Could the Rams be preparing to trade for a wide receiver?

Could Rams trade for a wide receiver after moving on from Ben Skowronek

The Los Angeles Rams made the surprise decision on Thursday afternoon to trade wide receiver Ben Skowronek for a swap of late-round draft picks in 2026. While the move opened just over $1M in cap space and also almost guarantees that rookie Jordan Whittington makes the roster, it’s also worth wondering if general manager Les Snead might potentially have something else up his sleeve.

Skowronek may not have been the flashiest receiver, but he was experienced in the offense and was a special teams captain last season. His catch against the Las Vegas Raiders from Baker Mayfield on what would be the game-winning drive certainly won’t be forgotten by many. The Skowronek fullback packages will also obviously be missed. Skowronek was simply a player that embodied being a Ram and did everything that was asked of him.

The question here becomes, ‘why would the Rams make this move?’ If the plan was to cut or trade Skowronek, now makes sense from the player’s perspective as Skowronek will have the entirety of camp to compete with his new team rather than getting cut mid-summer or at roster cuts. In one sense, it was the Rams doing right by the player. However, from the team perspective, this move feels like more than just not seeing a future with Skowronek on the roster and wanting to get ahead of a player on the last year of his contract like they did with Van Jefferson. Again, Skowronek was named a captain last season. Despite the Rams special teams unit not being very good, that’s typically not a move that a team makes.

As our very own JB Scott wrote, Skowronek getting traded also hurts the Rams’ depth at wide receiver. It’s fair to be optimistic about Cooper Kupp’s health, but it’s also not something that can be ignored either. Kupp has missed time due to injury in each of the last two seasons. Going back to his rookie year, he also missed time with a torn ACL. That also doesn’t mention Puka Nacua’s injury history. While the rookie played every game last season, he was limited in practice on some occasions and had health concerns while at Washington and BYU.

In the case that Kupp or Nacua were to miss time, the Rams don’t necessarily have the depth at wide receiver that they’ve had in the past. Demarcus Robinson showed some promise last season, but he’s also not a player that you want as the WR1 or WR2, he’s much better as the third or fourth option. TuTu Atwell stepped in nicely while Kupp was out last year, but he seemed to fall out of favor in the offense as Robinson came onto the scene.

It remains a little bit surprising that the Rams didn’t draft a wide receiver on day two, especially when you consider the future depth chart at the position. Kupp and Nacua remain the only two wide receivers under contract in 2025.

With the timing of the Skowronek trade, it is worth wondering if the Rams have another move up their sleeve or if it truly was about not seeing a future with him on the roster and wanting to give other players more opportunities. In relation to the former, it’s hard to just ignore the Rams’ interest in veteran wide receivers this offseason.

At the beginning of free agency, there was a report that the Rams had interest in Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans. Evans ended up signing a new deal with the Buccaneers. There was also a lesser report that the Rams at least inquired on Denver Broncos wide receiver Coutland Sutton following the draft. Add in the interest in Rome Odunze at the Combine combined with the reports that the Rams tried to move up for Brock Bowers and it seems very clear that Sean McVay is not content with the current weapons in the offense. This looks to be a team that wants to add one more weapon to its arsenal.

Where there is smoke, there might be a little fire. At the very least, there looks to be some potential interest in adding another player to the group. A wide receiver corps of Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua and another WR2 caliber player would boost that position group on the Rams roster and be more in line with what it’s looked like in the past with three very solid players. It’s no secret that the Rams are primarily an 11 personnel team, increasing the importance of needing three very solid wide receivers.

There may not be anything here and the Rams traded Skowronek simply because they didn’t see a future with him on the roster. At the same time, it could be the set up move to a bigger move.