New NFL regulation may hurt the LA Rams roster this season

Risk I: Rams will be under a lot of pressure to rank so many rookies quickly

What a year for the Rams to suddenly be facing a new NFL rule change regarding roster cuts, eh? In a normal season, the LA Rams would be carrying anywhere from 60-70 players under contract at this point in the season, and both the coaching staff and personnel department would be intimately familiar with everyone on the roster.

With the NFL Draft, and then the subsequent signing of undrafted priority free agent rookies after the draft, a group of approximately 20 or so players would arrive to the Rams roster. Because there are rookies, the entire Rams organization would go to work to assess, track, measure, coach, educate, relate to, and then start the process all over again. That is quite a lot of work to do for a group of 20 young men.

Now double it, and that is what the LA Rams organization is looking at right now.

The Rams are banking on youth for 2023. But will it pay dividends?

Even if the Rams do give way to sign a few NFL veteran players to the roster after the draft, they will be few and far between compared to the needs and unfamiliarity of so many newly arrived NFL football players to this roster.

Of course, the Rams coaching staff was significantly overhauled this off-season, and for the most part the newly hired coaches all have a very positive feel and fit to the Rams organization and what the team hopes to accomplish in both the 2023 and 2024 NFL seasons.

The trick is that by stepping back and acknowledging that the LA Rams are taking a multi-year approach in 2023 to restock the shelves with young talented players, will the team be fully effective in judging that future potential of up to 45 rookies in one training camp? If the Rams planed to augment their own roster moves by laying claim to promising rookies or veterans waived by other NFL teams at the roster cuts, that process has suddenly become far more difficult.

Per Spotrac.com, the LA Rams are the youngest roster in the NFL right now, averaging just 25.91 years of age. With nearly half of the Rams 90-man roster projected to be rookie prospects, the Rams average age could drop dramatically this season.

45 unfamiliar faces all arriving to the Rams organization is a huge influx. Unlike NFL veterans who know the drill, that equates to half of the Rams training camp team not only learning about the LA Rams, but learning about the NFL, about Los Angeles, California, and even about life after college.

The Rams will not have enough veterans to mentor everyone. The Rams entire coaching staff will be pushed to their limits this season. And now, with a one-cut format, the NFL has made the Rams roster decision-making process even more challenging. Buckle up, folks. We are going to experience some turbulence in the days ahead.