Rams continue to take win-now mode to new levels after Talib trade
By Dan Parzych
The Los Angeles Rams continue to stay busy this offseason after agreeing to trade for Aqib Talib.
With the start of the new NFL year taking place next week, the Los Angeles Rams have already been one of the busiest teams in the league when looking at all of the surprise moves the team continues to make, with the latest taking place on Thursday after agreeing to trade for Aqib Talib. For a team that had plenty of questions at the cornerback position heading into the offseason since nobody knew what to expect with the whole Trumaine Johnson situation, the Rams are all of a sudden set thanks to Talib and Marcus Peters, who will be coming over through a trade as well from the Kansas City Chiefs.
Take all of this into consideration along with the recent news surrounding Sam Shields joining the NFC West champions as well, Los Angeles has all of a sudden filled in their need at cornerback before free agency even officially gets underway. Even if the defense will look a little different without Alec Ogletree (New York Giants) and Robert Quinn (Miami Dolphins) after the team agreed to trade the two to help clear up some salary cap space, all of these surprise moves made over the last couple of weeks prove the Rams are in win-now mode. And just when it seems like Los Angeles is done making moves, they seem to strike another deal to give them a better chance of being the team to beat in the NFC next season.
Losing to the Atlanta Falcons as early as they did in the playoffs was a tough pill for the Rams to swallow at the time, but also was viewed as a learning experience to make sure it didn’t happen again next year in the playoffs, assuming they earn another trip. But when seeing how busy Los Angeles has already been over the last few weeks with all of these trades, there are some who believe this team is slowly working their way up to being in better shape than the Philadelphia Eagles when it comes to early favorites in the conference.
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Obviously, the Rams still have a long way to go since the Eagles are Super Bowl champions for a reason, but Sean McVay and company deserve credit for what they believe are the necessary moves to give them a better chance of competing next season. When considering Los Angeles was originally expected to go through a year or two of rebuilding under McVay, who would have imagined the team would be in this great of a position right now when it comes to looking like a top contender in the NFC?