The Rams are 2-4, but that record doesn’t seem to be slowing down Les Snead’s willingness to explore a move if it can help the roster now. On Wednesday, ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported that Los Angeles will at least look into the wide receiver market after Davante Adams was placed on injured reserve.
That kind of response would hardly be out of character for this front office. The Rams have been here before, refusing to treat a middling record like a finished season.
In 2019, with the team sitting at 3-3, they swung deals for Austin Corbett and Jalen Ramsey, and both became important pieces on the Super Bowl run in 2021. Two years later, when the Rams were again 3-3, they got close to trading for Christian McCaffrey and Brian Burns before being outbid for McCaffrey and finding the Panthers unwilling to move Burns.
So yes, a trade would not be shocking. But if Los Angeles does make one, the target has to be worth the cost.
One name that has started popping up is Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., a player who looks, at least on paper, like the kind of “X” receiver the Rams would want in place of Adams. He was a first-round pick, and Jacksonville general manager James Gladstone has a relationship with Snead.
Still, the fit on paper doesn’t make it the right move in practice. Thomas may be the splashy name, but trading for him would also mean betting on a player whose last 1.5 seasons have raised real concerns.
The numbers paint a rough picture. Thomas played only 21.1 percent of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps in Week 6 and has no catches on five targets over the last two games.
After a rookie year that brought 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns on 87 catches, he has managed 57 receptions for 812 yards and three touchdowns since then. Since Doug Pederson was replaced by Liam Coen, he simply hasn’t looked like the same player.
That matters because Coen and Sean McVay come from the same offensive tree, and the systems are very similar. If Thomas has struggled in one version of that structure, it’s fair to wonder how seamless the transition would really be in Los Angeles.
There’s also the issue of how often he’s actually finishing plays. Over the last two years, Thomas has ranked last in adjusted catch percentage via FTN Fantasy, and among players with at least 15 targets this season, his 22.2 percent drop-rate is the highest in the NFL.
Last season he was also top-five in drop-rate at 9.1 percent. His targeted success rate over the last two years is 47.3 percent, which ranks 78th out of 116 qualifying receivers.
In short, the catchpoint has been a problem.
Matt Harmon of Yahoo Sports and founder of Reception Perception was more optimistic in his offseason profile of Thomas for 2025, writing: “Brian Thomas Jr.’s second season was a frustrating one. It included both dips in his play across the board in isolation and a role that continued to get scaled back as the season went on until his final profile looked merely that of a low-volume X-receiver,” wrote Harmon.
“He’s a good press and man-beater who wins both on the vertical routes and helps clear space for his teammates. If he simply maintains this level of deployment and success as a route runner, while cleaning up his drops and contested-catch rate, he’d be a good and useful starting X.”
But a third of the way into 2026, the same issues are still showing up. That’s what makes Thomas such a dangerous target for a Rams team that can’t really afford to miss.
The Rams have history with this kind of swing. They traded for Sammy Watkins in 2017 after just one 1,000-yard season, sending a second-round pick and EJ Gaines to Buffalo for Watkins and a sixth-rounder. Watkins produced 593 yards in Los Angeles and wasn’t brought back the next year.
Earlier this season, the Houston Texans dealt a second- and seventh-round pick for Marvin Harrison Jr. and a sixth-round pick. Harrison Jr. has never gone over 900 receiving yards in a season.
Thomas wasn’t a top-five pick like Harrison Jr., but he is still a former first-rounder with more production than either Watkins or Harrison had at the time of their moves. That means the price is likely steep, probably starting with a second-round pick unless the Jaguars are truly eager to move on from him, which does not appear to be the case.
That’s where the Rams’ draft situation makes the whole idea tougher to swallow. Looking ahead to the 2027 NFL Draft, they already do not have a first- or third-round pick.
If they send out their second-rounder, they would not be back on the clock until the fourth round. With the roster and pending free agents in mind, that second-rounder may be exactly the kind of pick they need to bring in young, cheap talent.
They also don’t have a 2028 second-round pick to part with, and given where this roster stands, a 2028 first-round pick is not a realistic chip to push into the table either.
The Rams may still decide that a receiver addition can help steady the season. If they do, the answer has to fit the price. A late-round pick swap like the one that brought in Kevin Dotson, or the fifth-rounder used to land Austin Corbett, makes a lot more sense than chasing a bigger name for a premium asset.
Los Angeles has already poured significant resources into this roster, and the returns have been uneven. Giving up another valuable draft pick for a receiver who has struggled for most of the last two seasons would only deepen the hole.
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Los Angeles is not the only team dealing with questions, either, with Las Vegas also managing its own injury list as wide receiver Mike Washington Jr. and linebacker Quay Walker were limited or did not practice. For the Rams, the issue is less about one headline absence than the accumulation of concerns, the sort that can alter rotations, force late adjustments and make a divisional-type Sunday feel even more precarious. [Read more 🡒]