The old adage may read “defenses win championships,” but in today’s NFL, offense usually reigns supreme. It’s why quarterbacks, wide receivers and offensive linemen are among the highest-paid players in the NFL.
In recent years, the Los Angeles Rams have put a big emphasis on the offense, which began with the hiring of Sean McVay in 2017. That came after years of having defensive-minded coaches and rosters that were built around a strong defense.
For the most part, it’s worked. The Rams have ranked in the top 10 in years in each of the last three years after finishing 28th or worse the previous four years. They were also first and second in points scored in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Despite looking good on that side of the ball this offseason, the Rams spent three of their first five picks in the draft on offensive skill players, adding Cam Akers, Van Jefferson and Brycen Hopkins.
GM Les Snead was on Fox Sports’ “The Herd” Thursday and he made it clear that the Rams want to keep adding to the offense.
“When we set out, we hired Sean. Obviously brilliant offensive mind, has become and evolved into a really, really brilliant head football coach,” Snead began. “The blueprint of a lot of successful teams … they started with a head coach who ended up having success with a quarterback on a rookie contract and a lot of those teams went to the Super Bowl with that head coach and that quarterback on his rookie contract. So we definitely want to keep feeding that offense. We’ve been successful the last three years, scoring a lot of points, being one of the top one to two to three to four to five teams in offense, so we want to keep feeding that beast. I get all of the other positions, but simply put, hiring people and acquiring people who can gain yards in explosive chunks and move the chains and score touchdowns is not a bad thing.”
The Rams did part ways this offseason with two of their most productive players from the 2018 season, trading Brandin Cooks to the Texans and cutting Todd Gurley, who went on to sign with the Falcons. However, they quickly replaced both players with Akers and Jefferson in the draft, and could be preparing for next year’s departure of Gerald Everett with the addition of Hopkins at tight end.
Snead acknowledged that teams have been successful focusing on defense, but with the Rams, he wants to help give McVay as many weapons as he can on offense.
“Whatever your internal philosophy is and whatever it is that you think the coaches want to do to try to win that game on Sunday and win more games on Sunday than lose, and get to the tournament, the best thing a GM can do is try to do his part in feeding that coach the players that will help execute his system,” Snead said.
The Rams haven’t ignored the defense, but it’s clear they view their offense as the catalyst that could carry them to a Super Bowl – just as it did in 2018.
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