​St. Louis Continues to Waste the Riches of the Robert Griffin III Trade

The St. Louis Rams were gifted with one of the most valuable picks in recent NFL history: the second overall pick in a draft with two perceived franchise quarterbacks. The Rams thought they had their answer at quarterback in former No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford, and so they traded the second pick in the 2012 NFL Draft to Washington, which used it on Robert Griffin III. In return, the Rams got three future first-round picks and a second-round pick in 2012.

It's oft-repeated that the Rams won this trade, because Griffin is an easy target for criticism and hasn't developed into the superstar people expected to him to become. And certainly, in terms of the pure draft value the Rams have been able to add, that assessment makes sense. Washington backed up the truck for Griffin before they got around to tossing him under the wheels, and the Rams were showered with draft picks.

But that treasure hasn't actually done anything to help the Rams, you know, win. And after Sunday's embarrassing loss to the Cardinals, the team's fifth in a row, St. Louis is all but eliminated from the playoffs. They spent almost all their 2015 draft picks on the offensive line because of a perceived lack of "need" areas, and yet they have still managed to waste the spectacular rookie season of the one draft pick they didn't blow: Todd Gurley.

The Rams are essentially a Jeff Fisher treasure bath, and that's not any more fun to watch than it sounds.

Even beyond talent and scheme, football teams tend to take on the character of their leaders in a sort of grander sense. When you hit a home run in all three phases, you get someone like Bill Belichick or Jim Harbaugh that can both build a complete team and imbue it with purpose and direction. Chip Kelly is a terrific schemer and his greater design—player-injury tracking, analytical thinking—is great. But he can't evaluate NFL players worth a damn. Or at least, he hasn't yet.

Jeff Fisher's grand architecture is very simple: he wants to run the football. A lot. Jeff Fisher believes in a time simpler time, when the first team to 20 won and when passing was only something set up off the run.

That in itself isn't a bad thing. There's a lot of value in being able to run over an opponent, and being the bigger and more physical team clearly matters in football. It's why we see, in college, that teams like Alabama or LSU are able to win despite their lack of passing offense.

But to win in today's NFL, your team's ideals must be not only adaptable, but situation-proof. Fisher's Rams have put their faith in Sam Bradford and Nick Foles. Fisher's Rams have pretended that every one of the receivers they've drafted are hidden gems just waiting to blossom. And yet, every year, Rams fans see Jared Cook and Kenny Britt—middling ex-Titans from Fisher's old job—brought in and trusted with most of the passing offense. The Rams have employed Brian Schottenheimer as an offensive coordinator on purpose. The passing offense as currently constructed will only lead the league in yards if Bill Barnwell's old Horizontal Yards idea catches on.

To be clear, nobody is saying the Rams should have taken Griffin over those picks. Anyway, I'm sure not: I think hopes for Bradford at the time were still logical if not necessarily statistically likely. I'd even say that in swapping Bradford for Foles, the Rams came away with the most valuable asset in the deal: the second-round pick.

But draft capital is only valuable if you actually use it on something that matters. It doesn't appreciate over time. As the Cleveland Browns have repeatedly and painfully demonstrated, having the most stabs at the pie is not the same thing as actually getting it into your face. Teams still need to find players that fit into a plan and are good enough to help the team win. Draft picks are a fine way of finding those players, but adding picks does not eliminate the need to create the team that's going to play games.

The Rams believe they have have built that team. They've constructed a hyper-talented defense with a great penetrating front. Perhaps no defensive player has come closer to what J.J. Watt has done over the past few years than Aaron Donald. The extra picks on the back seven haven't worked out quite as well, but you can win a Super Bowl with Janoris Jenkins as your second cornerback. Gurley is as close to a premier, old school, every down back this league has at the moment. This is good.

But it also doesn't matter. The passing game is irreparably flawed for this year, and so is the attitude of the team's leader Jeff Fisher. The Rams built an offense that can't get them back into games. The NFL is a much more explosive, high scoring league than the one Jeff Fisher entered decades ago, and in which he is seemingly still stuck.

The Rams are built on a paradox. They think there is a choice between building a power run offense and building a passing game that attacks downfield and can move the chains, and they've made their decision. Their problem is that there is no choice. The answer is not "power run offense." The answer is "yes." The answer is a team needs to be able to do both.

And until the Rams figure out a way to do that, they'll just be a really good power rushing team. That's not a goal anyone really aspires to in the modern NFL, but then these Rams were not made for that league.