Drafting a LT this year in the 1st certainly does not guarantee us as having an elite LT. I think history will show that be true.
We are still burned by the BUSTS that were Jason Smith and Greg Robinson. Both were 1st round, 2nd picks over all. Both had questions about them that all true believing Rams fans overlooked because we needed them to work out so desperately.
Jason Smith, Tackle from Baylor. He was an athletic freak who changed from being a tight end to tackle at Baylor. We told ourselves that this was a good thing because he'd be very nimble of feet in his pass blocking moves for Mark Bulger and Sam Bradford. The problem for this converted tight end was that he had little "junk in the trunk" and got pushed around. This pick was a bitter, high cost failure.
Greg Robinson, Tackle from Auburn. Jeff Fisher liked athletic freaks as well and most likely had influence over GM Les Snead (Auburn alum) in choosing him. I was over the moon when we picked this guy because he seemed like that blue chip LT prospect with multiple All Pro's in his future. He had plenty of weight (330 lbs), unlike Smith, but what we didn't key on was his intelligence, or lack thereof. He often started each play with no hand in the dirt at Auburn. He didn't memorize many plays, if at all, and seemed to rely on some sort of cue card system. On the Rams, he was dumb as a rock and is currently in prison for drug related crimes. Mind you, this was after he received a life changing fully guaranteed 1st contract of 21.28 million over 4 years.
This is where I was going to argue how Joe Alt is different from them. Unfortunately, he is similar to Jason Smith in being a converted tight end (don't like this)., but that is where the similarity ends. I could list all of the reasons why scouts think he is the #1 tackle available in the draft. This is where Les Snead earns his money. Did Snead learn from the Greg Robinson bust? Alt seems to be much smarter than Robinson and is an athletic freak who has played near flawless LT at Notre Dame for 3 years. I think Joe Alt is more like Joe Thomas than the other two. Thomas played 9 years straight in Cleveland and didn't miss a game until his 10th year.