OK, Les, what have you done lately?

Just kidding. Rams general manager Les Snead should get a pass for at least a few days – at least through Wednesday’s parade, right? – before starting to concern himself with how the new Super Bowl champions will defend their title. (If he rests for that long.)

But there’s one last bit of business to clean up before we put the 2021 season in the rearview mirror. It is entirely accurate to say the Rams wouldn’t be champions without the Matthew Stafford trade last January, or the Von Miller trade at midseason, or the Odell Beckham Jr. signing, or the 30 some homegrown players who (a) belie the common wisdom that the Rams don’t care about draft picks and (b) underline the importance of those lower-round choices who, if developed wisely, can be of outsized importance in a game of attrition.

In other words, without the GM’s guiding hand the Lombardi Trophy wouldn’t be the centerpiece of Wednesday’s celebration through the streets of L.A.

Yet the Pro Football Writers of America selected Bill Belichick as that organization’s NFL Executive of the Year, an award announced in January. Belichick, in his dual role as coach and personnel boss, revamped the New England Patriots’ roster after missing the playoffs in 2020. The Patriots went from 7-9 to 10-7, though the magic ended when they were drilled by Buffalo in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

I get it. It’s a regular-season award, and a lot of the time it goes to one who does more with fewer expectations (and isn’t that a switch in New England). But if the NFL’s Holy Grail is the championship, and you have a GM who made the key moves both before and during the season to get his team to that confetti celebration … well, maybe the guy who truly deserves the honor is getting overlooked.

Not here. Snead is This Space’s NFL Executive of the Year for 2021-22 (a purely unofficial award, since this is a low-budget column.) He’s the guy not only because his moves were successful but because he bypassed the safe route repeatedly, with moves that weren’t just bold but swashbuckling – and often worked.

“I’m just really pleased to be associated with a group that is not afraid to shoot their shot and take chances on things we feel (are) in the best interest of the football team,” Coach Sean McVay said after Sunday night’s 23-20 Super Bowl victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. “There are a lot of rolled eyes at us, but we believe in those things and we’re going to do things that we think are in the best interest.”

Ah, yes, the eye rolls.

The narrative was that Stafford, a quarterback who had never won anything in 12 previous seasons, would be shaken or at least shaky in a Super Bowl-or-Bust atmosphere (even though not having that as a reachable goal might have been precisely the problem in Detroit). Miller was said to be on the downside of his career at 32, yet he had five sacks in the last four games of the regular season and four in the playoffs, including two Sunday.

And Beckham? A reputation might have preceded him, but there’s a reason why Rams players implored Snead to sign him after he was waived by Cleveland. Reputations can be way off.

There’s a pattern. The culture that exists in the Rams’ locker room – the same one that had wide receiver Robert Woods offering equal parts consolation and inspiration after Beckham wrecked his knee in the second quarter Sunday – might be overlooked but it’s real. Players who arrive from elsewhere fit in because they’re allowed to be themselves and to do what they do best. Coaches and staffers are encouraged to be imaginative. The safe route – Snead calls it “getting to 8-8,” though that expression might have to be tweaked for a 17-game schedule – is not for them.

“Sometimes when we sit here I don’t know if we look at ourselves (like) the rest of the league is zigging and us zagging,” Snead said in the days leading up to the Super Bowl. “But maybe that is the case. … We definitely try to think differently and do things a little bit differently. And not just in player acquisitions and not just in the scheme, but in athletic performance and in nutrition and in mental health, the little things that, hey, can we get an edge there? And all of that compounding over time (maybe gives) us an edge.

“Everything we do is not always going to work out, but if we actually have enough research, enough data to think, ‘OK, this is the right thing to do right now,’ if this is what we think we should do, let’s do it. Let’s not let fear of what if it doesn’t work out keep us from maybe getting that edge.”

Some hard personnel decisions are upcoming for the champs, who have 11 unrestricted free agents (including Miller, Beckham – who reportedly had already begun contract talks with the Rams – Sony Michel, and offensive linemen Joe Noteboom, Brian Allen and Austin Corbett), and five restricted free agents (including linebacker Troy Reeder and kicker Matt Gay). And, depending on whether you believe Spotrac or overthecap.com, going into the offseason the Rams are either $10 million or $14 million over the cap for 2022.

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There are ways to get under that, and you can expect some creative ideas for restructuring existing contracts (think healthy bonuses and smaller salaries). Meanwhile, the next Cooper Kupp is out there somewhere, the undervalued player coming out of college capable of going from late-round pick to unstoppable force. Those who accuse the Rams of “mortgaging the future” by trading late first-round picks aren’t paying close enough attention.

Is this boldness for everybody? Probably not. Here, it works.

“(Les) is fearless,” Rams COO Kevin Demoff said. “Sean is fearless. And so I think when you get into it right, with people who are passionate about culture, passionate about developing people, passionate about developing relationships and are fearless, those are people you want to go to work with every day.”

Those are the same people getting measured for championship rings, incidentally.

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