NFL final Top 10 list could end with egg on the face of Rams GM Les Snead

When the subject is Aaron Donald, the Los Angeles Rams appear to be their own worst enemy.

While watching ESPN today, a top line NFL analyst was genuinely confused why the Los Angeles Rams and Aaron Donald were not past the contract stalemate that continues to drag on.

Hey, it’s a question I think the overwhelming majority of not just fans, but football experts, analysts, those typically in the know, can’t find a good answer for.

As the NFL Network readies another Top 10 list to wrap up a Top 100, experts and fans alike can make a better than reasonable argument that Donald may emerge at the very top, or certainly in the top three.

Therein lies the rub for LA.

Let’s not pretend that the position of quarterback isn’t the centerpiece of every NFL franchise. But if last season has shown anything, it’s that the Rams are uniquely tiered with their hierarchy of players. Their best player, Donald, is head and shoulders better, yet equally critical to success in Los Angeles.

Except he plays defense.

If AD was a quarterback, this discussion isn’t happening right now. The Rams make the big swallow and walk down the aisle RIGHT NOW, if not already.

But if Donald is either one, two, or three of the NFL Network’s Top 10 of 100, how foolish and, I’ll say it, cheap, do the Rams look?

Be the characterization fair or not.

How does anyone in the Rams organization, beginning with General Manager Les Snead, stand in front of that shiny new podium and say anything about #99 with a straight face?

Now I get it. It’s a Top 100, Top Whatever list in June.

But the subjectivity of anyone in the Top 3 is a matter of preference and your own view of football. But if Donald is on that list of one of the three best, Los Angeles appears like an organization looking to jerk around their best player, maybe even one of the top #1, #2, or #3 players in the league.

The Rams seem to want him on the cheap, because maybe they are feeling overextended with talent sitting on deck, hands soon to be expended asking where there payday is.

Next: Ranking the 5 most important Rams right now

It’s bad optics, again.
It’s bad form, again.

And a simple Top 100 list, produced by the NFL Network in June, could blow up in the faces of those in LA holding on to the organizations checkbook.

Call it bad optics, call it bad form.
Also call it what it may simply be: cheap.