Outstanding article: Pros and cons of fielding the youngest team in the NFL…

Pros and Cons of fielding the youngest team in the NFL​

[ramblinfan.com]

The LA Rams have four constants each season, no matter what year it is it seems. Well, since head coach Sean McVay has taken over for the team. They are: The Rams do not have a first-round pick; The Rams will struggle to get under the annual NFL salary cap; The LA Rams will have a winning season; The LA Rams are one of the youngest teams in the NFL.

The 2021 LA Rams are unique to the NFL with that set of constant criteria. In fact, young teams alone seldom have successful seasons. But the Rams have discovered that if they find, acquire, and compensate a few elite NFL players, they can win by surrounding them with very talented but inexpensive young players, and harnessing that youthful energy to rotate in and keep everyone fresh and rested.

After the Rams moved well ahead on the timeline to acquire veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford, there were concerns that the Rams may not be among the younger teams in the NFL. Instead? They are the youngest team among all 32 NFL teams.


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So what does that mean for the LA Rams in 2021?

Well, the team is bursting with young talent that is a bit raw. Of course, each day they have the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the NFL. It’s no small coincidence that the Rams young players develop so quickly into NFL-caliber talent.

Pro: The LA Rams have multiple elite players

The cost of doing business in the NFL is expensive indeed. As soon as a team develops a superstar performer, 31 other teams lay in wait to outbid for that player when the contract ends. To complicate matters further, the NFL self-imposed a salary cap in 1994 to prevent the richest NFL teams from gobbling up the best talent and making the league less competitive.

The impact of that decision, coupled with the ease of free agency, has created a very dynamic roster for all 32 teams in the NFL. Teams that find success lose their key players to other teams that can afford to pay more, which dilutes the best teams and improves the competitiveness of lesser teams.

The fact that the LA Rams have an abundance of youth means that the team is overwhelmingly made up of players on their first NFL contracts, which are very inexpensive when compared to veteran contracts. That allows the Rams to afford to pay the market price of some of the best players in the NFL today. The Rams have All-Pros Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey. The team has re-signed OLB Leonard Floyd. The team has traded for quarterback Matthew Stafford, who in turn will be protected by left tackle Andrew Whitworth.

Both offensive and defensive veterans, who perform at their peak, are strategically located on the football field and among this team’s roster. That is only possible thanks to the LA Rams infusing the team’s ranks with new and talented players who continue to balance the cost of numerous elite players and the dead cap created by abandoning burdening contracts.

Con: The LA Rams cannot afford injuries to key players

While much has been said about the shortcomings of the LA Rams quarterback in 2020, almost nothing is being discussed about several key injuries that truly derailed the Rams’ hopes to compete in the Super Bowl last season. Those injuries eventually proved insurmountable when the Rams entered the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs.

Left tackle Andrew Whitworth, inside linebacker Micah Kiser, safety Taylor Rapp, and even kicker Matt Gay were injured in the LA Rams win over the Seattle Seahawks on November 15, 2020. Whitworth would not return for the remainder of the regular season. Starting quarterback Jared Goff was injured against the rematch against the same Seahawks on December 27, 2020. By the time the Rams suited up to play the Arizona Cardinals in a must-win season finale, the team had also lost the play of wide receiver Cooper Kupp and defensive tackle Michael Brockers due to positive testing and proximity protocols of COVID-19.

Whitworth would return, at partial health, to take on the Seahawks for the third game in the NFL Playoffs, but the team would be decimated with injuries once more as starting quarterback John Wolford, defensive lineman Aaron Donald, left guard David Edwards, and wide receiver Cooper Kupp were all injured in the game.

Those are tremendous shoes to fill on the fly as the Rams continued to travel on the road. And it was that combination of not-playing injured, playing but not at full health, and starting but not truly comfortable in their new role that became too much for the team to overcome. Unfortunately, the LA Rams did nothing to fix that vulnerability in 2021. In fact, with the exodus of Austin Blythe, Troy Hill, Josh Reynolds, Gerald Everett, and John Johnson III, the LA Rams may be even more vulnerable to a dramatic drop of play if they suffer multiple injuries this season.

Pro: The LA Rams have become excellent at developing starters from within

The opportunity to earn a starting role as a rookie may not be easy to achieve, but ultimately the Rams uncover one or two players who do exactly that. And the team may not be the best suited for the next-man-up scenario of addressing mid-season injuries, but the coaching staff of the LA Rams has developed some incredible NFL players from some of the most modest beginnings.

