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Peter King - Sports Illustrated
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... z1tX5sOUWs
[wrapimg=left]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2012/writers/peter_king/04/30/mmqb/janoris-jenkins1.jpg[/wrapimg]Someone was going to take a chance on Janoris Jenkins. Now you'll know why the Rams were that someone.
Les Snead shouldn't be this smart as a first-year GM.
"Draft picks are like stocks,'' Snead said after midnight Friday. "But our draft, as a whole, is sort of like a mutual fund.''
I'll translate: Let's say you have seven picks in a seven-round draft, and you're coming off a 2-14 season, and you've got needs out the wazoo. The guys you pick in the first two or three rounds are guys you have confidence that as people and players will be good long-term investments. But if you have extra picks -- the Rams had four in the top 50 -- you can afford to try to hit a home run. If you fail, it's bad -- Pacman bad. If you succeed, it's great.
The Rams went 2-14 and changed coaches, and changed general managers. When coach Jim Fisher and Snead began scouting the roster, they saw more holes than they'd have liked -- on the defensive line, at corner, at receiver, on the offensive line and at running back. But they were able, through trades, to pick up two extra second-round picks this year and extra first-round picks in 2013 and '14. So they went about their reconstruction knowing they had a luxury others teams didn't have. With a league-high four picks in the top 45 (later, 50 when they traded down at 45 on day two of the draft), they figured they could afford to take a shot on a boom-or-bust pick.
Snead was working for the Falcons last fall when he began looking into Janoris Jenkins. The Falcons wouldn't have a first-round pick in 2012 because they used it to help acquire Julio Jones last year. So he went to Division II North Alabama, where one of the best cornerbacks in the country was playing in exile from the University of Florida because of his marijuana record in Gainesville. "I go out to watch practice one day, and there's Janoris, playing gunner on special teams,'' said Snead. "And loving it -- playing as hard as he can, competing. That's the thing about this kid: He loves football. With everything that's gone in his life, he loves football. It's just all the other things he's had to get right.''
The Rams had the 31st-rated run defense in football last year, and picked a 322-pound tackle, Michael Brockers, to help fix that in the first round. They have no big receiver -- really, no quality receiver to stretch any defense -- and so picked 6-4 Brian Quick at the top of the second round to help Sam Bradford get the ball downfield. Picking at 39, they took a shot on the problem-riddled Jenkins, and at 65, high in the third round, added Trumaine Johnson, a 6-2 corner from Montana.
"But without all the extra picks, obviously, it would have been tougher to take a chance on Janoris,'' Snead said.
The Rams have put in some safeguards and checks for Jenkins. Snead, or someone with the organization, will call him or talk to him every day about his life, which is a mess. He's had four children with three different women, and he'll have to use much of his first contract to straighten out child support and related family care things. Jenkins knows he'll be monitored by the man who holds the cornerback's life in his hands. "I look the kid in the eye and said, 'It's you and me,' '' Snead said.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... z1tX5sOUWs
[wrapimg=left]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2012/writers/peter_king/04/30/mmqb/janoris-jenkins1.jpg[/wrapimg]Someone was going to take a chance on Janoris Jenkins. Now you'll know why the Rams were that someone.
Les Snead shouldn't be this smart as a first-year GM.
"Draft picks are like stocks,'' Snead said after midnight Friday. "But our draft, as a whole, is sort of like a mutual fund.''
I'll translate: Let's say you have seven picks in a seven-round draft, and you're coming off a 2-14 season, and you've got needs out the wazoo. The guys you pick in the first two or three rounds are guys you have confidence that as people and players will be good long-term investments. But if you have extra picks -- the Rams had four in the top 50 -- you can afford to try to hit a home run. If you fail, it's bad -- Pacman bad. If you succeed, it's great.
The Rams went 2-14 and changed coaches, and changed general managers. When coach Jim Fisher and Snead began scouting the roster, they saw more holes than they'd have liked -- on the defensive line, at corner, at receiver, on the offensive line and at running back. But they were able, through trades, to pick up two extra second-round picks this year and extra first-round picks in 2013 and '14. So they went about their reconstruction knowing they had a luxury others teams didn't have. With a league-high four picks in the top 45 (later, 50 when they traded down at 45 on day two of the draft), they figured they could afford to take a shot on a boom-or-bust pick.
Snead was working for the Falcons last fall when he began looking into Janoris Jenkins. The Falcons wouldn't have a first-round pick in 2012 because they used it to help acquire Julio Jones last year. So he went to Division II North Alabama, where one of the best cornerbacks in the country was playing in exile from the University of Florida because of his marijuana record in Gainesville. "I go out to watch practice one day, and there's Janoris, playing gunner on special teams,'' said Snead. "And loving it -- playing as hard as he can, competing. That's the thing about this kid: He loves football. With everything that's gone in his life, he loves football. It's just all the other things he's had to get right.''
The Rams had the 31st-rated run defense in football last year, and picked a 322-pound tackle, Michael Brockers, to help fix that in the first round. They have no big receiver -- really, no quality receiver to stretch any defense -- and so picked 6-4 Brian Quick at the top of the second round to help Sam Bradford get the ball downfield. Picking at 39, they took a shot on the problem-riddled Jenkins, and at 65, high in the third round, added Trumaine Johnson, a 6-2 corner from Montana.
"But without all the extra picks, obviously, it would have been tougher to take a chance on Janoris,'' Snead said.
The Rams have put in some safeguards and checks for Jenkins. Snead, or someone with the organization, will call him or talk to him every day about his life, which is a mess. He's had four children with three different women, and he'll have to use much of his first contract to straighten out child support and related family care things. Jenkins knows he'll be monitored by the man who holds the cornerback's life in his hands. "I look the kid in the eye and said, 'It's you and me,' '' Snead said.
