45 million was guaranteed to the RB.
While a strong run game is important to offensive success in the NFL, the RB position isn’t the right position to sink a lot of money into. I’d argue that the QB and offensive line should be the offensive guys getting the heavy contracts on offense. Gurley was great for a period of time, but this goes to show that in the end, RB is probably the most expendable position on offense.
This leads to L.A.’s quarterback (QB) Jared Goff who, before hitting his stride with the Rams, was widely considered a bust. The former first overall pick has played admirably over the last couple of years, but his salary compared to other NFL QBs doesn’t sit well with me.
Only two other QBs get paid more than Goff – Russell Wilson (Seahawks) and Ben Roethlisberger (Steelers). Goff even gets paid the same as Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, who I’d argue is the most technically gifted QB in the game. Roethlisberger is old and declining, but Goff isn’t in the same ballpark as Wilson or Rodgers. This really binds the Rams to Goff, so hopefully for them, he’s the franchise player they hoped for.
The NFC West is likely the toughest division in the NFL now with superstar WR DeAndre Hopkins joining the Arizona Cardinals, the recent rise of the San Francisco 49ers and the usual competitiveness of the Seahawks. The Rams will remain competitive, but it seems like their championship window has been shut for the foreseeable future.
