The Los Angeles Rams have had a difficult offseason, losing a number of key players due to their lack of cap space.
A big reason they didn’t have any money to spend to keep key free agents like Cory Littleton and Dante Fowler Jr. was because of extensions they handed out the last couple of years that wound up being mistakes.
They admitted a pair of those mistakes by releasing star running back Todd Gurley before his lucrative extension even kicked in, and trading wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the Houston Texans with four years left on his deal.
While the Rams will still have a bunch of familiar faces in 2020, they will have some new ones as well after an offseason full of turnover.
Jared Goff will be back under center, of course, although he will no longer have two of his good friends in Gurley and Cooks in the huddle with him. In a Zoom call with reporters, Goff commented on the departures of both players, via Gary Klein of the L.A. Times:
Goff on Gurley and Cooks departures from Rams: "It's tough to lose friends… I understand there's a business to the game."
— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) April 15, 2020
The Rams already have in-house replacements at both positions as Josh Reynolds can step in for Cooks at receiver along with Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp, and the duo of Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson should carry the load at running back in Gurley’s place.
More additions could be made through the upcoming NFL Draft as well. The Rams have two second-round picks at their disposal, one that was acquired from Houston in the Cooks trade.
Regardless though, more of the load will fall on Goff to carry the Rams’ offense in 2020 and beyond, so it will be interesting to see if he can accept that challenge coming off arguably his worst season in the Sean McVay era.
