LA Rams pledge to Run It Back in 2022 is a bit complicated

Keeping the band together

Nothing severs the bonds of teamwork quite like success. After all, the reality is that the team needed the contributions of everyone to succeed. But in the aftermath, a relative few will be publicly acknowledged and lauded for their efforts, and the remainder of the team will fade back into obscurity.

Some players will leave via free agency. At least one player has retired. Some players may be traded away. New faces will arrive and seek playing time along with rotational and starting roles on the team.  The 2021 version of the team was able to push future concerns to the back burner and focus upon winning in the here and now.

Any player whose contract expired at the end of the 2021 NFL season will naturally want to be compensated for their role in winning Super Bowl LVI. Why not? Many professional football players have that one chance to score with a lucrative contract, and this is that one-time opportunity for many to do so now. If the market will bear their salary demands, they will get paid. Most likely, it will not be by the LA Rams. That is how the NFL Salary cap works each year. It forces teams to make decisions of who to pay and how much to invest in their positional groups. It then opens up talent from one team to sign one with other teams.

LA Rams coaches have already taken that path to bigger paychecks. At least three coaches have signed on with the Denver Broncos and the Minnesota Vikings respectively. So even if the team managed to re-sign all players, the team is already different due to the swapping out of coaches.

But then we must consider the huge influx of coaches in 2021. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, offensive line coach Kevin Carberry, Special Teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis to name a few, inherited the Rams roster a year ago. Now, a year later, they will have a larger voice in who stays and who is added to the team this offseason.

While it may be emotionally soothing to expect the Rams to re-sign everyone and get right back to the task of winning another NFL Championship Game, it will not be an easy task. In fact, it will be an even more difficult challenge this year.  Of course, the Rams will welcome back injured players. And the team will welcome a new rookie class of 2022 to the roster as well.

In the end, there are no guarantees that the LA Rams will be able to Run It Back in 2022. But on the other hand, nothing is so big as to prevent the organization to do exactly that.