7 hypothetical NFL trades the LA Rams should make before Week 1

Scenario II – Trade a seventh-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for LB Haasan Reddick

The Rams need linebackers with experience, and the Arizona Cardinals are swimming in linebackers with experience. Right now, the work is that the Rams starting linebackers Micah Kiser and Travis Howard are holding their own, but that the quality drops significantly when backups Kenny Young and Troy Reeder take the field.

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The Rams are experimenting with their depth, as the team has already begun to give undrafted linebacker Christian Rozeboom repetitions with the second-string. The Rams placed linebackers coach Joe Barry in an impossible situation. He lost Bryce Hager, Cory Littleton, Clay Matthews, and Dante Fowler Jr.  In their place, the team added Leonard Floyd, Terrell Lewis, and seventh-round linebacker Clay Johnston.

2020 player to bridge the gap

The Arizona Cardinals are swimming with linebackers right now, and have invested heavily for defensive help in the 2020 NFL Draft.  Reddick has never really had a “home”, as he has been used to plug holes in the defense at various linebacker positions. The Cardinals have already declined his fifth-year option.  He is not a long term player for them. He is 2020 at best.  But he is a talented player who simply did not work out for the Cardinals.

Why would the Rams do this? Reddick pushes right into the Rams depth chart, filling the role planned for Young.  With his diverse background, he is more suited for the Rams’ new defensive scheme. Most of all, he knows all the teams that the Rams face twice a year, intimately. Why would the Cardinals do this? A 2021 draft pick for a player who may not make the 53-man roster cut?