The Rams have kept their Super Bowl window open for a bit longer with them trading away Jared Goff and multiple draft picks to the Lions for Mathew Stafford. Sean McVay, in an interview with Sports Illustrated, said,” Bro, this dude’s a bad MF-er.” It’s safe to say he’s ecstatic to work with the former first overall pick.

Jared Goff regressed in his play last season compared to his first 3 years under the 35-year-old coach. His inconsistency offensively, Touchdown/interception ratio and crumbling relationship with McVay ultimately led to him being shipped out of Los Angeles and to Detriot.

The expectation for this team is to now win the Super Bowl within the next 2 years. Key Players like the recently acquired Stafford(33) and Aaron Donald(30) are in the last stages of their primes. The team was ranked as the best defense in the NFL last season and lost their defensive coordinator, Brandon Staley as he is the new head coach of the LA Chargers.

With lots of changes occurring in the last couple of months and training camp right around the corner, I’ll be going over questions that Rams fans have on their mind and will be thinking about as the NFL season gets ever closer.

How To Replace Cam Akers

Cam Akers ran for a career high 177 yards against the New England Patriots in Week 13 (Photo Credit/Harry How)

News broke this week that the Rams starting Running Back, Cam Akers, will miss the entire season due to a torn Achilles he sustained working out. This is a huge loss for the offense as Akers showed a glimpse of his potential in his rookie year. He rushed for 635 yards, (32nd in the NFL) averaged 4.3 yards a carry(31st in the NFL) while only playing 5 games as a starter.

Darrell Henderson started the majority of last season and put up similar numbers to Akers with 624 yards rushing and 5.5 yards per attempt. McVay would rotate the 2 backs during games to get the most production out of them. Without the second-year running back, the Rams will need to either sign one in free agency or utilize the ones they currently have.

There are running backs still available in the free agency market such as former Ram Todd Gurley, Le’veon Bell, Duke Johnson, Adrian Pederson, Lesean Mccoy, and Devonta Freeman. These are experienced players in the NFL and could do well as rotation backs. If one was signed, it would most definitely be on a 1-year deal this season.

The most likely resolution to this problem will be sticking to the Running Backs they currently have. Sean McVay addressed the situation by saying,” We've got some young backs on our roster that I'm intrigued about seeing how they handle this opportunity.” The Running Backs he is referring to are Xavier Jones, Raymond Calais, Jake Funk, and Otis Anderson. All 4 of these players have 0 rush attempts in their careers.

Did the Rams Give Up To much?

New Rams Quarterback Matthew Stafford in Minicamp at Sofi Stadium (Photo Credit: Katelyn Mulcahy)

The entire season fans will be expecting better Quarterback play compared to what they saw out of Jared Goff last year. Many saw the trade for Stafford as a win for the Rams with many being skeptical of the move as well. Stafford is 33 and can definitely sling the ball around the gridiron but he’s struggled to stay on the field over the last couple of seasons. We all know the phrase the best ability is availability, when a team gives up 2 first-round picks for your services you need to be on the field as much a possible.

His production over the years has been stable and consistent when he’s been healthy. He’s thrown for 5,000 years in his career and had a multitude of 4,000 yard passing seasons. His receiving core in LA has been an upgrade compared to the one he had in Detriot.

At his age he won’t be throwing for over 4,700 yards nor will he attempting almost 600 pass attempts as he did so frequently in Detriot. McVay has seen his talent and will be centering his offense on getting the best of the veteran QB. Rams fans will be hoping the injury bug doesn’t get to their newly acquired QB.

Does The Defense Take A Step Back?

The Rams defense led the team to a playoff win against the Seattle Seahawks (Photo Credit/Abbie Parr)

The Rams were the #1 ranked defensive team in the league last season and helped lead their team to a Wild Card victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Players like Jordan Fuller, Leonard Floyd, Darious Williams, and Troy Reeder all took a step forward in their game. Brandon Staley made all the players on the Rams’ defense play to the best of their abilities all season long.

Staley would get an opportunity to become the head coach of the LA Chargers during the offseason which he accepted. He was able to make the Rams a team hard to play against and had great schemes against good offenses. His departure will be a tough one but the new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, who was previously the interim head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. He has coaching experience in the NFL and was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers between 2009 and 2011 before being fired.

One of the challenges for coach Morris will be that this defense will be missing some key pieces. John Johnson III was a top 10 safety in the NFL last year and signed with the Cleveland Browns during free agency. His play in zone coverage was amazing and is one of the best tacklers at his position. The depth of the corners also got thinner with Troy Hill also heading to Cleveland. These players really helped make LA a hard team beat in coverage.

Even without them, the Rams still have Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey as leaders on this team. Just like the aforementioned running back situation, some of the younger players on this team will need to step up to keep the Rams in the conversion for the best defense in the league.

The Super Bowl this season will be hosted in Los Angeles, the Rams will want to achieve what Tampa Bay did last season winning the Lombardi Trophy in their home stadium. The acquisition of Matt Stafford shows the Rams are in a win-now moment. Their best players are in the primes of their careers and have playoff experience with the team. Even with some of their best players leaving during the free agency period, this team looks poised as ever to make a super bowl run.