Pick #130 - Rams select CB Robert Rochell

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PhillyRam

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I wasn't a fan of the selection. He is more of an athlete than football player at this point. He has gotten by with his superior athletic ability as opposed to using sound fundamentals. He is going to get beat off of the LOS a lot until he is taught and utilizes some technique. On the bright side, he has good make-up speed if he gets beat off of the LOS.
Yeah, 4th round rookies normally don't need much coaching
 

Merlin

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I wasn't a fan of the selection. He is more of an athlete than football player at this point. He has gotten by with his superior athletic ability as opposed to using sound fundamentals. He is going to get beat off of the LOS a lot until he is taught and utilizes some technique. On the bright side, he has good make-up speed if he gets beat off of the LOS.
He can man up a bit. Just needs work in zone so he'll probably redshirt and maybe we get a nice player. You can teach a great cover guy to zone but you can't teach an athletically limited zone type to man up. He's got the tools.
 

oldnotdead

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If he plays this season and there is no real rush for them to do so other than giving him some experience, I think it will be on the boundary. This will allow Morris to move Ramsey to the Star position to cover a team's Y receiver should they have a dominant player there. IMO this was a pick for 2023 when Long will be a FA. How well he plays will determine the depth chart between Long and Rochell. I never thought he would drop as far as he did and thought he might be on their radar in the 3rd.

SCB is very difficult for a rookie CB to play in the NFL. IMO they will acclimate him and coach him up before sending him out to play inside.

IMO he's a clear upgrade to Hill not just because he's faster and taller, but because he has schematic versatility between man and zone coverages. There is no doubt he's a far better athlete compared to Hill.

Atwell, Rochell, and Harris will probably be the standouts coming out of this draft. Add in any one of the other 4 and this would be a good draft. Of the remaining 4, I think Garrett is the closest to getting to the roster. I think his role will be STs for this year. Snead likes to draft ahead so I think he's looking at Okoronkwo who is in a contract year and IMO hasn't shown enough. That could open the door for Garrett unless Ogbo can really shine this year.
 

RamFan503

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Dude seems to have a ridiculous wing span.
 

dang

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I like the pick, small school prospect with great talent that just needs polish; he'll benefit redshirting while learning the ropes with Ramsey and Williams
If he plays this season and there is no real rush for them to do so other than giving him some experience, I think it will be on the boundary. This will allow Morris to move Ramsey to the Star position to cover a team's Y receiver should they have a dominant player there. IMO this was a pick for 2023 when Long will be a FA. How well he plays will determine the depth chart between Long and Rochell. I never thought he would drop as far as he did and thought he might be on their radar in the 3rd.

SCB is very difficult for a rookie CB to play in the NFL. IMO they will acclimate him and coach him up before sending him out to play inside.

IMO he's a clear upgrade to Hill not just because he's faster and taller, but because he has schematic versatility between man and zone coverages. There is no doubt he's a far better athlete compared to Hill.

Atwell, Rochell, and Harris will probably be the standouts coming out of this draft. Add in any one of the other 4 and this would be a good draft. Of the remaining 4, I think Garrett is the closest to getting to the roster. I think his role will be STs for this year. Snead likes to draft ahead so I think he's looking at Okoronkwo who is in a contract year and IMO hasn't shown enough. That could open the door for Garrett unless Ogbo can really shine this year.
Remaining 4 draft picks? Don’t you mean 6? And what of Bobby Brown and Earnest Jones?
 

oldnotdead

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Bobby Brown IMO will take Sebas' roster spot either this year or next. There is no need to rush to play him and he needs a lot of work on his feet and technique. He has the talent but for whatever reason, he has not produced as an interior pass rusher much like Sebas. It took Sebas 3 yrs to show anything other than getting pushed around. Brown needs to show he can be more than an early-down player or he will end up like Sebas.

