It was a typical February weekday in Los Angeles. Delicate climate. Large site visitors. Downtown was bustling however not far more than standard, despite the fact that the newly topped Tremendous Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams took to the streets for a victory parade. Solely about 20,000 folks confirmed up. One social media jokester quipped that there have been extra Aaron Donald abs than there than followers. Compared, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs attracted greater than 800,000 followers to their Tremendous Bowl victory parade after the 2019 season.
Regardless of the sparse attendance, there was loads of pleasure across the Rams. Positive, the franchise was contemporary off just a few missteps and unlucky occasions. There was the controversial, financially pushed transfer from St Louis in 2016, which alienated a large chunk of the staff’s fanbase. Taking part in the 2020 season in an empty SoFi Stadium because of Covid-19 was not splendid. And sharing that stadium (and a market) with the Chargers didn’t assist construct a brand new fanbase both.
However in 2022 the Rams made their pitch to the town of Los Angeles within the splashiest means, with a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals to win Tremendous Bowl LVI. The Rams had been filled with stars and promise then – Donald, Cooper Kupp, Jalen Ramsey, Matthew Stafford, Von Miller and Odell Beckham Jr – to not point out their fiery head coach, Sean McVay. Given wage cap constraints, the roster would naturally shift a bit. The Rams had spent draft capital and loads of Stan Kroenke’s cash assembling an excellent staff that completed its mission to elevate the Lombardi Trophy.
Previous Rams followers, bandwagon Rams followers, movie star followers: all of them got here out of the woodwork even when they didn’t attend the parade. The Tremendous Bowl win and the years of success that preceeded it introduced the right alternative to develop the fanbase and turn out to be a part of the town’s tradition.
However is a Tremendous Bowl price it in case your franchise instantly falls off a cliff?
Any pleasure was shortly halted as soon as the Rams took the sector final season. Andrew Whitworth, the staff’s trusty left deal with, lastly retired. The offensive line was a shambles, trotting out 11 totally different starters. It allowed 59 sacks, the third most within the league.
Miller, a large a part of the Rams Tremendous Bowl run, turned a Buffalo Invoice after a midseason commerce. Stafford, who threw 41 touchdowns in 2021, seemed outdated and feeble along with his new makeshift line. He missed eight video games after struggling a number of concussions, a contusion, and a nagging elbow harm. The passing recreation resembled the Biggest Present on Turf Rams throughout the Tremendous Bowl run, however had been largely pulseless final season. The Rams had simply 4 passing performs of greater than 40 yards final yr in comparison with 17 the yr prior. Dropping Kupp to an ankle harm midway via the season didn’t assist issues. The icing on the rotting cake was Mr Indestructible, Donald struggling a excessive ankle sprain in late November, the primary notable harm of his nine-year profession.
The season, in brief, was a shitshow. The Rams completed 5-12, together with losses to opponents quarterbacked by Colt McCoy and Andy Dalton. It was the worst Tremendous Bowl hangover in 40 years.
Possibly final season’s catastrophe was the soccer gods attempting to inform Rams GM Les Snead that he shouldn’t have worn a Fuck Draft Picks shirt to the championship parade. Earlier this yr, Snead admitted he now regrets his sartorial alternative: “I’ll admit that anytime you most likely say one thing like that … you’re going to eat these phrases in some unspecified time in the future in time,” he instructed the LA Occasions.
That point seems to have arrived. It’s been seven years for the reason that Rams final picked within the first spherical of the draft. They traded their 2020 and 2021 first-round picks for Ramsey who now performs for the Dolphins, and their 2022 and 2023 picks for Stafford who’s a strolling listing of accidents, is probably going on the decline, and will or might not be having points connecting along with his youthful teammates.
As disastrous as final season was, this one could also be worse. The roster turnover for the reason that Tremendous Bowl has been staggering. There are actually 14 rookies on the ultimate roster, none, after all, first rounders, and the staff didn’t signal any vital free brokers. Their three stars – Kupp, Stafford, and Donald – usually are not the gamers who dominated in 2021. Kupp, coping with a nagging hamstring harm, has already been dominated out for Week 1 towards Seattle and will find yourself on injured reserve.
Getting into this season, the Rams are feeling the seismic affect of the draft capital they gave away to win a Tremendous Bowl. The positives are few and much between.
“What I do be ok with is you usher in [offensive lineman] Kevin Dotson who’s bought beginning expertise,” McVay lately instructed reporters.
Dotson might grow to be a discover, however for a staff that received the Tremendous Bowl 19 months in the past to be selling their latest add as ‘a man who’s performed earlier than’ is outstanding.
The Rams bought artistic with the wage cap, tossed away their draft capital and now they’re paying the value. To his credit score, Snead isn’t sugarcoating the state of affairs though he’s attempting to melt the blow by calling the plan a transform moderately than a rebuild. However the factor about remodels is they’re usually pricier and lengthier than anticipated. Have the Rams constructed sufficient goodwill for his or her fanbase to attend round?
