NFL teams protect first-round draft picks like parents protect their first-born children.

The Rams are the exception. They use around their first-round draft picks like high rollers toss $500 chips around on high-stakes baccarat tables.

The result at the moment is a run of such success that the copycat NFL may see a shift in team-building philosophy among other teams striving to do what the Rams have done.

This is what a Super Bowl title will do — should the Rams defeat the Bengals Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Super Bowl 2022.

The Rams’ last first-round draft pick came in 2016 when they traded two of them to move up to pick quarterback Jared Goff. Their next scheduled first-round pick is in the 2024 draft.

Last offseason, they traded Goff and two first-round picks to the Lions to acquire quarterback Matthew Stafford, who threw 41 touchdowns in the regular season and has been good enough to help the Rams win three playoff games to get them to Super Bowl.

Here’s the catch: Three years, ago, Goff helped get the Rams to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Patriots. So, anything short of a Super Bowl victory Sunday may leave this bold and aggressive team-building strategy general manager Les Snead has spearheaded in question.

Will simply getting to a Super Bowl be worth the aggressive spending of precious draft capital and money?

The answer is complicated, because Snead’s bold plan of constant pivoting whenever a key piece is needed — Yankees owner George Steinbrenner style — has the Rams in contention every year. And most teams (you hear us, Giants and Jets?) would sign up for that yesterday.

Before Snead was hired in 2012, when the team was playing in St. Louis, the Rams had won 15 games in a span of the previous five seasons. The past five seasons, the Rams have won 55 games, been to the playoffs four times and are playing in their second Super Bowl.

“The model is working,” Snead said on a Zoom call Wednesday. “It’s allowing us to consistently win games, consistently contend for NFC West. We’ll try to use our [draft] picks in an innovative, creative way and sometimes it will be picking players in the draft and sometimes it will be using them to go acquire players.”

The Rams, for example, lost their top running back Cam Akers to an injury in training camp and quickly sent a fourth-round draft pick to New England to acquire Sony Michel.

In November, they sent a second- and third-round pick to Denver to acquire pass-rusher Von Miller, who has 10 sacks since.

“If there’s one thing that sums up the way we’re trying to do things right now — if you’re trying to be one [the best] of 32 [teams] maybe we need to do things a little differently than the other 31,” Snead said. “Sometimes that thinking will work and sometimes it won’t.”

There hasn’t been a lot of Snead’s moves that haven’t worked.

Take the signing of receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in November as an example. Beckham had been a drama-filled, injury-prone headache for the Giants and Browns before being brought to L.A. Since he was acquired, he’s not only been a model teammate, he’s been a perfect complement to top receiver Cooper Kupp. And he came — fortunately for the Rams — right at the time they lost receiver Robert Woods for the season to injury.

Maybe it’s just one of those teams for Snead, on which everything he touches turns to gold. Or maybe his team-building philosophy is the way for NFL teams to go and will shift the trend.

All-in is working for the Rams right now. It’s difficult to argue the strategy of Snead and head coach Sean McVay.

“I’m very appreciative to be with people who aren’t afraid to take their swings and shoot their shots,” McVay said.

“We have a vision,” Snead said. “There’s definitely risk. We like to refer to is as being bold. There’s definitely uncertainly in what you’re doing. But if it doesn’t work, it’s not like we’re going it implode or cease to exist, like in gambling [where you can lose everything].’’

Snead then used a unique analogy he’d read about regarding shooting bullets and a cannon ball.

“The analogy was in old days when you’re a ship at sea and you have only so many cannon balls,” he said. “You’ve got to shoot the bullets first and when you hear that first bullet ping and hit the steel of that other ship, then you can use your cannon ball. We definitely try to take that approach so that when we do shoot the cannon ball we feel like there’s a good chance it will work out.”

In the case if these Rams, Stafford, Miller and Beckham have been significant cannon ball direct hits.