Los Angeles Rams must focus this offseason on retaining the roster
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Rams fell just short of winning Super Bowl LIII but should not let the defeat in the Super Bowl cause any drastic changes in the offseason.
The Los Angeles Rams had a tremendous 2018 season, even if the team ultimately fell short in the Super Bowl. Without a playoff win under their belt this young Rams team charged to the Super Bowl, and although ugly, was stride for stride with the New England Patriots nearly all game.
Now it is back to the drawing board for the Rams, who are only in the beginning stages of what should be a fairly long run of success. Most of the primary contributors are all young and with a great head coach in Sean McVay, the team will be just fine.
Even though the Rams should be successful for a long time, the team still has some questions to answer this offseason. Most importantly, the team must handle having 13 unrestricted free agents, some of which being big-name contributors.
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Among the 13 unrestricted free agents are defensive players Ndamukong Suh, LaMarcus Joyner, Dante Fowler Jr and Sam Shields. Offensively, the Rams could lose guard Rodger Saffold and C.J. Anderson, who really only had an impact at the end of the year.
There are more people hitting the market that have an impact but those are the biggest names.
The Los Angeles Rams went out and went all-in last off-season, obviously becoming the tea that improved the most from the moves. The Rams added Brandin Cooks, Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters, Suh and Shields, all of which had an impact.
Before the trade deadline, the team traded for Fowler, a former first-round pick that played the best football of his career in LA and came up with a huge hit on Drew Brees in overtime of the NFC Championship.
Rams fans should not expect the same all-in mentality this off-season. In fact, it would be much smarter for the Los Angeles Rams to instead focus solely on bringing back those that could leave and only adding talent externally via the 2019 NFL Draft.
The Los Angeles Rams have a first-round pick for the first time since selecting Jared Goff with the first overall pick in 2016. It might be the 31st pick of the first round but it is a first-round pick nonetheless.
The team can use that to draft a young lineman to replace some of the aging linemen that could leave this offseason or in future offseasons. Or the team can draft a safety to replace Joyner, or a corner to help Peters and Talib.
The team would probably be best-suited in drafting an impact middle linebacker but the backend of the first round is going to be filled with corners, likely making that the choice for the Rams, unless something better is available.
The team may not have a second-round pick but can make impact picks in the third and later rounds that would mesh nicely with the core the team has intact.
The Rams had something special this season and letting some of those assets simply walk away and trying to do another overhaul won’t work. You know the adage: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.