Part of Rams’ rebuild plan: ‘To attack an opportunity with some frickin’ balls’

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Earlier this week, a visitor sitting in the training camp office of Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead posited a theory for the lack of faith surrounding the franchise entering the 2023 season. Specifically, the predicted 2023 mediocrity from the gambling sharps, like BetMGM oddsmakers who are placing the Rams’ win total at 6.5 games this season.

Cornerback Jalen Ramsey and middle linebacker Bobby Wagner, gone in a defensive reshuffle.

The wide receiver group? Shallow.

The offensive line, still in flux.

Not to mention the youngest roster in the league, yet also the seventh consecutive season without a first-round draft pick to groom into a cornerstone.

And pressing against it all, the previously wobbly state of the franchise’s Holy Trinity: Head coach Sean McVay, whose future was uncertain one year ago; quarterback Matthew Stafford, who drew a varying level of trade interest from at least four teams in the offseason; and perennial All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald, whose future with the Rams seems tethered to how long Stafford and McVay stay in place.

Taken from a wider context? The Rams look like an extremely young team with a Super Bowl-window defining trinity that has raised questions about a rebuild.

“What’s your counter to that?” the visitor asked.

Snead smiled.

“You’re probably leaving [wide receiver] Cooper Kupp out,” he said. “You could probably go a little deeper than that [trinity]. I think you could go deeper, but OK. … I don’t even know if I would have a counter to that. I would say if those three individuals end up on injured reserve or maybe missing time, maybe bet the under [of 6.5 wins]. But you could counter by going, well, let’s say we were starting over and rebuilding. If you were searching for a quarterback like Stafford, a defensive tackle like Aaron Donald and a head coach like Sean, you could spend a lifetime looking. You could trade for a bunch of first-round picks and still spend a lifetime looking for that triumvirate or whatever you call it. That’s the positive.”

Yes, the Rams are young. Extremely young. Yes, they don’t have a stable of recent first-round picks stepping into vital roles. What they do have are three players who can be classified as elite when healthy — Stafford, Kupp and Donald — and a head coach who has put last offseason’s hand-wringing about his coaching future behind him.

“This is a fun-ass group to be around,” McVay said this week. “Listen, we’re going to go cut it loose.”

When McVay says that initially, it sounds like a boast — as in, We’re going to cut it loose and kick some ass.

Maybe they’ll get there. But what he means is this: The Rams are a team chock full of young guys and a growth curve that might be as steep as has existed during McVay’s tenure. Possibly going all the way back to his first season in 2017, when nobody was sure what was going to happen with a newly minted 30-year-old head coach and a struggling quarterback in 2016 No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff. Or heading into 2018, when so much of the roster was young and fresh-faced. In this scenario, “cutting it loose” is more akin to “letting it all hang out and seeing what happens.”

That’s what happens when you lose nine starters between offense and defense, and the players who are stepping into those roles have limited experience. Or when the overall roster could have as many as 14 draft picks on the roster and a multitude of undrafted free agents. Precisely how young will this team be? Even the Rams don’t know at this point because so many starting positions and the underlying depth chart are up in the air. This reality is creating a balance between significant experience among a few, versus a youthful exuberance of many that had defensive coordinator Raheem Morris declaring that some pass-breakups in practice are celebrated like winning a Super Bowl.

That’s great in training camp, when the record is 0-0 and emotion is counted like an asset in the win column. Of course, that can change quickly once the regular season kicks in, and losses and mistakes of youth begin to mount. And suddenly the coaching staff and personnel architects are surveying the upward climb in a more realistic, tangible and measurable way. It’s a fact that isn’t lost on the Rams, even in the embrace of youth and a suspicion that outsiders aren’t taking an accurate accounting of what the return of their elite stars can mean for the 2023 season.

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“There’s going to be some spilled milk,” Snead said. “But a lot of that veteran core has played in two Super Bowls, whether it’s Cooper Kupp, [tight end] Tyler Higbee, [offensive tackle] Rob Havenstein, they’ve been in not just one but two, and in both of those they had different partners around them. Now it’s going to be up to those guys, up to our staff, up to all of us to help the youth get closer to being ‘unyouthful’. There’s going to be spilled milk because of it, and it’s really going to be how you respond. If there’s spilled milk in Week 3, it doesn’t mean that some of the lessons learned in Week 3 can’t help you in Weeks 14, 15, 16, 17 when you’ve got to win three of four to punch a [playoff] ticket.”

That will be the burden on McVay and his seasoned staff. But after a season of tough reflection following a 5-12 finish in 2022 and a renewed appreciation of how the highs shouldn’t be taken for granted, there’s a smoldering fire beneath the surface of the coaching staff. One that is well aware that an offseason ago, the notion of the New York Giants and Seattle Seahawks being playoff contenders was scoffed at. But key veterans, young breakouts and coaching pulled both franchises into the postseason.

This Rams team will take that lesson in hand. Especially in the face of doubt and some hard lessons learned in 2022.

“I do think that we’re in position to attack an opportunity with some frickin’ balls about us,” McVay said. “Some stones where it’s like, ‘I’m not naïve to the narrative externally, but all I need to worry about is being the best coach of this team and not being afraid to go cut it loose and compete.’ Then pick ourselves back up and continue to do it and see what happens.

“For me, it’s just getting back grounded, reestablishing a purpose, having the principles and values in your everyday approach in the way that you handle the ebbs and flows that are inevitable. But what I’m most interested in is modeling the way — not just saying any of this s***. I see better than I hear. I say that to the guys, but the same goes for me.”