A Yahoo expert shocks Rams fans with this sub-par assessment of team's offseason

If you are someone who must see something first-hand to believe it, you are called a Doubting Thomas. But what do you call someone who has seen the LA Rams take a huge step forward unexpectedly to earn a berth and compete in the NFL Playoffs? Well one name you can call him is a Yahoo. That is Yahoo NFL senior writer Frank Schwab. Schwab acknowledges that the LA Rams surpassed all expectations from 2023 by appearing in the 2024 NFL Playoffs.

Of course, when assessing the team's actual transactions, he gets stuck by picking out those lazy national narratives. You know the ones: The Dallas Cowboys are America's Team, Philadelphia Eagles fans snowballed Santa, the Seattle Seahawks will win because their fans are so loud, and the LA Rams will take a huge step backward in 2024 because Aaron Donald retired.

It's as though that is the only event impacting the team this season.

"The Aaron Donald retirement has to be factored into the grade, because that obviously changes the entire Rams defense. The Rams used four of their first six draft picks on defensive linemen as they reset. "

- Yahoo writer Frank Schwab

But the ever resourceful Schwab knows that to make a compelling argument, he must cite three reasons for his conclusion. So, he pulls the 'overpay' story out for this one too. You know the one. The Rams traded up in Round 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft to select DT Braden Fiske from 52 to 39. And the Rams cost of doing so was historically expensive.

"In the second, the Rams paid a lot to trade up and take defensive tackle Braden Fiske. Los Angeles traded a 2024 fifth-round pick and a 2025 second-round pick to move up from No. 52 to No. 39 for Fiske, which was a huge overpay. But the Rams have never worried about the value of picks."

- Yahoo writer Franks Schwab

Now, let me stop the guy right there. I refuse to accept the premise that the Rams have never worried about the value of picks. What GM Les Snead understands that sails over Schwab's head is the understanding that draft picks have no intrinsic value of their own, and they only gain value from the quality of player chosen by that pick.

Because the LA Rams were in a unique position to select two defensive stars from the same outstanding NCAA college football defense with their first two picks, the value of doing so warranted that level of investment. Failing to trade up to select Fiske may have gotten an 'attaboy' from myopic assessments like this one, but it would have been the greater evil.

Nowhere in his grade narrative does he cite the wisdom of keeping both OLB Jared Verse and DT Braden Fiske on the same NFL defense.