Nuts and Bolts of The Allen Robinson Trade
Sometimes in life one needs to dig themselves out of a hole and that often entails swallowing a spoonful of bitter medicine. Today, the Los Angeles Rams took down a horse-sized capsule of it without water like they were The Rock on “Ballers” with the Allen Robinson trade to Pittsburgh. Last year’s “Run It Back” moves are coming back to bite them in the form of dead cap space and abysmal PR.
No move better exemplified the Rams ill-fated title defense strategy than moving on from Robert Woods and replacing him with Robinson for an even more laughable in 2023 (and was laughed at in 2022) Three-years $46.5 mill with $30 guaranteed. That money amassed a total of 33 catches, 3 touchdowns, and 339 yards. OOOF!
Well, with the Rams current remodel it doesn’t make sense to keep a guy pulling that kind of salary especially when he’s seemingly on the decline. So, Les Snead made a move to extricate the team from Robinson’s salary but it came at a price. Robinson was traded along with a 7th-round pick to Pittsburgh for their 7th-round pick. The Rams also agreed to pay $10.5 of Robinson’s $15 million guaranteed. They already paid $5 million of it earlier this year. They also take on $21.45 million in dead cap. Not great but it seems to be the only way to get out of this hole.
Allen Robinson Trade: The Fallout
In hindsight, this deal was always a blunder. It was an act of desperation after negotiations with Von Miller dragged on too long. This resulted in all of his would-be replacements being plucked off the market before the Rams had a chance to sign them. The logic in signing Robinson was that Bobby Trees and Odell Beckham were coming off torn ACL and they needed a reliable receiver.
Woods and Matthew Stafford didn’t seem to gel either. Stafford likes having a guy who could catch a 50/50 ball. Robinson ranked high on the list of guys who could do that and to that point in his career he had been successful despite never having a real quarterback throwing him passes.
Logically, having a real quarterback in Stafford would make his skillset shine but the problem was twofold. Stafford was dealing with an elbow issue that kept them from having much time together during training camp and thus once the season rolled around the chemistry was about as bad as Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt in “Jurassic World.”
Robinson also seemed to be missing a step and struggled to get separation. The Rams were also missing Van Jefferson and thus missing a reliable deep threat, leading to more pressure on Robinson to create some non-Cooper Kupp offense. The most memorable moment of the Stafford-Robinson pairing was a goal-line fade in Week 2. Robinson wouldn’t make it through the rest of the season and he wasn’t missed even amidst an injury-riddled season.
The idea of Robinson exceeded the reality of Robinson as a player and some smart fans saw the red flags and others (author included) wore rose-colored glasses and were convinced of the aforementioned Robinsance.
It didn’t help that this blunder became amplified when Robinson was seen as a blue chip stock in fantasy and his stock immediately tanked like it was Tesla stock. It’s unfair to blame Robinson entirely, he took a deal ANYONE would’ve taken especially at that moment in his career and in retrospect, he wasn’t walking into the best situation as the Rams were going to be down a reliable deep threat for half the year, the line was increasingly injured, and the running game was what Leon Phelps would call “unexistent”.
Again, his QB wasn’t available until training camp and the hype machine created outsized expectations. So, it’s understandable that fans want to drive him to LAX but this is on the Rams.
The Rams Future Without Robinson
Les Snead and to a degree, Sean McVay made a bad decision in a sea of bad post-title decisions. Not only was Robinson expensive and ineffectual but it cost them both Woods and Beckham. The money could’ve also gone towards a reliable pass rusher or an offensive lineman. Lord knows the Rams could’ve used those. They essentially used the money they needed to fix their transmission and spent it on a sound system from 1998.
Now, they’re having to eat a ton of dead money in a year in which they’re already eating a child-sized party tray of dead money. The mission of the 2023 season is to get younger and faster (AKA hit on multiple draft picks) while shedding cap space for one last run in 2024. Luckily, there are multiple receivers they can take in the middle of the draft so replacing Robinson won’t be too difficult, then again the bar couldn’t be lower if it were the profits for “Black Adam”.
The Allen Robinson era is over and like the Homer Simpson Era at Powell Motors, it was expensive and disastrous. All that’s left is to digest the medicine and hope for a quick recovery.