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In the spring of 2016, before he executed the trade with the to grab the No. 1 overall pick in that year's draft, general manager Les Snead walked up to director of college scouting Brad Holmes and asked him two questions.Would you trade up for a quarterback? If so, who?Without hesitating, Holmes replied in the affirmative and gave as his top quarterback prospect. Chuma Edoga Jersey Then Snead walked off without hearing any explanation.See, in Holmes' mind, the Rams had tried the other available options at figuring out the quarterback position. They had traded for the year before and he laid an egg. They drafted in the third round believing they could develop him but didn't see enough of him in his rookie season."I'm running through my mind and it seemed like we went down every avenue except doing what other teams do and just truly getting a top-notch quarterback that you have to spend on," Holmes says. "That's the one avenue that we haven't gone down. We've identified Goff as a clear franchise quarterback, so let's expend the resources to get up and just get the guy."And that was the last time the Rams picked a player in the first round of an NFL draft.Snead's Rams aren't the first team to trade away future first-round picks for higher draft position or proven, veteran talent like . But the team has committed to using its first-rounders in a currency exchange done with greater regularity than any other NFL team in the last three decades. The Rams are on the cusp of securing their third playoff appearance in four years, and a win Sunday against the would put them in the driver's seat for the NFC West division title."However you use that first-round pick, I still think when you get to the fourth through seventh rounds take the second and third out of it you're best served by definitely trying to identify players that are going to play a useful role," Snead tells me. "Those players shouldn't be expected to become superstars, but they should have a good John Riggins Jersey chance to serve a useful role."This roster-building method has yielded a proven winner. There are a sociated costs, though. L.A. will have three players with cap hits greater than $20 million next year: Goff, Ramsey and (who was acquired in 2014 with the traditional first-round pick the Rams owned.) Their combined 2021 cap hit of $85.017 million would account for more than 48% of the projected $175 million salary cap, which would have been upwards of $200 million without the COVID-19 pandemic.With a cap crunch and without the comfort of higher-probability picks, the Rams have had to fill in the holes with a bevy of mid- to late-round draft picks playing key roles. But, again, this year offers another unique challenge. Scouts have been grounded for months. There's le s recent tape on draft-eligible prospects than ever before. Traditional means of scouting the type of talent nece sary to keep the Rams machine going aren't available to themand they may not be before April's draft.One of the most progre sive team-building models in today's NFL will soon be challenged by the financial and logistical realities of the COVID-19 pandemic in ways unlike any other team in the league.What will the Rams do next?How the strategy came togetherFor the right to draft Goff No. 1 in 2016, the Rams gave up their 2017 first-round pick (among several other picks in those two drafts.) In 2018, the Rams traded their first-round pick to New England for the rights to wide receiver . The next year, the Rams had the 31st pick in the draft but traded back to accumulate more picks. Finally, during the 2019 regular season, the Rams traded their 2020 and 2021 first-round picks to Jacksonville for the rights to Ramsey.Snead did all of these trades in the best interest of the team, but not all of them were created equally.With the Cooks trade, the Rams were coming off an 11-5 season with rookie coach Sean McVay. They were picking at No. 23 and could have selected D.J. Moore or if they wanted a receiver. But Snead understood the window his team was in."We looked at the positions we'd look to add and knowing the landscape of that draft cla s, we were like man there's really nothing super intriguing that we would addre s at 23," Holmes says. "But Brandin Cooks in our offense at that time was very intriguing. To have that kind of speed and explosivene s at the X receiver position at his time, he's coming off multiple 1,000 yard receiving seasons. It's a guy who not only for myself but a lot of guys had a lot of love for when he came out in the draft, he was a favorite when he came out in the draft. To get that guy, OK, I'm excited about that more than I am going to be excited with whatever I pick at 23."That same philosophy carried into the season. Snead recognized midway through the year that defensive coordinator Wade Phillips needed pa s-rush help to make his system work. He sent a third-round pick to Jacksonville in exchange for , believing if the edge rusher played well enough and they didn't re-sign him in 2019, they'd get a third-round compensatory pick back anyway.And as we know, the Rams made it to Super Bowl LIII where they lost to the . Fowler had 3.5 sacks and 8 quarterback hits for the Rams in the regular season and postseason, and Cooks put up a career-high 1,204 Jacob Martin Jersey receiving yards in that year.The Ramsey trade last year was the big one. Snead wasn't looking for it, but when the All-Pro corner looked as though he could be had, the long-time Rams GM leaned on Holmes yet again for his thoughts."My whole thing was like look I think with our current state of our team, we'll be picking in the 20s," Holmes says, recalling his long text back to Snead as the po sibility of Jermaine Johnson II Jersey the trade materialized. "Look at our defense and look at the defenses acro s the league. How many game-wreckers can you acquire on defense? We already have a game-wrecker in Donald , but I'm looking acro s the league and thinking golly how many people have two? How many have two where they're the best at their position? And they are true game-wreckers."And I said Les I'm having a hard time finding one. So if you have to sacrifice two first-round picks and we've had this much succe s without first-round picks from a draft standpoint, I said yes, please, do that as quickly as po sible to make that trade so we can acquire Jalen Ramsey."That's the same line of thinking Snead had. Pair Ramsey with Donald and watch opposing offenses delude their playbook. Snead considered where L.A. would likely be picking and did some basic math based on history.In 2018, the Patriots took tackle with the Rams' No. 23 pick. The next year, the took tackle with the Rams' 31st pick. Snead wonders: would you be able to trade McGary and Wynn today for Ramsey?"I say draft picks are like new cars and then you drive them off the lot," Snead says."I think you start looking at things like that. There's definitely the utilization of draft picks. And this was the hardest thing to do because there were many biases at play. And there has to be some efficacy in that you have to know that you can contend. It can't be a hope. You have to know. We're winning some games and we're in contention. It doesn't have to be the Super Bowl, but we have to contend for divisions."The Rams were hardly the first team to trade two first-round draft picks for a player. But trading a star player still on his rookie deal for two first-round picks has happened with greater frequency in recent years Jeff Smith Jersey (, , and Ramsey).There are a number of reasons for that, including teams becoming more comfortable with not paying a star and continuing to build, as well as a greater ability for today's players to force their way out of franchises. But it all comes down to money, and the 2011 collective bargaining agreement that slotted rookie deals into more cost-controlled four-year contracts is the leading reason."It's now more likely that a Jalen Ramsey situation is going to happen where a team is going to trade its first-round pick because the other team is able to take on the contract because it's not as cumbersome," says JW Jordan, the Rams' director of draft management. "But to me it sort of levels the playing field for first- and second-round picks. Let's say the 25th pick in the draft is not much different now than if you have the 40th pick. From a financial sense they've come closer to what a second-round pick is anyway."What you've seen in a typical draft there are 10-15 guys who are clear-cut going to be really good players in the NFL, and then the next 50 or so or all about the same. There's not a huge difference. They're either really good players with a critical flaw or may have one thing that may hold them back."I think the benefits are, you can focus on the potential second-round guys. There's not a big difference when you're a team contending for the playoffs and you're picking in the 20s. It's not like it's a significantly better pick than a second-round pick."But do the Rams mi s the picks? |
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发表于 2025-5-19 09:47:46