Jason Smith: career post mortem

No day at Rams Park would be complete without someone going onto injured reserve. Today's honoree was Jason Smith, who hasn't made progress after suffering a concussion against Dallas four weeks ago. The Rams are taking the prudent course and shutting him down for the season. Speaking of prudent courses, they're on the hook for $10 million to Smith next season. Therefore, after just three seasons, we've probably seen the last of the Rams' 2009 first-round pick, the second pick overall, in a Rams uniform. And given he's just suffered his second season-ending concussion in three years, I would hope for his safety we've seen the last of him in an NFL uniform.

Jason Smith turns out to be a spectacular draft bust. Billy Devaney picked him as the left tackle of the future, the keystone of the plan to build the Rams around the lines. Injuries kept him from settling in there effectively his rookie year, then Rodger Saffold, a second round pick, outplayed him for the position and evicted him to right tackle the next training camp. Smith showed ability as a run blocker there but tended to struggle as a pass protector unless the play called for the ball to come out quickly. Could he have become a better player? Who knows? His injuries never let him stay on the field long enough to develop.

Was Devaney the only person mistaken about Smith? Not at all. Did you hear Mel Kiper or Mike Mayock call Smith a bad pick at the time? No. Pro Football Weekly ranked Smith right where the Rams took him. #2 player overall, #1 tackle. (Only thumbs-down I can find was from Charlie Casserly, who said there was no top 10-quality tackle in the '09 draft. Nice call.) Scouting reports on Smith showed no significant injury history, and, opposite to his actual career, suggested the system he played at Baylor would suit him well as a pro pass-blocker but would lead him to struggle as a run-blocker.

Should the Rams have taken a different tackle? Maybe. Now, they surely wouldn't have taken the running joke that was Andre Smith. But Michael Oher or Eugene Monroe were certainly in play. But just like Smith, Oher couldn't hack it at LT in Baltimore and is back at RT for the Ravens. And go off the Scouts Inc. reports from ESPN.com Insider - Oher, Monroe and Smith all grade out about the same as pros. Maybe the secret is not to over-rely on Combine bench press performance. Smith appeared to gain his edge at the Combine in the weight room, benching 33 times to 23 for Monroe, 21 for Oher.

Should the Rams have addressed a different need? Many, including me, thought their worst need going into the '09 draft was run defense. And I did pretty brilliantly suggest that Brian Orakpo was the best athlete in that year's draft. But with Chris Long and James Hall playing effectively, you weren't going to spend a high pick on a pass rusher. Then my brilliance pretty well stops, because like most who wanted to address defense that year, I would have gone with Aaron Curry, who was just as bad a bust for Seattle as Smith is here. He was traded to Oakland earlier this season for a bag of dirty jockstraps. The Rams did a far better job addressing their run defense in the second round by drafting James Laurinaitis, who wouldn't have become a Ram had they drafted Curry. Had the Rams agreed they needed to address run defense at #2 overall, would they have avoided the Curry trap? Would they have made B.J. Raji the #2 pick with marijuana rumors swirling around him? I can't imagine it.

I recall Bernie Miklasz being peeved that the Rams didn't draft Mark Sanchez. Hard to say today that the Rams would be a lot better off with him, though, watching him flounder this year with the Jets. Could have made Ndamukong Suh a Ram in 2010, though.

Late addition: I don't know how I forgot the very strong Michael Crabtree contingent, but that went down in flames when he "shrunk" two inches at the Combine and showed up with a broken foot. And judging from his lack of elite production at San Francisco, the Rams made a good move not trusting $60 mil on a player they weren't even going to get to see work out before that year's draft.

We can call Jason Smith a bust for the Rams. I think that's fair. He's a blown pick that will wind up setting the franchise back 2 to 3 years. Everybody who wants to fire Billy Devaney - I'm solidly on the fence - will point to how poorly Smith ultimately worked out here.

All that's fair for criticism, if there was an obvious way the Rams could have avoided the problem. Somebody show me a realistic way Devaney could have avoided it and I'll call him a dummy. For now, I can only call Devaney, the Rams, and Jason Smith himself, extremely unlucky.

-$-