The Los Angeles Rams have plenty of work to do this offseason with their roster before they get set to open the 2020 NFL season at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams successfully managed to make their presence felt in their new home following the relocation in 2016 by making it to the Super Bowl in just their third year back. Unfortunately, they fell vastly short of the high expectations they set in the 2019 NFL season by missing the playoffs with a 9-7 record.
Despite coming off a disappointing year, L.A. knows full well they will need to kick things up a notch if they hope to open their new stadium in style. Rams COO Kevin Demoff appears to be aware that another winning season simply will not cut it.
According to Gary Klein of the L.A. Times, Demoff acknowledged that the bar has been set high by their success since head coach Sean McVay’s arrival:
“There was some great in 2019, there was some bad, there was some OK,” Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ chief operating officer, said Wednesday after a tour of SoFi Stadium. “And we have to figure out how we get back to the level that we’ve been normally accustomed to the past two years under Sean.
“It’s been great to have three straight winning seasons and two division titles and a Super Bowl run, but this year wasn’t up to our standards.”
It is certainly encouraging to see that Demoff shares the same sentiment as many fans do. Although the Rams had been one of the worst teams in the league prior to the move back to L.A., it is clear that they are doing whatever they can to ensure a sustained period of success.
While a lot of the focus has been on the move to the new stadium this offseason, Demoff hopes it can shift back to the team and improving the roster:
“I always view 2020 as the end of the relocation, the beginning of the next chapter of the Rams and everything that everybody has asked questions about for years comes to true fruition,” Demoff said. “But for the football team it’s just the next year after 2019.”
The Rams have certainly solidified this notion by pulling off a number of blockbuster deals in recent years that included trades for wide receiver Brandon Cooks and cornerback Jalen Ramsey. His approach cements the fact that this team is in win-now mode as they continue to etch out their place in the second-largest media market in the country.
Unfortunately, all the money and picks they have invested have now left the front office with very little resources to work with in order to prevent key pieces like linebackers Cory Littleton and Dante Fowler Jr. from departing in free agency. The Rams will need to find a way to avoid too much turnover to their roster if they hope to once again have their championship aspirations legitimized.
