Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Ideas for St. Louis' first-rounders
By Tim Kavanagh
There are some who questioned the St. Louis Rams' decision to trade the No. 2 pick in the 2012 draft, instead of trying to market Sam Bradford and taking Robert Griffin III for themselves, though to be fair, there needed to be a market for Bradford, and it's obvious that a good one didn't develop. And as a result of dealing that No. 2 pick to Washington, they got a king's ransom of picks in return, including Washington's first-rounder this offseason.
Based on the final results of the 2012 campaign, those picks have worked out to be No. 16 and 22 overall, and given the nature of this year's draft class (with more depth than top talent), this is a good situation in which to be, in the opinion of NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock. "I think St. Louis is in really good position," Mayock said during an epic conference call on Monday, via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I don't like being in the top 10 this year. I'd much rather be at 16 and 22."
As for matching possible positions of need, Mayock believes that all but two OTs (Luke Joeckel and Eric Fisher) will still be on the board at NO. 16, and all but one WR (Cordarrelle Patterson). At safety, the top player at the position (Kenny Vaccaro) may be gone, and Mayock doesn't foresee other players being worthy of those picks.
Two possibilities for St. Louis at 16 could be OTs D.J. Fluker and Lane Johnson, while the 22nd pick may wind up being a choice between WR Keenan Allen and TEs Zach Ertz, Tyler Eifert and Gavin Escobar.
