3 reason why Rams must embrace a spoiler role for remainder of 2024

(1) - Time to accept the 1-4 record

We can rationalize the losses by this team as withing one score. But then by rights we have to do the same with the lone win. Some argue that the team has done enough to win more games. In fact, I have made the argument as well at times. But there comes a time to roll up the sleeves, understand the reality of the situation, and take stock over what must be done.

While 1-4, the team has faced teams with a combined record of 10-11. So whatever we may have expected from the initial 2024 Rams schedule, the team has been beaten down by a rather mediocre group of teams.

While it could simply come to pass that the Rams opponents were at their peak when they appeared on the schedule, the more likely explanation is that the Rams roster, thanks to a myriad of changes, has not congealed. The offensive line and the secondary have had new iterations practically every week. And the team's receivers, while finally hitting some form of continuity, is still trying to transform auxiliary players into primary offensive weapons.

Conversely, the opposite is true for the team's running backs.

Head Coach Sean McVay is fantastic in a perfectly constructed roster that suits his game plan. But when the team loses WRs, he is stubbornly reluctant to flip to 12 personnel formations. When the defense is struggling, the offense is not easily switched over to a ball control offense. And if the team is facing injuries with key starters, the team makes no plans to compensate to help out the backups thrust into a primary starting role.

It's not as though the team cannot game plan effectively with a less than 100 percent healthy roster. The team had an ideal game plan to face the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3. In 2020, McVay altered everything about the team to create the perfect beat down of his nemesis, the New England Patriot, with an outstanding performance by RB Cam Akers.

If the Rams were insightfully blessed over the quality of players, how is it that the team is so eager to reunite with players who have parted ways with the team? DB Darious Williams, DB John Johnson III, and DE Jonah Williams are just the most recent examples of players who the team has reunited with after letting them walk away in free agency.

Not every personnel decision by this team has led to an outstanding outcome. As such, it's time to start pivoting from disappointment to potential. It's time to give younger players a greater workload. The future of the team is indeed bright. The team needs to embrace that future now.

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