Rodrigue: Rams’ word of the year is ‘discipline.’ What does it really mean?

[theathletic.com]


Rodrigue: Rams’ word of the year is ‘discipline.’ What does it really mean?


PHOENIX — Rams head coach Sean McVay repeated the word several times early Tuesday morning, then several more: Discipline.

A mantra? A reminder?

Both.

The Rams — after a five-year all-out sprint to a Lombardi Trophy (and a second Super Bowl appearance in that span) and a personally and professionally disastrous 5-12 season in 2022 — are now taking on some financial and roster pain in order to clear the runway for what they’re calling a “more healthily-engineered cap” in 2024.

That has meant parting ways with prominent players, such as star cornerback Jalen Ramsey, future Hall of Fame inside linebacker Bobby Wagner, pass rusher Leonard Floyd, and watching a plethora of contributing players depart in free agency without much of a fight. It has meant accruing $52.7 million in dead cap, and clearing tens of millions of dollars in future cash even when cuts or trades don’t greatly impact their current cap room (they have about $11 million in space according to the NFL, and will need more than that to sign their draft picks and also account for a few million in roster churn throughout the season). It has meant getting their books ready for 2024 in one angst-ridden swoop. Yet when a reporter at the NFL annual meetings at the Biltmore Hotel and Spa asked general manager Les Snead and chief operating officer Kevin Demoff about their “quieter” offseason in 2023, both pushed back.


Snead sarcastically reacted to the idea that the Rams have been “boring,” quipping a few times about the word through the weekend of league meetings and adding that no, the Rams don’t generally go out and spend big in free agency (and they instead have made the splashy picks-for-players trades any time before or at the deadline, while also letting more players walk than those they acquire because of their dependency on the compensatory pick formula) — so what is different, really?

Writer’s note: Well, the ominous nature of the previous season and the necessity to get back on track quickly, to start …

“I agree with Les, I think this is the mode we’re normally in this time of year,” Demoff said. “We always lose more players than we gain. … That has really been at the heart of our model for the past few years … pretty standard for us. I think the difference this year has been normally there is a high-profile move of some sort via trade, or some maneuver, or we’ve signed players who have been cut who didn’t qualify in the comp formula that is accompanied the start of free agency. This year, we haven’t done that.

“Philosophically, it’s been where we’ve been at. … This year, it’s the model without a little bit of the ‘sizzle’ that has come outside of it. But I actually don’t feel that we’ve strayed too far from our core DNA under Sean and Les.”

The core leaders of the Rams have been together this entire time: Demoff, McVay, Snead and Tony Pastoors. They all felt the emotional lows of losing Super Bowl LIII to New England — an experience that sent McVay into the hell-bent mode of winning it all, at any cost, and the rest of them sprinting in stride with him. They all felt the emotional highs of winning it all in 2021 — an experience that led to its own unique post-party circumstances when they extended or restructured the deals of aging stars Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald.

All three are elite players, now with something to prove after all suffered various season-ending injuries in 2022. But they also command the bulk of the Rams’ finances. Whether truly serious or not, some in the Rams’ building did discuss whether they should tear the entire thing down after the Super Bowl (others argued that there is little proof in football where a multiyear rebuild is not required afterward; the Rams don’t believe their current model will take that much time before they are contenders again). Were those three deals emotional, hasty, borne of the rush of a Super Bowl victory and the idea that their “window” could stretch at least one more year?

“For the most part, I don’t regret any of the decisions that we made with the players who were on the 2021 roster, and how that all played out,” Demoff said.

“A credit to all three of those guys, when we did their deals we said, ‘you’re doing it in ’22 but you’re looking towards ’23 and ’24,'” Pastoors added. “And they were all great to work with on that. They understood the structure.”

go-deeper
GO DEEPER

Rams GM Les Snead, VP of football Tony Pastoors expand on offseason plan

It should be noted, however, that keeping the core three players intact (in part because the Rams have committed to their salaries, but also because the players have committed to the team) means it’s impossible to “blow the whole thing up.” So does McVay returning after mulling a break from coaching throughout the 2022 season. It also means these executives and this head coach are apparently damn serious when they say they will be better than many think they can be in 2023.

“I really believe in this team, this year, with what we have (and) with what we’re going to have,” Demoff said. “I fully expect this team to be a playoff team. … Obviously, we’ll see how it plays out. … Everybody here believes in this team’s capability to have a run this year. That, to us, I don’t think you’ll ever see this team comprised certainly of Sean, Les, myself believe that we’re going into a year where we’re not capable of making the playoffs (and) not making a run.”

Added McVay, “(We have to) figure out how we can remain as competitive as possible, put together the most competitive roster … and then let’s just go see what happens? You reflect on the previous six years, sometimes the best thing you can do is reset the deck, have a healthy perspective, focus on the things you can control. I think often about (how) in ’17, I didn’t know any better than to worry about some of the stuff that I worry about now. That was the right approach, the right perspective.”

It means those three players, referred to by Snead as “weight-bearing walls,” will have to be a rising tide for a very young incoming group. More discipline — in retooling a scheme that buoys others, in those players remaining healthy, in the coaching and development of the rest of the roster which has to do enough so the three veteran stars don’t have to do it all.

Sean McVay this AM commenting on how well Matthew Stafford is doing – reiterates he will be able to have a full offseason and adds he feels a “renewed sense of urgency” from Stafford and others, especially guys who were hurt. Stafford a full go this spring. pic.twitter.com/x55GaqPfuI

— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) March 28, 2023

“There has been a lot of hand-wringing on defense because essentially we’re down to a couple of starters,” Demoff said. “But Aaron Donald lifts everybody else up and has always been that core piece. On offense, you have the chance to return a lot of your group from last year. Now, significant changes from a coaching perspective and hopefully we can have that health as well.”

Snead noted Monday that when the Rams believe it’s time to be aggressive again, they will be.

“When we do get to a moment where we think, ‘OK, let’s press the gas again,’ you have the capability to do it,” he said.

Could that be as early as 2024? Some internally believe so; the Rams will have anywhere between $55 million and $65 million in cap space and a full load of picks, including their first first-rounder since 2016. Some believe it could even be quicker than that: What if the right move comes along for their quarterback, their No. 1 receiver or for the best player in football (who also happens to have a no-trade clause)? To be clear, the executives who spoke this week also indicated that those three players could also be “Rams for life.” Or, what if their head coach wins more games than expected, just like he did back in 2017? What if he wins less?

If it’s the latter, the self-admittedly impulsive McVay now openly repeats: Discipline, without the emotion that can also skew decision-making. Gratitude for the process. He’s on a journey too, don’t forget it.

“How can we have the wisdom and the discipline to be able to focus on the things that we can control, and apply it the right way?” McVay asked. “You don’t take things for granted, that maybe I had (for) the previous five years. I’m really looking forward to applying it in the right way.”

Added Snead — about his head coach, but also about his team — “Everyone is evolving, everyone is a tree. The tree grows up.

“I mentioned many times last year: We have to go through this. … You can’t microwave wisdom.”