With 2017 NFL Draft Compensatory Pick Allocation, The Jared Goff Trade Is Final For LA Rams, Tennessee Titans

On April 14, 2016, the Los Angeles Rams and Tennessee Titans announced a trade that sent the #1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft to the Rams.

The Rams would use the pick to draft Cal QB Jared Goff, but it wasn’t until today with the release of compensatory picks in the 2017 NFL Draft that we finally understood the full value of the trade.

From the Titans, the Rams got the 1st overall pick, the 113th overall pick and the 177th overall pick all in the 2016 NFL Draft. The Rams traded the 113th pick to the Chicago Bears in return for the 117th overall pick and the 206th. Ultimately with those picks, the Rams got Goff, South Carolina WR Pharoh Cooper, South Carolina St. TE Temarrick Hemingway and Southern Miss WR Mike Thomas.

On the other side, the Titans received two picks in this year’s draft and four picks in last year’s draft: #15 (first round), #43 (second round), #45 (second round) and #76 (third round). Tennessee then traded #15 and #76 (along with their second-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft) for #8 and #176 overall picks from the Cleveland Browns. Then they put #176 with this year’s sixth-rounder for #157 and #253 from the Denver Broncos. Ultimately either directly from the Rams’ picks or from trades that the Goff trade picks were included in, they ended up with Michigan St. OT Jack Conklin (#8 overall), Penn St. DT Austin Johnson (#43), Alabama RB Derrick Henry (#45), Southern Utah CB LeShaun Sims (#157) and Southern Miss CB Kalan Reed (#253). Now with the comp picks released, we know that the Titans will also be picking with the #5 overall pick and the #100 overall pick in this year’s draft.

A fair way to consider the trade in its ultimate terms was tweeted out by Bleacher Report’s Justis Mosqueda:

The Rams weren’t trading Jack Conklin for Jared Goff. They knew what they wanted to do with their picks. They knew what they were willing to give up. And that was it.

There’s a bit of an incongruity in the notion that the Rams don’t have a first-round pick this year. Sure, if we’re just being blunt they don’t. But if we’re thinking through it, their first-round pick is already on the team. It’s Jared Goff. And it’s Pharoh Cooper and Temarrick Hemingway and Mike Thomas. They’re all incorporated costs in the #5 overall pick in this year’s draft.

Ultimately, that’s how we’re going to have to evaluate the trade. Goff and Cooper and Hemingway and Thomas are going to have to play well enough to justify the pick slots the Rams gave away. That’s the value decision the Rams made last April.

Now we understand the full terms of it. The years to come will tell us how wise or unwise that decision was.