The Rams looked smart enough at the time. They had a tight end who seemed headed for roster cutdowns, so they dealt Mark Redman to the Packers for a 2028 seventh-round pick and got something back instead of losing him for nothing.
A few weeks into the season, though, that move looks a lot less tidy.
Los Angeles suddenly finds itself thin at tight end. Terrance Ferguson is on injured reserve, Colby Parkinson is dealing with an AC sprain in his shoulder, and second-round rookie Max Klare has not given the offense much to work with. That’s left Sean McVay’s group in a spot where Redman’s presence would have mattered.
Before last week’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Rams were already operating short-handed at the position. Even so, the roster still included three tight ends, and McVay made it clear Klare would have a chance to see more of the field.
“It certainly does,” said head coach Sean McVay. “Obviously, being able to play with multiple tight ends has become a big part of our identity and so it absolutely does.”
But by the time Sunday ended, the Rams had leaned heavily away from that idea. They were in 11 personnel on 88 percent of their offensive snaps, and Klare played just one snap all game. That’s the uncomfortable part for Los Angeles: if a second-round tight end can’t earn more than a single snap in a game where the team is already shorthanded, the question becomes when he actually will.
Redman, meanwhile, has settled into a real role in Green Bay. With Luke Musgrave on injured reserve, he played the second-most snaps among Packers tight ends in Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, trailing only Tucker Kraft.
He did more than occupy a jersey, too. Redman showed up as a blocker and helped the Packers keep rolling with 13 personnel.
He didn’t make a major mark as a receiver, but the Packers have been able to keep their offense intact because of what he brings. Against Tampa Bay, Redman was the 14th-highest-graded tight end by Pro Football Focus, and the only Rams tight end to grade higher was Tyler Higbee.
The blocking numbers are where the case gets even stronger. Redman posted a 72.3 run-blocking grade, which ranked 12th.
That would have led all Rams tight ends. On the season, he sits seventh in run-blocking via PFF and is nearly 10 points higher than Colby Parkinson, who has been the Rams’ best blocking tight end.
Of course, hindsight has a way of making every front-office decision look cleaner or messier than it really was. The Rams had reason to think Redman might not have a path to steady playing time, and he landed with a team where he could actually contribute. There’s an argument that the trade helped both sides.
Klare’s slow start also explains part of the problem. His blocking inconsistency is a big reason he’s not seeing the field, and that’s usually the toughest jump for tight ends making the move from college to the NFL. During the preseason, Klare ranked 41st out of 50 tight ends as a run blocker.
Still, the Rams may have to live with the idea that they should have tried harder to keep Redman, especially if Klare is going to need most of his rookie year to catch up.
Los Angeles also made some curious roster choices elsewhere. When the team set its initial 53-man roster, it kept seven wide receivers even though the offense was moving toward more 13 personnel.
There didn’t seem to be much need for that many receivers, and Tutu Atwell could have been stashed on the practice squad. Less than four weeks into the season, the Rams also moved on from Xavier Smith, after questions had already come up during training camp and the preseason about whether he should have been the punt returner.
That leaves the Rams in a place where keeping an extra tight end now feels more valuable than keeping the extra receiver depth they carried at the start.
Holding six tight ends would have been a lot, and the Rams were not exactly wrong to turn Redman into draft capital if they expected him to be cut anyway. But if the idea was to redshirt Klare, the possibility of keeping Redman around probably deserved more attention.
For now, the Packers are getting the version of Redman the Rams could use: a blocker who helps preserve an offensive identity. Los Angeles, by contrast, has had to adjust on the fly.
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