With the trade deadline looming we are seeing what teams are unloading talent while surrendering to a rebuilding program and what teams are collecting talent in an attempt to make this their year.
Three big name receivers have gone from cellar dwellers to contenders in the past couple weeks. It began with the Las Vegas Raiders unloading Davante Adams and his salary to the New York Jets. The Jets would like to be considered among the contenders, but nothing on the field, with Aaron Rodgers or not, has indicated they are a serious threat to the AFC best.
Two other receivers, Amari Cooper and DeAndre Hopkins, did leave bad teams for good ones. Cooper is now working with Josh Allen in Buffalo and Hopkins has moved from the dreadful Tennessee Titans to the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.
So, when a team is in the unloading mode, like the Raiders, Titans and Cleveland Browns shipping top receivers, are we to assume the team is packing it in and take the other side of their games to cash?
Not necessarily.
Sometimes the departed players, talented as they may be, are serving a negative effect on their old team. Once out, the young athletes who step in can add new energy to assist a team in getting better.
Tonight, a team that some had rumored to be in the unloading stage, the Los Angeles Rams, put their 2 and 4 mark up against the Minnesota Vikings, who lost their first game of the season last Sunday in a hard-fought contest against the talented Detroit Lions. It was said by some that the Rams were shopping their Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, wide receiver Cooper Kupp.
If the Rams had traded Kupp, they still might, I would be much more cautious about backing them in tonight's game at SoFi Stadium. But, so far they haven’t, and if he plays tonight, he is coming off an injury, then it is more evidence that Sean McVay’s team has not thrown in the towel on the 2024 season.
This year, fortunately, they are playing out of the NFC West which unlike recent seasons does not have a team running away in the standings. Their major competition, the San Francisco 49ers, have won only three of their first seven games and the Rams beat them at Levi’s Stadium in their first of two regular season matchups last month.
The Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals are both capable of winning on any given day, but also each have multiple losses and don’t appear likely to pull away from the NFC West logjam.
The Vikings, conversely, are playing out of one of the most talented divisions in football. Their NFC North competition includes three other teams with winning records, the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Their loss last week at home to the Lions dropped the Vikings into a tie with Dan Campbell’s squad, and now they are forced to bounce off that first defeat with a cross-country trip on a short work week.
The possibility of the Rams unloading Kupp will become a lot less likely after they win this game to get back into their division hunt.
Qoxhi Picks: Los Angeles Rams (+3) over Minnesota Vikings