Los Angeles Rams: The curse of winning the offseason

You have heard of the Madden Curse, where the player is on the cover of popular video game has a disappointing year following the release. What about the “winning the offseason” curse, and might the Los Angeles Rams be in danger of that?

The Los Angeles Rams have continually been in the headlines the last six weeks. From trading for CB Marcus Peters and CB Aqib Talib, to signing Ndamukong Suh and the rumors about WR Odell Beckham Jr. and TE Rob Gronkowski, it has been an active Spring.

This has led some to suggest that, to this point, the Ram are winning the offseason, which is not something Rams fans are used to. And here is the difficult part: The team that wins the offseason rarely sees it pay off the way they think it will.

Consider the 2016 Houston Texans were coming off of a 9-7 year where they won their division and made the playoffs, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs behind the poor QB play of Brian Hoyer. They had started three other quarterbacks that year (Ryan Mallett, T.J. Yates, and Brandon Weeden) and the thought was that if they could get a franchise QB to pair with the stout defense, this team could compete for a Super Bowl.

Enter Brock Osweiler. The Texans signed him to a 4 year $72 million deal. Exactly a year later, they would trade Osweiler to the Browns to get rid of him and his contract, giving up draft picks to do so. The teams record was no better.

Or consider the 2014 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Coming off a 4-12 season with a new coach, General Manager, and a ton of cap space, the Bucs looked to make a splash. They spared no expense to sign DE Michael Johnson, CB Alterraun Verner, and OT Anthony Collins. Collins and Johnson would both be cut less than a year later, and Verner was relegated to a depth chart role after the first year and cut in 2017. The team finished 2-14.

Even the 2016 New York Giants whose free agency class was called “historically great” and led them to a 11-5 season, followed that year up with a 3-13 season that saw the coach get fired.

Now the Los Angeles Rams have made most of their moves this year through trades rather than free agency. And the deals they are signing are shorter term, not the headline-making deals with multiple years guaranteed. However, we may want to temper expectations.

At the end of the day, our trust is with Sean McVay, Wade Phillips, and GM Les Snead to continue to assemble pieces and then, more importantly, to put those pieces together on the football field. Time will tell if these moves will work out.

Stay tuned to Ramblinfan for the latest analysis on the Rams offseason moves.

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