zn wrote:

NO! You know you’re allowed to play defense in overtime? The Rams did it.

Yeah…that’s how they robbed the Saints.

zn wrote:

Any more ideas/thoughts/”informal votes”? etc?

I think a lot is going on with this draft. I think it was a deep overall general draft and that means the Rams had a lot of things fall their way.

“a lot of things fell their way.”

I think in every draft, we see the Rams nab somebody who should have gone higher, but….

Looks like – this time – 4 or 5 guys fall into that category. That’s a lot of bargains. Long term, that’s just good for team depth, and could turn out to be a lot more profitable than that.

nittany ram wrote:

Well, invasive species are a problem. They displace native species even to the point of extinction.

Just ask the North American mammoths, ground sloths, saber-toothed cats, etc.

And Native Americans.

They didn’t even get the Rams’ draft position correct.

zn wrote:

If this guy falls to the 3rd round, I think the Rams should grab him.

…

It’s a head-scratcher, actually. On paper. I don’t know why he dropped. Seems like he’s not “spectacular.”

Which means…not many INTs?

wv wrote:

I have been wonderin if he shot himself up with painkillers for the Dallas game. And then maybe reaped the consequences of that afterward. Who knows. Jus somethin i always wonder about with NFL culture.

w
v

I suspected the same thing. It fits.

zn wrote:

JackPMiller wrote:

Gaines is what we need at NT, which for now he can play behind Brockers for a season.

My feeling? Gaines will start. Brockers will be at DE. That will be a good line. Better than last year’s (ie. meaning last year during the regular season).

That’s my feeling as well, though I’m not a film watcher, or a coach. But I did not think Suh amounted to much until the postseason. Gaines seems to have one of those non-stop motors, and even if he is Suh’s inferior physically, I expect more from him because of his mental attitude. I’m looking forward to seeing Gaines.

I should probably have said this elsewhere, but I really like the Gaines pick. What he does well, he does well. He junks up the run, taking on double-teams, and busting the play up. If he does that, I am not concerned about his sideline-to-sideline pursuit speed, or his lack of pass rush. Looks to me from the descriptions of him, the film I saw, and the comments the Rams made, that there is reasonable hope that he will be a starter and contribute about as much as Suh did last year (at a long-term fraction of the cost).

From a late 4th-rounder?

Done deal.

The Rams seem to be doing a great job finding guys without the measurables who get after it on the field, and produce. Kupp is Exhibit A on that. Looks like Rapp and Gaines are like that as well, and Long seems to perform better than his size is supposed to allow him.

I agree with your assessments, and want to echo the Scott perspective. I saw someone complain that he is raw as a safety, and note that he has only one season playing back there. So what. That’s not what they drafted him to play. The Rams have more secondary than they can even keep. Scott’s not in that mix, although he might get so preseason time in the 4th quarters. But he looks like a ST ace, and those guys can turn ballgames around in 7 seconds.

Billy_T wrote:

Another thing I’ve noticed about draft reports: They can be all over the map. I’ve forgotten their names, but I looked at some of the UDFAs online, and a few of them had comments ranging from “below average athleticism” to “freakishly athletic.”

As in, the same guy was described in wildly different ways.

I think that wide range is more frequent for the lesser known players. Another guess. The guys with the relatively consistent grades — Top 100, give or take — seem to provoke a more narrow subjective response.

And complicating matters is the fact that there are a lot of people in the media who get their information the same way I do…from other people. From stuff they read, or think they remember reading, and sometimes that is blended in with their memory of part of a game they saw one Saturday, and so on. I mean…there is a LOT of amateur noise out there around the draft. On TV, on the radio, in print.

So I look for institutions that I think are more reliable – like Ourlads and PFF – and look for the avid film watchers amongst us like Alyo.

But I don’t really spend much effort on it because Fletcher and Littleton were UDFA, and Sean Gilbert was the 3rd overall pick. And so on. So I read some stuff, but I don’t roll up my sleeves and STUDY it because…fuck it.

We are all watching and learning, and developing an early picture, but we don’t know what we really have until the regular season starts.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Zooey.

Well…ya know…yeah. I don’t know. I just read that somewhere, and I don’t remember the source. And it JUMPED out at me. No anticipation is BAD. So that comment just stuck forcefully with me.

And…for sure…Snead/McVay have proven to be very good at what they are doing, unlike Armey/Martz. So…that…combined with a lot of positive comments PRAISING his vision makes a more plausible picture of a successful RB. But I won’t be able to entirely shake that comment from my mind until I see Henderson do it. Because it’s the kind of comment that makes me think of Trung Canidate, and I do not like thinking about Trung Canidate.

nittany ram wrote:

Rapp is a pure baller if I may use the parlance of the day.

I like any Olineman from Wisconsin.

The kid from Penn State is a ST Ace and has huge upside.

Don’t like what I read somewhere about Henderson having poor vision and being easily knocked off his feet. Reminds me of another back with gaudy collegiate numbers…Lawrence Phillips.

I keep thinking of Trung Canidate. The kind of guy who will have a field day once, and never be heard from again. I don’t like the poor vision thing. At all. I’m not sure how much of that can be learned. Kind of a built-in ability, imo.

I’m not worried about his 40 time. They have other guys in the secondary who can be given the deep assignments in those situations. I wouldn’t expect to see Rapp get beat by SPEED more than once or twice a year. Those types of plays are not run very often in the first place, and like I said, there are other guys in the secondary anyway. Rapp plays fast in the middle of Junk, and that’s where most football happens. He’s one of the FASTEST guys in the middle of Junk. And he’s a sure tackler. I think he is likely to stand out for wrecking the offense more often than he gets burned. I mean…that’s what I’m reading, anyway.

CBS has a Day Two Winners/Losers piece, and they list Gurley as a Loser.

I place it here because I think it says more about Henderson than it does about Gurley.

Todd Gurley
We already had a situation unfolding with the Rams where we didn’t know if Gurley would be the primary ballcarrier anyway, and now it looks like the Rams might seriously be reducing Gurley’s workload with the addition of Darrell Henderson, a.k.a. the “Human First Down” out of Memphis. Henderson is an explosive runner who is going to get on the field. Gurley is still a stud, but his health remains a major question mark for the Rams and we don’t know exactly how many carries he’s going to get. The early addition of a running back in the draft for a team with several other needs certainly indicates they may be concerned with just how healthy he is to start the season.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-draft-2019-winners-and-losers-from-day-2-including-why-the-broncos-and-patriots-came-up-big/

This draft suggests that the Rams are pretty confident in Allen at C. It’s possible that they will have an eye out for a C in FA, but “a bird in the hand….” They don’t have depth behind Allen, so they have to add a guy (or has Blythe had time at C?).

In any event…they let Sullivan go, and the only guy they have is Allen, and they didn’t include a C in their top 4 picks. No way are they looking for a potential starter there on Day 3, so that speaks well of Allen.