Rams Draft Grades

[tfry]

Rams Draft Grades

Rd1 - It's hard to argue with the Chris Long selection. He brings stability and a rush that was desperately needed. The youth movement across the front is almost complete and if we could get 1 or 2 more years out of Little, our defense will be pretty solid. Grade: A
Rd2 - Yes we needed a receiver. Yes Donnie Avery looks like perfect slot receiver. However, when you have the oppurtunity to land the top receiver in the draft and eventual replacement for Torry Holt, how do you reach for a guy a round early??? If the Rams were set on Avery, why not trade down a few spots and pickup some extra picks. The other option was to trade away the pick for a 27 year old pro bowler by the name of Lito Sheppard. Grade: D
Rd3 - The Rams had to address the oline in the first three rounds. I don't envision Greco as an evetual starting tackle, but I do see him giving us great minutes at guard and tackle for many years. This should help shore up our issues at oline depth. Grade: B
Rd4 - Justin King just might have been the steal of the 4th round. This guy has a load of upside and could be a pro bowler. He could just as easily be off the team in a couple years. Grade: A
Rd4 - I just don't like the receivers we went after in this draft. Burton is solid but very injury prone. Personally, I'd have preferred to see us get a large receiver in round 2 and address a speedy slot guy with this pick. Tony Hills, Carl Nicks, or a backup QB would have been a much better route in my opinion. Grade: C-
Rd5 - Ron Schuening is an excellent value pick here. This should solidify our line depth for awhile and really give us some options. Grade: A-
Rd7 - I don't have a clue about Chris Camberlain, but I do know I'd have preferred to see us grab Erin Henderson or a QB. Grade: C
Mr Irrelevant - It sounds like Vobora will be a big help on special teams and that's about it. Still, he was very productive in college and could turn into a solid backup. Grade: B

Overall, I like the Rams draft and they addressed the most obvious areas. However, I think there were some big reaches at the skill positions and would've been better served trading down for Avery and staying put for Burton. Overall, I'd give the Rams entire draft a B-.

[nfrillman]

Everyone is acting like the Rams passed on a Calvin Johnson type WR and took Avery. Sure there were "draftnik" rankings we have all seen throughout the offseason, but the bottom line is that the top 10-15 WR's all graded out very closely. You have to have a trade partner to trade down, and we don't know what the Rams knew about other teams boards. Ten WR's went in the 2nd round, so the chances are pretty good that if they did trade down they could have missed out on their guy. People need to realize that these pre-draft rankings are opinions and far from etched in stone fact. The WR position this year was especially jumbled. Just look at the first WR's that were taken in comparison to Scott's rankings and a Foxsports guy.

# WR Taken- ranks Scotts, Foxsport's Peter Fiutak,
1. Donnie Avery- ranked 8, 13
2. Devin Thomas- ranked 1, 3
3. Jordy Nelson- ranked 6, 4
4. James Hardy- ranked 4, 2
5. Eddie Royal- ranked 13, 14
6. Jerome Simpson- ranked 12, 15
7. Desean Jackson- ranked 3, 8
8. Malcolm Kelly- ranked 7, 1
9. Limas Sweed- ranked 2, 7
10. Dexter Jackson- ranked 15, 10

There were other "draft experts" who were waaaay off on how the WR's actually went, like Mayock, Kiper, and McShay. Can you see any rhyme or reason to this order when looking at rankings. It's safe to say that NFL teams were looking at these WR's a bit differently than the draftniks.

Also, consider the "weaknesses" of the top WR's. Would you rather deal with James Hardy rawness, lack of speed and quickness, and character issues; Jordy Nelson's lack of speed, Desean Jackson's miniture size which basically means he will always be a slot guy; Limas Sweed's drops and lack of quickness and speed; Mario Manningham's character issues and lack of speed; Malcolm Kelly's lack of speed. Why not take a 5'11" 195 lbs, ran a sub 4.3 40 at Pro-day, ran a 3-cone drill of 6.30 at Pro-day (the 2nd best 3-cone time from the combine was 6.57. Avery's 6.30 is also the fastest 3-cone drill ever) On top of this, his main weakness is route running, which is a knock on almost every rookie WR. I am pretty sure Torry Holt can show him some pointers on route running. I don't know how someone can be mad about getting an absolute burner who is also possibly the quickest player the combine has ever seen.

Look at this link, Avery wasn't going to stay on the board very long.
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn...c.php?t=403984