The Plan (or... why most of the 2017 draft class, and Floyd, won't be back)

[AvengerRam]

As much as I hate to lose guys who have helped the team leave, we're about to see a pretty big exodus. I'm convinced that Leonard Floyd and four picks from Rounds 2-4 in the 2017 draft - Gerald Everett, John Johnson, Josh Reynolds and Samson Ebukam - won't be back (the exception, of course, is Cooper Kupp, who received an early extension).

The key here is that all five of these players will, by leaving, create Comp Pick eligibility for the Rams. We could easily see a couple of 3rds and a couple of Day 3 picks result from the departure of these players.

So the choice is... sign long-term contracts (after clearing space), or... replace these players with either (1) veterans who will agree to short term deals (i.e. Floyd last year) or (2) rookies. The latter represents "the Plan," as I see it.

These players, though valuable, are not part of the "core" of the team. Right now, that core is Stafford, Akers, Woods, Kupp, Whitworth, Donald and Ramsey. Around them are other less valuable, but solid guys, like Havenstein, Henderson, Jefferson, Higbee, Brockers, D.Williams and Fuller.

There will be unfilled rolls after this group leaves, but there will be opportunities to fill those spots. There will be some quality veterans out there who will be happy to join a contender like the Rams for an affordable one year deal ($8-10M), and the Rams have 3 Top 100 picks which also could produce contributors. The Rams are not going to break the bank for non-core players at the cost of future cap health and foregone compensatory picks.

I hope I'm wrong about a couple of these guys (JJ and Floyd), but I'm pretty convinced that we'll be seeing new faces in their place in September.

 

[Loyal]

Bruh... ~ Jake

 

[CGI_Ram]

These players, though valuable, are not part of the "core" of the team. Right now, that core is Stafford, Akers, Woods, Kupp, Whitworth, Donald and Ramsey. Around them are other less valuable, but solid guys, like Havenstein, Henderson, Jefferson, Higbee, Brockers, D.Williams and Fuller.

We haven’t even reached the draft... and not a soul here would have named those 5 part of our core exactly 1 year ago. None of us.

So... yeah. We have some unfortunate turnover... but, McSnead have a plan.

 

[Angry Ram]

Such is life in the NFL. We always hear the average career for a player and well...here ya go.

 

[dang]

Ebukam, Reynolds and Everett became solid depth players. They had 4 years to earn starter status and couldn’t (Reynolds backing in doesn’t count). I wish them well but feel we can replace them rather easily.

 

[Ramstien]

I think you can add Troy Hill to that list, even though he was more productive than the rest of them.