The Dodgers have spent years collecting stars and hearing the same accusation from frustrated rivals and fans: They’re ruining baseball.
Quentin Lake thinks the Rams are beginning to inspire the same reaction around the NFL.
“The first thing that goes through your mind is, ‘Teams probably hate us,’” Lake told The Athletic. “All of these other teams probably hate us. We’re like the new Dodgers.”
For the Rams, that might be a compliment worth embracing.
The Dodgers have become baseball’s ultimate villain by repeatedly acquiring elite talent, spending aggressively and taking advantage of every roster-building mechanism available. The complaints are familiar. The important part is that they’re operating within the same rules available to everybody else.
The Rams are doing much the same thing — only with an NFL salary cap making the margin for error considerably smaller.
Los Angeles traded for Myles Garrett and All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, added Jaylen Watson to the secondary and then convinced Aaron Donald to come out of retirement.
The reaction from rivals suggests Lake isn’t imagining the resentment.
When the Rams landed Garrett, 49ers tackle Trent Williams summed up the reaction outside Los Angeles succinctly: “It sucks.”
Former Rams star Cooper Kupp, now with Seattle, jokingly texted Donald amid comeback speculation and told him, “Don’t even think about it.”
After the return became official, 49ers general manager John Lynch conceded: “They got better, certainly, with him deciding to come out of retirement. … We better get ready for it.”
But the Rams aren’t simply collecting recognizable names.
They already had a 12-win team, the reigning MVP in Matthew Stafford and a defense capable of contending. Their offseason moves targeted specific weaknesses at precisely the moment their championship window opened widest.
McDuffie and Watson strengthened a secondary that faltered late last season. Garrett transformed an already dangerous pass rush. Donald became the ultimate luxury addition to a front that led the NFL in four-man pressure rate without either superstar last year.
That has long been the Rams’ approach: recognize when the roster is close, then strike before the window closes.
The Dodgers receive plenty of criticism for doing essentially the same thing in baseball.
So, if NFL fans want to hate the Rams for it, Lake’s message might as well be: Bring it on.
In Los Angeles, all the hate is starting to sound less like an insult and more like proof that the plan is working.
