Rams’ Exec: Why I Don’t View Showdown with Brady, Bucs as Title Game Preview

(EDITOR’S NOTE: To access the Kevin Demoff interview, click on the following attachment: Ep 73: Rams COO Kevin Demoff Joins The Show | Spreaker)

The team most often mentioned as the threat to Tampa Bay in the NFC is not Green Bay. It’s the Los Angeles Rams.

They’re young. They’re talented. And they’re unbeaten. They have Aaron Donald. They have Jalen Ramsey. They have Matthew Stafford. And they have the Tampa Bay Bucs – the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Bucs – next on their schedule.

The two meet Sunday afternoon in a game advertised as a potential NFC championship preview … everywhere, apparently, but L.A.

“I don’t view this as a conference championship preview,” Rams’ COO Kevin Demoff said on this week’s “Eye Test for Two” podcast. “Our division is tough. We have three (other) undefeated teams here in the NFC West. If it winds up being an NFC conference preview, great. But there’s still so much to play.

“They’re a really good team, well coached and we played (Tampa coach) Bruce Arians a ton in my time here in our division when he was with the Cardinals — and he always gave us fits. It will be a really good test for us. I think it’ll be a good test for them … I’m sure both teams would gladly sign up for this to be a conference championship preview, which means we both got there. I’d just be happy right now if it was a wildcard week.”

That, of course, would mean both teams qualified for the playoffs. But who’s kidding whom? The Bucs return all 22 starters from last year’s Super Bowl champions, including game MVP Tom Brady. The Rams, meanwhile, swapped out quarterback Jared Goff for Stafford, whom the Rams coveted so dearly they dealt Goff, two first-round draft picks and a third to acquire him.

Put them together, and you have two heavyweights seemingly headed for a postseason head-on.

In fact, there’s a feeling that the Rams’ willingness to mortgage the future for Ramsey and Stafford the past two years (they sacrificed six draft picks, including four first-rounders) has them in a Super Bowl-or-bust posture, a notion Demoff didn’t entirely deny.

“I think people have said we’re in a Super Bowl-or-bust mentality since 2018,” he said, referring to the last season the Rams reached a Super Bowl. “Every year I hear when we trade away draft picks, it’s Super Bowl or bust … the window is closing …

“I think our viewpoint is we need to push the chips to be competitive every year. I think you can look at Tampa similarly as well. When you have good teams and good players you have to find a way to maximize that window.

“There’s this misconception in the NFL that windows stay open a long time … (but) what the Patriots did has warped people’s perspectives as to what windows look like. Sean Payton and the Saints went to one Super Bowl with Drew Brees. You look at Aaron Rodgers who’s been to one Super Bowl. Ben Roethlisberger hasn’t been in a decade.

“Super Bowl windows are hard, and if you’re not the Buccaneers … you’re not all these teams that are trying to maximize them every year … then I don’t think you’re doing your organization and your fans a service.”

Like everyone else, the Rams look at the Bucs as the hurdle they must overcome to reach Super Bowl LVI. They must have thought it couldn’t happen with Goff, even though he led them to a 27-24 defeat of Brady and the Bucs last November and was 42-20 in four seasons with coach Sean McVay.

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So they did what they felt was necessary to upgrade the quarterback position, though Stafford is a 33-year quarterback with a 76-90-1 career record, three playoff appearances and no playoff wins. A gamble? Maybe. But the Rams strongly believe Stafford can do for them what Brady last year did for Tampa Bay.

“There’s a difference between being aggressive and reckless,” said Demoff, “and I would like to put our team in the aggressive category and not the reckless category (by) trading first-round picks. When you look at a Jalen Ramsey … when you look at a Matthew Stafford and the effect that they’ve had on our team … I think we would say they’ve been well worth it.

“We’re still the youngest team in the NFL. You still have to have a draft-and-develop mentality to go along with the high-priced talent. And I think there’s this balance now of: How do you build the best possible team in 2021 and look with an eye to 2022 and 2023? I think there are lots of ways to reconfigure a team every year to be competitive, and if you’re not doing that, then you’re probably not doing your job correctly.

“If you’re in a rebuild phase, that’s one thing. But if you have an Aaron Donald, a Jalen Ramsey, a Matthew Stafford, a Cooper Kupp, a Robert Woods, you’re not in a rebuild phase. You’re in a phase where you should be competitive every year. And so far, so good with that.”