Almost draft time folks

Everybody wants to move down

Right now everyone is buzzing about the fact that Broncos, Bengals, Cardinals and 49ers have all made phone calls suggesting their picks are for sale. According to Jason La Canfora these guys want to move down. You can read about it here.

Mine is not to question why, mine is but to profiteer on their dismay.

Folks, it looks like Billy Devaney will have no shortage of trading partners with whom he can work a deal. It looks like our picks may be in demand by teams higher up. We could get a nice reduction if pick-point costs if all these cats get into a reverse bidding war.

This is very, very good news. I am more confident now than ever that we will nail one of the top 2 prospects at the wide receiver position. I am fired up, optimistic, and expecting more good news.

Did you catch No Huddle on the NFL Network last night?

If you did, you saw not one but three former Rams talking about Wide Receivers. This was no co-inky-dink I am sure. The league knows that Ram-fans are more interested in the receiver class this year than any other fan-base in the nation. They knew damn well we would love to hear our guys take on the receiver class.

You can see some of the video here.

There was a pretty strong agreement there that A.J. is #1 on the board. Both Kurt and Torry said terribly flattering things about A.J. So did Moochie.

Only super-scout (and former Ram safety) Corey Chavous gave a small caveat in his endorsement. Although he endorsed A.J., he focused on the mental and physical toughness of Julio Jones. A.J. has missed some time with minor injuries (not much) while Julio has played straight through such trifling pain. Of course, this made everyone recall Julio's massive combine performance on a broken foot.

I don't know... maybe I am little too obsessed with A.J. Julio is the very best pieces of Anquan Bolden and Terrell Owens, with none of the negatives. That's one hell of a statement, but I think Julio can back it up. When you think about how physical and tough he is, we just can't go wrong with Julio Jones.

It's like I have said many times: Heads we win, tales we win. Both of these guys are winners. If we get either one of them we are fine.

I'm loosing street cred...

So I went to lunch today with Rico Alexander and Kapil Srvastava, fellow programmers here at my company. We went to a little Indian food joint called Shalamar (not the band). Rico was going to drive, but Kapil didn't want to get in the back seat of his Mitsubishi sports car. I got elected. I have a nice comfortable new-ish 2009 Hyundai Sonata Limited Edition. I think they wanted my air conditioner (its hot outside).

Rico happens to be from (East) St. Louis. This puts him on the other side of the Missouri river, in Illinois. However, he is very St. Louis focused on sports. He mentioned something about the Rams, and asked me if I had heard the news. I hadn't, actually. I told him I was kicking the Ram-habit this year.

Rico scoffed. He thought that was preposterous. "What is that jersey you are wearing right now?" It turned out that it was Chris Long's #72. I hadn't noticed this morning when I put it on. There is a perfectly logical explanation. I have a rotation. All 53 jersey in my collection get worn before any get a second turn. All teams, except Jacksonville, are represented, at least once. It is hard to find a good Jaguar jersey. I have a two closet system: Worn, unworn. It was Chris's turn in the rotation. I just grabbed the next jersey in line in the unworn collection. 53 days from today, Chris will come up again. I am able to go almost 2 months without wearing the same jersey twice.

I explained my system as the three of us walked to my car. Like most guys, I have a lot of junk riding around in my car. Rico was going to grab the backseat because he is tall, and likes to stretch out. He needed to push some junk over to stretch out. What did he find? Torry Holt's #81 in blue and an unopened Sam Bradford #8 in white, still in the shrink-wrap.

Naturally, Rico busted up laughing. He didn't stop for quite some time.

There was actually a logical explanation for that. I visited with my dad a couple weeks ago in Fresno. At that time, he returned a jersey I had accidentally left in the guest bedroom the previous time I had visited with him. That was the Torry Holt jersey. I never bothered to take it upstairs with me.

I ordered a Sam Bradford jersey a couple of months ago. My usual source accidentally sent me two identical copies. I contacted them about this mistake, they told me to keep it. You need to remember, I bought 53 jerseys from these guys. I was going to sell the spare to my apartment manager (a 40 year Ram fan). The manager's parking space is next to mine in the security garage, and that's why it was in the car. I was going to pass it on to him the next time we bumped into each other down in the garage. That was when he backed out of the deal. He doesn't think Sam is going to last long. In sooth, neither do I. Hence I still have the package riding around in the back seat. I actually forgot it was back there.

Naturally, Rico wasn't buying a word of it. He was laughing his ass off during the ride to Shalamar. "You got Chris Long on your back, with Torry Holt and Sam Bradford on the bench ready to come in case you get the slightest little stain on your jersey, don't you? You brought back up, didn't you?"

I have to say, I looked pretty bad on this afternoon. I got caught sloppy. It cost me some street-cred. Everything will be buttoned up tight after this evening. Just because I have certain tell tale signs of decades worth of affiliation, don't think I haven't quit. 365 days from today, you won't find these little tell-tale signs laying around. It takes time to expunge the archeological record.

Incidentally, Rico mentioned that he went to Stanford University with none other than Fran Charles, who also happens to be from St. Louis and live in Los Angeles these days. They knew each other pretty well, evidently. Fran was a couple of years ahead of Rico at Stanford, and was actually the class president! How about that tid-bit of information. I am not sure where François lives these days, but Rico is not far from NFL Network HQ. Those guys are on Washington Blvd in West Los Angeles, and Rico lives in Westwood.

Interesting, only 1 or 2 degrees of indirection between me and the NFL Network. If you guys want to get together for lunch at "Father's Office" I would be down for that. For those who don't know Father's Office, this is a leading gastropub near the NFL Network, featuring bacon jelly dressing for AAA triple prime steak ground into burgers. NICE!

