Opinion: Rams are mortgaging their future, but going for broke looks like shrewd business in today's NFL
Some of the memes circulating on social media were so hilarious after the Rams executed another blockbuster deal on Monday by packaging more draft picks to land ace edge rusher Von Miller.
Les Snead, the Rams general manager, couldn’t help but chuckle at the one suggesting that his entire scouting staff is on vacation.
"They’re in Cabo right now," Snead joked during a Zoom media conference on Tuesday.
He knows the score. In sending second- and third-round picks to the Denver Broncos in exchange for Miller, Los Angeles won’t have a pick next spring until a third-round compensatory pick. But it’s hardly time for a vacation. With the need to find value on mid- to late-round selections, the pressure on Snead’s personnel department has gone up a notch.
"I don’t want to say, ‘roll up your sleeves and work harder’ because that would make the assumption that unless we have first-, second- or third-round picks, we don’t really work hard," Snead said. "(But) it does create an element of really being able to dissect the draft from top to bottom."
It’s ironic that the third-round compensatory pick in Snead’s pocket comes because the Detroit Lions got their new GM, Brad Holmes, off his staff – the same Holmes who made his mark in finding gems in the middle and late rounds of the draft.
Still, this is all business as usual. Snead pushes back on suggestions that the Rams don’t value their picks. They just opt to use them more creatively than any team in a league that has traditionally viewed draft capital like the gold tucked away at Fort Knox.
Snead is like the NFL’s version of Wayne Brady, who hosts the long-running game show "Let’s Make A Deal." He is wired with a future-is-now mindset that explains so much about why he’s willing to part with high picks in order to get instant gratification.
Barring stuff between now and then, the Rams, who got revived quarterback Matthew Stafford from Detroit in a blockbuster trade earlier this year, won’t have a first-round pick until 2024. And they haven’t had a first-round selection since 2016, when Jared Goff was taken No. 1 overall – which came, naturally, after Snead swung a big trade with the Titans in order to move up to the top slot.
This is a franchise that not only mortgages the future by dealing future picks – it refinances it, too.
NFL TRADE DEADLINE WINNERS, LOSERS: Double-edged sword for Von Miller, Rams
TRACKER: Breaking down all the deals at the NFL trade deadline
OPINION: Rams go all in on Super Bowl push with bold Von Miller trade
Never mind conventional NFL wisdom. At the moment, Los Angeles is 7-1. Some teams stockpile those precious picks over multiple years and still wind up losing, year after year. In today’s NFL – often a week-to-week league when it comes to assessing the strength of contenders, given parity, upsets and injuries – nothing is guaranteed.
"The future’s always uncertain," Snead said. "It’s up to us to make it as certain as possible."
So, rather than wait on a bunch of high draft picks to pan out (OK, the Rams wisely held onto the pick that resulted in the steal that Aaron Donald was at No. 13 overall in 2014), they’ll aggressively take the proven players, a la Stafford, Miller and All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, as better risks than high draft picks.
In 2018, they swung deals to get cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters, receiver Brandin Cooks and edge rusher Dante Fowler, and the moves helped Sean McVay become the youngest coach to ever lead a team to a Super Bowl. Fowler, remember, had the jarring rush on Drew Brees in the NFC title game that resulted in an interception and game-winning field goal – the type of crunch-time difference that the Rams can envision from Miller in the competitive drama shaping up in the NFC to try dethroning Tom Brady and the Bucs.
"Big picture, you try to mix the micro with the (telescope), the present with the future," Snead said of the approach.
He’s not crazy about the win-now label, even though that’s exactly what it looks like.
"I think we’re always trying to build a team that has a chance to win a lot of games for a lot of years," he said.
As for all the high draft picks that he won’t have, Snead finds comfort in knowing that he won’t need them to target core players at particular premium positions. At least not for a while. Stafford is under contract through 2022. Ramsey, who cost two first-round picks, is signed through 2026. Miller has only this season left on his contract, but Snead said they team will talk to his agent about an extension. Other key players, such as Donald, receivers Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods, all have multiple years left on their fat contracts.
Yet it’s still crucial during this window of championship opportunity to supplement the stars by hitting on young, cheap talent that comes later in the draft.
"There are players who can help a football team in every single round," Snead said. "It’s not just getting lucky."
In other words, Cabo will have to wait.
Follow Paste BN Sports' Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.