Your Ideal 2015 Rams O-Line

[tahoe]

I know im in the minority but...
LT Robinson
LG Long
C Max Garcia (rookie Florida)
RG Saffold
RT Barksdale

 

[12intheBox]

G-Rob
Collins
Barrett Jones
Saffold
Flowers

not bad...close, but not bad.....

How did we get two #1 picks from the 2015 draft?

 

[junkman]

The salary cap is a complicated thing. I could be wrong but I don't think there is a cap hit if a player retires with years remaining on his contract... or am I wrong? I'm hoping that Scott Wells and Jake Long both decide to do what's best for them and their families and hang up their cleats.

If Barksdale is resigned there are only 2 spots in desperate need of improvement.

I think it's almost foregone conclusion that Wells is gone which will save the Rams $3,750k.

If Jake Long comes back, it's probably at a reduced salary and he'd play either RT or G. I'm betting he retires, which would save the Rams $8M.

That money should let us:
1) Re-sign Barksdale.

2) Sign one solid name G or C. If a G, then Mike Iupati and Ron Leary are great run blockers but pass blocking liabilities. Orlando Franklin is very good at both. If a C, I'd rather get Brian De La Puenta or Rodney Hudson than Wisniewski. De La Puenta had an ankle injury that limited his time in 2014 but has historically been durable and is solid when healthy. A Q Shipley could be a good utility guy at either spot, but I guess we already have a few of those.

It's harder to find a quality C than a quality G. Sooo... end of the day, I go with...

LT - Robinson
LG - Scherff (what can I say, I like OL from Iowa) (or Peat or Collins in the 1st), Tre Jackson or Kouandjio in the 2nd
C - Rodney Hudson or Brian De La Puenta
RG - Saffold (with the newly repaired shoulder)
RT - Barksdale

Since the Rams traded their 4th and 6th for Barron, I'm not sure the Rams would take another OL until later like the 5th. Rams will have to rely on Person / Jones / Rhaney / Barnes for bench strength. (I think that Brandon Washington is also a free agent).

From a cap perspective, trading Jake Long and Scott Wells for Barksdale and De La Puenta (as well as negotiating down Bradford's contract) should leave the Rams with extra cap space to make another splash somewhere in free agency, e.g. upgrading from Shaun Hill to... to... shit. Maybe we should just go all in on OL.

 

[NERamsFan]

LT - Robinson, Erving, Person
LG - Iupati, Bulaga, Person
C - Cameron Erving, Jones, Rhaney
RG - Saffold, Jones, Person
RT - Bryan Bulaga, Person

or

LT - Robinson, Erving, Collins, Person
LG - Iupati, Person, Collins
C - Cameron Erving, Jones, Rhaney
RG - Saffold, Jones, Collins
RT - La'el Collins, Person

Sign me up!! I'm hoping for Iupati as our big signing and Irving in the second round. Kid is a stud and I'm not even sure he'll make it out of the 1st round. I would bet tho Bark is back as an affordable rt option.

 

[LACHAMP46]

How did we get two #1 picks from the 2015 draft?

Collins falls to the top of the 2nd & after a trade down we take Flowers. With the extra 2nd we draft Hundley...See, anything is possible in "Mock World".......

 

[blue4]

I would prefer Robinson at G as well.
But, it does not seem that is in the cards.

So it's just us then? Well, it will make it that much sweeter if we turn out to be right in ten years. And this website still exists. And there are people here who remember that we made such a claim. And if we ourselves remember we made such a claim. Oh it will be sweet.

 

[RamsJunkie]

LT Robinson
LG Mike Iupati
C Stefen Wisneswski
RG Saffold
RT Bryan Bulaga

Reserves
Jake long on a new cheap deal
Barrett Jones
Person
Rhaney

Yep I know that would take a lot of money(probably all our money) but the line would be deep and beastly and it would allow us to draft BPA and that would be money well spent IMO

 

[BonifayRam]

My ideal offensive line? With five Ram 2014 OL'ers now no longer under contract things will change dramatically from the OL in 2014.
ORG-Davin Joseph[starter]
ORT-Joe Barksdale[starter]
6th OL-Mike Person
7th OL-Tim Barnes
9th OL-Brandon Washington

