Player A 2019 Stats: 15 games, 4,084 yards, 26 TDs, 10 INTs
Player B 2019 Stats: 15 games, 3,952 yards, 20 TDs, 13 INTs
Over this past weekend, the Los Angeles Rams traded Player B (Jared Goff), two first round picks, and a third round pick for Player A (Matthew Stafford). Excuse me…what? Why?? This is one of those trades where when I read it I had to double take and make sure that I was getting the details right. Two first rounders and a third for a marginal upgrade at quarterback? What are the Rams thinking?
I know Matt Stafford is good and Jared Goff is average, but is Stafford even a top-10 quarterback in the league at this point? Probably, but it’s pretty close. And I’m not giving up that kind of draft capital for someone who is pretty close to top-10. I’d give it up for Deshaun Watson, but to upgrade from my 26 year-old QB to a guy who is just about to turn 33 doesn’t make a ton of sense.
I know that the Rams are in “win now” mode, but trading away these next two years of first round picks means that by the 2023 season, they won’t have picked in the first round since 2016. And their last two first round picks? Jared Goff and Todd Gurley – neither player lasted more than five years as a Ram. This is not how you build an organization. This is how you decimate one.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, and there’s definitely a chance that they could make some deep playoff runs with Stafford at the helm. But the more likely scenario to me is that the Rams stay as a middle-of-the-pack organization that will make the playoffs, exit early, and not build up any young talent. Basically, they will be in NFL hell.