Grade the Trade: Reviewing 7 hottest current LA Rams rumors and trade scenarios

I - Fox Sports (via SI): Aaron Donald to Browns at NFL trade deadline

It appears as though making stuff up is really in fashion right now, and the most popular NFL trade scenarios must include three key elements. First, the LA Rams must plummet this season. Second, the LA Rams must be willing to trade one of the three elite players: Cooper Kupp, Matthew Stafford, or Aaron Donald. And three, there must be another NFL team willing to play the white knight and rescue one of the Rams playes from the carnage of a bad season.

Well, the doomsday scenario is the product of Fox Sports Jason McIntyre, whose doomsday prediction for the LA Rams this year rivals that of chicken little. (Is the sky really falling?). From there, it's easy for Sports Illustrated writer Pete Smith to create an Aaron Donald to Cleveland Browns scenario. The premise (which seems to be the common theme, come to think about it) is that the Rams stink this season so they bail on their good players.

But like many draft scenarios, this one is firmly entrenched in the presumption that the LA Rams, and particularly the Rams' defense is horrid. Is that a fair presumption? I'm not of the opinion that it is. And even if that proves to be the case, why would the Rams suddenly panic over that if the team held the course all through the 2022 NFL season?

Why would Rams try this?

If the Browns make the LA Rams a ridiculously insane offer, like one of those NBA trades that cover multiple first round picks, and if Aaron Donald is okay with moving so very much closer to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that he has ever been in his entire NFL career, then I can see the Rams sitting down to the bargaining table.

Why wouldn't Rams try this?

What's the offer? For a player of Aaron Donald's caliber, isn't that going to be the make or break details that sets this trade scenario apart from any and all social media Tweets from an NFL fanbase that urges the team to trade for a player? No details? No deal.

Another major hurdle for the Browns is that their complement of 2024 NFL Draft picks is currently at the bottom of the proverbial barrel. Would the Browns commit multiple draft picks, spanning multiple years, to acquire Aaron Donald? They already dropped a ton of draft capital to acquire QB Deshaun Watson. I don't think that, in the wake of that trade, the Browns can break enough piggy-banks to meet any Rams' asking price.

Grade the Trade: D

Speculative trade scenarios are basically time wasters if there are large gaps or holes left in that particular trade scenario. This particular scenario is riddled with holes, any one of which is an instant show-stopper. How would you grade this scenario?

For all of the 'buzz' on social media, I have to admit that I am terribly disappointed. There is only one of the seven rumors that I was able to excavate that even formed a complete trade scenario. And in retrospect, I probably graded that scenario too favorably simply out of the joy of finding a complete trade to assess.

In the end, it all boils down to much ado about nothing. But if I've wasted your time in deterimining that, I'm sorry. I simply had to get to the bottom of 50 or so articles citing the LA Rams involved in some NFL Rumors over trading a key player. But to those of you who stuck it out to the end, do any trade scenarios pique your interest? Or are you as disenchanted as I am?

I simply wish they would stop speculating about the LA Rams.