Rams GM Les Snead just schooled the rest of the NFL on rebuilding his roster

Los Angeles Rams General Manager Les Snead again rebuilt his roster back into Super Bowl contention, but how did he do it? There is no secret formula in building up an NFL roster. Les Snead has been on the job for years and is just an expert at this thing. The Rams loaded up in 2021 and formed more of a super-team.

Guys like Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald, Von Miller, Cooper Kupp, Matthew Stafford, and Leonard Floyd helped lead the team to their most recent title. However, after a down 2022 season and a 2023 season that was not expected to be as good as it was, how was Snead able to do it?

Well, at the very top is the QB. Without a franchise QB, no team is going to find success, and the Rams trading for Matthew Stafford three years ago quickly proved to be the right decision. To Snead's credit, he got the QB down. Perhaps he got a bit of a headstart on this as well?

Anyway, after the QB is fixed, what's the next most important part of a winning NFL roster?

The trenches.

No matter how modern or advanced the NFL gets, games in this league are won and lost in the trenches, period, How did Snead rebuild his trenches? Well, he did it through the NFL Draft, the only way to do it in order to sustain success.

Let's dive into some of the recent trench players that Snead has brought along to fix this roster for the long-term.

The Rams took nose tackle Bobby Brown III in the 2021 NFL Draft. Defensive tackle Kobie Turner was a 2023 NFL Draft pick. Pass rusher Byron Young was a 2023 NFL Draft pick, and both Braden Fiske and Jared Verse were 2024 NFL Draft picks. These players make up the LA Rams starting defensive front, and guys like Turner and Young looked absolutely outstanding in 2023.

The new foundation built along the defensive front is excellent GM work by Les Snead. On the offensive side of the ball, they've done something similar. Starting LT Alaric Jackson was undrafted out of 2021. Steve Avila quickly proved to be a top iOL in the NFL, and he was a 2023 NFL Draft pick. The Rams signed stud iOL player Jonah Jackson in free agency this year, and extended interior offensive lineman Kevin Dotson heading into the 2024 NFL Season.

Dotson played well enough to earn a long-term extension. The Rams legitimately have five quality starters along their offensive line, and they were all brought in recent outside of Rob Havenstein, the steady RT who has been with the LA Rams for years.

Snead invested the right way into the trenches, mostly using draft capital. And more recently in the 2024 NFL Offseason, invested smartly to fix other sore spots of his roster. It's not that the secondary is unimportant, but this is a unit where building through free agency is a lot more doable than other positions, and boy did Snead leave his mark here.

The Rams now have faces like Darious Williams, Tre White, John Johnson III, Kamren Curl, and Kamren Kinchens added to the backend this offseason. Snead didn't break the bank on any of these players, but still do have some young talent on the backend.

When you look at how the LA Rams have rebuilt their roster since their super-team back in 2021, it's clear what Les Snead was trying to do; building the important spots through the NFL Draft is precisely how a team sustains success, and as we head into the 2024 NFL Season, the Rams have one of the better and frankly deepest rosters in football.