I think the Rams see a necessary balance between trading picks for proven players, and using picks not only to judiciously restock and develop young talent but also to help with the salary cap.
The reality is that the most expensive players you can draft are 1st rounders. So if you are a good drafter of talent in the 2nd round and beyond, then since some teams covet 1st rounders you can, on occasion, use those 1st rounders to pick up upper level proven talent.
This approach ONLY works when fine tuning a competitive playoff team, but NOT for rebuilding a team that is not yet competitive.
I think this is generally the case by what I see them doing and by comments from Snead, Demoff, and McVay. I know this is overly simplistic and there is more to it that I don't know anything about.