It would be ideal that starting Rams center & OLT Wells [34] & long[30] retire. Thus freeing up some breathing room in the cap of approx. Those two retirements will place close to 12 mil in our cap. Rams will use that 12 mil up quickly when they go out & resign four Ram starters: WR Kenny Britt, FB Cory Harkey, FS Rod McLeod, QB Shaun Hill. I sure do not see any cap available funds to purchase a OT Bryan Bulaga, OLG Iupati or OC Stefan Wisniewski . Any one of those UFA's would break the 2015 cap bank big time plus (and much more important)it would prevent the Rams from being in position to sign most all of all their 2016 17 free agents, of which 10 are starters! So it sure is NOT ideal for the Rams to purchase the NFL newest highest paid OLG or OC.I think that would be one big bone headed move.

It would be ideal for the Rams to sit out & let the early UFA'cy $$$$ cap killers clear drop off the UFA market. Rams should offer contracts to 6th & 7th 2014 Ram top reserves Mike Person[UFA] & Tim Barnes[RFA] to contracts. Since 9th 2014 reserve OLG-Brandon Washington[ERFA] he can be retained @ a ultra low cost in 2015, sign him. It would be ideal for the Rams should let Joe Barksdale[UFA] go find better offers during free agency if he wants to return here it would be ideal for a contract close to 3 mil a year.

Then slide in slowly & enter the second tier UFA's for a previous NFL starter either @ OLG or ORT. It would be ideal to secure @ least a starter @ one of those OL posts. Some examples would be OLG's Clint Boling, Orlando Franklin or Dan Connolly. But even these second tier cadre will cost $$$ big.

The Rams OL assembled @ this time right before the NFL draft would look close to the below with the probable starters in bold:

Ram Center Candidates
Tim Barnes 27-4
Barrett Jones 25-3
Mike Person 27-5
Demetrius Rhaney 23-1

Ram OG Candidates
UFA Signed Veteran
Rodger Saffold 27-5
Mike Person 27-5
Travis Bond 25-2
Brandon Washington 27-3

Ram OT Candidates
Greg Robinson 22-2
Barrett Jones 25-3
Steven Baker 26-2

To summarize the Ideal Ram OL is :
#1- One that does not kill the cap in 2015 & 2016 with serious damaging $$$ effects in the future.
#2- Makes the best of bargains of known Ram OL'ers reserves in 2015 that the Ram organization has invested in since 2012 thus using already purchased talent.
#3- Main Mission is to use the draft as the primary means to upgrade the needed talent in this OL. Thus my ideal draft currently would look close to this mock. Should bring the Rams @ least 3 to 4 new OL'ers to fill the vacancy.
1st#10- ORT/OLT-La'el Collins/OLG/ORT-Brandon Schieff/OT-Andrus Peat
2nd#41-LB-Denzel Perryman/ OC-Cameron Erving
3rd#72-ORG-John Miller/Rob Harvenstein ORT
5th-OLG-Ali Marpet/QB-?
6th[comp]-ORT-Donovan Smith/QB-Blake Sims
7th-OC-Max Garcia/QB-?

 

[Big Willie]

Within reason, please... no Joe Thomas playing center shenanigans.

Mine:
LT - Robinson, Person
LG - Brandon Scherff, Barrett Jones
C - Stefan Wisniewski, Tim Barnes, Jones
RG - Saffold, Person, Jones
RT - Barksdale, Person, Jones

I am not a big fan of Barksdale, so ideally we could get an upgrade there too.

 

[fearsomefour]

So it's just us then? Well, it will make it that much sweeter if we turn out to be right in ten years. And this website still exists. And there are people here who remember that we made such a claim. And if we ourselves remember we made such a claim. Oh it will be sweet.

....so, now we wait....
Excellent

 

[PressureD41]

G-Rob
Collins
Barrett Jones
Saffold
Flowers

not bad...close, but not bad.....

I think Flowers and Collins both go in the middle of rd 1..That would be sweet though

 

[LACHAMP46]

I think Flowers and Collins both go in the middle of rd 1..That would be sweet though

You guys....
G-Rob
AJ Cann
Jones
Saffold
Flowers