LA Rams 2020 NFL Draft hurt by disappointing 2019 game

The LA Rams 2020 NFL Draft fate was sealed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers shellacking of the LA Rams 55-40, and the domino effect still felt today

The LA Rams took the field against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week four of the 2019 NFL season on a three-game winning streak. The Rams were home facing a Bucs team playing at 1-2 and would finish the season at 7-9.  This was a team led by quarterback Jameis Winston, a quarterback who could torch defenses, throwing 33 TDs in 2019. But he was a feast or famine guy, as he could just as easily single-handedly freeze the team with untimely interceptions, throwing 30 picks in 2019. This game would impact the 2020 NFL Draft for four NFL teams.

During game four, the Rams got the torch end of Winston’s performance.  The defensive backfield, with safeties Eric Weddle, Taylor Rapp, and John Johnson, and cornerbacks Marcus Peters, Aqiq Talib, Nickell Robey-Coleman, and Troy Hill, seemed to be out of position, one step behind, and lost for much of the day.

Winston threw for 385 yards and four touchdowns while tossing just one interception.  But when he had to make a throw, he did.  All-day long. The LA Rams had conceded the run to opposing offenses, but having landed both Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters on the same defense, the belief was that no quarterback could have a big day against that defense.

And yet, there it was. A big ole 385 yard, four-touchdown, 55 points big day. Winston would toss 29 TDs and 29 INTs in 15 other games.

That game was just one loss, but it seemed to deflate the Rams for the remainder of the season. The hangover of the loss lasted two more games, where the Rams would lose a heartbreaker to the rival Seattle Seahawks and then forgot to play offense in a sound thumping at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers.

It was no doubt that game against the Buccaneers which eventually led the Rams to dump Talib upon Miami, trade Peters to the Baltimore Ravens, and deal for Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey.  In turn, those trades added a fifth-round pick to the Miami Dolphins for the 2020 NFL Draft, added a first-round pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for the 2020 and 2021 NFL Drafts, as well as a fourth-round pick in 2021, and will exclude the Rams from day one of the next two drafts.

One game. That one game performance triggered three NFL trades, the dismissal of a defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, and the Rams scrambling for answers for the 2020 NFL season.

Of course, the trade for cornerback Jalen Ramsey is a positive outcome. Still, if you sense the urgency created in the Rams’ front office after that Bucs loss, you wonder if the Rams would have paid two firsts and a fourth for Ramsey. Is Ramsey worth that price?  We’ll know in 2020.