Thursday, April 23, 2015

The draft night plan

One week till draft night - never too early to put out RamView's draft priorities.

Preferences at #10:
1. First and foremost, don't trade up. I don't see any need worth the draft pick expense in a year they're already short draft picks because they overpaid for Mark Barron.
2. Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston if either drops. Note to Les Snead: that would be a "quarterback of the future" opportunity, since you've apparently never heard of one. I have little doubt Tampa will draft one of the two, and little doubt that it's Winston. Tennessee, Washington, the Jets and even Chicago all have reasonably logical interest in a QB, and Cleveland is a prime candidate to trade up. I don't know who'll take Mariota, but he seems doubtful to get to #10. Just noting here that he shouldn't fall past it. I would have taken either had the Rams kept Sam Bradford; Nick Foles, (also) in his walk year, doesn't change my mind any.
3. Amari Cooper or Kevin White. Oakland is a strong candidate to take one. Many mock drafts have the other going to Chicago. If either falls to 10, the Rams have absolutely no excuse not to take him, even having signed Kenny Britt. Britt is not as effective as a big slot receiver as Cooper would be, and he's not the deep threat either Cooper or White would be. Thanks to last year's injury, we still have little idea what the Rams have in Brian Quick, though he looks promising. Cooper or White would give the Rams a legitimate deep threat and a quality big receiver who can play in the slot, allowing Frank Cignetti to really mix up his pass packages, going small with Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey and going large with Quick and the rookie, especially in the red zone.
4. Trade down. The Rams aren't so deep that they can complacently disregard the idea of accumulating picks. Heck, they're short next weekend because of the Barron trade anyway. They need three starting offensive linemen, probably depth at tackle beyond that, at least one quality receiver and a developmental QB. Plus, with next year's free agency in mind, defensive line depth and cornerback depth are on the shopping list, not like their bungling secondary exactly needs to get younger. A lot of folks say the Rams need to take quality over quantity, meaning don't trade down. I don't think their roster has the quality to make quantity a luxury.
5. Offensive line. Keeping in mind that preferences 1 thru 3 are very unlikely, Brandon Scherff and Andrus Peat would represent decent value at #10. I'm ignoring the scent of Jason Smith about Peat and saying he's my guy. Unlike Scherff, Peat's an NFL-ready tackle from day 1 and has a clean injury record. Unlike Jason Smith, Peat will enter the pros with experience in an actual pro-style offense. Scherff and La'el Collins sound like excellent fits, and the Rams were seconds from drafting Zack Martin from a similar draft position last year, so neither of them will be a surprise at all. But they need a true tackle, and you can get quality guards later in the draft.
6. Slap Jeff Fisher, because in this scenario, he'd be ignoring offensive line to take a defensive player who wouldn't even have a starting spot.

It won't bother me if the Rams use every pick on offensive linemen next weekend. Two of their first three picks could be and probably should be o-line. They've obviously worked out some QBs, the top WRs and some front-seven players on defense as well, but I wouldn't break up the big ugly train unless an outstanding value lands in their lap. Which has been known to happen on draft night.

-$-

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