Los Angeles Rams: Jalen Ramsey trade presents extreme danger

The Los Angeles Rams made a blockbuster trade on Tuesday and acquired one of the best cornerbacks in the National Football League, Jaleen Ramsey.

The Los Angeles Rams were busy shaking things up on Tuesday. Los Angeles landed former Browns center Austin Corbett for an undisclosed pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. The team then traded big-name cornerback Marcus Peters to the Baltimore Ravens for linebacker Kenny Young and an undisclosed 2020 draft pick, which is believed to be a fifth.

At the time, the Peters trade came as a complete shock. Peters never really lived up to his potential in LA but with Aqib Talib hitting the IR, the last thing the Rams seemingly needed to do was trade away a cornerback.

However, it was shortly discovered why the Rams made this move as they acquired star cornerback Jalen Ramsey from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ramsey requested a trade weeks ago from the Jaguars and has not suited up in recent weeks for a myriad of different reasons.

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The cost of the upgrade at cornerback was a 2020 first-round pick, 2021 first-round pick and 2021 fourth-round pick, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. This is fitting for the Rams, who have not had a first-round draft pick since 2016, when they traded up to select Jared Goff.

It is easy to get excited about this deal. The Los Angeles Rams received one of, if not the, best cornerbacks in the entire league who is also just 24 years old. This is undoubtedly an upgrade from Peters and alongside Aaron Donald and the defensive line, will hopefully turn a Rams team that is 14th in passing yards allowed to one of the best in the league.

The Rams are also who they are without having a first-round pick in the last three draft classes, so its easy to see why some fans may overlook those picks altogether just because they got Peters, which is fine. It is understandable to get excited about a new superstar.

However, this trade presents an extreme danger for the Los Angeles Rams and unless the team wins a Super Bowl and Ramsey plays a huge part in that, then there is going to be a lot of regrets around making this deal and will set the Rams up for future failure.

The secondary certainly was not a strong point of the team and it needed help with Talib’s injury but it certainly is not the weakest point, either. The Rams may rank 25th in points allowed per game, but that stat is deceiving.

The Rams allow so many points per game because of their inability to keep the ball and frequency to turn it over, which circles back to quarterback Jared Goff. The Rams’ rank fourth in the NFL in giveaways this season, averaging two per game.

That is obviously going to lead to the other team scoring more points.

Adding Ramsey does not fix this. Yes, it makes the defense better and will hopefully lead to more stops, but it does not fix the main problem on the Los Angeles Rams.

Right now, the main problem is Jared Goff and there is no real way to fix it other than holding on and hoping he figures it out. A three-game losing streak is not enough for us to simply give up on Goff, but going to the other end of the spectrum and pretending that everything is fine is not okay, either.

Goff has been bad, there is no way around it. Whether it is this or last year in the Super Bowl, Goff looks like a below-average quarterback when he does not have an elite running back to bank on.

The Los Angeles Rams are going to need Goff to make big steps because right now, they do not have a quarterback that can take over games and win them. You can be successful without that, but winning it all? Near impossible.

The other extreme danger in this trade is Ramsey’s contract. Ramsey’s contract ends after next season. So the Los Angeles Rams potentially could have given up two first-round picks for a guy that has every right to walk away after next season.

Extending him is obviously the goal and if the Rams do that then this won’t matter. However, Ramsey still has the power to walk away after a year and a half with the Rams, leaving the Rams with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Title windows in the NFL are extremely small and the one way to prolong them is to draft smartly. There will be a day where the Los Angeles Rams can no longer make these blockbuster deals, either because they don’t have the salary cap space or don’t have the assets.

Winning solves everything and just one Super Bowl is enough to justify this bold strategy. Without that, these extreme dangers of trading for Jalen Ramsey could lead to another unfortunate period for the Rams.