Rams Team Building Strategy Will It Be Duplicated or a Rareity

[billsfan89]

I think it will be more of an outlier. The Rams got extremely luckily OBJ fell into their laps or else the Robert Woods injury would have tanked their season. The Rams undertook great risk and got rewarded greatly. But they also got extremely lucky. They got lucky to have a fairly weak AFC opponent and avoided the Packers away in the NFCCG. 
 

You always need luck in some ways but in the end you also have to look at how a method can be duplicated and it is not likely teams will see this as easily duplicated.

[uticaclub]

What good are draft picks if they end up being Zach Moss or Cody Ford? Rams won a Super Bowl, their method worked

[BuffaloRebound]

It’s time for Bills to grab some Super Bowl or bust vets to put us over the top.  Campbell, Miller, Suh, Gronk, Fournette, Patterson.  These guys will not cost draft picks and you will not have to commit long term contracts to them.  Beane could easily sign 3-4 of the above by pushing some of their cap hit to year 2 and letting go from a pool of Star, Feliciano, Beasley or Edmunds.  

[BuffaloBillsGospel]

23 hours ago, corta765 said:

With the LA Rams winning the super bowl it brings up an interesting question as in sports in general whoever wins the title the rest of the league mimics to some extent the following season. The really interesting thing with the Rams is they in many ways put together a dream team and it actually worked. If you ever played Madden one of the fun things to do is just go all out with no regard to the cap or picks for the title. Now that is putting it loosely as even though the Rams don't have a 1st round pick until 2069 (I Kid), they are actually 2nd in total draft picks since 2017. So the Rams are using their 1st/2nd round picks for established talent, but they do have players they draft and develop. Kupp himself was a 3rd round pick (#69 no joke). With that said the Rams are not a perfect team as they do have some holes, but they basically bet that their talented players would cover those gaps and with Stafford as an upgrade at QB it could mask the flaws even greater. For a long time it has seemed that GM's value picks over anything and carefully planning their window. One of the things I appreciate with the Rams winning is it validates to some extent a just go for it and worry about the rest type strategy.

 

My question to you is if you think more GM's might be a bit more inclined to trade some future for immediate success or will the Rams stay an outlier?

 

The dream team doesn't work if you don't have a viable QB, Stafford was the missing piece but adding OBJ and Von Miller were huge. Look what OBJ meant for the rams in the SB, they basically shadowed Kupp the entire rest of the game. And Von Miller with 2 sacks was just as dominant as Aaron Donald was in the game. There is nothing wrong with adding talented players to your roster, it could work if you have the right pieces.

[corta765]

1 hour ago, uticaclub said:

What good are draft picks if they end up being Zach Moss or Cody Ford? Rams won a Super Bowl, their method worked

 

Flip side to that argument is if you draft Tre White, Milano, Dawkins, Allen etc.. you have a great player for pennies on the dollar. To me it goes both ways that draft picks matter but you shouldn't be afraid to trade them for guaranteed production. What the Rams did which was unique was trading 1st round picks and 2nds so heavily, that could perhaps change as the SB win showed.

[Thurman#1]

2 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

I’m not suggesting they mortgage the future… I’m suggesting they be more aggressive like the Rams have been and not sit out FA while solely relying on the draft to find your elite talent…. And who’s to say Allen will be as good as he is now 7-8 years from now? 
 

A team with all the talent the Rams have AND Josh Allen is not losing.(assuming health is maintained) 

 

 

Of course they're not going to sit out FA. They never have and never will.

 

Morse, Daryl Williams, Beasley, Sanders, many more.

 

They won't be doing much this year but good cap management now will mean that as early as next year they'll start to have a cap situation that would allow the to pick up a guy or two.

 

And frankly, I think the Bills right now were a more talented team than the Rams were. I'd bet they'd have been favored if the Bills had made the Super Bowl.

 

[Thurman#1]

 

1 hour ago, uticaclub said:

What good are draft picks if they end up being Zach Moss or Cody Ford? Rams won a Super Bowl, their method worked

 

 

Goes both ways. Or are we now pretending that Albert Haynesworth never happened. 
 

There are plenty of FAs who don't work out either.

 

The Rams method works. Occasionally. But all you have to do is look through the lists of all Super Bowl winners and you find that a great majority of them did not use the Rams method. They built mostly the core of their teams with draft picks, supplementing with FAs.

[uticaclub]

5 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

 

Goes both ways. Or are we now pretending that Albert Haynesworth never happened. 
 

There are plenty of FAs who don't work out either.

