Future Hall of Fame defensive end gives Rams path to elite defense in 2025

I would love to tell fans of the LA Rams that the team has placed their 'all-in,' and 'forget them picks,' days behind them. But who am I trying to kid? The Rams pivoted from NFL trades to the NFL Draft in 2022 after the pedestrian Carolina Panthers shot down trade packages for two different players: OLB Brian Burns and RB Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey was eventually traded to the Rams nemesis, the San Francisco 49ers.

The following season, the Panthers traded a now-disgruntled Brian Burns to the New York Giants for a fraction of the offer from the Rams. But the damage was done. The Rams front office realized that the price of building an NFL Championship roster had inflated out of the team's comfort zone.

But where there is a will, there is a way.

Los Angeles Rams GM Les Snead is a pragmatic man. He does not make NFL blockbuster trades merely for the thrill of the deal. He is a supercomputer, able to calculate the inherent value of any NFL player, and the cost of what it might take to pry that player from another NFL team. In 2021, he helped to engineer an offer that headlined national sports outlets for weeks, swapping starting quarterback Jared Goff (plus three draft picks) in exchange for Detroit Lions' starting quarterback Matthew Stafford. Weeks earlier, Stafford had requested a trade.

Two years earlier, the Rams traded multiple draft picks to the Jacksonville Jaguars for All-Pro defensive back Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey had demanded to be traded from the Jaguars weeks earlier.

Snead has pivoted to the NFL Draft because there has been a lull in quality game-changing players in terms of trade availability. But that nadir is filled with the excitement and speculation of the latest trade request made public by Cleveland Browns veteran outside linebacker Myles Garrett. And as you can see from the Rams history, it's all music to Les Snead's ears:

Before you shoot down the thought, consider this. The Rams are projected to lose versatile OLB/DT Michael Hoecht to free agency. If the Rams manage to trade for Myles Garrett, they would field NT Kobie Turner, DT Braden Fiske, and OLBs Myles Garrett, Byron Young, and Jared Verse. With that defensive front, the Rams could lead the NFL in quarterback sacks for years to come.

So what is his likely asking price?

Whether or not the high-level NFL executive works for the Cleveland Browns and is trying to drive up the speculative offers out of the gates is up to you to decide. After all, while Garrett is in the prime of his NFL career, how much longer will he be tops in the NFL? Two Round 1 picks plus more is too high a price to pay.

More realistically, a Round 1 plus picks package should do the trick. That level of compensation is confirmed by ESPN NFL Insider Dianna Russini, who shares more NFL GM insight over this rapidly developing storyline.

Snead is not enamored with deals just for the sake of making deals. But he does recognize a team-changing opportunity in real time, and any opportunity to add OLB Myles Garrett to the Rams defense is something that we know he will not overlook.

Consider this. Myles Garrett generated 14.0 quarterback sacks, 47 tackles, 22 tackles for a loss, broke up one pass, forced three fumbles, recovered a fumble, and allowed just 67 percent of passes thrown to find his receiver. If you swap him out for OLB Michael Hoecht, you get a defense that instantly skyrockets to a Top-3 in terms of quarterback sacks.

But there is so much more upside than sacking quarterbacks.

The Rams' defense rallied heroically in 2024 for new defensive coordinator Chris Shula. Imagine what Shula can do with this defense if he adds Garrett to the rotation. The team proved that it is ready to win NFL Championships now. If the team is serious about winning with QB Matthew Stafford and WR Cooper Kupp, now is the time to draw that line in the sand.

Stay tuned, as this rapidly developing story 'feels' like it has Les Snead written all over it.

As always, thanks for reading.

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