NFL Trade Rumors: Would Rams trade for Jonathon Taylor?

The LA Rams seem to have things in hand in terms of their rushing offense. Or do they?  After all the smoke clears and the 2022 NFL season is said and done, the LA Rams were excited to get a late-season surge out of veteran running back Cam Akers and will welcome back two rookie running backs Kyren Williams and Ronnie Rivers.

However, some fans have already turned on Akers. After all, this is the same running back who found himself in a heated dispute with LA Rams head coach Sean McVay before the Week 7 BYE. So livid was the dispute that the Rams benched the running back and sought a trade partner to send him to another NFL team’s roster.

When no team showed enough interest or was willing to meet the LA Rams’ asking price, the Rams reconciled with Akers. From that point on, Akers ran with new determination, very much resembling the promise of his NFL rookie season in 2020.

The Rams are poised to run, but who will carry the pigskin?

The fact that the LA Rams hired Mike LaFleur, a new offensive coordinator with a strong interest in establishing a rushing offense, suggests that Cam Akers is poised to have a career-high season for the LA Rams. Of course, there are other opinions out there. Some have commented that Akers will never carry the football for the LA Rams again. Others believe that Akers’s dispute with McVay disqualifies him as anything more than a rotational contributor on this team.

Even though the Rams and Akers seemed to come to an understanding, are those fans correct? Has Cam Akers already worn out his welcome with the LA Rams? While I don’t believe that to be the case, I cannot rule out the possibility. So what would the Rams do if Akers is no longer in their future plans at the running back position?

Perhaps a trade for an established NFL veteran running back?  Such as the Indianapolis Colts veteran RB Jonathan Taylor?

Mosher’s NFL trade scenario

Pro Football Focus writer Marcus Mosher wrote a provocative article recently titled: 5 NFL trades that could shake up the 2023 offseason (subscription required). In this NFL Trade scenario, Mosher proposes that the LA Rams could consider trading their second-round pick, currently projected to be the 37th overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, to the Indianapolis Colts for veteran running back Jonathan Taylor.

Normally, that is where the story would end for me. I would read it, consider it an interesting trade scenario, and then put the story down for more relevant news. But Sports Illustrated writer Jake Arthur noticed the same article, and he wrote an article about the same trade scenario that would impact both the Indianapolis Colts and the LA Rams.

NFL Trade Rumors: Johnathan Taylor to LA Rams?

Not only did he write about the Mosher article, but he also broke down the paywall and detailed the suggested trade:

"RB JONATHAN TAYLOR TO LOS ANGELES RAMS The Rams were reportedly in the Christian McCaffrey sweepstakes before the San Francisco 49ers landed him ahead of the trade deadline. Could this be the offseason where the Rams try to upgrade their running back position once and for all? The Rams are notoriously aggressive, and it seems like Sean McVay would like to make one more run with Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Aaron Donald. So what about a Taylor trade? Taylor is entering the final year of his contract, so the Indianapolis Colts might want to avoid making him the league’s highest-paid running back, as they are set to begin a rebuild. Could the Rams flip the No. 37 pick in this year’s draft, along with some other filler picks, to get the best pure running back in the league? This isn’t the wisest move for the Rams, but given their history and the fact that they tried to acquire McCaffrey last year, it makes some sense. Putting Taylor on this offense with the rest of their weapons would be a ton of fun to watch. – PFF Marcus Mosher as reported by Sports Illustrated’s Jake Arthur"

So now the specifics are available. One trade that sends a star NFL running back to the LA Rams for the cost of a second-round pick. Intrigued? Let’s break this one down:

The Indianapolis Colts realized in 2022 that the NFL’s heyday for running backs is less popular in the modern NFL offense and Johnathan Taylor is a bit of a running back who needs to work. Taylor fell to an ankle injury on December 19, 2022, and only played in 11 games in the 2022 NFL season. That means that he is a bit of a risk to any team he is projected to play for in the 2023 NFL season.

