In the early 1970s, Carroll Rosenbloom and Robert Irsay traded the Colts and Rams franchises. That swap came to mind for me this morning when perusing Peter King’s Football Morning in America column.
King shared a quote from Robert Irsay’s son, Jim, regarding the manner in which the Rams of recent years have done business, and where it has left them.
“There was an article recently saying the Rams mortgaged their future and now they’re paying for it after they won the Super Bowl and had all that success, with the draft picks not being there,” Irsay said. “To me, that’s what you have to be careful about.”
Irsay’s remarks land on the wrong side of the line the unspoken line regarding public comments by owners regarding other teams. Regardless, he has a point. The Rams have been trading away high-round draft picks for proven players for years now. They last used a first-round pick in 2016, when the surrendered draft capital to get up to No. 1 and select Jared Goff -- a quarterback they’d eventually: (1) overpay; and (2) give up a first-round pick (as a practical matter) to clear from the roster.
So King asks a question, focusing on some tangible factors. Which team would you rather be?.
“The Rams, 49-33 in the last five regular seasons with two conference titles and one Super Bowl championship, $5.1 million under the cap (per overthecap.com), with a franchise quarterback, with 11 draft picks overall this year and three in the top 100?
“Or the Colts, 41-40-1 in the last five regular seasons with zero conference titles and zero Super Bowl championships, $12.5 million under the cap, searching for a franchise quarterback, with nine draft picks overall this year and three in the top 100 -- albeit the fourth overall pick?”
The Rams, as King notes, have appeared in two of the last five Super Bowls. The Colts, in contrast, have won a single playoff game (vs. the Texans in the 2018 wild-card round) since 2018.
The NFL is constantly a looking-forward league. And, looking forward, I’d rather be the Colts. For starters, the Rams continue to struggle to truly make SoFi Stadium the “Rams House.” In Indy, they pack the place even when Irsay throws a dart into a crowd of former players and hires the one it hits to be the interim head coach for more than half the season.
Also, “franchise quarterback” is a bit of a stretch right now for Matthew Stafford of the Rams. He’s an old 35. His contract is way too expensive, with another $57 million becoming fully guaranteed last month. (And, yes, they would have traded him if they’d gotten a viable offer to do so.)
Even though he’s healthy enough to participate in the offseason program, Stafford is the epitome of the lather, rinse, repeat cycle that involves a player fighting to get to 100 percent and then inevitably getting injured again. He’s tough, he’s gritty, he plays through bumps and bruises. But he gets too many bumps and bruises, which eventually become injuries that limit his effectiveness and, ultimately, ability to play.
The Rams, despite recent successes, are currently in the early stages of paying the rookie-meal bill for their “f--k them picks” Super Bowl win. And they know it. Their head coach seriously considered abandoning ship until he received sufficient internal and external pressure to not run away from the mess he helped create.
In L.A., the stars have started leaving and it’s going to continue. This likely will be defensive tackle Aaron Donald’s last year with the Rams. Stafford’s contract eventually will create a cap mess, whenever the Rams cut the cord.
Still, the Rams are in the NFC, which is clearly the easier conference to navigate at this point. The Colts are in a division that hasn’t been great in recent years, but the Jaguars have emerged and the Titans are the Titans and the Texans inevitably will be better than horrible. Beyond the AFC South, powerhouses like the Chiefs, Bengals, and Bills are lurking, and there are few cupcakes.
The draft will make a difference in the perceived prospects of both teams for 2023 and beyond. Yes, the Rams have 11 picks and three in the top 100. But the Colts have the fourth overall selection. The Rams gifted the sixth overall pick to the Lions, as part of the Stafford-for-Goff hot potato trade.
It’s good that the Rams won Super Bowl LVI, obviously. But the Rams have fallen faster than any Super Bowl winner ever has. Looking forward, there’s a chance it will be a challenging few years for the Rams, as they deal with the hangover from the drunken excess that carried them to the top of the mountain.
The Lombardi Trophy won’t ever be taken away. But the Rams have ample work to do to become the consistent contenders they were from 2018 through 2021. If the Colts end up with a true franchise quarterback via the fourth overall pick (it’s hardly a guarantee at this point), they can become the consistent contender that they were with Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck.
