LA Rams offseason priority: Restock the roster, or repair this team?

There are many lengthy discussions among LA Rams fans about getting the team ‘fixed’ for the 2023 NFL season. But what really needs to be fixed? Is it correct to believe that many of the challenges to the Rams’ efforts this year, leading to an unsuccessful season, will rebound naturally as injured players return next season?

Or is that a naive perspective? Did the Rams have more afoot than injuries and a continuous lack of consistency? That is a topic that will be a catalyst for plenty of heated discussions in the offseason. After all, you don’t want to tamper with a part of the team that will rebound on its own.

And yet, there were some obvious challenges in the Rams that cannot all be explained by injuries, nor can everything be expected to be all better just by injured players returning to health in the 2023 NFL season. This team had some unexplained dropoffs in areas that were just unexpected.

Fixing this team means diagnosing the problem correctly

So what factors can we attribute the challenges to this team in the 2022 NFL season? We know that the Rams’ roster was ravaged by injuries.  We also know that, as a result of injuries, the Rams turned heavily to new faces, to absorb offensive or defensive snaps. Those players may have been NFL veterans who were free agents signed for specific roster roles. Or they may have been younger players who finally had the opportunity to compete for the Rams.

You can bet that the Rams coaching staff has been working on diagnosing the problem(s) as soon as symptoms first appeared. And the Rams have quietly been addressing putting this team back on track. Just check out the Week 10 edition of The Coach McVay Show, when the Rams were at 3-5:

The challenges of the Rams even at that point in the season are evident in the messaging from Coach McVay.

Rams getting a head start to 2023

The Rams have waived about a half dozen or so players this season. At least two members of the coaching staff have already been reported as taking assignments with college teams in 2023. The Rams have made subtle changes already. In the end, I don’t know that one singular approach can bear the burden of getting this team back on track.

The LA Rams must try to shore up the infrastructure, disassemble the works, and rebuild the game plan and team for 2023, and the Rams are showing signs of doing so already.

But if you are feeling blue or downtrodden about the LA Rams right now, consider this:

The LA Rams were forced to start planning for the 2022 NFL season at the end of February 2022. By all reasonable estimates, the LA Rams have started to pivot to looking at the 2023 NFL season as early as mid-November 2022. That is 3.5 months head start over last year. If you want to consider the time for players to rest and recover, you have an even longer lead time.

The Rams roster may have been knocked around a bit in 2022, but look for this team to rise again. And don’t let the struggles of this time overshadow some of the remarkable plays and players who have fought all season. Do I have the answers? No. But the Rams do. For my part, I’m content to let this team get back on track, and simply enjoy the show as it unfolds.