Trades in the National Football League are made for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is all business, that is a team has salary cap issues and needs to unload high priced players. On a few occasions, a front office will grant a trade so a player has the best opportunity to continue his career with a team more in need of his skills.
Occasionally, a team will make a trade looking for the final piece of a Super Bowl winning puzzle. The Los Angeles Rams did that five years ago when they sent a bevy of draft picks and a starting quarterback to the Detroit Lions for Matthew Stafford.
Stafford was the first player taken in the 2009 draft by the Lions, a franchise that for years had been selecting near the top of the annual draft because of one bad season after another. Stafford spent a dozen seasons in Detroit and never won a postseason game; the Lions lost the three playoff games they participated in during his twelve seasons in Detroit.
Still, despite no success in the postseason, Stafford was regarded as a topflight franchise quarterback and the talent rich Rams figured he was the final piece in a winning Super Bowl run.
To land Stafford, the Lions packaged a number of draft picks and their starting quarterback, Jared Goff, for the twelve-year veteran signal caller.
Some trades work well for both sides of the negotiation.
This one did.
The Rams won Super Bowl LVI in Stafford’s first season in Southern California. The next season, 2022, the Rams compiled the worst record ever for a defending Super Bowl Champion with a 5-12 mark. That played to the Lions benefit, as the Rams first pick in the 2023 draft acquired by Detroit in the trade was an unexpectedly high selection.
The Rams got their Super Bowl win with the trade, and the Lions went from a doormat to a Super Bowl contender while Goff became one of the highest rated quarterbacks in the league and Detroit didn’t miss on consecutive successful drafts.
Stafford is now reaching the twilight years of his Hall of Fame earning NFL career. During his five seasons in Los Angeles, he has guided the Rams to the playoffs four times and won seven of ten postseason games. The Rams think he still has enough gas in the tank to win another Super Bowl, and to help their cause Los Angeles made another blockbuster trade to bring in elite talent while surrendering multiple high draft choices.
This time, Los Angeles added one of the best defensive players in the game with the acquisition of defensive lineman Myles Garrett. He too, like Stafford, had been a first overall selection in the draft. The Cleveland Browns made him the first pick in 2017 and, not unlike the Lions, despite his dominant play the Browns seasons were marred with poor win/loss records. During his nine seasons with the Browns, they twice advanced to the playoffs and lost two of three postseason games.
Will Garrett burst onto the scene in Los Angeles and like Stafford in this first season with the Rams provide a key cog to win another Super Bowl?
Seems there is a very good chance of that.
The Rams were favored to win the Super Bowl by Las Vegas books before they acquired Garrett, and his presence appears likely to strengthen an already stout defense.
Will the Browns turn-around their recent misfortunes?
They weren’t winners with the talents of Garrett on their roster, but they are hoping for the same kind of success the Lions experienced while cashing the three draft choices acquired from Los Angeles in the trade. An exchange of talent that included the Browns getting in addition to a first, second and third round draft picks proven reliable defender Jared Verse. He was selected by the Rams in the first round of the 2024 draft.
This trade may prove beneficial to both sides, just like the Rams deal with the Lions did. But, in the long run it may also have another result … the Rams in not too many years down the road will see Stafford retire and their cupboard of talent could soon be bare given how many draft choices they traded in getting the services of Stafford and Garrett.