Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Rams made waves when they traded for reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns. It was a sudden blockbuster trade, and former ESPN star Bomani Jones seems to think that it hints at Rams coach Sean McVay’s future with the team.
In explaining the decision to trade for Garrett, McVay expressed that the team wanted to be “aggressive” when presented with the opportunity to add such a high-caliber player. However, Jones seems to think that move could ultimately cost McVay his job.
Rams Wanted to Be ‘Aggressive’
Following the blockbuster trade that sent Garrett to Los Angeles in return for three NFL Draft picks and young pass rusher Jared Verse, McVay addressed the move to the media.
McVay compared the trade to the one the Rams made back in 2021 when they acquired star quarterback Matthew Stafford, sending Jared Goff to Detroit in return.
“We feel really fortunate that this feels very similar when we were fortunate enough to be able to acquire a player like Matthew Stafford,” McVay said during Garrett’s introductory news conference Tuesday via ESPN. “Things like this don’t present themselves and we wanted to be aggressive.”
Of course, things worked out for the Rams last time as they won the Super Bowl in 2022 against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. But Jones thinks it’d better work out this time too, for McVay’s sake.
‘Sean McVay is Out of Here’
With the Rams inheriting Garrett’s contract, which is worth $160 million, combined with the decision to make Trent McDuffie the highest-paid corner in the league with a $124 million contract and Stafford’s new one-year, $55 million contract, it’s pretty clear that the Rams are going all-in on this year.
That has led Jones to speculate that if it doesn’t work, McVay could be out after this year, saying “the bill is gonna come due on this.”
“They are so all in on this year, that the only assumption that I can make is that Sean McVay is out of here after this year,” Jones said on his podcast this week. “[He] can’t play and stay there for very long because the bill is gonna come due on this. It’s amazing that the bill never quite came due on all the moves that they had made before, but the bill is going to come due in an incredibly competitive division.”
We’ll have to see how things play out for the Rams, but it does seem pretty clear that they are doing everything they can to win immediately without much thought to the future.