The Los Angeles Rams made their mark in this year’s NFL Honors with running back Todd Gurley, defensive tackle Aaron Donald, and head coach Sean McVay taking home some serious hardware. However, with all the accolades comes high expectations for the 2018 NFL season.
Fortunately, the Rams award recipients seem up to the task. During their perspective press conferences, each acknowledged that the bar has been set extremely high moving forward. Gurley addressed the fact that Los Angeles would have rather been preparing for a Super Bowl than an acceptance speech:
“You don’t want to go backwards, so we just got to keep working hard,” Gurley said. “Just get better every day and just have that one goal in mind that everybody has and that’s to be playing (this weekend), instead of talking to you guys.”
Despite the disappointing end to the 2017 NFL season, Donald was pleased with the tremendous strides the Rams took after last year.
“It was definitely a solid season,” Donald said, “but you always want to do more. That’s the best thing about this game: you can’t be comfortable. Once you get comfortable, that’s when you’re no longer good.”
Meanwhile, McVay discussed the challenge of no trying to repeat the same success for next season.
“What it means is we had a good season that I think we can build on, but everything is earned in this league,” McVay said. “Just because we won the division last year doesn’t mean anything going into next year. I know there will be some raised expectations, but we love that and we won’t shy away from them.”
Aside from Donald, there were questions marks surrounding Gurley and McVay going into the season. Many felt that pairing the youngest head coach in history with a struggling young running back would spell doom for the Rams. However, they served as the catalyst for perhaps the biggest offensive turnaround in NFL history.
That said, Los Angeles will no longer be sneaking up on anybody for years to come. In fact, they now have a target on their back as the reigning NFC West Division champs looking to take that next step into the Super Bowl.
