Tag: Odell Beckham Jr.

The Rams’ path to glory is not the model to copy

From Thursday to Saturday, the NFL Draft is taking place in Las Vegas. With these picks come eternal hope, for teams and their fans alike, that the players selected can be a part of building something special. Entering the draft, eight squads didn’t have a pick in the first round. One of those teams come in the form of the newly-crowned Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, who have famously put a value on veterans over draft picks in their pursuit of championships. It a high-risk, high reward strategy, and even if the reward is a title or two, the result of future futility is almost certain.

We all know Rams general manager Les Snead is known for saying “F*** Them Picks,” even wearing a t-shirt with the phrase on it during the team’s championship parade. When it comes to a winning window, there’s no telling how long that could last. Since the New England Patriots went back-to-back in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, there hasn’t been a repeat champion. So the question a squad’s front office has to answer is how to go about building a team that can compete for titles. Is it being patient to build through the draft and develop young players, or is stacking the team with established veterans to enhance the all-in, win now mentality? For L.A., the answer was clearly the latter.

So the frenzy of trading the draft picks began, and the Rams turned to free agency to fill the rest of the holes on the roster. The main chess piece was quarterback Matthew Stafford, who the team sent previous starter Jared Goff, two first-round picks and a third-rounder to the Detroit Lions to receive before last season. It took a couple more first-rounders and a fourth-round pick to get cornerback Jalen Ramsey from the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2019. Wanna get linebacker Von Miller (now with the Buffalo Bills) from the Denver Broncos? L.A. said here’s a second and third-round pick in return. Looking for a wide receiver to complement Cooper Kupp? Let’s sign Odell Beckham Jr. While trading all of these picks seem a little insane, one can respect a team going for it when the opportunity presents itself.

Let’s not forget the Rams played in the Super Bowl at the end of the 2018 season, losing to the Patriots 13-3. Getting that close to the title can definitely drive motivation to get back and finish the job. Seeing what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did in winning a Super Bowl in their home stadium, combined with knowing this past title game was in SoFi Stadium, only added to the fire. All of this equaled L.A.’s willingness to sacrifice the future for a potentially-brighter present, and with Snead and head coach Sean McVay on the same page, “F*** Them Picks” became one of the most famous memes out there.

If a win-now strategy pays off, fans and media will say it’s all worth it to win a championship, especially when celebrations are happening at the time. If that’s the case, there shouldn’t be any complaints when their squad has no future to build upon because of the lack of draft picks. The purgatory is probably coming for the Rams, and with the world living in the moment more than ever, those same fans who said the title was worth it will be the ones calling out the future being in peril. With that said, there are multiple ways to put a team together to win. L.A. found one that worked for them, but by no means should it be a model to copy. Therefore, the standard is not the standard in this case. There is still a lot of value in the draft, and over time, the Rams will see that also.

A few NFL teams that should be banned from air time

When a person turns on a television, listens to a radio or monitors a website on their computer or smartphone, it’s hard not to notice the huge amount of mess that is accessible to the eyes and ears. Part of that mess is teams in the NFL that continuously get air time, even though their performance on the field says they shouldn’t be talked about at all. Some of these teams may have historical significance in terms of winning championships in the past, while others have been given unnecessary hype because of a few offseason moves. Either way, these teams have either underachieved, or have been overall trash. A few of the teams I am talking about are the Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns and both of the New York teams, the Giants and Jets. These teams get talked about way too much while the product on the field is subpar at best.

Let’s start with the Cowboys, who are currently in first place in the NFC East. Seeing this fact alone would make someone want to ask me why I’m listening Dallas as one of these overhyped teams. It’s because they have a 6-7 record while playing in a garbage division no one seems to want, and the headlines are the same as always. Head coach Jason Garrett is in supposed jeopardy of losing his job, but this has been the case ever since Garrett took over the position in 2010. Jerry Jones, the owner and general manager of the team, continues to try and sell to anyone who will listen this is a team who can win a Super Bowl, something the Cowboys haven’t done since the 1995 season. Dallas is one of those teams who have historical value (on top of being the world’s most valuable sports franchise) and when this is the case, the media seems to hang on anything that can be a sign of a return to glory. Factually, the Cowboys are far removed from those winning ways, and we can’t continue to hold on to past history when recent history says they are as close to average as any team can get on the field of play. The play is what it should be about, and until the day comes where changes at head coach and owner are made, or the record gets better, there’s no reason why Dallas should get as much attention as they get.

Speaking of unwarranted attention, there’s no better definition of this than the Cleveland Browns. I just talked about how average the Cowboys have been, but the Browns would have a championship parade if they were close to average. If you don’t believe me, just go back a couple of years, when the city of Cleveland threw a parade for the Browns going 0-16 in 2017. At any rate, this is a team that came in to this season with a lot of excitement, and understandably so. They have an up-and-coming quarterback in Baker Mayfield, a good running back in Nick Chubb, a wide receiver duo featuring Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry and a good defense. Sure, Cleveland has a lot of young talent, but Super Bowl contending status? That’s what numerous media members thought. After 12 games, it looks like the Browns are still, well, the Browns. They are 5-7, and are in grave danger of missing the playoffs, something that has happened every year since 2002. Because of all of the preseason hype, ESPN, Fox Sports and other television and radio stations continue to talk about Cleveland like they are one of the elite teams in the league. Maybe this is breaking news to some, but one thing they’re not is elite, and reality has to set in at some point. The Browns aren’t good, and there will be plenty of time to talk about them around NFL Draft time, but not in December. This month is meant for actual playoff contenders, and Cleveland is not that. Get ’em out!

If anyone thinks the Browns are overhyped (which I clearly do), just imagine how much worse it would be if they were playing in the nation’s No. 1 media market, which is New York City. That’s the only reason why the Giants and Jets continue to stay somewhat relevant, because saying their play on the field has been garbage is an insult to trash cans everywhere. The Giants sit at 2-10, and the Jets are 4-8. The Giants, as bad as they have been the last few years, have at least won a couple of championships recently.The Jets? They have done next to nothing on the field for decades now. For this season, they are best known for being the first victory for the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals, two teams that were looked at as tanking the season. If the Giants and Jets played anywhere else besides New York, there’s no way they stay in the media cycle as much as they do. It’s a good thing we were created with minds, so we can look past all of the hype and see how truly bad these two teams are.

I understand this article seems funny because I’m talking about these teams getting too much air time, and by writing this story, I’m doing the same thing I’m coming after media outlets about. The main thing I wanted to point out is all of the hype and history can only carry a team so far, because if they’re not winning, it’ll get harder and harder to hold on to these nuggets of hope. The Cowboys, Browns, Giants and Jets are simply not as good as the narrative would have us believe, and we have to see it for what it is, not from a fantasy world. The reality is these teams, among others, have not been good, and they shouldn’t be covered like they’re perennial championship contenders when they are anything but. The teams that are actually doing something are who should get the attention, and hopefully, more people can see it this way.