Wagoner: Rams need instant receiver help but draft might not offer it

Rams need instant receiver help but draft might not offer it

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/28000/rams-need-instant-receiver-help-but-draft-might-not-offer-it

After spending first-, second-, third- and fourth-round draft choices on wide receivers in the 2012 and 2013 NFL drafts, the Los Angeles Rams found themselves content to see their young wideouts develop.

Those draft picks were spent on smaller, speedier types like Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey, a pure downfield burner in Chris Givens and a big, physical type in Brian Quick. In a perfect world, all would have developed and settled into the roles the Rams envisioned when they spent all of that draft capital.

In the time since, the Rams have said goodbye to Givens and Bailey remains on the road to recovery but his status is unclear after he was shot in the head twice just two days before Thanksgiving last season. Quick re-signed on a one-year “prove it” deal after a shoulder injury derailed his 2014 season and prevented him from contributing much last year. Austin is coming off his best season but has proved more valuable as a multi-purpose weapon than a do-it-all receiver.

Which means that yes, once again, the Rams are in the market for a receiver. Or two. The problem is they not only need help at the position but the type of instant help that can bolster the league’s least productive passing game and, potentially, help cover for what they lack at quarterback.

Heading into free agency, only one player — Chicago’s Alshon Jeffery — seemed like a candidate to solve their problems but, as you’d expect, the Bears placed the franchise tag on him. That left solid if unspectacular options like Cincinnati’s Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu and Seattle’s Jermaine Kearse as the best wideouts on the market.

As is often the case, that meant those players received contracts paying them well above what they’ve produced in the past and probably what they’ll be able to do in the future.

“Let’s just take receiver as an example, you didn’t want to let’s say take a very good two, maybe even a really good number three, pay him like a 1.5 and at that point, there’s probably higher expectations on that player, he can’t meet them, it’s kind of unfair to everybody in terms of guys you didn’t pay in your own locker room,” Rams general manager Les Snead said. “So it’s a puzzle and sometimes your top needs aren’t available in free agency. I think you are seeing that more in the NFL because people like to re-sign their better players or franchise them and things like that. It’s tough to do it all through free agency so you have got to be very, very prudent in how you approach it.”

As for the draft, well, it’s safe to say this year’s class doesn’t compare to the dominant group that entered the league in 2014. That year’s receiver class was the most productive in NFL history, rivaled only by the 1996 group in terms of overall numbers. It featured stars like Sammy Watkins and Odell Beckham Jr. and underrated but wildly-productive players like Jarvis Landry and John Brown.

Of course, that was also the first time in 10 years the Rams didn’t draft at least one receiver and the only time in Snead and coach Jeff Fisher’s four years in charge in which they didn’t choose one. Such is life in the perpetual search for the true No. 1 wideout the Rams haven’t had since Torry Holt in his prime.

Much like at quarterback, the proliferation of unsophisticated NFL-style offenses has left this year’s draft class lacking in the type of polished, ready to help wideouts of recent years.

“The hardest thing in our league nowadays is figuring out when he can actually become that (difference maker) because of the offenses and the spreads, quarterbacks and wide receivers in college football have a lot to learn, to re-train the central nervous system getting up here so that’s a harder position to say Day 1 that guy comes in and helps but if you think that guy is going to be that player Day 2 or 3 or 4, you better jump on him and try to get him there as quick as possible,” Snead said.

To be sure, this year’s crop of receivers has plenty of talent that could develop into difference makers. The choices just aren’t as obvious as they were with guys like Watkins or Amari Cooper in recent drafts.

Most noticeable has been a lack of speed among the top receivers. At this year’s scouting combine, the average 40-yard dash time of the wideouts was 4.56 seconds, the slowest average time at the position in the 11 years that combine data has been tracked. Among the top five or six prospects, only Notre Dame’s Will Fuller stood out with his 4.32-second performance, the sixth-fastest by a receiver since 2006.

Still, speed isn’t everything in determining a prospect’s potential. Mississippi’s Laquon Treadwell is regarded by many as the top receiver in this draft and has often been sent to the Rams in mock drafts. At his pro day Monday, Treadwell clocked in the mid 4.6’s in his 40 but nobody expected him to fare much better than that anyway.

Treadwell’s lack of speed and his middling yards per catch average means he’s probably not the type of deep threat the Rams could use to open running room for back Todd Gurley. By comparison, Baylor’s Corey Coleman averaged 18.4 yards per catch last year to Treadwell’s 14.1. And Coleman, who some consider in the same range as Treadwell (along with TCU’s Josh Doctson and Ohio State’s Michael Thomas) doesn’t come with much in the way of route running prowess. All of those players are talented, and though they could surprise with big rookie seasons, they also come with their share of warts.

None of this is to say that the Rams should avoid drafting a receiver early, perhaps even as soon as the No. 15 overall pick. But in a year when the Rams enter the draft in dire need of instant impact on offense, there just doesn’t appear to be an obvious solution.