OL

[DaveFan'51]

I for one really like Scherff and would love to see him picked by the Rams at 10.
Scherff has a ridiculously high SPARQ score of 128.8 which is in the 98th Percentile (Wow).
He is mean.
He is tough
He is strong
He has been well Coached
He is a High Character Guy
AND HE IS also very ATHLETIC

For brevities sake this ^ is all that needs to be said to sell me on Scheriff as who should be the Ram's #1 OL Target!

 

[BonifayRam]

I got to thinking that it may be good to go back & do the same thing using the late round 5-6-7 & UDFA's. I will then follow up with doing the same investigation as to just how well the Ram history is using the #1 thru #49 picks (first & early second rounds/High draft picks) too so we all can see where we stand (Rams) in our last 48 yr history. Not sure the odds increase all that much in success but well see.

 

[BonifayRam]

#4-2000-#94 OT/ John St. Clair 15 drafts ago

Freaking John St. Clair....the Rams tried to keep him at T and he was a turnstile. Miami (I think) moved him to G and he was solid.
I still see Sherff as a G.

I agree with you my standard "decent starting OL'ers" may have been way too kind here...just wanting to be real fair in my findings. It would be hard to say that while John was a Ram he was a decent starter.

As far as Brandon Scherff I also see him as a true OLG, with the ability under emergencies to play ORT & OLT (very short time).

 

[Noregar]

I know some here do not like La Canfora and he irritates me at times as well but he makes some good points in the attached article about offensive linemen getting draft heavily in the first round this year. I hope the Rams do not take Humphries at 10 as he postulates but I do agree that offensive linemen could go earlier and more often than many suspect. As others have already noted if the Rams want someone like Scherff they may have to actually trade up in front of the Giants and possibly the Falcons to get him and although I am in the "like Scherff" camp at 10, I am not at the point where I would like it if the Rams traded up to get him (yet).

2015 NFL Draft buzz: Lack of stars will lead to run on 'safe' linemen
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer...ack-of-stars-will-lead-to-run-on-safe-linemen

I don't love this class of offensive linemen in this draft, and teams have incredibly varying degrees of opinions on the tackles in particular. But I believe the overall lack of star power in this draft, and the fact that linemen are still seen as relatively safe, will lead to them still comprising a quarter of all players taken in the first round.

Of course, there isn't even a consensus on whom the top tackle is, though I suspect Stanford's Andrus Peat is the first tackle taken. In fact, there is debate over which of these kids is truly a left tackle at the NFL level, and some teams think centers are tackles or tackles are centers. Still, regardless, there will be a run on them, especially in a year in which some teams I spoke to have as few as 14 players with true first-round grades.

Iowa's Brandon Scherff, who played tackle at Iowa, is the cleanest of the bunch, and despite the fact that most teams view him as "just" a guard, he'll be the first offensive linemen to go, I strongly believe. I have him penciled to Atlanta, with Peat to the Giants on the next pick.

Brandon Scherff looks like a guard, not a tackle, at the NFL level. (USATSI)

The Rams are looking very strongly at tackles -- right tackles in particular -- with the 10th overall pick, and we could see three straight off the board. I'd expect Florida's D.J. Humphries to be the next tackle gone. LSU's La'el Collins looks more like a guard than a tackle to the teams I've talked to, and he'll be the second interior linemen gone, I suppose (Florida State's Cam Erving is going to go in the teens as well, whether you think he is a center or a tackle -- teams like him as both).
Miami's Ereck Flowers doesn't project as a left tackle in the NFL to the guys I trust, though he should be safe enough as a right tackle. I also believe Texas A&M's Cedric Ogbuehi, despite tearing his ACL in a bowl game, showed enough as a right and left tackle to go in the top 32 (I'm looking at Denver), and I see the Colts or Bengals pouncing on Oregon tackle Jake Fisher.
Besides the teams I've already mentioned, the Panthers, Lions, Eagles, Browns and Steelers have done plenty of work on offensive linemen as well. I see plenty of them coming off the board, despite the wide and varied opinion about many of them individually.

