RamView Accu-Draft 2013: Pick #22: St. Louis

AL.com

Eddie Lacy, RB, Alabama

Eddie Lacy's popularity has been sinking for a while. Multiple injuries (knee, hamstring, pectoral) kept him from participating at the Combine, and he looked out of shape at his individual workout earlier this month. He kept running out of breath and coaches excused him from running all the scheduled drills. This has led draftniks to question his commitment to the game and his work ethic, and his stock has taken a tumble to the point that some teams say they're now grading Johnathan Franklin as the #1 RB coming out now. Lacy said his conditioning was off because of his recovery from the injuries. Well, he's been to Rams Park. Jeff Fisher has looked him in the eye. If Fisher believes that Lacy isn't a 230-pound slacker, which his college tape certainly does not indicate, he should be one of the Rams' early picks. I considered him very strongly at 16.

I do like Franklin, but he gives up 30 pounds to Lacy, and having just given up the best power runner in team history, the Rams find themselves needing exactly what Lacy can bring to them. He's a strong, sledgehammering runner who breaks tackles, runs through people and can even spin off defenders. He clubbered opponents for 6.8 yards his college career, 6.5 last season. And even at that, he hasn't had a ton of wear and tear as a college back. Critics don't like him as a receiver, don't like his change of direction, don't like him as an edge rusher, to which I say, pffft. Isn't that a lot of what critics didn't like about Steven Jackson? Further, I wouldn't draft Lacy to do any of those things. In the NFL, RBs are specialists now anyway, right? That's what was wrong with the Rams' running game up till now, right? Lacy's here to be a hammer, not a jigsaw.

I may have Lacy's value wrong; several mock drafts have the Rams sneaking away with him in the 2nd round. This will be a brilliant draft if that comes to pass. With teams like the Packers and Broncos looking for RBs later this round, though, I'm not quite willing to take that chance. I'll use that pick to go after a WR with some polish already to his game, though again, the player I'm targeting there, Robert Woods, didn't visit Rams Park.

Meanwhile, the Rams may not draft Eddie Lacy, but they'd better find somebody like him.

The rest of the first round is on the clock!

-$-