The Patriots are in the Super Bowl for the third consecutive season and fourth time in five years. The Rams are the new kids on the block who have quickly gone from a team that was 4-12 three years ago to one that is on the cusp of winning a championship.
How did they get there and, perhaps more importantly for Pittsburgh fans, how do the Steelers get over the hump to get back to their ninth Super Bowl?
Looking at the rosters of all three teams, there are some definitive similarities to how they have been constructed and some obvious differences. There are even some differences between the Patriots and Rams, showing there's no set rule how to build a roster.
FREE AGENCY
The Patriots have been a team that has not been afraid to sign players through free agency. In fact, 12 of their current players were acquired in that fashion.
But none of their free agents would be considered big-name or big-money players. For example, their biggest signing last offseason, defensive end Adrian Clayborn, signed a two-year, $10-million deal. And he's a player with 32.5 career sacks in eight seasons.
The Rams, on the other hand, were extremely active on the free agent market last offseason. They signed defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to a one-year, $14-million contract in their biggest move. They also signed linebacker Ramik Wilson, defensive lineman Dominque Easley, center John Sullivan and corners Nickell Robey-Coleman and Sam Shields to deals worth a combined $29 million. Only Sullivan, who got a two-year deal, and Robey-Nickell, who was signed for three years, were signed for more than one season.
That's six veteran free agents signed just this season. The Steelers, meanwhile, have six players on their entire roster who were free agents from other teams. And two of those, safety Morgan Burnett and linebacker Jon Bostic, were signed last offseason to bargain-rate deals.
That has largely been because the Steelers have had too little salary cap room to sign players on the free agent market. This offseason, they are expected to have approximately $30 million in salary cap space available, their most in more than a decade.
Even so, that ranks just 20th of the league's 32 teams.
"Well, I hope that’s the case," team president Art Rooney II said of the team's improved cap situation. "We have a lot of things to evaluate, and, as I always say, it’s a jigsaw puzzle and you have to put all the pieces together. And so, having a little extra cap space always helps, that’s for sure."
Free agency hasn't always been kind to the Steelers, but they've often been sifting through the scraps. When they've spent reasonably big money on a free agent, it's worked out -- James Farrior, Jeff Hartings, Ryan Clark, Joe Haden -- more often than not -- Mike Mitchell, Ladarius Green.
BUILDING THROUGH THE DRAFT
The Steelers have long preferred to build through the draft, skipping free agency and instead spending their money on their own players.
The 2018 Steelers included 28 players drafted by the team. Four other players made the Steelers' roster as undrafted rookie free-agents.
The Rams also have 28 players they have drafted on their roster, including many of their stars such as defensive tackle Aaron Donald, running back Todd Gurley and quarterback Jared Goff. Of course, those players all were selected at the top of the first round, with Goff being the first-overall pick in 2016.
That's what happens when you lose -- a lot.
The Patriots and the draft? Not so much. New England has just 23 players on its current roster who were drafted by the team. Of those, only four were players selected in the first round of the draft by the Patriots.
It helps that Tom Brady, a sixth-round draft pick all the way back in 2000, has proven to be a generational player, but New England doesn't have a lot to show even for its most recent drafts.
Just three of the nine players it selected in the 2018 draft are on the active roster heading into next Sunday's Super Bowl. The Patriots have just two players remaining from their 2017 draft and three from 2016. That's not many.
The Steelers, on the other hand, have 16 players remaining on their roster from their three most recent drafts.
Both teams have been stuck at the bottom of the first round for a long period of time. The Patriots haven't had a top-1o pick since taking Jerod Mayo 10th in 2008. The Steelers haven't had a top-1o pick since taking Plaxico Burress eighth overall in 2000, the longest stretch without a top-10 pick in the NFL. The only other time the Steelers have been close to that -- in 2004 -- they picked Ben Roethlisberger with the 11th selection.
By comparison, the Rams have picked in the top 10 eight times since 2008.
SUPPLEMENTING VIA TRADE
For years, the Patriots have supplemented their roster via trades. For example, this season alone saw them make deals for offensive tackle Trent Brown (49ers), receiver Josh Gordon, corner Jason McCourty and defensive tackle Danny Shelton (Browns) and receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (Raiders).
They sent a third-round pick to the 49ers for Brown and the Niners' fifth-round selection. Brown wound up being their starting left tackle.
Gordon cost them a fifth sent to the Browns. The deal for McCourty was a give-away, with the Browns acquiring a sixth- and seventh-round pick for the corner. Shelton, meanwhile, was acquired for a third-round pick in 2018.
While Gordon has been suspended indefinitely and Shelton has been inactive most of the season, McCourty has been a starting corner for the Patriots, meaning they traded third, fifth and sixth-round picks to the Browns for a starting corner and a seventh-round selection.
Patterson, meanwhile, cost the Patriots another fifth-round selection, with a sixth-round pick coming back from Oakland with him.
That leaves the Patriots with eight picks in the 2019 draft, with the team expected to also get some additional compensatory picks when those are awarded, giving them the ammunition to do it all over again.
The Rams also were active on the trade market in 2018, trading for a pair of starting cornerbacks, Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters from the Broncos and Chiefs, respectively. They also acquired outside linebacker Dante Fowler from Jacksonville before the league's trade deadline.
Both players had worn out their welcomes with their former teams. But Talib cost only a fifth-round draft pick, while Peters cost the Rams a fourth-round pick last year and a second-round selection in 2019. The Rams also got a sixth-round pick in 2018 in the deal for Peters.
That means the Rams got their starting cornerback tandem and a sixth-round draft pick in return for second, fourth and fifth-round draft picks. Of course, they also paid those two $12.7 million in salary, with $11 million of that being for Talib. Peters' salary jumps to just over $9 million next season on the final year of his rookie contract.
Fowler was a true rental, costing the Rams a 2019 third-round pick and a 2020 fifth-round selection for a player who will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. But like Talib and Peters, Fowler had worn out his welcome in Jacksonville and clearly wanted out.
The Steelers have started to get more active in the trade market to acquire veteran players the past two seasons. After making a couple of such moves in 2017, including picking up tight end Vance McDonald from the 49ers, they made a couple of others in 2018.
Both involved the Raiders, as the Steelers sent receiver Martavis Bryant to Oakland last spring for a third-round selection, then shipped a fifth-round pick to Oakland for receiver Ryan Switzer.
Could moving draft picks for players be more proactive than going the free agent route? Certainly. After all, one of the positive parts of that is evident in the Rams' deals for Talib and Peters.
Because both were in the middle of big-money contracts when traded, their former teams were on the hook for any signing bonus money involved in those deals. Even though Peters' contract jumps in 2019, the Rams will still only be paying $17 million in cap space for their two starting corners because Talib's base salary goes down to $8 million.
This is something that could affect the Steelers in a trade of Antonio Brown. While the Steelers will be on the hook for the remaining pro-rated portion of his bonus money paid out, his new team would only be liable for the remaining money of his base salary -- approximately $36.4 million over the next three seasons.
