With many star players under contract, the Rams are well positioned for a rebound season, but GM Les Snead preferred to call it a remodel and not a rebuild, Gilbert Manzano of the Los Angeles Daily News reports. Snead doesn’t intend on completely tearing down what the organization has built the past few seasons, but he hinted that changes are coming and that could mean one or multiple core players might be playing elsewhere in 2023.

“Every year, there’s an element of remodel tweaks,” Snead said. “We’re very well aware at some of our core players are in their primes and getting closer to the twilight of their primes. But that does not mean when you’re a player like that in your prime, that you’re still not very, very productive and can be very successful in this league. So, we’ll have that balance of trying to navigate those waters while still being very competitive in the micro, and then also realizing, you know, from a macro standpoint, there is going to be an element where we’re probably gonna have to, let’s call it, not press the gas as much, pay a little bit of the debt that we’ve accumulated.”

Pressing the gas turned the Rams into a yearly Super Bowl contender, but they shipped most of their top draft picks to land the star players they have under contract, which has led to a tight salary cap. The Rams are currently $14 million over the salary cap, according to OvertheCap.com, and will need to make some tough decisions in the coming months to get under the red line.

Snead is considering a shift in philosophy because the Rams are no longer a few productive “Day 3” draft picks away from being a Super Bowl team. The Rams’ blueprint was to acquire proven talent by trading away first- and second-round draft picks and rely on the scouting department to find a few hidden gems in the middle to late rounds of the draft to complement the star-studded core group.

Now they’re a top-heavy roster with plenty of holes and that might make the Rams prioritize their top draft picks in the coming years. Snead said he’s expecting to have 10 draft picks this year, including compensatory draft picks.

Snead called this Phase 3 of the McVay era and it might look similar to Phase 1, when McVay quickly turned the Rams into a playoff team with quarterback Jared Goff in 2017 after years of losing from the organization.

Phase 2 was the “all gas, no brakes” period with trades for Stafford and Ramsey, but now the Rams have to pay the debt.

“There’s moments where you go, ‘OK, wait a minute, maybe pressing the gas and going to be one of 32 is not good at this particular moment,’” Snead said about an all-in approach. “But in those moments where I often say we’re going back to 2017, when you get back to going, ‘OK, let’s just take this thing one game at a time, one day at a time.’ And, wow, you’re competitive and you get to the tournament, and you have a chance.”

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