LA Rams Aprils Fools: 5 most foolish things Rams did in past 12 months

The LA Rams enter April 2020 with a whimper.No April Fool’s Day joke, instead, let’s discuss 5 ways that the Rams did foolish things over the past year

The LA Rams have been one of the NFL’s most successful teams ever since general manager Les Snead paired up with head coach Sean McVay. But success has a nasty habit of pairing with failure. Not the subtle type of failure that is easily overlooked with the news of the day, and pushed to the back pages for only the most curious to discover.

No, the Les Snead and Sean McVay errors are themselves front-page headlines. Still, in the high-stakes realm of go-big or go-home, that is the cost of doing business.

To get high rewards in the very competitive NFL, general managers and head coaches need to put up higher stakes. Going for it can result in a team climbing the ranks of NFL teams to compete in a Super Bowl in a matter of two or three years, while other teams never make that climb.  But just as easily, it can place a team into a deep hole from which it is difficult to emerge. A place with few NFL draft picks and limited funds.  The LA Rams have ended up at both places.  Unfortunately, the team has dragged the loyal fans along for the ride. The ride has come from the highest of heights to the lowest of lows.

The best cure for that is to laugh as the follies, dust yourself off, and try again.  So for April 1, 2020, what are the five most foolish things the LA Rams have done in the past year?

Foolish act number 5

Of course, the LA Rams were very aggressive in their personnel moves. One of the most aggressive series of moves by the Rams in 2019 was the trio of personnel moves eventually resulting in the team trading for cornerback Jalen Ramsey.  And the fifth most foolish act of the past year was trading Aqib Talib to Miami Dolphins and throwing in a 5th round pick.

The LA Rams traded a veteran cornerback Aqib Talib in the last year of his contract. While he was on the injured reserve list at the time., he was scheduled to leave at the end of the 2019 season. The fact that the Rams forced the issue by pushing his contract to the Dolphins, and tossed in a fifth-round pick for the effort, was a head-scratcher at the time.

Of course, it was the first of three trades, all sequenced by the Rams to eventually obtain the services of Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey. The hope was that Ramsey would put the Rams over the top to get into the playoffs. The Rams never made it to the playoffs, and their record of 4-4 with Ramsey on the roster does not support the urgency of adding him in 2019.

The move was a salary dump. Talib went on injured reserve on week five, and the Rams saved $4.2 million as a result of this trade. But now, looking back, the Rams surrendered a 5th round pick to rent Ramsey for eight games, and only finished 4-4 in those contests.  Yes, hindsight is always 20-20 vision. But the move to get Talib off the books was pretty foolish, particularly at the cost of an important 2020 NFL Draft pick. Now onto number four…

Foolish act number 4

The LA Rams are debuting the 2020 NFL season at the $5 Billion SoFi Sports complex, and therefore are looking for innovative ways to create a buzz about the team. Leaking the new logo on social media seemed like one way to do exactly that.

Only it wasn’t. What happened was a social media uproar of unprecedented proportions. Everything was wrong with the new logo. The colors were not the benchmark gold and blue hues. The design seemed to resemble that of the LA Chargers more than that of the LA Rams.  And on such a historic event, fans’ expectations were peaking but focused upon some design which tied the history of the franchise to the present.

Instead, the leaked logo appeared as though it was pulled from the 22nd century, with no ties to anything associated with the LA Rams up to this point in time. The design seemed so flawed that some suggested that the entire leaked logo event was a hoax designed to build a social media buzz and anticipation of the real logo.

The move seemed to be quite the faux pas for the Rams and COO Kevin Demoff.  But perhaps with the release of the real logo, all will be forgiven and forgotten.  But this leaked logo qualifies for the fourth most foolish act by the LA Rams in the past year. Now, let’s move onto number three…

Foolish act number 3

We have looked at the trade of cornerback Aqib Talib plus a fifth-round pick to the Miami Dolphins as the fifth-most foolish act of the LA Rams.  But the second move to obtain Jacksonville Jaguars CB Jalen Ramsey was even more foolish.  The third most foolish act of the past year occurred when the Rams traded a healthy cornerback Marcus Peters to the Baltimore Ravens for linebacker Kenny Young and a fifth-round pick.