 

The Rams method works. Occasionally. But all you have to do is look through the lists of all Super Bowl winners and you find that a great majority of them did not use the Rams method. They built mostly the core of their teams with draft picks, supplementing with FAs.

Rams build more with trading draft picks for established talent, very few big money FA moves.

[GunnerBill]

8 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

Goes both ways. Or are we now pretending that Albert Haynesworth never happened. 
 

There are plenty of FAs who don't work out either.

 

The Rams method works. Occasionally. But all you have to do is look through the lists of all Super Bowl winners and you find that a great majority of them did not use the Rams method. They built mostly the core of their teams with draft picks, supplementing with FAs.

 

There is no one way to do it. Whichever way you do it your talent evaluation has to be right. That is the key. 

[BFLO]

23 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

Picture a Rams like approach with Josh Allen as your QB…. Nobody is beating you.

Bills trade for Von Miller + OBJ and that's Josh lifting the Lombardi, not Stafford. 

[Thurman#1]

1 hour ago, BuffaloRebound said:

It’s time for Bills to grab some Super Bowl or bust vets to put us over the top.  Campbell, Miller, Suh, Gronk, Fournette, Patterson.  These guys will not cost draft picks and you will not have to commit long term contracts to them.  Beane could easily sign 3-4 of the above by pushing some of their cap hit to year 2 and letting go from a pool of Star, Feliciano, Beasley or Edmunds.  

 

 

It really really really isn't. Not even close. Not in any way.

 

You are kidding yourself if you think those guys wouldn't cost a ton of money, even on one year contracts. Letting go Star, Feliciano and Beasley (all possible cuts / or salary cuts)  would probably be enough to bring in Gronk. Or alternatively perhaps about 60 - 70% of Suh.

 

This team is finally going to be in good cap shape next year. You'd destroy that. 

 

Doing what the Rams did to their cap might make sense when you're dealing with a geezer like Stafford. Not when you have a young Josh Allen.

 

[SoTier]

1 hour ago, uticaclub said:

What good are draft picks if they end up being Zach Moss or Cody Ford? Rams won a Super Bowl, their method worked

 

The Bills added the biggest piece of building a Super Bowl contender via the draft: an elite QB.   The Rams had to trade for a better QB because the QB they traded up to get in the draft turned out to be not good enough.   All teams have misses with draft picks, with FAs, and with trades.  No player comes with a guarantee to be a superstar.

[Thurman#1]

4 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

There is no one way to do it. Whichever way you do it your talent evaluation has to be right. That is the key. 

 

 

Yes, talent evaluation and fit. 

 

But again, when you look at the list of SB winners, the Rams ways has produced some, but far fewer than the build through the draft, supplement with free agency method. 

 

Circumstances differ, but generally you'd do better modeling the way that has succeeded more often. Which is what Beane and McDermott are doing. And they've produced a hell of a roster that way.

[BuffaloBill]

There are so many variables in the game, perhaps most salient is injuries. It takes a lot of talent and a little luck to win the Lombardi - I guess that is why the Bills are 0-4.  I think the Bills are doing the right things. Only time will tell if it results in championships.

[BuffaloRebound]

16 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

It really really really isn't. Not even close. Not in any way.

 

You are kidding yourself if you think those guys wouldn't cost a ton of money, even on one year contracts. Letting go Star, Feliciano and Beasley (all possible cuts / or salary cuts)  would probably be enough to bring in Gronk. Or alternatively perhaps about 60 - 70% of Suh.

 

This team is finally going to be in good cap shape next year. You'd destroy that. 

 

Doing what the Rams did to their cap might make sense when you're dealing with a geezer like Stafford. Not when you have a young Josh Allen.

 

Gronk’s cap hit was $3m last year.  Suh’s was $3.2m.  That’s basically a post June 1 Star release.  I think people are being blinded by how the season ended.  Running it back doesn’t mean we’re gonna hold on to a lead in last 13 seconds at KC and then go on to win the Super Bowl.  We lose the game at Foxboro and we very easily could’ve missed the playoffs altogether.  We need to get better.  1 year deals with ring chasing vets aren’t gonna put you in cap hell.  And it won’t even cost you draft picks.  We need a couple vets on both sides of ball who are ring focused to get us over the finish line.  

[Aussie Joe]

52 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Yes, talent evaluation and fit. 

 

But again, when you look at the list of SB winners, the Rams ways has produced some, but far fewer than the build through the draft, supplement with free agency method. 

 

Circumstances differ, but generally you'd do better modeling the way that has succeeded more often. Which is what Beane and McDermott are doing. And they've produced a hell of a roster that way.

Far fewer try to do it the Rams way..so naturally the list of SB winners is going to be shorter…

 

 

[MrEpsYtown]

I think teams, like the Bills need to consider moves like the Rams made. Trading for established assets rather than drafting a developing them is not the worst approach when you are in a super bowl window. Outside of those big fish though, the majority of that roster is home grown talent or undervalued guys signed to nice contract like Leonard Floyd and A'Shawn Robinson. The Rams haven't sold out completely. They lakc picks and flexibility going forward, but trading for a Miller or Odell is a better return on investment in the short term, than trying to draft somebody at the back end of the first and second round.  

 

i mean the Bills have 9 picks. 9 rookies on the roster next year going to help win a Super Bowl? I doubt it. We need quality over quantity. 

[GunnerBill]

25 minutes ago, Aussie Joe said:

Far fewer try to do it the Rams way..so naturally the list of SB winners is going to be shorter…

 

I also think people slightly misrepresent what the Rams have done to try and make it seem more unusual than it is. 15 guys started 14 or more games for the Rams in the regular season. 

 

9 of them were drafted by the Rams

3 were free agents and of those 2 were signed having been let go by teams who drafted them. A'Shawn Robinson and Leonard Floyd were considered to have under performed their draft status elsewhere and were revitalised by the Rams. 

3 were traded for: Stafford, Ramsey and Corbett. 

 

OBJ was released by the Browns. They traded for Von Miller. Adding vets who get released or traded is not unusual for teams midseason who think they can make a run. The Bills did it just to make the playoffs with Kelvin Benjamin. They tried to do it in 2019 with Emmanuel Sanders but he wanted to go to San Francisco. People speak at times as though this was a team entirely made up of big name mercenaries. That just isn't true. Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp and Brian Allen and David Edwards and Van Jefferson and Taylor Rapp and Tyler Higbee. There are plenty of major contributors on that team that have been drafted and developed in house.  

 

Is it that much of a different balance to the Buccs a year previous with Brady and Fournette and Gronk and Brown and Suh complimenting Evans and Godwin and White and Vea and Wirfs? I think the Buccs probably had more difference makers who were drafted, but they had a similar number of difference makers who were hired guns. 

 

The Rams are not about to kick off a dynasty. Nor were the Buccs last year. I don't think it demeans their Superbowls. 

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, MrEpsYtown said:

I think teams, like the Bills need to consider moves like the Rams made. Trading for established assets rather than drafting a developing them is not the worst approach when you are in a super bowl window. Outside of those big fish though, the majority of that roster is home grown talent or undervalued guys signed to nice contract like Leonard Floyd and A'Shawn Robinson. The Rams haven't sold out completely. They lakc picks and flexibility going forward, but trading for a Miller or Odell is a better return on investment in the short term, than trying to draft somebody at the back end of the first and second round.  

 

i mean the Bills have 9 picks. 9 rookies on the roster next year going to help win a Super Bowl? I doubt it. We need quality over quantity. 

 

And if McVay stays around (I think he will) then I can see Stafford doing a team friendly extension this offseason. Taking less than market rate, kicking the can down the road and trying to win again. Stafford has made plenty of money. He went to LA to win. Whitworth retiring saves them $16m. Stafford re-doing his deal could save them another $15m. They don't need to move a lot more money around after that to stay competitive. 

 

The biggest question is "Will Donald carry on?" Because they are 25% less of a team without him. He is in the conversation for best defensive player ever. 

[djp14150]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:02 AM, corta765 said:

With the LA Rams winning the super bowl it brings up an interesting question as in sports in general whoever wins the title the rest of the league mimics to some extent the following season. The really interesting thing with the Rams is they in many ways put together a dream team and it actually worked. If you ever played Madden one of the fun things to do is just go all out with no regard to the cap or picks for the title. Now that is putting it loosely as even though the Rams don't have a 1st round pick until 2069 (I Kid), they are actually 2nd in total draft picks since 2017. So the Rams are using their 1st/2nd round picks for established talent, but they do have players they draft and develop. Kupp himself was a 3rd round pick (#69 no joke). With that said the Rams are not a perfect team as they do have some holes, but they basically bet that their talented players would cover those gaps and with Stafford as an upgrade at QB it could mask the flaws even greater. For a long time it has seemed that GM's value picks over anything and carefully planning their window. One of the things I appreciate with the Rams winning is it validates to some extent a just go for it and worry about the rest type strategy.

 

My question to you is if you think more GM's might be a bit more inclined to trade some future for immediate success or will the Rams stay an outlier?

rams spending futures and money to win now is nothing new.

 

teams have done this when they have a cost controlled QB