As the confetti dropped on Sunday night at SoFi Stadium, the Los Angeles Rams celebrated like a group that has checked off another box but knows they have one left to go. They did what the Green Bay Packers couldn’t, eliminating the San Francisco 49ers to clinch a spot in the Super Bowl. Both LA and Green Bay pushed a lot of chips into the middle of the table this year, and the Rams’ approach proved to be better.
Green Bay’s salary-cap situation this year and heading into next put a lot of pressure on this group to get it done. After an NFC Championship loss at home in 2020, the Packers brought back just about every core piece from that team to run it back in 2021.
Offseason drama with Aaron Rodgers subsided, and cryptic social media messages from both he and Davante Adams made it clear that this was indeed a last dance of sorts. However, it turned out to be the type of dance where the Packers end up sitting in the corner watching everyone else on the dance floor enjoying the night.
All indicators are that Za’Darius Smith won’t be back. He hinted at that himself, thanking Green Bay in what felt like a goodbye.
Randall Cobb won’t be brought back at his current salary number, and Preston Smith will be due a well-deserved extension. Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling are free agents. So are Rasul Douglas and De’Vondre Campbell. Worse yet, nobody has any clue what Rodgers will do.
Green Bay went all in, something the franchise typically hasn’t done — at least not to this degree. It ended up being a miserable failure. They are left picking up the scraps to try and salvage what they can this offseason. The Packers went all in by bringing back their core. They pushed as many contracts into backloaded deals as they could while flipping plenty of money into signing bonuses so they could try and win it now.
LA tried a slightly different approach. The Rams have recently treated draft picks as a nuisance, sending them off to other teams to acquire proven talent. They did it when they picked up Jalen Ramsey a couple of years back. They did it this offseason when they acquired Matthew Stafford. And they did it in-season when they nabbed Von Miller. All three players have been crucial to LA’s successes this year.
Green Bay values their draft picks like a hoarder values closet space. Watching the Rams send one pick after another away likely gave the Packers’ front office a nauseous feeling. The route LA has taken may not be the most conventional, but you can’t argue with the results. They’ll feel an effect on draft night when everyone else is having fun and they are stuck twiddling their thumbs — but with a Super Bowl ring on one finger.
And that isn’t the only way the Rams have gone all in to win it this year. Acquiring Von Miller at the trade deadline was strictly made for a final push in 2021. There’s no guarantee Miller is back with the Rams after this year, and they knew that when they pulled the trigger on the trade.
Likewise, scooping up Odell Beckham Jr. after the Cleveland Browns sent him packing in the middle of the year was a decision the Rams made knowing OBJ may play elsewhere next year. They didn’t care. The Rams and the Packers were reportedly the two finalists for OBJ, and he chose Stafford and the bright lights of LA and over Rodgers and Green Bay. It’s worked out well for Beckham. It could have in Green Bay too, but that chapter will never be written. Now, the Rams have one last chapter of their own to write.
All the moves the Rams have made will be for naught if they don’t hoist the Lombardi Trophy in two weeks. It’s an incredible accomplishment to win the NFC. Sean McVay, Les Snead, and the entire brain trust deserve plenty of kudos. They rolled the dice with some moves to invest in a win-now window, and it’s resulted in a conference championship and a date with the Cincinnati Bengals. However, even they would admit that it won’t be a success unless they are the last ones standing.
There are different paths teams can take to go all-in for a season. The Rams and the Packers both tried variations on the theme this year. And while the Packers got the better of LA in the regular season, Green Bay’s postseason pitfalls proved insurmountable. The Rams have some big expiring contracts, and they don’t have many draft picks throughout the next two seasons, making their future murky. But they are one of the last two teams standing this year. Their version of an all-in plan worked out better than Green Bay’s.
