The Los Angeles Rams' 2021 season was a massive success, as they managed to walk away from it as Super Bowl champions. For the 2022 NFL offseason, their goal was to fine tune their roster in order to ensure a similar run during the 2022 season.
Based on how their roster looks heading into training camp, the Rams are in a pretty good spot to be Super Bowl contenders out of the NFC again. Their offense still has tons of weapons, and their defense remains one of the most imposing units in the league.
While the Rams made some solid moves this offseason, there's a chance that a couple of moves that they made (or didn't make, for that matter) could come back and prevent them from repeating as Super Bowl champions. Let's take a look at two of the worst moves Los Angeles made this offseason that could end up ruining their 2022 season.
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Los Angeles Rams worst offseason moves
2. Trading Robert Woods
Robert Woods really made a name for himself during his stint with the Los Angeles Rams. He developed alongside Cooper Kupp to form a deadly one-two punch at wide receiver that helped keep their offense afloat during the Jared Goff days, when his struggles were on display quite often.
Woods helped the Rams get off the ground last season, but he only lasted nine games before he tore his ACL during a practice and was ruled out for the season. Los Angeles was able to successfully replace Woods with Odell Beckham Jr. to help them win the Super Bowl, and then they went out and signed Allen Robinson in free agency. That paved the way for Woods to get traded at some point this offseason.
Losing talented playmakers hurts, but the fact that the Rams traded Woods to the Tennessee Titans for just a sixth-round pick is embarrassing. Yes, they needed to shed some salary so that they could bring Robinson aboard, but Woods had been an extremely valuable receiver during his time with the Rams. There's no way that a sixth-round pick can be justified as a worthy return for a player of Woods' caliber.
It's clear that the Rams upgraded at wide receiver by replacing Woods with Robinson. But the fact that they got such little value in return for him here makes this a pretty bad move for the Rams. They almost certainly should have gotten more in return for Woods, and the fact that they didn't makes this an easy choice for one of their worst offseason moves.
1. Allowing Von Miller to sign with the Buffalo Bills
The Rams picked up Von Miller in a midseason trade with the Denver Broncos, and it might have won them a Super Bowl. Miller was extremely productive throughout the playoffs for Los Angeles when he was paired up alongside Aaron Donald, and without his contributions, the Rams probably don't walk away from the 2021 season as Super Bowl champions.
That is why it was so surprising to see Miller sign with the Buffalo Bills on a massive six year, $120 million deal rather than re-signing with the Rams. Reports had come out that Los Angeles was closing in on a deal for Miller, and it seemed like a certainty that he would be returning to the Rams to try to run it back and win a ring for the second straight season.
Instead, they allowed a top competitor in the AFC to snatch him away from them. Obviously, there are tons of factors that resulted in Miller heading for Buffalo rather than staying in L.A., but it feels like a big mistake on the Rams part to have let him leave in free agency after all he did for them in the playoffs last season.
The other reason this is a problem is because the Rams didn't really do anything to replace Miller throughout the offseason either. They addressed their middle linebacker spot by signing Bobby Wagner, but didn't do much in the way of replacing Miller. Leonard Floyd still is around as a solid secondary pass rusher, but other than him and Donald, the Rams don't really have much pass-rushing on their roster.
The Rams' defense is still in good shape, but losing Miller hurts here. Their failure to bring in any sort of replacement also looms as an issue, and it will be interesting to see if Los Angeles struggles to generate consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks, even with Donald on the field. This issue could have been addressed had they just re-signed Miller, and their decision to let him walk stands alone as the team's worst move of the offseason.
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