Jones also needs a lot of work. He needs to strengthen, work on his speed, and general technique work as well. The Rams see him as Kiser v2 and IMO that is who he was drafted to replace though he's a tad slower. Like Kiser was as a rookie Jones is basically an early-down player. He might see some rotational duties but I'm not sure barring injuries to those ahead of him that he will see much more than ST's play this year. There is no way he displaces Reeder and his lack of speed and poor coverage skills eliminate him from the MO LB position that Young and Moncrief play. Give him a redshirt year and then see if he can replace Kiser as a rotational player at MIKE.

Earnest Brown looks like a DE/OLB and he needs a lot of work as an NFL DE/OLB. The primary issue I see with Brown is he is painfully slow to play DE in the NFL. Like Bobby Brown, he needs a ton of work on his technique. His lack of long speed really plays against him in STs coverage units. He might see some reps as on FG units but otherwise, I simply don't see where he can outplay any of the current rotational players. There is no way he beats out Terrell Lewis, Jonah Williams, or even Chris Garrett who is faster and more importantly, at the position has an explosive first step. Brown certainly would benefit from a redshirt year to work on his technique and his body, i.e. gain some muscle weight to play 3T or lose some weight to gain some quickness and speed. Earnest Brown looks to have enough talent to play in the NFL but like most mid-round players they dropped because they need work. He was drafted for his traits and potential, the rest is up to him. The bottom line is looking at him, is he better than Okoronkwo or Lawler? Personally, I don't think so because those are the guys in front of him he would need to beat out.
 

Elmgrovegnome

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Bobby Brown IMO will take Sebas' roster spot either this year or next. There is no need to rush to play him and he needs a lot of work on his feet and technique. He has the talent but for whatever reason, he has not produced as an interior pass rusher much like Sebas. It took Sebas 3 yrs to show anything other than getting pushed around. Brown needs to show he can be more than an early-down player or he will end up like Sebas.

Jones also needs a lot of work. He needs to strengthen, work on his speed, and general technique work as well. The Rams see him as Kiser v2 and IMO that is who he was drafted to replace though he's a tad slower. Like Kiser was as a rookie Jones is basically an early-down player. He might see some rotational duties but I'm not sure barring injuries to those ahead of him that he will see much more than ST's play this year. There is no way he displaces Reeder and his lack of speed and poor coverage skills eliminate him from the MO LB position that Young and Moncrief play. Give him a redshirt year and then see if he can replace Kiser as a rotational player at MIKE.

Earnest Brown looks like a DE/OLB and he needs a lot of work as an NFL DE/OLB. The primary issue I see with Brown is he is painfully slow to play DE in the NFL. Like Bobby Brown, he needs a ton of work on his technique. His lack of long speed really plays against him in STs coverage units. He might see some reps as on FG units but otherwise, I simply don't see where he can outplay any of the current rotational players. There is no way he beats out Terrell Lewis, Jonah Williams, or even Chris Garrett who is faster and more importantly, at the position has an explosive first step. Brown certainly would benefit from a redshirt year to work on his technique and his body, i.e. gain some muscle weight to play 3T or lose some weight to gain some quickness and speed. Earnest Brown looks to have enough talent to play in the NFL but like most mid-round players they dropped because they need work. He was drafted for his traits and potential, the rest is up to him. The bottom line is looking at him, is he better than Okoronkwo or Lawler? Personally, I don't think so because those are the guys in front of him he would need to beat out.
I don’t know how your Evans can differ so much from so many others I’ve read. Brown, Jones, and Brown all have a chance to contribute to some degree this year. Bobby Brown is likely to play in Brockers spot as a rotational player. He’s big and has NFL strength. He can beat double teams and that’s one reason to get him on the field.

Ernest makes up for lack of speed with his instincts. He’s very good at reading the play and is good in coverage unlike Reeder who basically is a straight line ilb.

Ernest Brown was brought into to anchor against the run. I’m sure that McVay was tired of watching the Niners run around the left tackle and have their receivers and Kittle blowing up Ram edge defenders as they gashed us repeatedly and broke tackles to that side. He may need to drop weight to gain some speed. He has the biggest transition, but if he can adapt he will be a two down edge rotational guy.
 

