Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff knows a thing or two about building a Super Bowl team. It was just two years back that Atlanta, behind a bevy of young playmakers on both sides of the ball, held a 28-3 lead over the New England Patriots in the third quarter of Super Bowl LI. The Falcons' epic collapse doesn't need revisiting, and neither does the team's ensuing struggles to make good on all the promise it showed in 2017.
Dimitroff, clearly, knows how quickly fortunes change in the NFL, just like they did for the Los Angeles Rams after a wild offseason that's culminated in the team's first Super Bowl appearance since 2001. General manager Les Snead was the architect behind Los Angeles' bold plan of attack, one that apparently left Dimitroff, a notoriously aggressive decision-maker, in something close to awe.
“I said to [Snead], I am highly impressed, and that’s not easy to do,” he said on the “PFT Live” radio show. “Les has always had a real focus on winning and he will drive toward that. He's a ballsy guy and he’s going to make ballsy moves and to his credit he’s done it.”
Indeed. Last offseason, the Rams traded for star cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib; signed hulking defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to a one-year, $14 million deal; traded for speedy wideout Brandin Cooks, who was subsequently granted an $81 million extension; and locked up franchise pillars Aaron Donald and Todd Gurley for the long haul. Not bad for a few months' worth of work, right?
We'll see how it pays off on Sunday against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.
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