Rams acquire Ronald Curry

Former Raider, Lion and Virginia high school legend Ronald Curry becomes the newest member of the Rams' motley WR crew as the result of a trade today. The Rams acquired him from Detroit for defensive tackle Orien Harris. So, essentially they've gotten Curry for Brian Leonard, whom they previously traded to Cincinnati for Harris.

Oddly, Curry becomes the second former North Carolina Tar Heel basketball player to join the Rams' WR corps this season - Brooks Foster played five games for the 2005 championship team. (Who's to say Tyler Hansbrough couldn't suit up for the Rams one day? Hey, he'd draw a lot of penalties!)

Who have the Rams gotten in Curry? At 6'2", 210, he's the biggest WR they have with any significant NFL experience. He's had three seasons (2004, 2006, 2007) in the 50+ catch, 700+ yard neighborhood. He's 30 years old and became a starter in Oakland in 2007, what I'd call his career year: 55-717, 4 TDs, 13.0 ypc.

Curry didn't follow that up well at all in 2008, with just 19 catches for 181 yards. He complained about how Raiders head coach Tom Cable used him, dropped a lot of passes and never meshed with QB Jamarcus Russell. He missed six games and had eight more with 2 catches or less. He missed almost all of December with toe and ankle injuries. In fact, he's got a pretty extensive injury history, also having missed most of 2004 and 2005 with Achilles and hamstring injuries. He wasn't considered much higher than Oakland's 4th wideout by the end of the season and was released in February in a salary cap move.

Curry was picked up by Detroit, but was said not to have risen above WR4 there, either, behind Calvin Johnson, Bryant Johnson and Dennis Northcutt. At Oakland, he was behind the likes of Chaz Schilens, Johnnie Lee Higgins and Javon Walker (who can't even outrun muggers), let alone their future glorious first-round bust this year, Darrius Heyward-Bey.

So, the Rams have picked up a fairly-old wide receiver, who can't get on the field ahead of almost entirely-mediocre receivers on (other) absolutely terrible teams, is injured a lot and drops a lot of balls.

Yeah, I'm still looking for any upside here. Even as little as Brian Leonard was likely to contribute to the Rams this year, giving him (or Harris) up for Curry was poor value, seeing as they could have gotten him for free in February.

Of course, as bad as the Rams are at the position, Curry's probably now in a dogfight with Laurent Robinson for WR2. His best years aren't very far behind him at all; maybe Rams Nation can hang our helmets on that (even as it wasn't enough to make the Lions, the worst team in NFL history, want to keep him).

photo - San Francisco Chronicle (sfgate.com)