CLEVELAND, OH – SEPTEMBER 22, 2019: Cornerback Aqib Talib #21 of the Los Angeles Rams on the field prior to a game against the Cleveland Browns on September 22, 2019 at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. Los Angeles won 20-13. (Photo by: 2019 Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)
Aqib Talib is on the move from Los Angeles to Miami in what amounts to the most transparently NBA-style trade made in the NFL.
When a team lands an All-Pro cornerback in a trade, usually it’s a good deal. But usually the team trading for said All-Pro isn’t 0-7 and currently so deep in the tank that sunlight can no longer reach them.
The Miami Dolphins traded for Aqib Talib before Tuesday’s deadline in what can be summed up as nothing more than a salary dump by the Rams. Talib, who is in the last year of his deal, will undoubtedly hit the market in March and sign elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Rams are saving money by moving Talib that can then be used to re-sign Jalen Ramsey in the offseason.
A few years ago, the Cleveland Browns traded for Brock Osweiler, absorbing a bad contract from the Houston Texans and also snagging a second-round pick. At the time it was compared directly to the type of deals that happen all the time in the NBA where salary is moved from team-to-team for draft picks, while the team trading that bad contract is doing so with future moves in mind.
The Osweiler deal has officially been one-upped by whatever the Rams and Dolphins just did.
Miami is not making this trade to win, and all of the Twitter jokes about how astronomically stupid this is from a football standpoint are just white noise. It’s probably the first smart thing the Dolphins have done all season, as they continue to load up the war chest with draft picks and plan for the future.
No one has eve been awarded the Lombardi Trophy immediately after making a trade, and there’s no saying the Dolphins will hoist one in the next ten years. But don’t be a prisoner of the moment and kill Miami for making a deal that seems weird on the surface but is actually right in line with whatever process they’re trusting.