The Moves that Set Up L.A.'s Trade to No. 1t

The Moves that Set Up L.A.’s Trade to No. 1

Posted 56 minutes ago

Myles Simmons Rams Insider @MylesASimmons

It all culminated in a blockbuster deal announced at 6 a.m. Pacific on April 14, but there’s much more to the story of the trade that brought the Rams the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.

In many ways, you can trace the lineage of the historic deal all the way back to 2012 when the Rams hired head coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Les Snead. At that point, the club’s roster lacked both talent and depth at the majority of its positions — a factor that undoubtedly led to the Rams trading the No. 2 overall pick to Washington for three first-round picks and one second-round selection.

Of course, the club then parlayed that transaction into a number of more trades, eventually selecting eight players with picks stemming from the original Washington deal. According to Fisher, those draft choices helped lay the foundation for the Rams to improve to a level where they could comfortably go after No. 1 overall.

“I don’t think, had we not done what we did in ’12 with [Washington], we would’ve been able to do this,” Fisher said last week. “Without the 2012 decision and trade, we would not have been able to do this because we parted with some significant picks [this year]. And there’s potential for some good players at those positions. But the need that we’re going to fill with the first pick should be that opportunity to put us over the top. That’s what we’re looking for now.”

Fisher noted the Rams lost cornerback Janoris Jenkins — drafted via the Washington deal — in free agency (“That’s life in the National Football League,” he said). But there is a silver lining. Because both Jenkins and safety Rodney McLeod signed elsewhere, there’s a good chance Los Angeles will receive a third-round compensatory draft pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. That factored heavily into the trade with the Titans for No. 1, as the third-round pick Tennessee received is conditional.

“Losing McLeod and Janoris, those two — you could project that you might get a third-rounder,” Snead said last week. “Now there’s no guarantees, but that played a part in it. And we even wrote that in the way the trade — that they would get the comp pick instead of the real pick.”

This aspect of the trade was possible because teams will be able to trade compensatory picks for the first time in 2017.

“That helped,” Snead said, “because now you go into it and you’ve got a second and a third rounder, and not just a second and a fourth.”

Another critical factor in the trade with the Titans was Los Angeles owning two second-round picks in 2016. Of course, that was the case because of the Rams’ trade with the Eagles last March.

“I think that was really the only reason we were able to do that — because we had multiple ‘twos,’” Fisher said. “One of those was not earned, it was bought through some of the stuff that we did last year. So when you talk about two ‘twos,’ and you talk about a ‘one’ and a ‘three,’ and then some stuff went back and forth in exchanging another pick this year — we felt there was an ideal situation for us.”

This particular scenario created a landmark deal for a number of reasons — Los Angeles being the first team to jump from No. 15 to No. 1 overall among them.

“We did the research. We did the pick study. What we gave up from a pick standpoint is obvious,” Fisher said. “Historically, no one has come this far.”

“Any time it’s a first, it’s probably [a trade] of large magnitude,” Snead said. “And I think, giving the setting where we’re at — coming back home, all of that — to start fresh, that’s part of it, too. But the main thing is, it’s still just football.”

And this is a trade designed to give the Rams enough of an on-field boost to become a year-in and year-out contender.

“We think this move is going to help us consistently challenge for this division for the upcoming future. And the key word there is consistently,” Snead said. “We don’t want to do it just once or twice, we kind of want to do it long-term where you guys enjoy covering us for a while, and the fans enjoy watching us.”

“We’re done being close,” Fisher said. “We want to get over the top and be significant.”