Los Angeles Rams looking for next edge after building Super Bowl champion roster through superstar trades

LOS ANGELES — Standing on top of a double-decker bus driving through the city, general manager Les Snead took in the Los Angeles Rams' Super Bowl parade. His attire — a white long-sleeve shirt with his photo and the line, «F--- them picks» — was a nod to the method that got them to the moment.

Five years after the Rams hired coach Sean McVay to pair with Snead, Los Angeles won a Super Bowl. The Rams did it with a nontraditional roster build — constructing the top of the roster mostly through the trade market instead of first-round picks. The next challenge is sustaining their success.

As the Rams enter the 2022 season, which starts Thursday at SoFi Stadium against the Buffalo Bills (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC), they face another obstacle: Repeating as Super Bowl champs. The last team to win back-to-back Super Bowls was the New England Patriots in 2003 and 2004.

It has been challenging, even for teams that have been built for sustained success, like the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle, which went to the playoffs eight times in nine seasons between the 2012 and 2020 seasons, won one Super Bowl during that period.

And despite the hope from the Rams that they've extended their window — thanks to signing McVay, quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Kupp to contract extensions and reworking defensive tackle Aaron Donald's contract to ensure he didn't retire — to build on their Super Bowl victory, it only takes a look at recent history to see why it's such an uphill climb in the salary cap era.

«You lose your players like Von Miller because other players like Cooper Kupp need more money and to win you need everything right,» former NFL GM and ESPN analyst Mike Tannenbaum said. «I'm not taking anything away because they deserve