Unless Stafford has to retire Bert Jones-style he is coming back in 2023 and 2024. The structure of his contract is such that (again, unless he medically had to retire) he is going NOWHERE. And McVay knows that and, I think, is tied to him as well. McVay is not in this for the next 20 years. He's in it for 2 to 4 more years
max in my opinion. He's going to spend 2023 having a fire sale and 2024 trying to coach up a rookie QB (IF they got that lucky- a big IF)? I don't buy that at all.
I think Donald is back for 2023 for a redemption season and then walks away. And honestly most of the other bigger contracts on the team are pretty immovable in 2023 as well. Not impossible but not easy.
They do not have a lot of free agent dollars. For sure. But- even without a first round pick- they actually have
more draft capital (
per Tankathon.com) than they have actually had in years.
And yeah, if you listen to Jourdan and Rich on the 11 Personnel you come to realize the injuries this season are SO extensive and SUCH an outlier that, while nothing is guaranteed, they should revert back to the mean at least when it comes to team health.
I say this every spring but when you go into an offseason with a really good Head Coach and a really good QB (which the Rams have) you start ahead of 2/3 of the league. They need health. They need to draft well (especially with those first 3 selections). Draft more like they did in 2017-2019 and less like 2020-2021... They need to develop this 2022 Draft class (which could potentially have as many as 6 starters next year). All far from guaranteed. But all very possible.
And they will have a 4th place schedule without targets on their backs in 2023. It can only help.
Frankly, I think the extra 5 weeks of an offseason this year will serve them
really well- both physically and psychologically. After winning it all and partying their tails off for a solid couple weeks they jumped
right in to 2022. And they were. Not. Prepared. At all. Having Kupp and Stafford shut down early will do them good. Kupp is such a committed guy but he looked tired and beat up those last few games as they were asking him to literally do everything for the offense. Maybe the same happens with Donald. Let these guys really regroup. Really get to 100%.
The sky is not falling. Will they slingshot back to elite, Super Bowl contention? Maybe not. That's such a crap shoot every year. But would they be a team that could jump right back up and contend for 10-11 wins, the division and a playoff run? You bet they could.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2022 12:47PM by LMU93.
