Rams failure to trade up to 39 would have been the greater evil

The impact of getting the pick right

The other glaring omission of any trade up that involves future picks must consider the impact of getting the current pick right in relation to the value of that future pick. Here is what I mean.

The range of relative values assigned per the NFL Trade Value Chart ranges from the greatest value of 580 for the 33rd overall pick to 270 for the 64th overall pick. Why does that matter? Well, accepting a future year's draft pick introduces a level of uncertainty as to when in that round the team will be able to make the pick. So if the Rams traded 52 (380 value), 155 (29.4 value) and a 2025 Round 2 pick (TBD), for the 39th overall pick (510 value), the presumed value to the Carolina Panthers for that Round 2 pick is 100.

But the least value that pick can be is 270. So the Rams still overpaid, right?

Well, as we have emphasized all along, only if the players on the draft board at the time of that pick hold value to the Panthers in 2025.

If the LA Rams get the pick correct, and rookie DT Braden Fiske rocks the NFL and becomes Defensive Rookie of the Year, helping the Rams to win Super Bowl LIX along the way, the Panthers Round 2 pick in 2025 holds the value of 270, which is nothing more than a glorified Round 3 pick.

It just so happens that the Rams hold two picks in Round 3 of the 2025 NFL Draft: Their originally allotted pick, and the second awarded Round 3 compensatory pick for the team's loss of DC Raheem Morris to the Atlanta Falcons as their new head coach.

Ideally, you would have wanted to see the Rams pay a discounted price to move up in Round 2. But with the Philadelphia Eagles notably bidding on the move to 39, a Rams failure to trade up to 39 would have been the greater evil. NFL teams know that you must control what you can control. If the Rams sat back and waited, other teams would have had an opening to trade up for Fiske. The knowledge that the Rams needed a defensive tackle early in the draft may have opened the floodgates for multiple defensive linemen to be pulled off the draft board.

In the end, the LA Rams emerged with two Florida State Seminoles, perhaps the best college defense in 2023. Now, it's all up to the Rams defense to coach them up into rising NFL stars.

Stay tuned. Business is picking up. And most of all, thank you for reading.