You do not trade for the top pick in the NFL draft unless you are desperate – or unless you are absolutely convinced you have found the exact player upon which you build the team for the next 10 years.
The Rams have great ambitions of becoming the world’s NFL team, but they must win Los Angeles first. They play in what might be the NFL’s most competitive division, filled with dominant defenses and two franchise quarterbacks. To adequately compete they need to find their own decade-long long leader. In North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz or California’s Jared Goff they apparently believe they have their future.
Whoever it is, he has so dazzled them that they are willing to trade their top half of this year’s draft and a No1 and No3 next year to get him.
Four years ago, Washington and their coach Mike Shanahan were desperate when they gave the Rams three No1 picks for the chance to draft Robert Griffin III. Unlike the Rams, who are going to build over the next three years as they build their new stadium, Washington was trying to win right away. After two dismal seasons working for an impatient owner, Shanahan tried to launch the team into the playoffs without setting a foundation.
Shanahan was never long for Washington, and he held hopes of making the Hall of Fame, something that his two Super Bowl titles won with John Elway would not deliver without taking a different quarterback to another Super Bowl. Griffin wasn’t ready to be a true NFL quarterback, but Shanahan needed to win fast. RG III was a Hail Mary of sorts. Washington didn’t have time to transform him from a running quarterback into a pocket passer. They threw him out the first game of the season, let him run around defenses that weren’t prepared for the read option and hoped RG III wouldn’t get hurt.
It almost worked. Griffin led Washington to an improbable NFC East title and a home playoff game. But he also got hurt and was never the same. He and Shanahan are gone. The first round picks that were traded away were never properly replaced. The bounty paid for a quick fix lingers as yet another failure in a decade and a half of franchise frustration.
In making a trade much like the one they struck with Washington in 2012 the Rams don’t have to make the same mistakes. No one expects a division title in Year 1; just an indication that the team is moving in the right direction. If Rams general manager Les Snead and coach Jeff Fisher believe Wentz or Goff will push them there, then the trade and all the picks handed to the Tennessee Titans are worth the risk.
Neither quarterback is a sure thing, but quarterbacks at the top of the draft are always huge gambles. A few work, many don’t. Wentz was an obscure recruit coming out of high school. No big college gave him a look. Even at FCS North Dakota State he was a backup before starting the last two seasons. While he played a complex, NFL-style offense in college and won big, he has but two college years against lower-level competition.
Goff has a better pedigree and has played three seasons in the Pac 12, running an offense that will transition well in the pros. He never won big in college but neither did Elway years ago at Stanford. He is tall and lanky and not very mobile, but behind a good line these things might not matter.
Whomever of the two it is, the Rams must be convinced they have their own Russell Wilson – the rival quarterback in Seattle who has taken the Seahawks to the playoffs in each of his four seasons, including two Super Bowls. This quarterback will not be expected to develop as fast as Wilson but he will need to win to justify Thursday’s trade.
In talking to the Guardian the other day about the team’s international ambitions, Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff said the team’s top priority is to win on the field and then win the Los Angeles market. That isn’t going to happen with Nick Foles or Case Keenum. The Rams’ biggest problem in the 11 years of futility following the end of the Greatest Show on Turf has been the lack of a top quarterback.
Half a draft dealt to the Titans on Thursday says the Rams have figured out their quarterback. Time will tell if they are right. But in making a deal reminiscent of the one they cut to let Washington draft RG III, it is important to note that they are not making the same trade for the wrong reasons. Washington was desperate. The Rams are trying to build a future.
There is a big difference.
