As you all know, I live in Los Angeles. HQ for the St. Louis Rams is here. The once and future Los Angeles Rams have deep roots my sector of the world. A little birdie done told me that that Rams and Jets are beginning preliminary talks about swapping some draft picks. What is the scoopy-pooh?
First a disclaimer: Remember all of this blatant NDA buster material, and none of it may pan out. Many more draft deals fall-through than go-through. This is true each and every year. It is common for teams to talk to each other and do nothing. A lot of teams talk to each other about picks, but many fail to finalize a deal.
With that said…
Rumor has it that the Rams are quite unhappy with their position in this year's draft. The #2 is bad for a lot of reasons this year. Most important is the fact the Rams have four major needs this year: (1) Left tackle, (2) Right Guard,(3) Center and also (4) Left Guard. It is a commonly accepted fact that the Rams have the worst offensive line in professional football. This has been true for 2 years running now. This is the critical weakness that has made us loosers 2 years in a row. Only our right tackle Alex Barron is moderately solid. This year's draft class has quite a few good men in these slots, but none who are worthy of being drafted #2.
With that said, understand that Mel Kiper rates Andre Smith of Alabama as the #4 prospect in the entire draft. Others disagree. Kiper is frequently wrong. The only draft evaluator I trust is Mike Mayock of the NFL network. This guy has street-cred. Mayock has not yet issued a discernable verdict on Andre Smith. I look forward to his verdict with great interest. Folks I've talked too believe Andre Smith is fat and out of shape. They believe his weight problem will get worse, not better, over time.
With various salary cap problems, the Rams are strongly disinclined to reach for an offensive lineman and pay him #2 pick money. Further, there is a belief that, push comes to shove, Pace could play one more season for the Rams. You'll need to pay him his full price and talk him out of early retirement, but he could play another season.
So what are the Rams to do about their draft position? The obvious answer is: Trade down. But who wants the #2 pick? Surprisingly, the answer is the New York Jets. Let's face the facts: The Jets are recovering from the Brett Farve debacle. They gave away a perfectly good QB and traded a #3 pick for an old man who was great for a small portion of just 1 season. Now they have no QB and no 3rd Round pick. At the very least, they need a QB or they might as well not bother to take the field this year.
So here is the problem the Jets must face: Detroit is expected to select Matthew Stafford of Georgia. In this scenario, one half of the decent prospects are gone after the Lions take the first pick off the board. The Rams aren't looking for a QB... yet... so they are expected to pass on Mark Sanchez of USC. Kansas City drafts #3 and they are going to take Sanchez, according to rumor. That's the end of the good prospects for this year, mate. If you need a franchise QB we'll see you next year when we'll have a bumper crop of great prospects to pick from.
So somehow the Jets need to get above KC in order to take a decent franchise QB prospect. The solution is simple: cut a deal with the Rams. What makes it more intriguing is that the Jets have some good young offensive linemen that they can use as bait. It would be very unwise for them to deal anyone like Ferguson or Mangold, but if worse comes to worse, they could. It should be noted that the Rams wanted to put Faneca next to Orland Pace last year. The Jets got him. It is much more likely that NYJs will send their #1 and #2 pick to the Rams for the #2 over-all pick. The Rams may want a sweetener, but they may not get one.
So do I like this idea? Would I deal the #2 pick for the Jet's #1 & #2? I'll give you a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is "Yes". The long answer is as follows: With three lower picks we have a good shot at sweeping all the great interior line prospects in the draft. We could potentially get the best guards and centers in the draft. With a young and decent Alex Barron at the right tackle position, and perhaps just one more season out of Orlando Pace, the Rams could have a vastly upgraded offensive line for 2009. Ergo, the deal will work for the Rams.
We'll have to see if it happens.
Somehow, the pessimist in me says that the Rams will blow it. We might not do anything about our OL problems. This is precisely what we did last year, with disastrous consequences. Instead, we might draft a great Wide Receiver like Michael Crabtree. Don't get me wrong, I love Crabtree to death, but he just isn't an offensive lineman. He can't block a nose tackle for us. No matter what his amazing skills may be, he isn't going to help the Rams as much as a couple of lethal-strength offensive linemen will.
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