Los Angeles Rams: Offseason signings will leave more to be desired
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Rams front office has been aggressive over the last three years in building a contender, however, this past offseason will be the worst of the three.
The Los Angeles Rams have a core trio of Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and Aaron Donald that were all drafted by the team and blossomed into the players they are today. For Goff and Gurley, the biggest progressions came when Sean McVay took over as head coach.
It was when McVay took over as coach when the Los Angeles Rams started to realize their potential. With some smaller moves the previous offseason, McVay led the Rams to their first postseason appearance in over a decade, which prompted the Rams to take an even more aggressive approach.
That led to the 2018 offseason being one of the biggest in team history. Los Angeles added Ndamukong Suh, Brandin Cooks, Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib in a quartet of big moves. All but Suh are still on the roster, although Peters and Talib left more to be desired.
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That aggressiveness led to a Super Bowl appearance, although the Rams were unable to get it done. With the salary cap becoming more of an issue, the Rams had to make lesser moves this offseason to fill the various holes the team had.
The biggest names the team brought in were Eric Weddle and Clay Matthews, two former All-Pro players that certainly got the fanbase excited. While they may be big-name players in the league, these players and the offseason as a whole will leave more to be desired.
Matthews has been trending downwards as his age creeps up and although Weddle experienced a bit of a resurgence the last few years with Baltimore, he is still catching up to father time and is not the same player he once was.
Like Peters and Talib, who both have high ceilings but were coming off down years, Weddle and Matthews will not recapture the magic they once had.
The Rams have also not done themselves any favors on the offensive line, which lost key pieces this offseason and is only getting older. Andrew Whitworth is in the last year of his contract and the team is at risk of having an awful line with the wrong moves next offseason.
The offensive line was much more of a need than safety, especially considering that the team selected Taylor Rapp in the draft, and using that salary cap space for even a stopgap lineman would have been significantly better than committing to Weddle for multiple years.
The team is obviously still talented enough to get to the postseason and are still true Super Bowl contenders.
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However, fans should not expect this offseason to make the team any better than they were last season. Every fan will recognize that once the 2019 season is in the books.