Rams acquire Mark Barron

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Make no mistake, part of the reason this is the world's slowest blog is that the Rams are just no fun to write about. The 2014 season is rapidly spinning down the toilet bowl after an uncompetitive 34-7 loss at Kansas City dropped the Rams to 2-5 and about half the team was injured, including Brian Quick and Jake Long for the season. But there has been plenty to write about.

For instance, the Rams made a frankly puzzling trade at the deadline Tuesday and acquired Tampa safety Mark Barron. Drafted 7th overall in 2012, Barron has underachieved so far in Tampa and they're basically giving up on him. With several injuries yet to be reported, the Rams may have made the move because they've run out of bodies in the secondary. Rumor is that Rodney McLeod has a long-term knee injury. Cody Davis got a concussion Sunday. All of that conspired to bump Lamarcus Joyner back to safety for a while during the game. Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson could both return to action this week, but the roster is still very thin at safety short of moving TruJo or Joyner back there full-time, not the best use for either player.

Barron is 6'1", 213 and just 25. He was considered the best safety of the 2012 draft class, highly regarded for his ball skills, range and run support. Those haven't translated from Alabama to the NFL so far. Pro Football Focus ranked him 70th at his position as a rookie, 55th last year, and he was down to 66th this year. The verdict from Tampa is that the Bucs never used Barron correctly, that he should be used as an in-the-box safety but played deep safety about 70% of the time. He's supposed to be a very good run defender and to possess the skills to cover tight ends underneath to thrive as a box safety. His deep speed and coverage skills are lacking and the Bucs were not putting him in the best position to succeed.

The Rams gave up 4th- and 6th-round picks for Barron. There's little question any more those are going to be picks very early in those rounds. It's also hard to look at this team and not think they need all the draft picks they can get. With all the holes they (still) have, that's too high a price to pay for an unproductive safety. Box safeties are cheap commodities. In recent seasons, the Rams have found Davis, McLeod and Darian Stewart as undrafted free agents. And what the hell happened to Maurice Alexander, this year's 4th-round pick? He ideally would have been next man up, but instead, the Rams fired off two draft picks to not have to play him. So, two picks for Barron, and expense a blown pick on a safety they're apparently already giving up on to that account, too.

Barron sounds like a good fit, and he's still young. It's still a trade I have a hard time getting enthused about until Les Snead finds a way to replace those draft picks.

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