It’s not often trades in the NFL happen, but over the last couple of seasons the NFC West has been a landing spot for four of the bigger trades that have gone down.
After the Cardinals grabbed Chandler Jones for a second round pick and the corpse of Jonathan Cooper, the Seattle Seahawks responded in kind for Sheldon Richardson last year and then the bombs really started to drop.
The San Francisco 49ers pounced last year during the season on Jimmy Garoppolo for a second round pick.
Now, the Los Angeles Rams are joining the party and making maybe the most game changing move in adding Marcus Peters from the Kansas City Chiefs.
The question becomes, how much did the Cardinals know and how much would you have been willing to pay for similar players?
When it comes to Sheldon Richardson, you are envious of the name, but where the Cardinals were last year it would not have made sense. Another second round pick for a rental player in a year where you weren’t a contender wouldn’t make sense.
However, when you look at the last two trades, those are two trades where you wonder what the Cardinals could have done to be involved? It seems like both trades happened on the sly, without much fanfare around them, but did the Cardinals, like 30 other teams in the NFL on Peters, miss out?
What about Jimmy Garoppolo? Would this years second have been worth it? What about the mega contract?
Now that you know the low cost to attain Peters services for two years, would you have given up the opposite? A two this year and a four next for the chance at an All Pro across from… another All Pro?
Is Peters the player too much of a headache for his issues to offset his tremendous talent?
That’s the question you have to ask yourself.
We know that the Rams have a coach in Wade Phillips who has dealt with headaches successfully, like Aqib Talib. He’s going to be one of the few who could handle it.
What about Steve Wilks? He is beloved by, not as big of an issue, Josh Norman, but still a headache sometimes. Could Wilks not have dealt with Peters?
Is it a conscious decision that the Cardinals are not close enough to make a play for Peters this offseason and get the most out of him over the next two years?
Whether the Cardinals were in or not, one thing is for sure, the NFC West has evolved, rapidly.
It will be interesting to watch move forward.