When the Los Angeles Rams started the 2022 season, they hoped to become the first repeat Super Bowl champion in almost two decades. After all, aside from key pieces like Von Miller playing elsewhere, L.A. brought back essentially the same core — highlighted by Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp — that toppled the Bengals in Super Bowl.
What could possibly go wrong? Pencil this gold and blue squad in for another deep playoff run, at minimum, right? As it turns out, everything could go wrong.
With a 27-17 defeat at the hand of the rival/mostly fellow hapless Cardinals on Sunday, the now 3-7 Rams have lost three straight games. Overall, they’ve lost five of their last six. In the entire scope of this hopeful (wishful?) Super Bowl repeat campaign, they can boast their only wins over the lowly Falcons, Cardinals (the first time), and the Panthers — three teams that will likely be picking near the top of the 2023 draft. To add injury to insult, they face the potential prospect of being without 2021 triple crown winner and Super Bowl 56 MVP Cooper Kupp for a little while. You know, the person that drives their offense.
“I just know it didn’t look good, it didn’t sound good.” – #Rams HC Sean McVay on WR Cooper Kupp.
Said he will check with medical staff for more details.
— Kayla Burton (@Kay_Breezy22) November 14, 2022
Let’s be clear, the Rams’ season technically isn’t over. Especially with the NFC being putrid across the board and the playoff picture having no one in a clear pole position beyond the obvious contenders. But the prospects don’t look promising to piece it all together for the rest of the year or to fix prevailing nagging issues for the future.
Months after signing a contract extension with $63 million guaranteed, an aging Matthew Stafford (concussion) might also be sidelined for some time. That is not a promising sign for a guy who was already showing signs of decline in his mid-30s. Draft-wise, after GM Les Snead went all-in for a seemingly short-lived title window, the Rams have just four picks in the 2023 draft (none in the first round). For a team with a turnstile offensive line — the main reason the Rams have looked so disheveled — having more resources to address such a fatal flaw would’ve helped. Meanwhile, as great and special as he is, Donald isn’t getting any younger. He’ll be 32 by the start of next season, with 2022 increasingly looking like a lost year in the prime of a future Hall of Famer.
It’s a bleak outlook in L.A., and it might lead to an even earlier retirement from Sean McVay, depending on how the situation shakes out soon.
And you know what? Even if McVay’s bunch never reaches the euphoria of that Super Bowl victory again, they should still hold their heads high. They sacrificed multiple high-end picks for Stafford and made a calculated series of trades for proven game-breaking veterans like JMiller and Jalen Ramsey, all to do one incredibly difficult thing: Win the Super Bowl.
Which they did!
Sure, the Rams might paint the picture of a potential NFC cellar dweller in the coming years. Sure, it might be tough to stomach watching them if you’re a diehard fan. But they stuck their necks out for the hardest possible goal in pro football and successfully achieved it. There should be no regrets from anyone in that building in Southern California.
I don’t expect the Rams to get up off the mat this year. Even if they fix their offensive line, and even if Stafford still has some juice left in his arm, I don’t expect them to recalibrate and be a contender again any time soon, either. But let’s not lose the forest for the palm trees. The Rams sacrificed everything for the Super Bowl and finished their climb to the top of the mountain.
Whatever happens next for McVay and Co. was always going to be gravy.
