Rams risky plan actually worked
Although there were many people who thought the Rams' approach to team building was too risky or not smart, they did not care and they were clearly right. Throughout NFL history the most efficient and safest way to build a team is primarily through the draft and then minimal spending in the offseason so you have a stable future. A great example of this would be the Patriots dynasty, which was led by their 6th round quarterback who threw to mediocre receivers and had a good defense behind him. Due to having a cheap offense they were able to sustain this dynasty for almost 20 years which resulted in 6 Super Bowl championships. The issue with this strategy is that it's easier said than done. Tons of teams try this strategy and it's easy to start but most teams fail to actually be contenders with this approach. An example of this would be the Dolphins with Brian Flores. Flores, who worked with the Patriots for 10 years. After he left he tried replicating this plan with the Dolphins as recently as this past season. Their starting quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, is under his rookie deal, and their offense is full of mediocre pieces while their defense costs a lot more and has some star power. Although this is "technically" what the plan is, the team was just mid. Winning with a team without an explosive offense is extremely hard and you need elite coaching for it. 90% of teams that try this idea just end up being around the 500 mark and rarely win a playoff game. The Rams notices this and did the complete opposite. Instead of building through the draft they built through the trade portal and free agency. To say that they were aggressive in this strategy is an understatement. The last time the Rams even had a first round pick was when they took quarterback, Jared Goff in 2016. While they had a good roster with Goff, with a bunch of young cheap players in 2018 they couldn't get in done in the Super Bowl, losing to the Patriots 13-3. After this they decided to realize that unless Jared Goff steps up they will have to just go all out and trade for better win now pieces. Two seasons later, the defense is still dominant but Jared Goff is still barely average and they haven't made any progress since 2018. Due to no progress they started "trading away their whole future". The most notable trade was giving the Lions Jared Goff(26) two first round picks and a third rounder for star quarterback Matthew Stafford(33). The Rams gave up a young quarterback and two firs rounders for a better but much older quarterback? Well, yes. Even though it limits their future it helped make them significantly better in the present. The problem with not making these moves is that it just limits you at mediocrity in the present and you will have a similar situation in the future. While the Rams had a hot start at 8-1 they slowed down and fell to 8-4. Most teams in this scenario would play it "safe" and just do nothing and hope they start to play better. The Rams, decided they want to do things their own way and went out and signed two big names, Von Miller and Odell Beckham jr. Now that the season is over I think we can all agree they would likely not have won the Super Bowl if they did not go out and sign those two players. Although he got injured, in the first quarter and a half Odell had 52 yards and a touchdown and was on pace to have a top tier performance. While all these risky moves may indeed hurt their future, and they may not be a playoff team in 5 or so years, it's 100% worth it. At the end of the day this resulted in a Super Bowl victory, 95% of these teams "playing is smart" are not going to end up winning anything with their safer strategy. So although the Rams may not be contenders in 5 years they got a Super Bowl now and that is better than being a wildcard team for 10 years.
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