Revisiting the trade that landed RGIII in Washington: Big advantage Rams/PD

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Revisiting the trade that landed RGIII in Washington: Big advantage Rams
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_12b19685-47f9-505b-9f89-5dd03bc2a790.html

When the Rams made their blockbuster trade with Washington in early March 2012, it didn’t register with Michael Brockers. All along, the Louisiana State product thought he was going to Dallas.

True, he made a so-called “Top 30” pre-draft visit to St. Louis, but that really was all he heard from the Rams.

All signs pointed to the Cowboys. And then Dallas traded up with the Rams to No. 6 and got another LSU player, cornerback Morris Claiborne.

“So I was like, man, what’s up?” Brockers recalled. “When it came down to it, the Rams picked me up and, you know, happy ever since.”

The Rams took the big defensive tackle at No. 14. Little did he know at the time, but Brockers was the first piece in one of the biggest trades in recent NFL history. He was the first player the Rams drafted as a result of what’s come to be known as the RGIII Trade.

“Now, you look back at it, and we got some good players from the trade,” Brockers said.

OK, maybe he’s a little biased, but Brockers was and forever will be the answer to the trivia question: Who’s was the first player the Rams got in the Robert Griffin III trade?

The Rams traded the No. 2 overall pick in the 2012 draft to Washington. In exchange, they received a first-rounder from Washington in the 2012, ’13, and ’14 drafts. They also received a second-round pick in ’12.

But in a series of trades in ’12 and ’13, the Rams expanded those four original picks into eight bodies. Five currently are starters: Brockers, linebacker Alec Ogletree and cornerback Janoris Jenkins on defense, plus wide receiver Stedman Bailey and left tackle Greg Robinson on offense.

Running back Zac Stacy isn’t starting, but he did run for nearly 1,000 yards last season (973), helping to rescue the Rams’ running game and to a large extent, their offense.

The only washouts in the group are offensive lineman Rokevious Watkins, who lasted only a season with the Rams and currently is out of the league, and running back Isaiah Pead, who’s on the Rams injured reserve and has done next to nothing in St. Louis.

Other than an original sixth-round pick that was used as part of a 2013 trade-up to select Stacy in the fifth round, the Rams got all those eight players for that No. 2 pick in 2012. Washington used that selection to draft Griffin, the quarterback from Baylor.

When Jeff Fisher took over as the Rams coach in January 2012, followed by Les Snead as general manager a month later, they quickly realized they needed not only quality on their roster but quantity.

They were inheriting a program that had finished 15-65 from 2007-2011, the worst five-year stretch in NFL history.

“We needed bodies,” Snead recalled. “And you wanted them to be more than just bodies. At the end of the day — with where we were as a franchise — that group was gonna be a foundation, a kind of core group.

“And not just them, but probably those first three (drafts) of new young players, that you could now raise. We weren’t one player away. We believed in Sam (Bradford). It was, ‘Let’s get as many shots (in the draft) as we can.’”

Fisher certainly has no regrets about the trade; he’d obviously do it again.

“At the time it was a good deal for us, and it was a good deal for Washington,’’ he said.

Nearly three seasons later, the trade has tilted heavily in the Rams’ favor. Griffin was the toast of the league as a rookie, when he led Washington to the NFC East title and its first playoff berth since 2007.

But knee and ankle injuries have brought his career to a grinding halt. Griffin has played in only 18 of 28 games since his rookie year, and when the Rams face Washington on Sunday in a noon (St. Louis time) start at FedEx Field, RGIII will be watching from the bench.

“It’s just a production-based league,” Washington’s first-year coach, Jay Gruden, said in a conference call Wednesday with St. Louis reporters. “Obviously, guys who produce, play. And if you don’t produce you’ve just got to continue to work, and when your turn comes up again — produce.”

Gruden has been highly critical of Griffin’s play this season, to the point that he actually apologized for some of his critical remarks earlier this season. There are speculative reports swirling in the Washington-area media that Griffin might be gone after the season.

For now, Gruden points out that Griffin isn’t the first talented quarterback to get benched. He said Griffin needs to “just take a step back and learn, and just get a feel for the offense and the progressions and terminology. Playing the position a little bit different way than he’s accustomed to.

“With time, I think he’s going to be fine. Once he gets back in there, he’s got to know exactly where to go with the ball and pull the trigger and play. I think he’s just a little bit tentative from time to time as far as getting the ball out and not believing quite what he’s seeing, and that comes with time.”

If that happens, maybe RGIII will fulfill his early promise as a franchise quarterback. But that’s not the Rams concern, is it?

None of the five current Rams starters from the Griffin trade have made the Pro Bowl, none look like NFL stars at the moment. But all have shown signs of being solid, productive players and at times have flashed Pro Bowl potential.

“Some of them are ahead of others,” Snead said. “But I think we can all see that those guys are going to continue to develop and grow, and have a heck of a chance to be part of a core that’s around here for more than just one contract — the rookie contract.”

Or as Brockers put it: “We’re young. We’re still learning. We’re making a couple mistakes here and there. But we can only go up from here.”