There is no team we will learn more about over the next two weeks than the Los Angeles Rams, who have been a focal point of early trade deadline curiosity over the past week and will become the focal point of much larger and more significant conversations depending on what happens in their next two games against the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks.
The Rams have a 36-year-old Super Bowl–winning quarterback approaching a point in his contract that requires very serious conversations about long-term viability and mutual interest in continuing on. Matthew Stafford got more money injected into the 2024 season of his deal back in July. There were also conversations about Stafford being traded prior to the New York Jets acquiring Aaron Rodgers, which is not to say that Stafford is on the block, but that these concepts have already been introduced into the minds of everyone involved and would probably not come as a surprise as we barrel ahead toward the Nov. 5 trade deadline.
The Rams also have a 38-year-old Super Bowl–winning coach who, I’m guessing, does not have much interest in falling to the bottom of the draft order and beginning anew with a quarterback who cannot keep pace with him intellectually for a handful of years. Sean McVay has discussed burnout, has been the subject of endless pseudo reports about his retirement and was mentored in this league by Jon Gruden, who managed to double dip as both a kind of offensive wunderkind in his 30s and an offensive sage in his 50s, with a gap as a broadcaster in between to rediscover life, family or whatever else was in his pool of interests (Hooters commercials?). Last I checked on McVay, those who know him felt he was as dialed in and passionate about coaching the Rams as ever.
In addition to all of this, the Rams have an incredibly cerebral wide receiver who is 31 years old, which is the perfect amount of seasoning and ripening for someone to be valuable to a contender down the stretch, especially in a market starved for playmakers. Cooper Kupp, though, is integral to the Rams’ offense and shares a special bond with Stafford. The pair prepare together, watch film together and are key to the integration of this offense as it tries to open its arms to new blood.
So we have this kind of Jenga tower before us. While we don’t know what the Rams will do, unlike just about any other team in the NFL (save for the Tennessee Titans, who have clearly raised the white flag and have begun the developmental stage of their rebuild), they will declare it through their actions.
Let’s explain:
Getting rid of Kupp would make it kind of nonsensical to keep Stafford. Kupp makes Stafford a better player, and while Puka Nacua has risen to the level where he watches film with Stafford and Kupp, the combination of both Nacua and Kupp is what makes this offense special (at least in my view). Both Kupp and Nacua are blockers first, and their physicality aids their ability to get open and bolsters the success of the run game. Another team would have to build in something similar for Kupp, and if teams could recreate the Rams’ offense to this level of specificity, my guess is that they would have already done so. If the Rams are serious about extending the window of this current core, that has to include Kupp, even though there are promising young players on this depth chart who have done well when thrust into larger duty.
From there, it doesn’t feel like a leap to wonder about getting rid of Stafford if you’re also getting rid of Kupp. And from there, it doesn’t feel like a leap to wonder whether getting rid of Stafford would be an indication of what is happening at the head coaching position, given that there are no other obvious veteran quarterbacks on the market right now who could supplant Stafford as a pair with McVay.
One could reason that it’s worthwhile to trade Kupp and keep Nacua and Stafford together, betting that someone such as Jordan Whittington can grow into the No. 2 receiver role. And I would guess that’s the major argument against my premise. My rebuttal, though, would be why? If you’re not trying to win now with Stafford and McVay, what are you doing? And does a mid-round pick return for Kupp put you any closer than keeping him, both for his off-field additions and on-field skills?
For the record, I don’t think Stafford will get traded. I find it unlikely that Kupp will get dealt, given what I reasoned above. And I wouldn’t want to put myself in the position of a head coach who could do literally anything he wants, because minds can change eternally and perpetually. Nick Saban, the day he retired, had two different speeches he was planning to give based on how he felt in the moment: stay or go.
But … I do think that if Los Angeles gets its doors blown off against Minnesota on Thursday Night Football, the team could start to lean in one direction. Having an early Thursday night game as a kind of long preamble into the final week before the trade deadline is both a blessing and a curse for this club.
Imagine, first, if Los Angeles pulls off an upset, which I predicted in our weekly staff picks (coming to the site on Thursday). I don’t think that’s out of the question, given what McVay knows about Vikings coach (and former Rams OC) Kevin O’Connell as a play-caller. And while you could reason the same in reverse, sometimes these games come down to understanding how another coach thinks. Then, for the next 10 days, the Rams could start leaning back into neutral. The schedule begins to breathe, with matchups against the bottom-dwelling New England Patriots, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins, plus a handful of critical divisional games still left on the schedule. With the San Francisco 49ers struggling through injuries and possibly the after effects of yet another long run through the postseason, and the Seahawks leading the NFC West at 4–3, there is still time to get back into the race.
This Rams team was efficient offensively against a better Detroit Lions defense in Week 1 than we saw knock off the Vikings last weekend. In the interim, the team’s core of bright, young defensive players has really started to round itself out.
Imagine, then, if the Rams get run off the field Thursday. They’d be 2–5 heading into a road game versus Seattle two days before the deadline, with much on their minds and a phone that could be presumably ringing off the hook. At that point, everyone is going to have to lay their cards on the table, unless the organization is totally fine with passing up valuable draft capital that could help it continue to stay afloat in what’s typically a difficult division full of talented players and coaches.
While it feels like a wild copout to suggest that anything or nothing could happen, that ultimately means that something has happened. The Rams declaring a rebuild would not have the same implications as, say, a Titans team that fired Mike Vrabel and Jon Robinson, two respected team builders with a track record of success, opting to completely reset. We already know Tennessee is retooling.
When it involves a team that contains a top-level coach, a top-level wide receiver and a Super Bowl–winning, Hall of Fame–level quarterback, that’s when ripple effects begin to be felt far and wide. That’s when the league as we know it starts to change.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Rams Are the Most Interesting Team at the NFL Trade Deadline.
