3 reasons why LA Rams should develop QBs to trade in the future

The LA Rams are sitting on a gold mine, but are doing nothing about it. What do I mean?

Sometimes the old methods are the best methods. Take the old pattern used by former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid, who would draft a quarterback in the middle of an NFL Draft, coach him up, insert him into a game or two to showcase him to the NFL, and then trade him for a tidy draft position profit. So why bring this up?

When the LA Rams signed veteran quarterback Baker Mayfield to finish out the remainder of the 2022 NFL season, the Rams witnessed first hand that their offense does not have to be so complex that it requires several years of indoctrination in the Rams system to be effective. Just hours off the plane, Baker Mayfield engineered a Rams comeback classic, the Mayfield Miracle, that will be among the greatest regular season performances in franchise history.

After the season, QB Baker Mayfield signed a contract to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was not the fact that he signed elsewhere, but rather the fact that he signed so quickly that leads me to believe that the LA Rams have an untapped market for quarterbacks who have experience in their system. So how does the Rams organization leverage that market?

Reason III: LA Rams have enough draft picks to choose a QB this year

The LA Rams have 11 draft picks for the 2023 NFL Draft, and project to benefit from 11 draft picks in the 2024 NFL Draft as well. While the Rams roster is only boasting 44 players under contract for the 2023 NFL seaso, the Rams need to find and add backup quarterbacks to the roster who can play this year.

You see, the only quarterback on the roster currently is veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford, and the team only got nine games from him a year ago.

Drafting a quarterback on Day 3 will not cripple the Rams draft class in the least, and if the team uses a fifth-round pick, can still harvest a competitive and talented rookie quarterback who can learn the Rams' offense and be ready to put his skills on display in the Rams preseason games. Investing in a backup quarterback makes sense. It needn't be a top-tiered prospect. Rather, he simply needs to be a talented prospect who has raw talent and can be coached up. Just look at what the San Francisco 49ers did with QB Brock Purdy as the template.

Reason II: LA Rams need backup quarterbacks today and tomorrow

The LA Rams need to get some hurlers on this roster, and fast. With the team's only quarterback being veteran starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, the team is already losing a valuable opportunity to have younger quarterbacks interact and learn from Stafford. After all, this needn't be a one-and-done strategy. The talent pipeline at the quarterback position, once it starts to flow, and be a self-sustaining strategy.

Here's what I mean. Let's imagine a scenario in which the LA Rams choose BYU quarterback Jaren Hall late in Round 5 of the 2023 NFL Draft. While nobody believes currently that he will develop into a successor worthy of taking over after Stafford steps down, let's carry his rookie season out to the point where he is a primary backup to Stafford, and whether the fact that gameday scores are so lopsided or that the Rams simply need Hall to start due to a Stafford injury, he sees some playing time. When he plays, imagine that he does a respectable job.

Rams can trade young quarterbacks for picks

While the typical pattern for the LA Rams is to draft a raw prospect, coach him up for a year, play him in an increasing role for three years, and then let him sign with a new team, and be awarded a compensatory pick in the following year's NFL Draft, that is not the only way to parlay players into picks.

An alternate strategy, and one that I hope the LA Rams adopt, is to draft a quarterback early on Day 3 or late on Day 2, work with that quarterback for a year, and then field offers for that quarterback the following year. We saw how quickly the reputation of veteran quarterback Baker Mayfield was restored by playing a handful of games in the LA Rams offense. Now, keep in mind that his career was all but over when he failed to click for the Cleveland Browns and for the Carolina Panthers. Now, he has the pole position to win a starting quarterback spot as the successor to Tom Brady for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The LA Rams could leverage that interest in their quarterbacks by putting out feelers from other teams in the offseason. If no team bites? Fine. Keep them. But if they get a nibble, then the Rams can trade that quarterback for a better draft pick than they used to select the player, and then draft a new rookie quarterback to repeat the process.

Reason I: LA Rams have to compete with the 49ers

While the San Francisco 49ers had taken a rather unorthodox path to stockpiling quarterbacks, the outcome of those swings and misses have placed their team into a rather advantageous situation in the end. A year ago, the 49ers held a rather full quarterback room. They had selected QB Trey Lance with the third overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, had a returning veteran Jimmy Garoppolo, and then selected rookie quarterback Brock Purdy with the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.

The confusion over whose team it was compelled the 49ers to repeatedly assure their fans that this was Trey Lance's team. But when the 2022 NFL season started, that all proved to be a scripted narrative, and the 49ers quickly went off script. Now, in 2023, the 49ers' quarterback situation is once more as confusing as 2022, as the team is trying to determine which injured quarterback on the roster will heal first: Trey Lance or Brock Purdy. Some opportunistic teams are already asking about QB Trey Lance:

Now I am not suggesting that the LA Rams play follow the leader and simply go where the San Francisco 49ers go. But the 49ers stumbled of late, and have landed on their feet in the process. In short, the team drafted a top quarterback prospect in the belief that the front office would have no trouble unloading the veteran in free agency. Since Garoppolo had a bum-throwing shoulder, the 49ers were forced to keep both Lance and Garoppolo on their roster. So why add Purdy?

Rams need more than a game clock manager under center

Purdy was that insurance policy who served to ensure that the 49ers would have a viable quarterback just in case. Surprisingly, that just-in-case scenario translated into nine games for the rookie. Of those nine games, he played in six contests as the starter, and won all six games.

The 49ers system does not ask too much of their quarterbacks. They tout a great defense, a great rushing scheme, and a robust offensive line. A seventh-round drafted rookie quarterback can go undefeated piloting that offense and do. The LA Rams must analyze what the 49ers do right, and either do it better or find a way to neutralize their advantages. One way is simply to acknowledge that their offense needs more than a game-clock manager.

The Rams must acknowledge that fact if the team is to do better. If the Rams do so, they can rethink how the Rams roster commits to their backup quarterback position. Rather than treat the position as sunken costs, the Rams can treat the role as a pipeline of talent from the draft to the trade market. As the Rams become successful at creating better backups, their roster talent pool improves as does their return in the trade market.

The Rams are not the only NFL team searching for competent play at the quarterback position. But the team can position itself as a unique source for future NFL quarterbacks by rethinking their own backup quarterback position as a pipeline that flows, rather than as a swam that remains stagnant.

The Rams roster building process is pretty radical in 2023. Perhaps, a few tweaks like creating a pipeline for the backup quarterback position will help the team to avoid such radical do-overs in the future.