“I really believe in this team, this year, with what we have and with what we’re going to have. I fully expect this to be a playoff team. Everybody here believes in this team’s capability to have a run this year.” - Rams COO Kevin Demoff.
PHOENIX - Almost universally, the Los Angeles Rams are expected to take a step backwards in 2023 - in part because franchise leadership - after building a team that qualified for two Super Bowls in the last five years - have said it out loud.
But COO Kevin Demoff is now offering up an altered perspective.
“I really believe in this team, this year, with what we have and with what we’re going to have,” Demoff said here in Phoenix at the NFL owners meetings. “I fully expect this to be a playoff team. Everybody here believes in this team’s capability to have a run this year.”
Given the turnover of the roster, that seems to some a lofty claim - though Demoff cites foundational stars Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald as justification of the confidence.
And maybe he's confident, too, in his work alongside GM Les Snead and coach Sean McVay.
"This year, it’s the (same roster-building) model without a little bit of the ‘sizzle’ that has come outside of it,'' he said. "But I actually don’t feel that we’ve strayed too far from our core DNA under Sean and Les.”
Even so ... even Snead is joking about this offseason being "boring.''
Los Angeles is coming off of a 5-12 season and a challenging offseason during which the Rams traded away Jalen Ramsey and released Bobby Wagner. The cupboard is not exactly full of premium picks in the upcoming NFL Draft.
And yet Demoff doesn't seem to just be talking about contention in 2023; he's suggesting sustained contention, long-term contention.
"I don’t think you’ll ever see this team (leadership) comprised of Sean, Les, myself believe that ... we’re not capable of making the playoffs (and) making a run.''
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