Star-studded Rams, upstart Bengals meet in Super Bowl with contrasting team-building styles

If Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals is anything, it’s a snapshot of two franchises who took two different paths with their rosters to reach the championship game.

There are the Rams, a roster full of pieced-together heavyweights whose collective personalities match that of the flashy city they represent. And then there are the Bengals, for years known for their frugality, who took a more traditional route to the organization’s first championship appearance since 1988.

In a league where teams have increasingly used various maneuvers to bypass the typical strangleholds of the salary cap and become receptive to trading away draft picks, the Rams have eschewed the tried-and-true method of team-building.

To get a sense of the lengths they’ve gone to acquire high-end talent, picture this: Los Angeles last used a first-round pick in 2016, when it selected quarterback Jared Goff (Goff would eventually be sent, along with two future first-rounders, to Detroit in the trade that brought back Matthew Stafford).

When the Rams used that pick on Goff, Jalen Ramsey was a young(er), brash rookie defensive back ready to make a name for himself. Stafford was toiling in mediocrity with the Lions. Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was still a New York Giant, his then-blond hair raved about in pop culture. And outside linebacker Von Miller was a newly-minted Super Bowl MVP.

All four find themselves on the Rams now, one win away from reaching the pinnacle of their careers. In mortgaging their future for the present, Los Angeles has also risked assembling a top-heavy, depth-strapped roster that could crumble with one or two major injuries. However, the Rams front office, led by general manager Les Snead, has filled out the rest of the team with pinpoint picks on Day 2 and Day 3 of the NFL Draft. Wide receiver and Offensive Player of the Year Cooper Kupp, safety Taylor Rapp and running back Cam Akers are among the team’s notable contributors who weren’t selected within the first 32 picks of their respective drafts.

The all-in philosophy has ultimately served the Rams well, with their second Super Bowl appearance under Sean McVay since he became head coach in 2017.

“We’re very confident,” said McVay, whose Rams will play at home stadium SoFi Stadium, the second consecutive season a Super Bowl team will play at home. “We’re ready to go. Then we’ve just got to play great in that window that we’ve got. There’s a good look in their eyes. I think there’s a good urgency, but also I just have a good feel about this team. I feel excited to watch them go and do their thing.”

When one looks at the Bengals, you see another reminder of the fruits of building through the draft and hitting on the game’s most important position. Before the 2020 Draft, Cincinnati was a 2-14 team with the No. 1 overall pick, which was used on quarterback Joe Burrow.

A year later, the Bengals were slotted with the No. 4 overall pick — which they used on receiver and Offensive Rookie of the Year Ja’Maar Chase — still perceived as a rebuilding franchise. But Burrow’s meteoric rise, even more impressive after a torn ACL that robbed him of most of his rookie year, has the Bengals among the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills as the AFC’s heavyweights for the foreseeable future.

Cincinnati has doled out money in free agency in recent years but the foundation of the team still lies in homegrown talents such as Burrow, Chase, running back Joe Mixon (No. 48 pick in 2017 Draft) and safety Jessie Bates (No. 54 overall pick in 2018 Draft).

With close to $60 million expected in cap room this offseason and a roster full of young talent, Cincinnati’s run in the AFC is likely just getting started. But the Bengals, an uber-confident, charismatic bunch which earlier in the postseason was defined by a “Why not us?” mantra, have quickly shed their underdog label.

“That’s not even something we think about it,” Burrow said of the franchise’s three-decades-long drought without a trip to the Super Bowl. “What happened in the past happened in the past. Obviously we weren’t a great team for several years and now we’re in the Super Bowl. You’ve got to give credit to the organization for building the team that we have. They’ve done a great job in free agency and in the draft of building in players that fit the culture that we’re creating and are also taking care of business on the field.”

Kickoff at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. eastern time.

This story was originally published February 12, 2022 at 5:07 PM.

Daniel Oyefusi

Miami Herald

Daniel Oyefusi covers the Dolphins for the Miami Herald. A native of Towson, Maryland, he graduated from the University of Maryland: College Park. Previously, he covered the Ravens for The Baltimore Sun.