Quote:
Originally Posted by albany ed
Which blue chip free agents did the Rams sign in that year?
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The only significant free agent acquisition that year for the Rams was OBJ. Of course the year before they added A’shawn Robison and Leonard Floyd via free agency. And then you’ve got all the players they added via trade: Stafford, Ramsey, Von Miller, Sony Michel, Austin Corbet were all major contributors acquired by trade. 25 of the players on their 53 man roster were drafted by them, 28 were acquired by other means. I doubt that is the info you want though, it looks like you are trying to narrowly tailor the question as a “gotcha” to people that criticize Ballard. Even though that is almost no one’s complaint. That’s why you have to ask about “blue chip players” signed in the specific year they won the SB. You don’t want to discuss overall roster construction.
The closest recent team to your very narrow criteria was the prior year Bucs. They signed Brady, Antonio Brown and Leonard Fournette. And of course traded for Gronkowski. Out of their 53 man roster, they had 23 drafts pics, 22 free agents, 3 players by trade and the rest UDFA or waiver pic ups. Again, your super narrow criteria may exclude them, but looking at roster construction shows that you can win by doing more than waiting and drafting to fill holes. Which is the point of the Ballard critique - it’s not signing multiple big names every years as your question suggests. If Ballard traded for Sneed it wouldn’t count for your criteria but would have satisfied most Ballard critics (no need to defend passing on him, I don’t care about one specific transaction. It’s about the overall approach proven over multiple years)