Carolina Panthers deep dive: Following the Rams' blueprint for success

Connections between Carolina Panthers and Rams are clear

After 2016, what did the Los Angeles Rams do?

They fired Jeff Fisher, an aging head coach who couldn't motivate anyone to make a ham sandwich. In his spot, they brought in a young, fiery head coach named Sean McVay, who shot up the ranks of the NFL coaching hierarchy.

To help out quarterback Jared Goff, the Rams got to work in free agency.

They brought in two free agents to help bolster their offensive line. Veterans Andrew Whitworth and John Sullivan brought stability to the unit that had been much-maligned beforehand.

The Rams also re-made their wide receiver room, trotting out new players in Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, and 2017 rookies Cooper Kupp and Josh Reynolds. This ignited the blue touch paper.

Much of their defense remained the same as it was a talented unit in 2016 but missed good coaching. In 2017, Los Angeles strongly announced their arrival to the NFL, having the top-scoring offense and the 12th-ranked scoring defense en route to a division title.

The Rams proceeded to make the Super Bowl in 2018 and have since won the big game in 2021 and are now a much more stable franchise. So, how does this match up with the Carolina Panthers?