The 2012 trade that sent Robert Griffin III to Washington and sent a bounty of draft picks to St. Louis still looms large over both franchises. So much so that the Rams’ general manager keeps a reminder of that trade in his office.
According to Peter King of TheMMQB.com, written on the whiteboard in Rams G.M. Les Snead’s office is the phrase, “Build to dominate using Redskin picks!”
The Rams certainly have built a substantial portion of their roster with Washington’s picks: St. Louis got three first-round picks and one second-round pick out of the deal, and in some cases used those picks to trade down and get more picks. The Rams now have eight players on their roster — Greg Robinson, Alec Ogletree, Stedman Bailey, Zac Stacy, Michael Brockers, Janoris Jenkins, Isaiah Pead and Rokevious Watkins — who were acquired as a result of the Griffin trade.
What the Rams may not have, however, is a franchise quarterback. Sam Bradford, the quarterback whose presence made the Rams feel confident that they didn’t need to draft Griffin, just suffered his second torn ACL and will cost the Rams $17.6 million on this year’s salary cap while he rehabs his knee. If the Rams want to bring Bradford back on his current deal in 2015, he’ll cost $16.5 million against their salary cap in 2015.
At those contract numbers, the Rams may wish they had just drafted Griffin, who went to Washington with the much more affordable rookie contract of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. If Griffin’s own injured knee holds up better than Bradford’s, the Rams may one day wish they hadn’t taken the deal that gave them all those picks.
