Scott Fitterer accidentally set the LA Rams down a new path to success

Rams lose out in 2 trade offers, but there's a plot twist

The Rams would lose out in both attempts to pry elite talent from the Carolina Panthers in 2022. But then-Panthers GM Scott Fitterer would ultimately lose the war, and be fired in January 2024. It was not the trades that Scott Fitterer made that cost him his job. Rather it was that Rams trade that he did not make that Joe Person of The Athletic stated sent him down the path of destruction. Ultimately, the Panthers gave up too much to trade up for QB Bryce Young, and that derailed the Panther's track for rebuilding their team.

"The deal that looks questionable a year later is the one Fitterer didn’t make. The Rams offered two future first-round picks — in 2024 and ’25 — plus a third in ’23 for Burns, who was in the midst of a career-best, 12 1/2-sack season. Trading Burns would have left the Panthers without their best player on a defense that has kept them in a lot of games the past two seasons. But the Panthers might have been able to flip the two firsts to Chicago, allowing them to trade for the No. 1 pick without giving up their own first in ’24 and wideout DJ Moore, who would have been an invaluable weapon for rookie quarterback Bryce Young"

- Joe Person, The Athletic

Dean Jones of Cat Crave did an excellent job of connecting the dots between Fitterer's failures to his eventual dismissal. And like any good story, Jones was ahead of his time. Fitterer was fired one year later.

.Of course, if the rear view mirror image of what Fitterer did not do is so shocking as to cost an NFL general manager his job, what does that same image say for LA Rams GM Les Snead? After all, the Rams offers did bear any fruit, so the team ended up keeping and using a multitude of draft picks that were originally earmarked to be shipped to the Panthers.

But there is an easier trek to compare what the Rams might have done, and what actually happened. It needn't attempt to track down the draft picks not exchanged and which players may have been selected by the Panthers.

The Rams were unable to pry elite talent at either the running back or pass rusher positions. So, with no option for outside talent, the team had to grown its own talent at those positions. It's 2024, with 13 games into the season. So far, how did the Rams do?