Los Angeles Rams: Players who must step up in 2020 to reach the playoffs
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Rams need to improve from 2019 in order to make the playoff again, which is going to have to include some internal improvements as well.
The formula to turn a team that was right on the brink of making the playoffs into a playoff-caliber team is often to externally add talent that is going to improve the overall outlook of the roster. However, the Los Angeles Rams are different, and improving the team is not as simple.
First of all, the Rams were not this upstart team that was just getting into the playoff race, they were that team in 2017. The Rams were the defending NFC Champions that came out in 2020, laid an egg in some games that they absolutely should have won, and narrowly missed the playoffs.
Of course, entire narratives can change on one small event. If Greg Zuerlein makes the game-winning kick against the Seattle Seahawks then the Rams would have been a playoff team and the conversation around the team would have been different.
We still cannot ignore the holes on the roster and why the team performed as they did. And while adding external talent is the typical response to the kind of season that the Rams had, the team cannot add as much as they need. They did not have much cap flexibility entering the season and no first or fourth-round draft pick.
They have added in Leonard Floyd and A’Shawn Robinson while re-signing Andrew Whitworth. However, they have also lost talent as well in releasing Todd Gurley and Clay Matthews while Dante Fowler, Cory Littleton, Michael Brockers and Nickell Roby-Coleman all signed with other teams.
The draft can only help so much. The Los Angeles Rams are going to need these players to step up in 2020 if they even want to sniff the playoffs in the tough NFC West.