LA Rams biggest gaffe was Aqib Talib, not Cooks nor Gurley

The LA Rams clean-up of bad contracts has brought critics out of the woodwork. But the worst of the past 12 months was that of CB Aqib Talib

There seem to be four relevant topics in sports headlines in recent days: The 2020 NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, Bill O’Brien’s reckless personnel moves, and how Les Snead’s 2020 clean up of the LA Rams personnel contracts demonstrates bad fiscal management. Well, not to be a contrarian, but the 2020 clean up effort is what follows when the team signed terribly burdensome contracts and failed to consider any feasible out-clauses. So the chatter in recent days of how trading WR Brandin Cooks is a bad thing is a bit mistimed. In fact, it’s very much akin to closing the barn door after the horse escaped.  Right move, wrong timing.

The LA Rams truly made a “DOH!” move twice over a cornerback. Neither Jalen Ramsey nor Marcus Peters.  The Rams twice played the unwise role when the team traded for cornerback Aqib Talib in 2018 and then traded him away a year later.  To understand why I make this claim, I need to explain the what and the why.

The Rams traded for Talib after trading for veteran cornerback Marcus Peters.  In a somewhat surprising move, the Rams announced that they traded for 32-year-old Aqib Talib from the Denver Broncos for a 2018 fifth-round pick.

The moved planned to pair up Talib with Peters in a sort of veteran superstar defensive backfield, despite neither Peters nor Talib having played together nor for the Rams previously. The relationship began on a very rocky start as the Rams had to place Talib on injured reserve early in 2018 and did not reactivate him until mid-November of the same year.

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When he did finally take the field, he played relatively well, earning a 76.6 rating from Pro Football Focus. The following season, everything seemed to go wrong. While he remained adequate in pass coverage, he was on the field for all defensive snaps when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers shredded the Rams in their game-four matchup to win 55-40. He fell to injury the following week against the Seattle Seahawks and would not take the field again.

He played for the LA Rams for eight games in 2018, and just 5 games in 2019. In total, he took 722 defensive snaps for the LA Rams, at a salary cost of $14,764,706, or $20,450 per defensive snap. if the Rams sought interceptions by trading for him, they were deeply disappointed. He would only have one interception in his shortlived LA Rams career.

The worst part was when the LA Rams sought to deal him away. Blinded by their ambitious hopes to trade for Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey, the Rams were eager to eliminate Talibs crippling contract from their books. So rather than cut Ramsey, the team was forced to trade Talib to the Miami Dolphins in addition to a 2020 fifth-round pick. In exchange, the Rams would get the Dolphins 2022 seventh-round pick.

In short, the Rams traded picks to obtain, and then to shed, Talib. The second move, surrendering a fifth-round pick in a deep 2020 NFL Draft, landed as the fifth most foolish thing the Rams have done in recent months. But combined with the move to acquire a 32-year-old cornerback with a ridiculously overpriced contract makes this a true head-scratcher.

Yes, the Rams had to swallow dead money in releasing running back Todd Gurley. And yes, the Rams had to swallow more dead money in trading away Brandin Cooks. But at neither time did they trade away draft picks to do so.  The Rams focused upon cornerbacks, specifically trading for Ramsey, at the expense of all other matters needing attention and fiscal planning.

The Rams have made some bone-headed moves recently, all intended to take a chance. I’m okay with a general manager who is willing to roll the dice on occasion. I get nervous when draft picks become loose change to an NFL team, particularly when they appear to be given away without a care in the world. Despite what you may read in the upcoming weeks, the Rams’ worst moves are behind them now. Not by days, but by months.