Rams' draft report card

The Rams earn a solid grade of B for their efforts in the draft over the weekend.

They got a top-3 talent in Robert Quinn, who at a minimum should contribute from RDE on passing downs while kicking James Hall inside, where he's been very effective. Steve Spagnuolo's pass rush gets a nitro boost. And Billy Devaney stuck to his board instead of silly-reaching for one of the Rams' need positions. Quinn's brain tumor does not seem to be a factor, but the Rams did assume an amount of risk there, and there's added risk in that the NCAA suspended Quinn from playing all of last season. Hopefully he still remembers where to line up. It does appear as though he kept his conditioning up.

Lance Kendricks is going to be a player Josh McDaniels moves all over the field to get mismatches and is expected to be to this offense what Aaron Hernandez has been in New England. A second-round pick on a tight end in an extremely weak tight end class, with other major needs unaddressed, didn't go down well at first, but it's sitting well now.

The Rams set a bright future for their passing game with their next two picks, 3rd-rounder Austin Pettis and 4th-rounder Greg Salas. They've added size at WR. They've added two WRs with great hands, another badly-needed upgrade in St. Louis. And they've added WRs who know the way to the end zone. 39 career TDs for Pettis, 26 for Salas. These two, along with Kendricks, should transform the Ram receiving corps quickly. More on that tomorrow (probably).

I don't know that the Rams got very good value with their remaining four picks, almost all made with special teams in mind more than anything. Jermale Hines is an in-the-box safety I'm not sure they really need. He was a Tom McMahon pick. Mikail Baker is here as a kick returner even though he returned a whole ONE for TD in his college career. Rules changes in the offseason changed the kicking game anyway. Looks like a pointless pick from here. Jabara Williams is an undersized LB like Chris Chamberlain and not a prime candidate to resolve last year's WLB-by-committee situation. Jonathan Nelson can jump out of the gym and potentially brings cornerback skills to the safety position, which makes him the most promising of these prospects in my eyes. I was ready to take him in the 5th round. Fans tend to criticize these late picks for their speculativeness, but let's face it; by this point of a draft, that's who's left; players you have to take a leap of faith on. If one of the four pans out, the Rams will still come out ahead.