While other teams made moves to improve their rosters before the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Rams were inactive and didn't make any deals. It wasn't terribly surprising considering their lack of draft picks and cap space, but some still expected the Rams to make a trade for wide receiver help after losing Puka Nacua.
During his press conference on Wednesday, Sean McVay explained that the Rams' inactivity was mostly due to the fact that they expect to get key players like Nacua, Davante Adams and Terrance Ferguson back at some point. It wasn't so much about the difficulty of onboarding players and having them learn a new playbook as it was about the expected returns of key starters.
“It’s not as much that [onboarding players] as it is getting
guys back," he said. "Who are those players that we would acquire? What does that look like? We've had a lot of unique things in terms of managing the 48, you're 53, and the practice squad. This is as much as I can remember spending time with Les [Snead] in the early parts of the week for roster mechanics because it's different than previous years where maybe you've had a high volume in certain positions. We've had a lot of different things across the board at a number of spots. The main thing is you're hopeful that you're getting some of these guys back sooner than later, rather than saying these guys are out for the year. We're going to try to fill that void for the year.”
As frustrating as the Rams' passive approach at the trade deadline was to fans, it's understandable. They only have four picks in the 2027 draft and they had no cap space before restructuring Kyren Williams' and Kam Curl's contracts to free up $3 million.
And McVay's not wrong about the fact that the returns of Adams, Nacua and Ferguson will be big deals for Los Angeles. It's just that the Rams have to stay above water until they come back, which won't be easy.
Nacua will miss an "extended" period of time, even if he doesn't go on IR. The Rams are targeting a Week 13 return for Adams, and Ferguson has at least a couple more weeks. If they can beat the Cardinals this week and the Packers in Week 12, they'll be in good shape.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Sean McVay sheds light on why Rams didn't make trades before deadline
