Here's the thing: The Rams way is not sustainable without having a strong roster of starters to begin with. In other words, if you are a bottom tier team like the Jets, or Giants, or the Jags, you can't do what the Rams are doing.
The Rams system depends on those mid and later picks to NOT have to be played/successful in the near term but instead in the long term. The Rams pick guys that everyone goes "who?", and then we hear little to nothing about them in their rookie year and often not much in their 2nd year. Rather, the Rams pick guys with the metrics to play the position, good football players, but they need coaching and development time. Development in the Rams' system and development of their bodies and techniques. But the potential is there. So the Rams also pick players with a certain psychological profile, because the players will need patience and will power to finally be able to play but only after a couple of years on the team.
This is why the Rams hire teachers as coaches. The entire system hinges on patience with the young guys and treating them as students. The youngsters operate like a savings account that you use later, not a checking account that you use now.
Every now and then there are good surprises like Fuller. More often there are the Greg Gaines's and Sebastion Joseph-Days, and Littletons, and D Williams, etc.
But even if stronger teams adopt the Rams system, the Rams have a head start and they have become a destination team for FAs. Young guys like being in LA, stars with name recognition can get big bucks for endorsements and commercials, and the Rams have become a model organization that the players simply like playing for.
Then there's getting the star players. In the open market of FA, it's the less desirable teams that have to pay the biggest bucks to get the best players. The Bills paid outrageous top dollar for Miller. Cleveland paid stupid for Watson (I know it was a trade but in reality Watson was choosing where he would go). The Rams paid reasonable, workable money for Wagner and Robinson. Heck, the Rams even got a friendly deal on Stafford.
All of this is very difficult to achieve. It's one thing to adopt the philosophy but quite another to pull it off and make it work.
Sometimes I just sit in admiration at the Rams system and what a well oiled machine that it is.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2022 02:11AM by RockRam.
