“Trade Matthew Stafford.” “Trade Cooper Kupp.” “Time For a Full Rebuild.” The Los Angeles Rams have been the subject of much talk of starting over in the last three seasons. The injury-plagued season in 2022 planted the seed and now every year, calls for a big change in Los Angeles have grown in the national media. Should the Rams pull the trigger? It all depends on what the goal is.
The Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions have ripped through the NFC this season. In order to have a shot to win it all, it takes that kind of domination with big offense and suffocating defense. The 2018 and 2021 Los Angeles Rams had that.
For every wild card wonder like Aaron Rodgers or Eli Manning, there are many more instances of dominating teams running hot all season long. Sure, they’ll lose once in a while or even hit a losing streak, but when they get cooking, they dice teams up. When was the last time the Rams completely dismantled a decent list of opponents consecutively?
Los Angeles Rams stuck in .500 purgatory
At this point, there is one side with teams like the Lions and the Eagles and there is the other with the Mortal Rams among other .500 teams. Mortal teams don’t win championships, but they also don’t become the center of negative attention in the NFL.
If the goal is to win championships, it might be time for a big move or two that could pay off or blow up in their face.
If it does blow up, it would give the team ammunition to rebuild with a series of high-end draft picks. Right now, the Rams are stuck in the middle where they are not losing enough to get highly desired players in the draft but they also are not winning enough to attract free agents and grow in that manner.
At this point, the 5-6 Rams of this year and the 10-7 Rams of last year both roughly sit in the same bucket. It isn’t time for a Miami Dolphins-style tank for Tua Tagovailoa, but it might be time to go all-in on a trade. The trade could raise the team back to the class of the NFC or leave them losing enough games to reload the roster via the NFL Draft.
Otherwise, fans will be forced to be content with roughly .500 seasons until Matthew Stafford ages out of the league and the team then slips into rebuild territory. If that is the goal, general manager Les Snead will keep interest around the team, but no new Super Bowl rings. Of course, the question of who or what form the silver bullet could take is a different discussion.
Right now, Les Snead is tasked with figuring out whether a Super Bowl chase or a lengthy stay as a wild card playoff team is best for the franchise’s future. The Super Bowl chase could test fan morale much more than a fringe playoff wait could, especially for those who sat through a decade and a half of struggle after winning the Super Bowl with Kurt Warner.
Reloading vs Rebuilding the Los Angeles Rams
Either way, a reload is likely in order in at least a few positions. The Rams could get some draft capital back from Cooper Kupp, which could help tweak the secondary and the offensive line. If a rebuild is out of the question, that is likely as radical as Les Snead is willing to go.
A rebuild, of course, would mean shipping Stafford and Kupp away as well as potentially a lineman or two, getting a rookie quarterback and a bridge quarterback. Whether that means Jimmy Garoppolo getting elevated to the starting role once again or a look at the market, the Rams would look massively different in Week 1 2025.
The question is whether Snead and the fan base have the stomach to go through another potentially lengthy quarterback search.
