Agree with a lot of this, but not all. The premise is solid, though. Rams need to reload but not rebuild.
Here’s my list of team needs more or less in order of importance:
‘Backup QB’. Could be THE QB if Stafford retires or is still hurt. Mayfield would make a ton of sense here, almost too much sense. All he would cost is money, but not a single pick. I’ve seen posts suggesting trading for Herbert but the starting price would be three 1sts!
Edge. FA or draft pick, this is a very high priority. Won’t be a Von Miller, but needs to be at least solid. We all saw how much a good edge turbocharged Ram D in ‘21, right? This absolutely, positively MUST get done.
LOT. A solid FA would be REAL nice if Snead can pull it off. As I’ve posted before, then Jackson could slide to LG.
A stud OC via draft would be a smart move. Allen is ‘pretty good’ when healthy, but he’s hardly ever healthy, is he? Upgrade at OC would be huge. If Snead can get this done then Rams would once again have a very good OL, probably as good or maybe better than in their SB year and with only spending one premium pick.
RB upgrade. Loaded draft so this should be easy. Mid rounder should suffice for our needs.
TE upgrade (maybe 2). Again, loaded TE draft so Snead should be able to get this done, maybe as late as 5th round. Higbee is almost done and there’s really nothing behind him. We can’t currently even run a decent 12 personnel set!
CB. Our CB room is still unsettled so I’d draft one every year until Rams hit paydirt. I like Durant but not sure he’s quite ready to start opposite Ramsey.
Safety. Anybody 100% happy with our Safety corps? Me neither. Here again, keep drafting until they hit paydirt. Rams have tons if Day 3 picks.
DL. We’re gonna lose either Gaines or A’Shawn Robinson to FA and who knows how much longer AD plays? Might be an even higher priority now that I think about it.
Last but not least, I think McVay needs to take a good long look at his asst coaches and whether they are good Ram fits. Coen is one Coordinator already gone and Morris conceivably could get hired as a HC somewhere (I hope). Samples is now already gone, too. I won’t miss them, I can tell you that. But other position groups have not developed as I think they should. I’ve dealt with this in other posts so I’ll just say here that Rams should not let struggling asst coaches get a pass based upon past glories such as winning a SB. That was then but this is now.
Rams are facing a very limited SB window and I would hate to waste great player moves by retaining mediocre results producing asst coaches.
We’ll soon see in the early offseason whether McVay feels the same. I’m hoping to see significant coaching turnover, frankly.
As an aside, don’t be surprised if Snead trades down a bit from his current 2nd and 3rd, picking up selections for filling current needs listed above. Depending on who might fall to us at our original picks, I would lean toward trading down.
