I know, but that was when the Rams next pick was. They obviously liked him and didn't want to risk waiting to the 6th round to pick again if they passed on him in the 4th round
lol could be right - could go either way..some quotes from an interview w/ Snead and Fisher on the pick. They talk him up a bit
http://www.rams-news.com/jeff-fishe...ing-mo-alexander-press-conference-transcript/
(On picking S Maurice Alexander)
Fisher: “We’re really good right now. We’re excited about this pick.”
(On what they like about Alexander)
Snead: “Former linebacker, moved to safety in thespring. It was his first time playing safety, but he’s aggressive, big, athletic, and will hit. If you look at the numbers, sacks, caused fumbles, tackles for losses. I’ll let Coach (Fisher) tell you a little bit about…I won’t get into our new scheme, but there’s definitely a role for this type of player in our defense.”
Fisher: “We had him in the building. Because he’s a local kid, we’re permitted to have a local workoutand he had an outstanding workout here three or four weeks ago. We really enjoyed him. He’s afootball player. As Les said, he was a defensive end in high school and JC (junior college), he goes out there and plays linebacker, for a year, maybe two, and then has an incident which we got to the bottom of the incident. It was a friend of his, and there was a push and shove and punches were thrown. There was a lawsuit filed and as a result, their university suspended him for the 2012 season. He came back here to St. Louis and worked at the Edwards Jones dome as a janitor. He cleaned up after our ball games for a year so he financially could pass the time before he was reinstated. He went back to school, missed spring practice. He started backpedaling in training camp and played safety last year. He’s a very, very talented player and has huge upside. The drills, the combine drills in the building, the football knowledge and instincts are outstanding and we’re very excited to have him. We’ll plug him in packages and he’s one of those guys that most likely is active on Sundays as a special teamer as well, immediately.”
(On if they see Alexander as a free or strong safety)
Fisher: “It’s interchangeable. He has the range. He’s got the hips. He’s got the ball skills as well.”
(On if they were aware that Alexander was working at the Edward Jones Dome for a year)
Fisher: “No, this all came out recently.”
(On what it says about the school to reinstate him after suspending him)
Fisher: “I think it says something about the kid, for the school being willing to have him back. The school obviously, they had faith in him, in the program.”
Snead: “To answer your question, usually when a school does that, that means all parties think it’s worth reinstating, second chance, the whole deal.”
(On how his character impressed the staff)
Fisher: “Outstanding young man.”
Snead: “It’s going to be a cool story because he’s from here, grew up here and the whole Dome thing, but you can tell he’s got a passion for football. Anytime you’re probably young and go through something like that, that’s adversity that you’ve got to have some grit to get through it. I think you love the passion that, ‘I really want this opportunity,’ so I think he’s really, really jacked to be a Ram because it means something to him. He got to come in, we got to know him probably better than anybody because of the local workout and all of that.”
(On what Alexander told them about the incident)
Fisher: “He was very professional, very upfront, very honest. I didn’t have a problem with it.”
Snead: “Obviously, we’re going to do our research to follow up and make sure all stories are correlating and on the same page, and they were. This is a good dude.”
(On if they felt like they had to take him in the fourth round and not wait until the sixth)
Fisher: “We fielded some calls, there was some interest in the pick, but we didn’t want to lose this player.”
Snead: “Getting to know this kid, he had done some private workouts with teams, so he was somebody that, I think, teams were trying to sneak through the cracks a little bit. So you knew, with a pick in the sixth, you couldn’t…we wanted this player so we weren’t going to be cute, per se.”