Why would the Colts do this?

The Indianapolis Colts are looking to rebuild around their new head coach, a coach that has yet to be named. One of the problems as noted above with the Colts is the fact that the team believes that Taylor expects to set the standard for running back contracts at the end of the 2023 NFL season.

The Colts would be losing the explosive production of Taylor for what amounts to one NFL season, and in the process add currency to address their more vital needs. The Colts have 5-foot-9, 205-pound running back Zack Moss waiting in the wings, and he was able to step up for the Colts in Taylor’s absence.

The Colts are not ‘there’ yet, and keeping Taylor, while productive, would not move the needle as much in terms of wins in 2023. Running backs are less impactful in the modern NFL, and the Indianapolis Colts must prioritize getting a quarterback first and foremost. In the meantime, they could come to the conclusion that trading Taylor now and avoiding that difficult salary negotiation at the end of the 2023 NFL season is worth the effort.

Why would the Rams do this?

The LA Rams tried and fell short in the trade for Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey. Their bid was shy of the 49ers’ bid of a 2023 second-, third-, and fourth-round picks, plus a 2024 fifth-round pick. The Rams, having traded their 2023 fourth-round pick previously, could not match that offer.

In my mind, Taylor is a better running back and is easier on the Rams’ salary cap to boot. In fact, the LA Rams love to add All-Pro veterans to their roster, and Jonathan Taylor earned that distinction in just his second season.

The Rams offense, we painfully discovered in 2022, begins with a strong running game. That has really not been the case since former star running back Todd Gurley was released after his knees could no longer keep up the all-purpose back role that he excelled at in the Rams’ offense. Is the 37th overall pick a costly pick? To Colts fans, it’s not enough. But to Rams fans, that pick could land a star offensive lineman. Is there some way to make this deal more friendly for both teams?

How can the Rams tweak this trade to become better for both teams?

The secret to negotiating is knowing what your trade partner wants to emerge from in any negotiation. If you know what they want, and can deliver it, you’ve gotten that much closer to walking away from the exchange with both trade partners happy.

The Indianapolis Colts are a team that is looking to land a passer in the 2023 NFL Draft. So what do the Colts need for that new quarterback? The rule of thumb suggests that the Colts will want to land a top offensive tackle, a star wide receiver, or a strong versatile running back. The Colts drafted their left tackle, Bernhard Raimann, in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft. And as cited earlier, if the Colts make this trade, they are likely content with RB Zack Moss handling the load.

Rams rumors: Give them what they need

So the area of need for the Indianapolis Colts that could sweeten the deal for the Colts, and yet come from a position of surplus for the LA Rams is wide receiver.

The LA Rams have discovered that WR Tutu Atwell has much more to contribute to an NFL offense than originally thought. Why not add him, a former second-round selection, to the exchange? And while we’re at it, what about throwing in RB Cam Akers too? Now, what would that trade look like?

In this trade scenario, the Colts get a running back in Cam Akers who has significant upside, a wide receiver in Tutu Atwell who very much has the potential to perform like NFL wide receiver Marquise Brown or Brandin Cooks, a 2023 fourth-round pick, and a 2024 conditional pick based upon the playing time and production of Akers or Atwell in the Colts offense.

The draft pick could be improved in 2023 but would come at the expense of the future conditional pick. If the Indianapolis Colts preferred another WR, like Allen Robinson, the conditional pick would be eliminated. The pieces are less important than the general philosophy that the Rams could package players and picks to give the Colts a jumpstart at getting better.

The Colts, looking to build a young and inexpensive team around a new rookie quarterback, certainly do so. RB Cam Akers could be a 1000-yard rusher this year for the Colts, and Tutu Atwell would be a nice young offensive weapon as well.

Will it happen? Well, the original deal of a second-round pick for Taylor places a lot of pressure on the Indianapolis Colts to nail that pick in the draft. If the two teams do negotiate a trade, it makes more sense for the Colts to look for young players combined with picks to reduce the risk.