LA Rams past sins complicates 2021 NFL Free Agency

LA Rams’ past sins complicate 2021 NFL Free Agency

The LA Rams lived for the moment, as so many of us do.  That moment was 2018, a defending NFC Champion, locking in the future of the team with corps players.  Highly productive veterans who carried the team past the competition and to fall just one game short of hoisting the crown. At that moment, the team focused both eyes on the second hand of a stopwatch and took their eyes off the calendar.

Had the team focused one eye on each, the team may have hesitated to commit so much of tomorrow’s dollars into 2018’s heroes.  Yes, the Rams were on top of the world at that moment. But they chose the wrong path. They put too much money at stake and rewarded too few.

It starts on the front lines

The 2018 LA Rams dominated because their offensive line dominated. But in 2018, the team failed to offer a contract to veteran center John Sullivan. Meanwhile, the team watched as left guard Rodger Saffold signed with another team   Ah, what might have been?

What happened next was a team “making do” with rookies promoted to an offensive line only to struggle, fall to injury, and collapse the entire house of cards the Rams front office had built.  It became clear that the Rams highly productive offensive weapons needed great offensive line play to produce. Goff needed a clean pocket. Cooks needed more than average time to run his deep routes. And Gurley needed holes to run through.