Rams taking QB succession seriously if new hires are a clue to team's 2024 strategy
By Bret Stuter
The LA Rams may be coasting out of their offseason moorings into the open waters of the 2024 NFL season, but it's often the first steps that are the most informative. Like any NFL team, the Rams cannot simply broadcast their intentions to the entire NFL, because quite frankly other teams are in much better position to execute any plans drawn up by the team's front office
If the LA Rams plan to spend big bucks in the 2024 NFL Free Agency market, there are other teams with more money to spend. If the team wants to draft key rookie prospects to fill holes from the 2024 NFL Draft, 18 other teams are making selections from the pool of rookie talent before the 19th overall pick of the draft.
In almost any direction that the Rams wish to take this offseason, part of the strategy must include some form of camouflage, misdirection, subtlety, or covering the team's tracks to prevent other teams from adopting that strategy first. With the proliferation of NFL Rumors, that is indeed a tall task, because everyone seems to have a smartphone, and each smartphone can instantly become a source of videos, social media reports, rumors, or even misinformation, that can reach almost anyone on the planet instantly.
So the goal this offseason is not only to come up with a perfect plan, and to execute that plan, but to ensure that other teams that hold the higher ground for those objectives do not know what the Rams are truly planning to do. Without that level of confirmation or hard data, all we can do for the time being is offer some speculation: Whether or not that speculation comes out of thin air like an imaginary trade scenario, or is rooted in clues that authors and readers can decipher is truly up to the reader.
That being said, here are some clues for one of the LA Rams key objectives this offseason. In my opinion, after flirting with prioritizing the team's backup quarterback position in both 2022 and 2023 by signing an out-of-favor veteran free agent to back up veteran starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, I believe that the Rams are finally ready to make that first step to locking down a solid quarterback succession plan for the 2024 NFL season.
What do I know? Well, here is the evidence that we have so far: