Training camp is getting close. Soon the Los Angeles Rams will no longer be reigning Super Bowl Champions, they will shift to “defending” Super Bowl champions as they look to become the first team to repeat since 2004-2005.
The Rams are one of the favorites to win Super Bowl LVII with quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receiver Cooper Kupp and unparalleled defensive lineman Aaron Donald all back, but they’ll have to be prepared for the rigors of the NFL season.
The truth about the NFL is that it’s constantly changing. Teams rise and fall. Players get hurt. Rookies emerge. Veterans fade. The Rams team that starts at training camp July 23 won’t be the same that finishes the season.
That’s one prediction I am sure of.
Here are five more bold predictions for the 2022 Rams season.
This is the Last Year for Sean McVay
I knew a football coach who had a great job but was offered a dream job in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. He turned it down. But after that, the job he had suddenly wasn’t so great anymore. After one more season he left the job for one in the Big 10.
Coaching is an all-in full-time commitment, especially in the NFL. The minute you start thinking about doing something different….it can become a problem.
McVay went on the record saying he was “interested and intrigued” in becoming a broadcaster in the off-season. I believe him. If – and when – the Rams season gets tough in 2022, a part of him may be thinking, gee, I can make $10 million working for Amazon or one of the NFL’s broadcast partners. I don’t need this stress. Young, good-looking and personable, McVay looks like a natural for TV.
McVay is only 36. He’s already won a Super Bowl. Hypothetically, he could leave the Rams, work in TV a while and then return to coaching if he chooses.
The Rams Will Trade for OL Help
Maybe not a first-round pick or anything, but the Rams know that the key to their season is keeping Stafford upright and maintaining the connection with Kupp and his wide receivers. The Rams drafted Logan Bruss in the third round out of Wisconsin, but enter training camp with some questions along the offensive line.
Who’s out there? Laremy Tunsil perhaps from the Texans? Houston is still in major rebuild mode. Germain Ifedi is a quality starter with the Falcons in the last year of a deal.
The Rams haven’t been shy about making big trades before. Listen, can the Rams win a Super Bowl with John Wohlford as quarterback? No.
So Stafford’s health is priority. Sinking assets into the offensive line makes sense.
Odell Beckham Jr. Returns
Beckham Jr. is many things, but mainly he’s a competitor. When he left the Browns midway through the 2021 season, he found a home in LA, a connection with Stafford and gained a Super Bowl ring.
We all know what happened in the Super Bowl. Beckham Jr. tore his ACL. It’s concerning because it’s not his first big injury, but on the field, Beckham Jr. is still a playmaker.
He will resign with the Rams probably in late August on basically a one-year “prove it” type of deal. It will be at the Rams price.
Jalen Ramsey Asks for More $$$
Ramsey has to be looking around the NFL and seeing the salaries going to ‘elite’ wide receivers and saying to himself, “I shut all these guys down.”
Tyreek Hill got $30 million for this year with the Dolphins. Davante Adams is getting $28 million from the Raiders this year. Amari Cooper got $20 million a year from the Browns.
Ramsey is the leagues’ third highest-paid cornerback, in the third year of his five-year deal. He’s getting $20 million this year. And he’s right, looking at these wide receivers making so much, he’s underpaid.
The Rams Don’t Repeat
There’s a reason teams don’t repeat as Super Bowl champions. Players get a year older. Roster fatigue sets in. Teams hold on to players out of loyalty for winning a Super Bowl when they should be constantly seeking to upgrade.
The Rams aren’t going to be bad in 2022, far from it, but the regular season will take its toll. The methodology for winning a Super Bowl in the NFL these days is survive the regular season, find some magic in the playoffs and bring home the trophy.
You can’t just flip a switch and make the magic happen. The Rams schedule is tough – as it should be – and I think it drains them just enough to lose in the playoffs to a hungrier team in 2022.
