Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead has made plenty of brilliant trades in his career, including deals that helped the team win the Super Bowl. However, one deal in particular now seems to be making the rounds because of a story shared by another general manager.
Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta recently spoke at the Penn State Sports Business Conference. He shared some of his experiences as a top executive for an NFL team, touching on moves he regrets and stories he remembers from his early days.
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Working for one of the most successful NFL franchises in the modern era, DeCosta has seen a lot. Promoted to general manager at the start off the 2019 offseason, one of his first trades stuck out to him. Not only because it benefitted the Ravens but due to the circumstances involving the player.
“The guy was kind of an idiot, to be honest. He was part of a trade, it was a great trade for us. We got a good player in the trade and he ended up being a great player for us. I was conflicted about trading this guy to the other team because he was a young draft pick, even though the coaches felt like this guy was an idiot.”
Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta at the Penn State Sports Business Conference
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While DeCosta doesn’t name the specific player, the revelation of the team is a bit of a giveaway. In October 2019, the Rams traded cornerback Marcus Peters to the Ravens in exchange for linebacker Kenny Young and a draft pick.
At the time, Young was just a year removed from being the 122nd overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. An All-Pac-12 linebacker for the UCLA Bruins, a return to Los Angeles seemed to be perfect for Young. However, as DeCosta detailed, the 6-foot-1 linebacker’s last impression on DeCosta seemed to back up the belief of the coaching staff that he was an “idiot” with a lack of emotional intelligence.
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“I’m looking for him, I call him on my phone, I say come up to my office. So he comes up to my office and he’s got an ice cream cone. So, I say, why don’t you sit down. So he takes the ice cream cone, this is a true story, and he throws it towards my trash can but he misses. It hits the side of the can and it rolls on the carpet and I have all this vanilla ice cream. In a span of seconds, I go from feeling bad about telling this guy I was trading him, to like rejoicing. I was like, ‘Dude, I traded you to the Rams.’ I didn’t feel bad for him at all, because just that act of throwing the ice cream cone was so, lack of emotional intelligence.”
Eric DeCosta on the moment he told the player he was being traded to the Los Angeles Rams
Young went on to play 32 games for the Rams in three seasons, recording 31 solo tackles and 3 sacks with only 13 starts. He was traded to the Denver Broncos in 2021 for a sixth-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, then spent his final two seasons bouncing around the league on practice squads with the Las Vegas Raiders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints.
As for Peters, his arrival in Baltimore improved the Ravens’ secondary. He finished the 2019 season with 5 interceptions and led the NFL in pick-sixes (3) and interception return yards (210). Two of those pick-sixes came in Baltimore, where he spent two more seasons making 27 starts.
