Despite having very little draft capital to work with and not much cap space either, the Los Angeles Rams found a way to acquire an eight-time Pro Bowl pass rusher before Tuesday’s trade deadline. They struck a deal with the Broncos on Monday, sending Denver two Day 2 picks in the 2022 draft for future Hall of Famer Von Miller.
It’s yet another aggressive move by Les Snead and the Rams, one that not even Sean McVay expected to happen. When he was told that there was a possibility of the team acquiring Miller, he had the best reaction.
“Yeah, you got to be shitting me. I’m like, ‘no way,’” McVay told reporters Monday. “And then you start to really unpack it and understand the ramifications and what’s it going to take and what does that look like? What does that potentially do and how do we envision him fitting into our football team? Became more and more of a reality really over the last week. Again, can’t say enough about just a great job by (Broncos GM) George Paton and by Les to be able to kind of work through those nuances and to be able to kind of wrap it up and finalize it today. It was good, but really these last couple of days is when the dialogue kind of started. And again, my focus was solely on the Texans, but then you kind of know that this is a possible thing in the background. Having that trust in Les, but still being involved and inclusive in how it’s kind of unfolding is really helpful – and that’s why I think we work well together. But I was very surprised that this was a possibility, and I was glad we were able to get it done.”
A couple of weeks ago, McVay told reporters not to expect the Rams to make any “big splash moves” before the trade deadline. He wouldn’t rule anything out, but he truly didn’t think they were going to make an acquisition like this at the time.
Obviously, even if they were going to land a player like Miller, he wasn’t going to give that away, but he was being honest when he said not to expect any blockbusters.
“And that’s exactly right because at the time that was the truth – exactly what I told you. ‘Never say never,’ things change,” he said. “Here’s what I’ll tell you that I’ve learned over these last five years, I’m always honest with you guys in the moment about how I’m feeling, but things inevitably always change. And so that’s why you want to say, ‘Never say never.’ If you had told me when you asked me that question a couple of weeks ago, if I thought there was a chance of acquiring Von Miller, I would have said, ‘Are you kidding me? Hell no.’ Right? And then when it becomes a reality, you say, ‘Well, let’s look into it.’ And one of the things that I think is good about the approach, and it might not be for everybody, is if we feel like it upgrades our football team, we’ve got an owner that is willing to do that.”
“Never say never” and “all-in” have become two perfect slogans for the Rams because with Snead and McVay, they truly are never out of the mix for any trade.
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