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Bonsignore: Rams offseason moves are bold blend of action, reaction and improv
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks, right, speaks at a news conference with Rams general manager Les Snead, Thursday, April 5, 2018, at the Rams training facility in Thousand Oaks. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker)
By VINCENT BONSIGNORE | vbonsignore@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: April 5, 2018 at 5:48 pm | UPDATED: April 5, 2018 at 6:32 pm
The smile was hard to suppress as Les Snead rolled out the latest add on to the ambitious superstructure currently under construction at Rams headquarters. It was a mixture of satisfaction and awe and surprise. Kind of like a guy who reaches into the pocket of an old pair of jeans and pulls out a crumpled up lottery ticket he’d long forgotten about.
Only to realize there’s a thousand bucks waiting for him at the liquor store around the corner.
Oh, nice.
See, for all the admiration Snead and Rams coach Sean McVay had for dynamic wide receiver Brandin Cooks over the last couple of years, it wasn’t like Cooks was a legitimate part of the blueprint the two Rams architects drew up a few months ago as they plotted an offseason designed to lift their club another rung higher after last year’s breakthrough season. Seeing as Cooks was employed by the New England Patriots and all.
But then, neither were Marcus Peters or Aqib Talib or Ndamukong Suh, for that matter. None of whom were officially available this time two months ago.
Yet each is now a member of the Rams.
Hence, the satisfied smiles.
Life moves fast. The Rams, to their credit, are keeping up. And defying odds in the process.
Yes, they knew they needed to address the defensive backfield, especially with the lure of free agency beckoning either Trumaine Johnson or Lamarcus Joyner onto the open market. After all, Wade Phillips’ 3-4 defense requires lockdown cornerbacks suffocating opposing wide receivers to hum at optimal level, and Snead knew he’d have to figure out a way to get his veteran defensive coordinator the help he needed.
You knew you had to solidify that,” Snead said.
And certainly the interior of the defensive line needed a big, strong, sturdy force to help stop the run and create pass rush pressure alongside Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers.
Meanwhile, Sammy Watkins was a strong possibility to leave as a free agent, so it was only a matter of time before McVay asked for an adequate replacement. Watkins wasn’t all that in terms of big numbers last year, but the fear he put in the hearts of opposing defenses was a real factor in blowing open gaping holes for teammates like Todd Gurley and Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp. If Watkins left, as feared, an suitable replacement was a must.
“Les and our coaching staff and our personnel staff, we’ve had great dialogue in terms of how we wanted to fill that void,” McVay said.
Still, it’s one thing to want to fill every important hole during free agency, and quite another to actually pull it off.
Let alone with a package of Pro Bowl caliber players that, added to an already loaded young roster, would push the Rams to the upper echelon of the NFL.
That is, without blowing up their salary cap for the next five years or surrendering a bunch of premium draft picks for the foreseeable future.
In other words, you’re playing entirely too much fantasy football or Ultimate Team Madden to even contemplate the Rams drawing up some crazy plan in which players the caliber of Peters, Talib, Cooks and Suh were added within the span of a few weeks.
Maybe that’s why Snead was smiling so much on Thursday, as was McVay, his partner in crime, as they flanked Cooks during his introductory press conference in Thousand Oaks. The player they’ve coveted from afar for more than a year is shockingly now in their fold. And armed with enough money under the cap to secure the Stockton native long-term – along with Donald and Gurley and Jared Goff and Peters, for that matter – it looks like Cooks wants to call Los Angeles home for the foreseeable future.
“It’s a special opportunity to be closer to home, being on the West Coast, where the sun is shining every single day, you can’t complain about that,” Cooks said. “As far as making this home, absolutely I’d love to do that.”
And it’s why Snead and McVay will flash the same look of satisfaction on Friday when Suh gets unveiled to the media in L.A. Just as they did a couple weeks ago upon adding both Peters and Talib.
The both of them outta be locked up for the kind of heist they’ve pulled the last month or so adding star caliber talent to an already young, thriving roster. They didn’t just pull it off, they got away scott free.
And they did it in a way that dramatically improves the Rams in real time while leaving them perfectly situated salary cap wise to keep all their core players in the fold for the long term.