It was good to see Torry Holt on NFL Total Access last night

Torry Holt made a guest appearance on NFL Total Access over the course of the past two days, perhaps trying out for a new position he may eventually take. I sure hope we resign him in St. Louis. We need him. I don't understand why we released him in the first place, and it is not as if we have an abundance of weapons to work with offensively. Politics will probably keep him from rejoining the team, but I would take him back in a heart beat if I was the GM.

The most interesting feature of Torry's appearance was his Mock Draft. I had no idea that Torry was a draftnick to any degree whatsoever. It turns out that the two of us saw eye-to-eye on all points except one or two. What were these points:

1. The Rams should not and will not select a QB with the #1 pick.
2. Holt says we will select Gerald McCoy of Oklahoma, not Sam Bradford of Oklahoma.
3. McCoy will be the selection because coach Spagnuolo is a defensive coordinator at heart, and wants to improve the speed of the DL.
4. Holt is concerned about the double injury and surgical repair of Bradford's throwing shoulder
5. Holt clearly stated that the Rams offensive line does not do a good job of protecting the QB, and putting and injury prone rookie behind that line is very bad idea.
6. Holt did not have any Quarterback going in the top 10 picks in this year's draft.
7. When called on this point, Holt answered that he did not believe either of the two candidates were worthy of being drafted in the top 10.
8. When Fran Charles pressed him on the question of the Rams selecting a QB, Torry said "Not this year."
9. When asked who would be the quarterback in St. Louis, Holt insisted that Bulger is a fully qualified franchise quarterback. The Rams' focus should be on getting Marc his confidence back.
10. And now for the bad one... Torry said that if he were going to draft a QB #1 overall, it would not be Bradford, but Clausen.

Egads no! I would let Torry draft if he were planning to take Gerald McCoy but I would jerk the rains in if he were going to reach for Clausen. No, no, no, no to Clausen. This is the one point where Torry and I really part company.

I considered Torry's words carefully, because it accords with some of my ruminations. I know for a fact that Coach Spags was most impressed with McCoy. He made no secret of this fact, saying so to the St. Louis press. Since this time, Ndomukong Suh has been mildly annoyed whenever the name Steve Spagnuolo comes up. I get the impression, Ndamukong Suh believes he will be passed over because Steve likes McCoy better. Torry's prediction of McCoy is in-line with Spagnuolo's thinking. If there is a risk here, it lies only in the bet that Spagnuolo will have his way. Certainly, both Mike Mayock and Charlie Casserly believe McCoy is better that Suh. I am in the uncomfortable position of concurring with Mel Kiper Jr's take. I like Suh.

Certainly, I will not be pissed off if we take McCoy. Rather, I will be entirely relieved. I believe Chris Long & Adam Carriker will prosper next to McCoy. That is important to me. I haven't said much about Gerald McCoy, but I do believe he is totally worthy candidate. McCoy has no real history of injuries, as do Suh and Bradford, and he is a performer.

If I am skeptical of McCoy, it's only because he has been in an attack scheme at Oklahoma. He has been told to shoot the gaps on every play. They ordered him to penetrate the backfield with abandon. Ergo McCoy looks like the more disruptive force. Put McCoy in a conservative scheme like Nebraska, and he won't look like that massively disruptive force. Remember, I know little something about this. I am a nose tackle. I believe Suh can shoot the gaps and be a disruptive force just like McCoy. Suh has had the disadvantage of coming from a sit-and-read scheme at Nebraska. Suh has not been allowed to penetrate and disrupt on every play. However, this is no big deal. All you have to do is tell Suh to attack and he will do what McCoy does. Maybe even a little bit more.

What are the odds that all teams in the top 10 pass on a QB? I would say slim and none. If Bradford falls to the Redskins, I find it difficult to believe they will pass. If Bradford falls to the Browns, I find it almost impossible to believe they will pass. If Bradford falls to the Bills, I think there is no doubt they will take him. It is possible that the Rams and Skins will pass, but after that, I think Bradford goes off the board to Cleveland.

I do think Clausen will fall out of the top 10... if any of these teams know what's good for them... which is unlikely. Regrettably, I could see the Bills wasting more years on Clausen. That would be unfortunate. I don't like that idea at all.

But I have evaded the key question: Will the Rams pass on Sam Bradford. I really hope so. This is nothing against Sam Bradford. As I have said many times, I think he is a terrific kid with a bright future ahead of him... as long as he has a steel reinforced concrete offensive line. This line does not exist in St. Louis. We are not ready to select a starting rookie QB. We need to go for a QB in a lower round, and develop him for year or two, until the line is read. You know who I am talking about.

What then are the Rams doing interviewing Bradford, Clausen, McCoy and Suh? Why does the entire organization signal Bradford? I have ruminated on this many, many hours. I think think the answer is three fold.

1. Has the organization signaled Bradford? Not precisely. They are seriously evaluating him, but there has been no super-provocative move, other than skipping Florida's ProDay. That was provocative, but not super-provocative. What you have is a case where a lot of media experts are signalling Bradford.
2. By interviewing all four, and opening preliminary negotiations with all four, the Rams may be attempting to drive a certain kind of a bidding war. They may be trying to find out which player will sign the cheapest. Good luck with this. You may save a milion, or two. You may also still windup spending $60m.
3. By allowing the speculation on Bradford, and by hearting it up a bid, the Rams may be igniting a match under Holmgren & Shanahan's asses. They may yet smoke out an interest in Sam Bradford and force a trade. Holmgren has already told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he is inclined to make a trade to obtain Sam Bradford.

Anyhow, that is my two cents. Torry Holt's prediction that the Rams will select McCoy is solid. It could happen. We might even select McCoy and McCoy, going for two real McCoys in two rounds. It could happen.