A former NFL executive, Michael Lombardi, floated the idea of the Los Angeles Rams trading Aaron Donald and joining the Caleb Williams sweepstakes, in the event they start the year badly. For a team that won the Super Bowl 17 months ago, would it be crazy to trade a 3x Defensive Player of the Year?

Maybe, maybe not.

So, what would an Aaron Donald trade mean for the Rams? Well, Donald is the best defensive player of his generation, and arguably the greatest defensive player ever. In nine NFL seasons, he's a 9x Pro Bowler, 7x first-team All-Pro, and 3x DPOY.

Teams don't trade players like that, unless something is very wrong.

You could make the case that something is in fact, very wrong in Los Angeles. They won Super Bowl LVI, then experienced an epic 2023 Super Bowl hangover, finishing 5-12. Yes, they had a fair amount of key players suffer injuries, including Donald, Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp.

But blaming last year's disaster on injuries doesn't make the Rams contenders again next year. Let's not forget that they traded Jalen Ramsey to Miami and key Super Bowl contributors Von Miller and Leonard Floyd are now in Buffalo. There's no Andrew Whitworth or Odell Beckham Jr. anymore either. Stafford's level of commitment is in question, let alone his health and on-field ability at 35 years old.

Trading Donald would be an admission that this era for the Rams is over, and it's time to rebuild. Trying to get a return for Donald because you're headed for a rebuild really isn't such a stretch. Especially if L.A. suspects he's going to walk away anyway, which would leave the Rams with nothing.

Winning the Caleb Williams draft pick must factor into this decision, and trading Donald definitely makes the 2023 Rams a much worse football team.

Now, if the Rams made that choice, and then landed the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, it's no problem. The praise Williams gets as a prospect from NFL executives is crazy. There are scouts and GMs who think he already is Patrick Mahomes. He's the overwhelming favorite to win the Heisman again next year, and he's the surefire No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

But that's a big risk to take. What if you aren't bad enough to land the No. 1 pick, or what if Williams doesn't pan out in the NFL? What if head coach Sean McVay doesn't want to be part of a rebuild? There was already speculation that McVay would retire after their Super Bowl victory.

If the Rams end up with no Aaron Donald, no Caleb Williams, and no Sean McVay, it makes the task of rebuilding a hell of a lot harder. If the Rams trade Donald, they better be damn sure it's the right move.