NFC West Notes: Rams, Watkins, Seahawks

Here’s a look at the NFC West:

• The Rams started discussing a Sammy Watkins trade with the Bills in the spring when they declined to exercise his fifth-year option in the spring, L.A. GM Les Snead told SiriusXM (Twitter link). The Watkins deal came completely out of left field, so it’s impressive that the two sides were able to keep rumblings of the deal out of the media for four months. The Rams acquired Watkins and a 2018 sixth-round selection in exchange for for cornerback E.J. Gaines and a 2018 second-round pick. Los Angeles has already expressed interest in inking him to an extension.
• Tramaine Brock‘s one-year deal with the Seahawks is for the minimum salary, Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times tweets. In the days leading up to his deal with Seattle, we heard that Brock had interest from as many as a dozen teams. Since Brock will only be making the minimum, it sounds either like the level of interest league-wide was overstated or Brock took less money from a quality team like the Seahawks in order to give himself a better platform for free agency next year.
• 49ers GM John Lynch says he has spoken with Broncos GM John Elway about which players might be available in trades (Twitter link via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area). Lynch offered no specifics, so we don’t know which players were discussed or how close the two sides were/are to a deal.