Future Football: Rams' Rank Over Next Three Years?

The Los Angeles Rams threw a lot, perhaps too many, assets into building their Super Bowl winning team in 2021-22. They sacrificed a lot of picks and players in to pursue the title.

It obviously paid off, but they paid for it dearly last season with a historic hangover.

The Rams' Super Bowl win percentage (29.4) in 2022 was worse than any other former Lombardi-hoister. In fact, it was the second-worst among all champions in sports history. Only the 1998-99 Chicago Bulls (26 percent) had a worse defending season, and that was because a fellow named Michael Jordan left the team.

Granted, Rams' Pro Bowl quarterback Matthew Stafford, All-Pro receiver Cooper Kupp and All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald each missed time last season due to injury, making it practically impossible to have success.

However, Stafford began to show his age (35) and struggled when healthy, while Donald, 32, has foreshadowed since the Super Bowl victory that his days in Los Angeles (and the NFL in general) might be numbered. The Rams didn't make many improvements this offseason, but they selected 14 players in the NFL Draft. However, none of those picks were on Day 1; 11 from Day 3.

That said, the Rams' future doesn't look very promising. ESPN took notice, ranking Los Angeles 28th among NFL teams over the next three seasons.

ESPN analyst Louis Riddick said the lack of talent on defense (besides Donald) and Stafford's age/health concerns last season were major factors in the low ranking. In the present, the Rams are healthy and ESPN's Dan Graziano predicts a return to the recent past.

"[Stafford, Donald and Kupp are] ready to make beautiful music together again," Graziano said. "There are plenty of people here who helped win the Super Bowl just 17 months ago, so McVay could surprise you and return this team to contention quickly."

ESPN's Seth Walder explained one way the Rams could improve their future rank is by utilizing the designed rollout.

"Designed rollouts made up 12 percent of the Rams' plays last season and 10 percent the year before, both league highs," Walder said. "The Rams recorded 0.18 EPA (expected points added) per play (basically a Chiefs-level offense) on designed rollout drop-backs and minus-0.09 EPA per play on all other drop-backs."

As we all know, the Rams' receiving corps was much different in 2021 compared to last season. However, they still put up similar successful numbers when it came to rollout percentage. If they boost the percentage even more, better things could come for the Rams' future.

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