The second of three trades moved LA Rams cornerback to the Baltimore Ravens for the cost of a fifth-round pick and backup linebacker Kenny Young.  That essentially placed the fifth-round draft pick used to dump Aqib Talib back into the Rams vault and made the net effect of the two transactions amount to dumping Talib’s salary to the Dolphins, and trading Peters for Young.

Peters went on to be a standout cornerback for the Ravens. Young was a part-time special teams player for the Rams. The value of a starting cornerback in the modern age of the NFL is much greater than a fifth-round pick. The Rams traded two first-round picks plus a fourth-round pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

Comparing Peters and Ramsey after their respective trades: Ramsey played 572 defensive snaps for the Rams, recording 33 tackles, four passes defended and one interception. Peters played 577 defensive snaps for the Ravens, recording 39 tackles, two interceptions and 10 passes defended. Peters cost the Ravens a fifth-round draft pick, plus a backup linebacker. That qualifies for the third-most foolish act of 2019. Onto number two…

Foolish act number 2

The second most foolish act by the LA Rams was a bit complex and confusing.  It runs along the challenges created by making running back Todd Gurley one of the richest rushers in the NFL, guaranteeing his money, and then watching his production slide drastically in 2019.

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Of course, there were many extenuating circumstances, but they were all interrelated. The Rams had a huge dropoff in 2019 with their highly paid offensive players: QB Jared Goff, RB Todd Gurley, and WR Brandin Cooks. Many point to the drop in the quality of the offensive line. But the Rams parked most of their salary cap dollars into the skillset players, which left no dollars to improve the quality of the offensive line.

Rumors about the future of Gurley and the Rams began almost the moment the 2019 season ended for the Rams. Then the rumors switched to trading Gurley.  Then the rumors reverted to outright releasing Gurley. But through it all, two things remained certain: Todd Gurley was still effective as an NFL running back, and the impediment to his future with the Rams was that god-awful contract that paid him among the top of NFL running backs, despite his performance.

The Rams never seemed to explore either restructuring nor renegotiating Gurley’s contract. Of course, in either instance, the player must agree to step up to the table to do so. But it seems the incentives existed for both parties to reach an agreement. The Rams would have saved on a huge cap hit in 2020, retained Gurley at a cheaper price, and had a chance to phase in a rookie rusher. Gurley would have earned more than his one-year $6 million prove-it valued deal with the Atlanta Falcons. Two sides aiming at the same goal never came together to make it happen.  This leaves us with the number one foolish act in the past 12 months…

Foolish act number 1

There is only one action that can be considered more foolish than any listed so far.  And this is the one that truly tops them all, hands down.  After leaking a failed new logo on social media, the LA Rams promised to reveal the new and authentic color scheme and new logo at a hugely advertised social media event virtual event.

After the big unveiling, the Rams would send hats with the new team logo and colors, which was every bit as bad as the leaked logo, to anyone who would contribute to a fundraising event to benefit the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic impact upon the Los Angeles area.

Only the big unveiling with the real logo was every bit as bad as the leaked logo.

The impact on the morale of the fans is pretty significant. The Rams were not very active in free agency this year, handicapped by a tight budget before free agency even began. The team is also somewhat handicapped in the upcoming 2020 NFL Draft, having no first-round pick, and just six picks to reload the team’s roster.

The logo unveiling failed not once, but twice. The old adage of “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” is resonating now among Rams fans, who now are debating whether or not to vote with their dollars on the new merchandise.  Of all the foolish things the Rams have done in the past year, unveiling an unpopular logo for the second time this year was the most foolish thing of all.