New 5 step plan to fix LA Rams for 2020 looks familiar, we’ve advocated each move before.

A new article out touting steps for NFC teams includes 5 steps for the LA Rams.  It’s a familiar list because we’ve advocated each step previously.

The LA Rams have an almost unlimited number of moves the team can take to improve the team going into the 2020 NFL season.  Unlimited, but not without some constraints.  The team has limited draft picks, a finite amount of available free salary cap space, and at least 18 roster spots to refill after all 2019 contracts end.

Of course, we all have thoughts and opinions as to the best moves to fix the Rams. Some are pretty common logic, while others get a tad more involved. Being open to a new perspective, I checked out ESPN’s Bill Barnwell’s Five 2020 offseason moves for each NFC team. The funny thing is, we’ve promoted the ideas he’s talked about weeks ago.

Now don’t get me wrong. His article is very impressive, as he literally goes into five steps for each NFC team and it was an incredible reference guide to peek at the challenges of NFC West rivals, as well as future NFC opponents.

But going down over his five-step Rams list feels awfully…. comfortable.  Likely because we’d covered all the five steps here before.

Step I – Figure out what’s going on at left tackle.  That’s a good place to start. The offensive line will not be better than the play of the left tackle position. That’s why we gave 3 reasons why the LA Rams must re-sign Andrew Whitworth over three weeks ago.  And we pointed out that the Rams do not have an NFL Draft option with no first-round pick.  We followed up with the NFL Rumors which surfaced a week ago that Andrew Whitworth wants to play again, and saw no roadblock to re-signing with the Rams.  So far, we are 1 for 1.

Step 2 – Restructure Jared Goff’s contract  Another good place. But we’ve hammered on this issue on multiple occasions. Two weeks ago we wrote that restructuring contracts were the LA Rams top priority. We then followed that up with a 5-steps to $80 million cap space article a week later. We topped off the matter with a call for the Rams top-paid players to share the wealth. So I’d say we’d touched topic before as well

Step 3 – Address the defensive line. Well, we did recognize that the LA Rams need to address that defensive line. In fact, two weeks ago we named 3 free agents to sign to the Rams defensive line to help the run defense. We went further in our analysis, identifying 4 options to help the Rams at the defensive end yesterday, and 4 options to help the Rams at edge rusher a week ago. We’d even made the case a week ago for 7 LA Rams players who must step up in 2020 to fill the void left by vacating players. Two of whom – DE Michael Brockers, and OLB Dante Fowler Jr. -are part of the Rams defensive line front. So far, three for three.

Step 4 – Re-sign Cory Littleton.   The LA Rams would love to re-sign Cory Littleton, and we’d been hoping they do just that with our Salary Cap Anatomy article written over one month ago. We’d estimated Littleton’s market value in the $12-13 million at that time.  We next asked the question whether the LA Rams could afford to sign him days later.  A week after, Littleton’s ranking from PFF as the ninth-best free agent shrank the confidence that the Rams could do so.  Hopes to retain Littleton were further dashed by the retirement of Panthers’ ILB Luke Kuechly.  Is the familiarity coming back to you too?

Step 5 – Lock up Jalen Ramsey.   Of course, this one truly falls under that “common sense” consensus.  The Rams traded a treasure trove of draft value to obtain cornerback Jalen Ramsey from the Jacksonville Jaguars, a trade we’d revisited a month ago.  Simultaneously, we’d identified that the Rams are now locked into signing Ramsey to a long-term deal, but had done so over a month ago.

In the end, a list of five steps to fix these LA Rams is five very familiar steps.  When we see other professional sports analysts making the same arguments for the same objectives we’d made previously, it confirms what we’ve said all along.  We focus on the best moves for the LA Rams, and oftentimes that perspective proves to play out.

There is a lot of time until the 2020 NFL season, and the Rams must navigate free agency and the 2020 NFL Draft more skillfully than at any time in recent history. But there is an optimistic feel to this team, a sense of renewed urgency, which gives hope for a much better 2020 than 2019. Perhaps, over time, other sportswriters will pick up on that optimism and cover that in a familiar manner as well.