For that, a major tip of the cap goes to Tony Pastoors and Kevin Demoff, the co-managers of the Rams salary cap who went all Beautiful Mind on everyone to insure the Rams could fit everyone in the fold in 2018 while also leaving close to $100 million to work with under the cap next year, and even more in 2020.
“We have plenty of space of the next few years to lock up these guys for the long term and (keep) this core together,” Snead said. “And that’s the goal.”
Much to the chagrin of the rest of the NFL, which now has to deal with the emerging power rising in Los Angeles.
They did it by acting aggressively when surprising opportunities fell their way. Such as jumping at the chance to acquire a dominating young cornerback when the Kansas City Chiefs called asking if they had interest in Peters.
And by getting creative, even if it meant saying goodbye to valued veterans in order to create or preserve cap space to add players of greater need. As was the case in trading Alec Ogletree to pave the way for Talib.
They did it by being daring and diligent, even when the odds were stacked against them. Such as calling Suh’s agent to express interest in the veteran defensive tackle shortly after he was released by the Dolphins. Snead was upfront he wasn’t in position to offer the most money, and that he’d first need to talk to his bosses – Demoff and Rams owner Stan Kroenke – to get the OK to spend the kind of money required to reel Suh in.
But by making the call – in spite of the odds – he firmly planted the Rams on Suh’s radar.
And when the interest was reciprocated, Snead was soon calling on Demoff and Kroenke to pitch them on the idea of adding Suh.
The key question being, as Snead recalled: “Can we get a little more allowance this week?”
You got it, Kroenke replied, greenlighting a $14 million one-year offer to Suh.
And finally, they did it by being persistent. Even after the Saints traded Cooks to the Patriots last offseason, Snead stayed on the case, if only to monitor the Patriots’ willingness to trade Cooks. As did McVay, who used a chance encounter with Bill Belichick at a recent coaching clinic to express interest.
All of which paid off when the Patriots, unable to procure a long-term contract extension with Cooks, offered him to the Rams at the cost of their first-round pick and a sixth-rounder in 2018.
Life moves fast, as they say. The Rams, to their credit, are keeping up. Even if it means trashing a blueprint and drawing up a new one on the fly.
An even better one, at that.
[www.ocregister.com]
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks, right, speaks at a news conference with Rams general manager Les Snead, Thursday, April 5, 2018, at the Rams training facility in Thousand Oaks. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker)
By VINCENT BONSIGNORE | vbonsignore@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: April 5, 2018 at 5:48 pm | UPDATED: April 5, 2018 at 6:32 pm
The smile was hard to suppress as Les Snead rolled out the latest add on to the ambitious superstructure currently under construction at Rams headquarters. It was a mixture of satisfaction and awe and surprise. Kind of like a guy who reaches into the pocket of an old pair of jeans and pulls out a crumpled up lottery ticket he’d long forgotten about.
Only to realize there’s a thousand bucks waiting for him at the liquor store around the corner.
Oh, nice.
See, for all the admiration Snead and Rams coach Sean McVay had for dynamic wide receiver Brandin Cooks over the last couple of years, it wasn’t like Cooks was a legitimate part of the blueprint the two Rams architects drew up a few months ago as they plotted an offseason designed to lift their club another rung higher after last year’s breakthrough season. Seeing as Cooks was employed by the New England Patriots and all.
But then, neither were Marcus Peters or Aqib Talib or Ndamukong Suh, for that matter. None of whom were officially available this time two months ago.
Yet each is now a member of the Rams.
Hence, the satisfied smiles.
Life moves fast. The Rams, to their credit, are keeping up. And defying odds in the process.
Yes, they knew they needed to address the defensive backfield, especially with the lure of free agency beckoning either Trumaine Johnson or Lamarcus Joyner onto the open market. After all, Wade Phillips’ 3-4 defense requires lockdown cornerbacks suffocating opposing wide receivers to hum at optimal level, and Snead knew he’d have to figure out a way to get his veteran defensive coordinator the help he needed.
You knew you had to solidify that,” Snead said.
And certainly the interior of the defensive line needed a big, strong, sturdy force to help stop the run and create pass rush pressure alongside Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers.