 

[Memphis Ram]

BonifayRam's Summary: In this review I have found only one example in the last decade of where the Rams have been successful in drafting & finding a starting OL'er in the mid- second, third & fourth rounds of the draft over the last decade. In researching back some 48 yrs. I discovered only SIX examples on this premise. A trio of these example were outstanding starting Ram OL'ers.

Interestingly enough the Rams have only selected 4 or 5 OLinemen in the last 15 years within the range you selected (which conveniently leaves off Saffold). A time span that includes 1st rounders success stories like Jason Smith and Alex Barron, but I digress. In summary, you can't get them if you don't draft them.

 

[Memphis Ram]

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-nfl-draft-brandon-scherff-iowa-offensive-line-guard/

Here’s him stonewalling Randy Gregory — you know, that guy who some consider the best pass-rusher in a draft chock-full of them:

He stonewalled a 230 sophomore in 2013 who took an inside move. Wonder how many times he gets that matchup in the NFL?

 

[Ballhawk]

All I know is that if they don't bring in some quality linemen they might as well trade their wide outs for Tebow and install the wing "T".

 

[BonifayRam]

This is my 2nd part followup on my original post yesterday, on the often used premise or assumption that decent starting OL'ers can be found late rounds (5th-6th & 7th ) in the Ram drafts the last few decades.

QUESTION*How many times have the Rams been successful in drafting decent starting OL'ers in the later rounds in the last few decades

Using this site for my information:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draf...ate=-1&award=-1&collegecoach=-1&highschool=-1

BonifayRam's Summary: In this review I have found only one example since the NFL draft went to only 7 rounds.
#1-1996-#141- OT Fred Miller 19 drafts ago started 38 games in 4ys as a Ram

I might have included OG Mark Setterstrom with ORT Fred Miller but Mark never started more than 5 games in any season with a total of only 12 games in only 3 seasons.
In conclusion: The Rams past history of finding decent starting OL'ers in late rounds just about Zero.

Here's the last part of the 3 part review of how well the Rams have done in the drafts in finding decent starting OL'ers & what rounds they were found in.

Since 1966 the Rams have found 9 good starting OL'ers in the first & early second rds (#1 thru #49). Six were many times all pro's. In the last 49 drafts the Rams had 3 major misses. Jason Smith(09)-Alex Barron(o5) & Mike Schad(86).

#1-1966-Tom Mack 1st rd OG
#2-1975-Dennis Harrah 1st rd #11 OG(Played in a SB)
#3-1975-Doug France 1st rd #20 OLT(played in a SB)
#4-1979-Kent Hill 1st rd #26 OLG (played in a SB)
#5-1990-Bern Brostek 1st rd #23 OC
#6-1994-Wayne Gandy 1st rd #15 OT
#7-1997-Oralndo Pace 1st rd #1 OLT(played in 2 SB's)
#8-2010-Rodger Saffold 2nd rd #33 OLT/ORT/ORG/OLG
#9-2014-Greg Robinson 1st rd #2 OLT/OLG

I'll let you make your conclusions.

 

[WestCoastRam]

Hey Bonifay,

Gotta say, I give you mad credit for doing all the research. That being said, I'm concerned that we not conflate what the Rams did in the past with different drafts with different areas of depth than what the Rams can do in this draft. Now, I'd like to concede that the Rams are historically poor at drafting olineman (though I haven't really looked into it). Even then, we don't know what's correlation and what's causation in regards to that. So, I'd like to focus just on this draft. It seems from my limited online research that the draft has graded a significant number of olinmen as "draftable" via NFL.com and CBSonline.com. If we can accept that they're valuations are solid, there should be a lot of guys to choose from throughout the draft (we can quibble about how many of these are starters and backups which is fine too - but there's seems to be a good number graded as starters too).

My point is that the talent is there in this draft to find guards up and down the draft to start and there will be tons to find for depth. Whether or not the Rams can do that... that is a story that breaks our collective hearts