The Rams assembled a super team to win the 2021 NFL championship. All they had to do to build it was trade away seven years worth of first round draft picks.
Los Angeles general manager Les Snead emerged as the patron saint of the win-now philosophy after executing trades that brought players like Matthew Stafford, Jalen Ramsey and Von Miller to the Rams. In the process, he set the borders for a precarious championship window. So far, it’s stayed open long enough for the Rams to win their first Super Bowl on the west coast. With much of that talent intact for 2022, there’s a good chance it could remain open next winter.
The Rams have set the tone in a copycat league before. Hiring Sean McVay — now 55-26 in the regular season and 7-3 in the playoffs — set off a trend where NFL head coaching searches landed on similar young minds franchises hoped would be strategic wunderkinds. That included his opponent in Super Bowl 56, former assistant Zac Taylor.
They’ll likely play trendsetter again after Snead’s calculated gamble paid out. Los Angeles’ title run could be the evidence to push other needy teams across the country to mortgage picks in hopes of finding the expensive veteran talent who can be the booster engine to their sputtering rocket.
These win-now moves don’t always work out. The Seahawks traded to first round picks for Jamal Adams and his safety blitzes failed to overhaul their defense. The Colts acquired Carson Wentz, got a legendary season from Jonathan Taylor, and managed to win two fewer games in 2021 than they did in 2020.
These cautionary tales may be washed away in a league with a short memory. The last game of 2021 was a testament to the Rams’ aggression in roster building. What teams could look to steal that strategy between now and the first game of 2022?