Meanwhile, Sammy Watkins was a strong possibility to leave as a free agent, so it was only a matter of time before McVay asked for an adequate replacement. Watkins wasn’t all that in terms of big numbers last year, but the fear he put in the hearts of opposing defenses was a real factor in blowing open gaping holes for teammates like Todd Gurley and Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp. If Watkins left, as feared, an suitable replacement was a must.
“Les and our coaching staff and our personnel staff, we’ve had great dialogue in terms of how we wanted to fill that void,” McVay said.
Still, it’s one thing to want to fill every important hole during free agency, and quite another to actually pull it off.
Let alone with a package of Pro Bowl caliber players that, added to an already loaded young roster, would push the Rams to the upper echelon of the NFL.
That is, without blowing up their salary cap for the next five years or surrendering a bunch of premium draft picks for the foreseeable future.
In other words, you’re playing entirely too much fantasy football or Ultimate Team Madden to even contemplate the Rams drawing up some crazy plan in which players the caliber of Peters, Talib, Cooks and Suh were added within the span of a few weeks.
Maybe that’s why Snead was smiling so much on Thursday, as was McVay, his partner in crime, as they flanked Cooks during his introductory press conference in Thousand Oaks. The player they’ve coveted from afar for more than a year is shockingly now in their fold. And armed with enough money under the cap to secure the Stockton native long-term – along with Donald and Gurley and Jared Goff and Peters, for that matter – it looks like Cooks wants to call Los Angeles home for the foreseeable future.
“It’s a special opportunity to be closer to home, being on the West Coast, where the sun is shining every single day, you can’t complain about that,” Cooks said. “As far as making this home, absolutely I’d love to do that.”
And it’s why Snead and McVay will flash the same look of satisfaction on Friday when Suh gets unveiled to the media in L.A. Just as they did a couple weeks ago upon adding both Peters and Talib.
The both of them outta be locked up for the kind of heist they’ve pulled the last month or so adding star caliber talent to an already young, thriving roster. They didn’t just pull it off, they got away scott free.
And they did it in a way that dramatically improves the Rams in real time while leaving them perfectly situated salary cap wise to keep all their core players in the fold for the long term.
For that, a major tip of the cap goes to Tony Pastoors and Kevin Demoff, the co-managers of the Rams salary cap who went all Beautiful Mind on everyone to insure the Rams could fit everyone in the fold in 2018 while also leaving close to $100 million to work with under the cap next year, and even more in 2020.
“We have plenty of space of the next few years to lock up these guys for the long term and (keep) this core together,” Snead said. “And that’s the goal.”
Much to the chagrin of the rest of the NFL, which now has to deal with the emerging power rising in Los Angeles.
They did it by acting aggressively when surprising opportunities fell their way. Such as jumping at the chance to acquire a dominating young cornerback when the Kansas City Chiefs called asking if they had interest in Peters.
And by getting creative, even if it meant saying goodbye to valued veterans in order to create or preserve cap space to add players of greater need. As was the case in trading Alec Ogletree to pave the way for Talib.
They did it by being daring and diligent, even when the odds were stacked against them. Such as calling Suh’s agent to express interest in the veteran defensive tackle shortly after he was released by the Dolphins. Snead was upfront he wasn’t in position to offer the most money, and that he’d first need to talk to his bosses – Demoff and Rams owner Stan Kroenke – to get the OK to spend the kind of money required to reel Suh in.
But by making the call – in spite of the odds – he firmly planted the Rams on Suh’s radar.
And when the interest was reciprocated, Snead was soon calling on Demoff and Kroenke to pitch them on the idea of adding Suh.
The key question being, as Snead recalled: “Can we get a little more allowance this week?”
You got it, Kroenke replied, greenlighting a $14 million one-year offer to Suh.
And finally, they did it by being persistent. Even after the Saints traded Cooks to the Patriots last offseason, Snead stayed on the case, if only to monitor the Patriots’ willingness to trade Cooks. As did McVay, who used a chance encounter with Bill Belichick at a recent coaching clinic to express interest.
All of which paid off when the Patriots, unable to procure a long-term contract extension with Cooks, offered him to the Rams at the cost of their first-round pick and a sixth-rounder in 2018.
Life moves fast, as they say. The Rams, to their credit, are keeping up. Even if it means trashing a blueprint and drawing up a new one on the fly.
An even better one, at that.
[www.ocregister.com]
