South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
The stars align
Rams are confident their big names will deliver vs. Bucs
Von Miller remembers every detail of each time he has sacked Tom Brady, starting all the way back in his second NFL season a decade ago.
He savored and catalogued their meetings over their years, highlighted by the AFC championship game in which Miller dropped Brady 2 ½ times in the Broncos’ win over the Patriots in January 2016.
“Whenever he decides to retire, those are the sacks that you’re going to remember,” Miller said. “You remember the sacks going against the great quarterbacks, against the great teams. These are the type of sacks that I’ll tell my son about.”
Miller has the chance to add to his memory bank Sunday when his Rams visit Brady’s Buccaneers for a berth in the NFC championship game.
Miller is in position to chase Brady again precisely because he’s done it before. The Rams (13-5) added the three-time All-Pro linebacker to an already solid pass rush at great cost this season because they believe elite players give them the best opportunity to beat Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Kyler Murray and the rest of the NFC’s top quarterbacks on the way back to the Super Bowl.
The Rams have spent a half decade making salary cap contortions and sacrificing draft picks because they believe stars will light their path to the top. While some teams patiently stockpile homegrown talent and hope to hit the jackpot, Los Angeles attempts to make its own luck by paying any price necessary to land the best players.
Miller, Jalen Ramsey, Matthew Stafford and Odell Beckham Jr. all joined the Rams over the past two-plus years, three of them arriving in blockbuster trades that cost the Rams multiple draft picks. They’ve already delivered an NFC West title and a playoff victory to a team with five consecutive winning seasons under coach Sean McVay, and the Rams have won six of their past seven games overall. But paying top prices for premium players means the Rams have high stakes in January. They realize this team-up will be widely perceived as a failure unless they reach their hometown Super Bowl next month — but nobody in the Rams’ training complex seems worried.
In fact, the Rams’ big names uniformly welcome the pressure. They didn’t get where they are today by flinching under outside scrutiny.
“It’s the nature of it,” said Beckham, who got his first playoff TD catch and postseason victory last week. “These are the moments that you, as a kid, you waited for, you prayed for, and now have the opportunity to play for. And that’s really what matters, is being great in these moments. Regular season is cool, but ... I don’t want to say it doesn’t mean anything, but everything is about (the playoffs).”
The Rams’ acquisitions aren’t the only big names in horned helmets, since two of their three All-Pros are their own draft picks: defensive tackle Aaron Donald and NFL receiving leader Cooper Kupp. The top of the Rams’ depth chart is undeniably impressive, but every one of their big names has embraced the team-first mentality required by McVay, Donald and the Rams’ team captains.
“All those guys are our leaders, and they’re also our best players,” offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell said. “And when they’re doing those two things, leading you with their performance, but then also with the standard they set as leaders, that does so much for all of us.”