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Being at the draft this year was a bit of a revelation. It's so easy to get locked into a viewpoint when your limit your experience to audio/video media and the internet. But there is nothing like the face time interaction with other knowledgeable football folks.
I spoke with so many different people who all brought their unique perspective. College coaches, scouts, ex-players, and Draftniks from other teams gave me a fresh look at the draft and I believe it made me smarter. I relate it to playing chess online and from books as compared to going to a tournament and playing face to face against opponents. It's just different and broader in scope.
Just bouncing my views on the Rams in this draft off of different types of people and getting their tone in their viewpoints was invaluable. I tried to synthesize all that I learned with my existing thoughts and came away with a general overview as follows.
The Rams were going to evolve from Fisher's blueprint of the identity that he firmly established after the failed wide open passing game experiment last year. And this draft was going to reinforce it, not take it in another direction or even supplant parts of it, such as drafting Manziel. No knowledgeable person I spoke with thought the Rams would be better served taking Manziel over Donald. I had one coach from UNC actually visually show me what Donald can do that makes him special and why his size works to his advantage. And this guy loved Manziel too, but just not the best choice for the Rams.
I could see that everything they did in this draft fit Fisher's blueprint. Power them upfront on the OL, barrage defenses with a relentless wave of RBs, while attacking their offense with a disruptive attacking defensive front and a hard hitting opportunistic defense. Not one player picked deviated from this theme. No soft, super fast players. I remember Dave Te Thomas saying a couple of weeks ago exactly what the Rams were thinking and he was dead on. Robinson was their guy for weeks now, he said, and they didn't even like Watkins that much. They were never going to pick him. He also said Donald was his favorite player in the draft and a coup for us.
From the moment the 4th safety went off the board at the end of the first round, almost all 2nd round discussions in the hall were about Joyner or Baptiste, surprisingly little support for a WR, even Lee. Theoretically, Joyner just fits perfectly. Then again in the 4th round, Alexander fits also.
This Rams draft was a cohesive coordinated implementation of Fisher's blueprint. Every pick fit within the larger scheme. And it all made perfect sense to me. Will it be successful? No one knows yet. But at least it's not a fragmented mess of adding finesse to a power football team.
And one last thing on a side note. As I was walking into the Hall Thursday night Goodell was outside greeting the fans, taking pictures, and shaking hands. And as I shook Roger's hand I said to him, "you're doing a great job Roger, the Draft is fine in May but don't ever move it out of the Big Apple, it belongs here just as the Hall of Fame belongs in Canton." He winked at me, smiled, and said "thanks".
I spoke with so many different people who all brought their unique perspective. College coaches, scouts, ex-players, and Draftniks from other teams gave me a fresh look at the draft and I believe it made me smarter. I relate it to playing chess online and from books as compared to going to a tournament and playing face to face against opponents. It's just different and broader in scope.
Just bouncing my views on the Rams in this draft off of different types of people and getting their tone in their viewpoints was invaluable. I tried to synthesize all that I learned with my existing thoughts and came away with a general overview as follows.
The Rams were going to evolve from Fisher's blueprint of the identity that he firmly established after the failed wide open passing game experiment last year. And this draft was going to reinforce it, not take it in another direction or even supplant parts of it, such as drafting Manziel. No knowledgeable person I spoke with thought the Rams would be better served taking Manziel over Donald. I had one coach from UNC actually visually show me what Donald can do that makes him special and why his size works to his advantage. And this guy loved Manziel too, but just not the best choice for the Rams.
I could see that everything they did in this draft fit Fisher's blueprint. Power them upfront on the OL, barrage defenses with a relentless wave of RBs, while attacking their offense with a disruptive attacking defensive front and a hard hitting opportunistic defense. Not one player picked deviated from this theme. No soft, super fast players. I remember Dave Te Thomas saying a couple of weeks ago exactly what the Rams were thinking and he was dead on. Robinson was their guy for weeks now, he said, and they didn't even like Watkins that much. They were never going to pick him. He also said Donald was his favorite player in the draft and a coup for us.
From the moment the 4th safety went off the board at the end of the first round, almost all 2nd round discussions in the hall were about Joyner or Baptiste, surprisingly little support for a WR, even Lee. Theoretically, Joyner just fits perfectly. Then again in the 4th round, Alexander fits also.
This Rams draft was a cohesive coordinated implementation of Fisher's blueprint. Every pick fit within the larger scheme. And it all made perfect sense to me. Will it be successful? No one knows yet. But at least it's not a fragmented mess of adding finesse to a power football team.
And one last thing on a side note. As I was walking into the Hall Thursday night Goodell was outside greeting the fans, taking pictures, and shaking hands. And as I shook Roger's hand I said to him, "you're doing a great job Roger, the Draft is fine in May but don't ever move it out of the Big Apple, it belongs here just as the Hall of Fame belongs in Canton." He winked at me, smiled, and said "thanks".
