Does the absurd plan actually work tonight: The Los Angeles Rams are building a super team against every usual strategy in the NFL. This involves incredibly high risks – because it means: title or embarrassment.
It was probably the craziest and best weekend of the National Football League in the USA. Spectacle. Drama. Cheers and tears close together. Right in the middle: the Los Angeles Rams with their surprising victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady, the most successful (and arguably best) quarterback of all time.
For most of last weekend’s game, it looked like the Rams were going to inflict a significant home smack on the defending champion. LA was leading 27-3 halfway through the third quarter, and Brady was struggling to pose even a hint of threat on offense. So it seemed like the Rams did everything right before and during the current season with their absurd plan.
Because week after week – it seemed – LA was giving away their future for a few years. Slowly and methodically building up to a championship aspirant over the years using young draft picks and clever trades according to the usual old scheme? Not with the Rams! They were looking for good, capable players in their prime. And they wanted them now and immediately, and kept bringing them on board in exchange for future draft picks. The plan behind this radical and unorthodox methodology for the NFL: Win the Super Bowl this year. In Los Angeles. The hometown of the Rams. For the first time in franchise history. The Americans call this mentality win-now.
Rams go all in
“I love fearlessness and aggressiveness, and that approach and philosophy have always evolved,” said Sean McVay, who joined the Rams in 2017 at 31, becoming the youngest head coach in NFL history. His team didn’t care about the standard modus operandi, trading valuable picks for established players in their prime rather than taking on a bunch of college kids who might turn out to be failures. It gambled, or as the US esports world says, went “all in”. Super Bowl title or disgrace. Championship or bust.
It almost went bust against the Buccaneers because Tom Brady is Tom Brady. And so, after several Rams mistakes, 42 seconds before the end, it was suddenly 27:27. Raymond James Stadium in Tampa shook, the momentum in overtime would have been clearly on the Bucs side. The Rams’ entire season, their absurd and risky plan threatened to fail.
But, and that was exactly the intention of the plan, the team was built for just such moments. For the here and now. With experienced players and reliable veterans. For winning big games. Quarterback Matthew Stafford found his best pass receiver, Cooper Kupp, with back-to-back passes for 20 and 44 yards, while kicker Matt Gay hit a 30-yard field goal for a 30-27 last-second win.
Stafford shows he’s got it
The last minute of the game against Brady and the Buccaneers was almost absurd. And that’s why she was such a good fit for the LA Rams. Your win-now plan is just as insane and insane. Actually. Because it could actually rise. Riding a winning wave, Stafford’s team has the momentum that carried Tampa Bay to last year’s Super Bowl, back then – right – at Brady’s home stadium.
In order for the plan to really work – that’s how the game of American football is designed – the quarterback must work above all. For years Stafford was criticized after losses with the Detroit Lions, but now he has shouldered the Los Angeles Rams and earned himself a place in the conference title game. No one can claim they’re not a big-game quarterback anymore. While he was without a single playoff win early in his LA tenure, he now has two. And the Rams don’t just win their playoff games, but Stafford plays extremely well: 75 percent of his passes found their target for 568 yards, he threw four touchdowns and two touchdowns he ran himself.
The fact that Stafford plays with the Rams at all is also an important piece of the mosaic of their aggressive mentality. In fact, LA had that young, powerful quarterback in Jared Goff — he eventually became the youngest NFC champion quarterback in league history in 2018 — that many teams are trying to mark an era with by pairing him with wisely chosen draft picks put. Eventually, however, Goff’s game went awry, and the Rams traded the youngster and two draft picks for Detroit’s Stafford — an NFL veteran with 12 years of experience but no playoff win under his belt.
Does Odell Beckham Jr work?
Then last November, the Rams gave up second- and third-round picks to bring renowned pass-rusher Von Miller from the Broncos. For any other franchise, this would have been a completely insane move: two valuable draft picks and, in return, a veteran with only one contract through the end of this season. So come for a maximum of ten games. But instead of building a future with young players for years to come, LA wants to win in LA.
The two main reasons NFL pros switch to a team are: money and a chance to win the Super Bowl. Because the latter was taking shape, Odell Beckham Jr. joined the Rams shortly after Miller. The experienced and flamboyant wide receiver without a Super Bowl ring has carried the team-wrecker narrative since his time with the New York Giants. His complicated stint with the Cleveland Browns further reinforced such prejudices. But McVay and his team knew OBJ could still be a difference player, and he’s emerged as a key complement to Cooper Kupp ever since.
In fact, Kupp is something of the antithesis of the Rams’ strategy. He was drafted way back in 2017, only in the third round, and hardly any college wanted him even in high school. But the wide receiver surpassed all expectations, and this year he led the NFL in regular-season passes caught (145), yards (1,947) and touchdowns (16). He almost set an all-time record and was even considered an MVP candidate in some places.
Ironically, the 49ers
While Kupp den Rams may be around for a while longer, the rest of the team that was built just for this year isn’t. The NFL has a fixed salary cap, and Los Angeles will start the next NFL year with $5,150,928 over that limit, according to OvertheCap.com. That means they’ll need to be paying that much after this season to be able to break even and be able to negotiate new contracts with free agents or draft picks in the upcoming draft.
That means players will be fired. And because there are hardly any draft picks for improvement in the next few years, one thing is clear: the window of opportunity to win the Super Bowl is now open. After this season not so soon again. “We only live once, so don’t live in fear,” Rams CEO Les Snead said in 2019. “But you’re not playing for a tie. You’re trying to win.”
With an approach that is as aggressive as it is unorthodox, Los Angeles has brought in a wealth of established stars who have shaped the Rams into one of the most successful teams in the NFL. In the Conference Championship game, the San Francisco 49ers are now waiting (12:30 a.m. on Monday/Pro7 and DAZN), who are in the middle of a Cinderella-like run. It’s all about the Rams and their crazy plan – championship or bust – including a Hollywood ending. Ironically, against the team against which they have lost the last six games.