How stable right now? Depends on your outlook. I'm thinking there is some truth to the "The debt is now due" stuff. The 5-12 season was not because they mortgaged the future for a championship. They had pieces in place for another run. The injury bug hit and they weren't prepared for it.
Now it appears the "Eff them picks" is starting to catch up to them. No first round pick. Not much cap space if any. Holes to fill. When people predict them to finish with a losing season its understandable. We only won 5 games and its not looking like we rebuilt the line. We're losing guys to free agency who were contributors. On the surface it looks like a rebuild is needed if they want to return to their winning ways in the future.
But its the NFL. Everyone is 0-0 right now. Teams turn things around quickly these days. The two most important spots we are good with. Quarterback and head coach. Build around that and who knows?
Those guys are not far from the twilight of their careers. I think they still have some elite level play left in them. But players in their 30's tend to suffer more injuries than when they were younger. That would be a concern.
I told Eagle fans they could be back in a couple of years after their 4-11-1 (2019) season because they had a great foundation on the offensive line of Kelcey at OC and Johnson at RT with Jordon Mailota in the wings to play LT. They also had a lot of draft picks which may have had something to do with the drafting of Jalen Hurts. I thought he was great insurance for Wentz. Almost all Eagles fans hated the pick.
My big question is how long does Stafford have left in the NFL?
He just turned 35 and has a history of injury and had a serious Spine/Spinal Cord Bruise just last year. Unfortunately, I don't see a replacement in the short-term future for 1-2 years. Somehow the Rams need to strengthen the offensive line now. The offense may not be too far behind years past with a couple of new additions to the offensive line and possibly Bruss ready to start in year two.
No way around that the Rams foundation is older players Stafford, Kupp and Donald. The Rams moved on from Bwagz and could be moving on from Floyd and or Ramsey. Moving Kupp and Donald wouldn't make sense at this time, at least to me. The Rams can create cap space with trades and restructures.
I don't see a complete rebuild now. I do think they need to make an adjustment to trading high-round draft picks. You are right that the “
Eff them picks” has started to catch up to them. I'm interested in seeing what moves they decide to make this year. Will they make moves to remodel for 2023, 2024 and 2025 before Stafford retires and still be a contender?
You always want to keep your early draft picks after a really bad season.