Rams owner says L.A. move didn't factor into trade for No. 1 pick – CBSSports.com
The Los Angeles Rams shook up the draft earlier this month by surrendering a boatload of picks to move up from No. 15 to No. 1 in the first round. The general consensus has L.A. taking a quarterback with the top selection in the draft, with that consensus moving from Carson Wentz toward Jared Goff over the last week or so.
The Rams are undoubtedly in need of above-average quarterback play. With their top-flight running back and a dynamite defensive line, they can actually make a run at the playoffs if they get even competent play from under center. They won seven games last season with the likes of Nick Foles and Case Keenum taking the snaps, after all.
So on that front, the deal at least makes some degree of rational sense. You can make your case against the idea of trading up at all (the draft is a crapshoot, so you want as many picks as you can get) and against trading up for a quarterback specifically (teams are wrong about quarterbacks in the draft more than they are wrong about any other position), but it’s hard to argue that the Rams don’t need a QB. There’s also, of course, another rationalization floating around: the Rams wanted a star to market to the new L.A. market.
Not true, says Rams owner Stan Kroenke.
“The only reason we did it was purely football. That sort of comes from the top. I’ve been around this business too long. You don’t win football games in the fall by headlines in the spring,” Kroenke said in an appearance on NFL Network. “Jeff (Fisher) and Les (Snead) have done a great job in each of the last two years, they’ve drafted a rookie of the year — defensive rookie of the year out of the 13th spot, offensive rookie of the year out of the 10th spot. This year we’ve got the first pick. We gave up some assets, but they believe the value is there, so here we are.”
Stan Kroenke says his team’s recent trade was just about football. (USATSI)
Kroenke is certainly correct that you do not win games in the fall by winning headlines in the spring — we see this every year with the team that “wins” free agency not necessarily having that translate to regular season success. And he’s also correct that the Rams have absolutely nailed their last two first-round picks in Aaron Donald (2014) and Todd Gurley (2015). We’ll just have to see if they were as right about their man this year as they were about the last two.