We know that current starting defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph Day was drafted in the sixth round, defensive back Jordan Fuller was drafted in the sixth round, defensive back Darious Williams was undrafted and claimed by the Rams from the Baltimore Ravens waiver wire, left guard David Edwards, linebacker Micah Kiser, and outside linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo were drafted in the fifth round. It’s not a random coincidence.

Due to the fact that the Rams have not been using selecting in the first round of the NFL Drafts, the team has systemically created a sophisticated process of identifying the right type of attributes to succeed as an NFL player, chosen those players, and then reinforced that development with some of the best coaches in the league.

The rapid transition of day three rookies into NFL starters is incredibly impressive. Necessity is the mother of invention, and for all intents and purposes, the LA Rams have needed to succeed in the later rounds of each NFL Draft. Even now, the team turns to 2020 NFL Draft day three players like tight end Brycen Hopkins, defensive back Jordan Fuller, and offensive lineman Tremayne Anchrum to step up this year. We know that Fuller will be a starter. But keep an eye on both Hopkins and Anchrum in the offseason.

Con: Perennial struggles with the NFL salary cap

The LA Rams paid a lot of players a tone of guaranteed money leading up to or after the team’s lone Super Bowl appearance under head coach Sean McVay. Unfortunately, their decisions of compensation have shackled the team ever since. After all, the LA Rams swallowed a huge chunk of the guaranteed dollars invested in running back Todd Gurley, WR Brandin Cooks, and now quarterback Jared Goff.

It seems once the LA Rams entered the penalty box of the NFL salary cap, the walls began to cave in. In short, just as the team decided to swallow even more dead cap space by trading away quarterback Jared Goff, the salary cap ceiling shrank significantly due to the limited revenue earned by the NFL during the 2020 season. That has forced the team to restructure all of their major contracts, which has forced 2021 salary dollars into 2022 and future years. Next year, the team will likely need to employ a similar strategy to clear salary space by pushing dollars into the next year.

Without free cap space, the Rams are very limited as to who the team can re-sign, or even consider adding to the team. That forces the Rams to develop even more talent from within the roster, and promote young players in 2022 and beyond. It’s a circular referencing set of actions now.

Of course, one way to break the vicious cycle is to write contracts that the Rams intend to see through to the end. The Rams would have experienced no dead cap space if there was no early termination of the players who were bestowed such significant guaranteed sums of money. While that quick decision-making process has sustained the Rams’ success, it was created more and more inflexibility for the front office to continue to cut or trade players to add new game-changers in the future.

Pro: Compensatory draft picks

The cycle of LA Rams deploying rookies in starting roles has ultimately led to great interest among those players when they are due their second, and more well-paying, contract. Quite frequently, that second payday is from the payroll of another NFL team. In fact, virtually all of the LA Rams free agents in 2021 have since signed on with a new team, many of whom were quickly added to other team rosters via the NFL Free Agency market.

The LA Rams are currently projected to be awarded up to five 2022compensatory draft picks from losing NFL free agents, per the latest calculations by analysts at Over the Cap.com. Added to that, the LA Rams will receive the second awarded third-round compensatory pick for the hiring of Brad Holmes as the General Manager of the Detroit Lions. As of right now, it appears that the LA Rams will add one third-round, one fourth-round, and three sixth-round draft picks to the 2022 NFL Draft.

So the cycle repeats itself, and is fueled by a lack of money to prevent the LA Rams from breaking free, but is itself restocked by the LA Rams’ ability to incubate significant NFL caliber players who are in turn signed on by other teams. In 2021 alone, LA Rams top free agents signed one with the Cleveland Browns, the San Francisco 49ers, the Carolina Panthers, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Tennessee Titans.

The LA Rams will field one of the, if not the, youngest teams in the NFL once more. But after some thought and discussion, that is exactly how the LA Rams are set up to succeed right now. The team uses their coaching staff to coach up day three players into viable free agents who sign on with other NFL teams. That, in turn, regenerates awarded compensatory draft picks to harvest a new crop of NFL rookies at very inexpensive prices. And that new group of talented players finds ways to earn new starting roles on the Rams roster.

Not all NFL teams are set up to succeed with young players. But the LA Rams have made it their trademark of doing so.