NFL News: Rams Throwing In The Towel After Marcus Peters Trade? – Forbes

The Los Angeles Rams surprised the masses on Tuesday by trading two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Marcus Peters to the Baltimore Ravens in what seems to be a sign of things to come.

This move comes just a couple days after Los Angeles dropped its third consecutive game, a 20-7 home contest against the San Francisco 49ers. Now losers of three consecutive games, the Rams find themselves 2.5 games behind San Francisco in the NFC West and two games back of the Seattle Seahawks in the division.

More than the trade of an impending 26-year-old free agent, the compensation Los Angeles received for Peters is questionable. The team picked up former mid-round pick, backup linebacker Kenny Young. It also added a fifth-round selection in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Young, 24, was a healthy inactive two weeks ago for Baltimore and didn’t play a single defensive snap last week. He had fallen out of favor big time within the organization. In fact, the second-year linebacker has played in less than 35% of his team’s snaps in four of six games this season.

The Rams might have needed depth and young talent at linebacker, but they gave the Ravens an ultimate steal in this trade.

The backdrop here is real. Peters is slated to become a free agent after the 2019 season. Los Angeles likely figured it was going to lose him to a higher offer on the open market.

That leads us to our overriding question in this article: Did Los Angeles just throw in the towel by trading its best cornerback? Barring a subsequent move for someone like Jalen Ramsey (a possibility), the answer to this question has to be a resounding yes.

It’s normally teams not in contention who make moves of this ilk. Looking to the future makes sense. Los Angeles picked up a fifth-round selection one year prior to the third-rounder it would have received as a compensatory selection for losing Peters in free agency. General manager Les Snead also added a young linebacker the team was high on heading into the 2018 NFL Draft – a linebacker that has yet to prove himself at the pro level, but has a high ceiling.

This all comes one day after the Rams placed fellow Pro Bowl cornerback Aqib Talib on injured reserve. As of right now, the defending NFC champs will be relying on rookie David Long and an unimpressive Troy Hill to be their two starting outside corners moving forward. That doesn’t equate to success with outings coming up against Pro Bowlers Julio Jones and JuJu Smith-Schuster over the next month.

Snead and Co. could very well be looking at this through a realistic lens. Los Angeles has lost three in a row for the first time under head coach Sean McVay. It was just taken behind the woodshed by what looks to be a Super Bowl-contending 49ers team. It’s a game that saw the Rams rack up 101 total yards of offense after scoring a touchdown on their first drive.

Meanwhile, Seattle is sitting in the NFC West with an MVP favorite in Russell Wilson under center and at 5-1 on the season.

This could be the Rams way of hedging their bets for the remainder of the 2019 season. Peters had been inconsistent after a dominating start to his career with Kansas City. More than anything, his high interception rate has taken a hit in Los Angeles. The team was not going to dole out what could be a record-breaking contract to retain the Pro Bowler.

In the end, it’s likely all about Los Angeles believing that it’s not much worse off without Peters in the mix. He didn’t do a whole lot to help them stave off a three-game losing streak. Now mired in mediocrity in what appears to be a hellish NFC, the entire mood of Los Angeles’ front office might very well be about how this team looks in its new digs starting next season.

What happens between now and the NFL trade deadline on Oct. 29 will tell us the entire story here. For now, the Peters trade seems to be a win-later move.