The Sean McVay Rams will be ready for seven years in a row without picking the first round. (Getty)
Without a doubt, the Los Angeles Rams improved their quarterback position with Matthew Stafford’s trade in another season where they will fight the Seahawks and the rest of a tough NFC West.
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Stafford is a heavily armed gunman who can carry a better offense than Jared Goff. Critics point out that he has taken the Detroit Lions to the playoffs three times and is 0-3 in the postseason games, but the reason for those failures is more in the Lions than in Stafford.
The Detroit rosters haven’t been good enough to advance to the playoffs. Since Stafford was drafted by the Lions in 2009, they have ranked 31st in football. The defense has not been so fantastic during his time there.
Rams head coach Sean McVay will give Stafford a good running back and better offensive plans, but there could be downsides. The Rams could be a better playoff team next season, but maintaining a quality roster can be difficult, and the boundary implications of this trade are brutal.
Sure, the Rams save limit money by pouring Goff’s contract into Detroit, but they now have a $ 42.2 million salary cap with Stafford’s $ 20 million salary and the limit is expected to go down. The maximum for the 2021 limit is $ 175 million, and most people in the league think it will be set at around $ 180 million, $ 19.2 million less than the 2020 season.
Anything that exceeds 15 percent of the tied room tied in a quarterback makes it difficult to keep players or sign free agents. Stafford’s salary and dead money Rams take by sending Goff to Detroit will eat 23.4 percent of a $ 180 million limit.
The Rams are currently $ 35 million above a $ 180 million limit, the third most in the league. It will be difficult for the Rams to re-sign players, and they have 13 unrestricted free agents this offseason. They will have a hard time keeping up with Leonard Floyd, who was a star in rushing Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson in his three meetings this season. They won’t be able to keep their second best wide receiver, Josh Reynolds. Security Josh Johnson has been a star in high school and is ready. Gerald Everett is also a free agent.
There could also be an impact along the offensive line. They could have a hard time re-signing center Austin Blythe and maybe they should cut the right attack Rob Havenstein, among others, to stay below the limit.
What is clear is that McVay gets what he wants when it comes to players. The Rams have been an aggressive team. In their Super Bowl year, they acquired cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib. They then got rid of them and then switched to another star corner, Jalen Ramsey.
But there is a dangerous game going on. Clearly McVay can turn on a player. He did it with Goff. He did it with wide receiver Brandin Cooks. The Rams went to the Super Bowl two years ago, but finished the 2020 season with only 24 players left from that Super Bowl appearance on the team’s final list of 53 men, including eight starters on defense.
There has also been a great rotation of the technical body. There are only five coaches left for McVay’s original staff when he was hired in 2017 after the Seahawks took on passing game coordinator Shane Waldron and assistant offensive line coach Andy Dickerson, who turned them into offensive coordinator and game coordinator, respectively.
McVay has had good coaches. Matt LeFleur, Zac Taylor and Brandon Staley got head coach concerts. But at some point bold changes and changes could reach the Rams. Goff was a first-round pick in 2016, but after the change for Stafford, the Rams will have to run out of a first-round pick the year after they selected Goff until 2023. That’s seven years ago.
Like the Seahawks, the Rams have benefited from compensatory selections for beginners lost in free agency. They have four more this year plus another third-round compensatory selection they’ll get in 2022 for their college scout director Brad Holmes, who will become Detroit’s general manager.
This puts a lot of pressure on Rams ’GM Les Snead so he can make start-up substitutions without drafting options. Seahawks GM John Schneider did his best to keep Seattle at the playoffs after two years in the Super Bowl in 2013 and 2014, but the loss of free agency starters let them through. in addition to a team of wildcards for several years.
Stafford has a two-year contract. He will do well in Los Angeles, but the fight for the Rams will keep the talent around him.
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