Why did the Los Angeles Rams make that blockbuster trade?

The Los Angeles Rams orchestrated a shocking deal that puts them in position to draft their quarterback of the future.

So why did the Los Angeles Rams deal away 5 top 100 picks in the 2016 and 2017 draft to move up for a quarterback at the #1 overall pick? That’s pretty simple: they believed that the Cleveland Browns were going to take either Goff or Wentz at #2 overall and that there were other bidders for the pick.

But Adam Schefter is now reporting that the Browns aren’t going to draft a quarterback at 2, so it sounds like…well… And there’s been reporting that there were multiple bidders for the #1 pick, so at the very least the Rams truly believed that they had to make their move or risk trying to come up with a Plan B.

This threat to the Rams combined with their desperation led the Rams to give up a package nearly as large as they received for the right to draft Robert Griffin III in 2012. This also implies that the Rams feel that they’re just a good quarterback away from being a contender, which probably isn’t true considering the state of their offensive line and WR corps.

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The flip side of that coin for Fisher and Snead is that if Wentz or Goff struggle badly in 2016, they’ll probably be fired and they don’t have to worry about the picks in 2017 that they gave up. Mike Shanahan, a close friend of Jeff Fisher, hasn’t seen much criticism for the Robert Griffin III trade. If Wentz or Goff thrive and they look smart, then the picks they gave up will look very smart. However, this success has to be sustained or this was just another Robert Griffin III trade.

The Titans are the big winners in all this. They now have 6 picks in the top 76 of the 2016 draft plus extra high picks in the 2017 draft to use to move up if they want. With their Quarterback and Running back positions set, they have a chance to overload at rebuilding both of their lines in a draft full of prospects that they can use.

The biggest loser in this is Ronnie Stanley, who has some recent chatter about him going #1 overall. Now, with quarterbacks possibly going 1&2 and Laremy Tunsil probably not getting drafted until #5 or 6 at the earliest, he’s set to drop at least to #10 overall. Even if the Browns hornswoggled the Rams here, Tunsil still drops to at least 5 and Stanley will be lucky to be a top 10 pick now.

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