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I get why they like his measurables and all, but don't watch his Senior Bowl film.....he got straight abused.
 

Ram_Rally

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I get why they like his measurables and all, but don't watch his Senior Bowl film.....he got straight abused.
Could've been a shock to face guys with that level of success. A good ball of clay though.
 

So Ram

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Could've been a shock to face guys with that level of success. A good ball of clay though.

I’ll agree with that,but yes watch his game tape from the Senior Bowl. I’d say watch Tre Mason against him.You’ll a CB who got shut down by a small school,except when he ran it.Then you’ll see a CB that gets behind the blocks & isn’t a willing tackler. -Troy Hill he isn’t.
Rochelle is VERY RAW!!!
 

oldnotdead

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Absolutely he's raw but the cure for raw is good coaching and experience. The fact he's as good as he has been regardless of the fact he comes out of the FCS shows he's very coachable. I think he will see spot snaps probably after the bye, and his development will accelerate from that point.

Every one of these mid and late-round draft picks is raw, that's why they dropped as far as they did. The Rams stated they were drafting on traits and Rochell checks all the boxes for a quality developmental CB. CB is one of the toughest if not the toughest defensive positions to play. It doesn't matter what level because the competition is relative. So to stand out among lesser competition is exactly what you look for in small program players. Personally, I couldn't be happier he isn't Troy Hill and so are the Rams. Hill's lack of scheme versatility is his biggest problem. It's clear McVay really wanted Rochell, and it's fortunate for the Rams that very "rawness" dropped him to the Rams in the 4th when others saw him more as a late 3rd round pick because of those traits. Not many teams have the depth that the Rams have in their secondary that they can afford to draft a developmental CB who might take 2 years to fully develop.

They retained Williams and let Hill walk for a reason. Hill is an undersized CB with average positional speed (4.55), and it wasn't until last season that he had his breakout year. That was his 5 year BTW. He's on his 4th team in 6 years which should tell you something. His 4-year contract is structured as a 2 yr deal again another indicator. The Browns can actually get out of his contract next year. They are switching to the 3-4 hybrid scheme so apparently, their secondary scheme is changing as well.

Darious Williams entered the NFL in 2018 as a UDFA. He was also from a small program (UAB) with excellent tests, in his 40, 10 yd split, and 3 cone. He's in his 3rd year and was a priority to retain as an exclusive rights FA. He will be a UFA next year so they need to extend him before then. I see Rochell making that kind of 2 year development time frame as well.

Cooper Kupp came out of Eastern Washington also an FCS school. There is talent to be found in the FCS if you know how to look for it. Snead obviously does know how (analytics). Oh yeah, Hill went to Oregon.
 

Merlin

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Excerpt from a recent Athletic article:

“Since 2015 — that’s when we started our internal scouting system, called ‘JARS’, we have 5,000 different defensive backs that we have (measurables) on,” said Jake Temme, who is a data and analytics manager for the Rams. “And within our internal mechanism for doing weight-adjusted/athleticism (measurements) — called RSDI (Rams Standard Deviation Index) — he was in the top 10 percent for the cornerback position.”

In that five-year data span, the Rams, said Temme, found there were just four players who satisfied all of the following conditions they use to evaluate defensive backs within their database (which Temme discovered by programming a query of these conditions into the system): The player was drafted, the player was 5-foot-10 or taller, the player was equal to or heavier than 180 pounds, the player jumped 40-plus inches vertically in testing and the player broad-jumped 10 feet or more and the player ran a 4.40-second-or-less 40-yard-dash when averaged between six different times collected between official and unofficial recordings.

“Those four players are Jalen Ramsey, Obi Melifonwu, Derwin James and Robert Rochell,” Temme said. “Pretty rare guy, athletically, to get that late in the draft … I think, in particular, when you’re talking about a guy who we had a ton of scouting on, who then satisfies the physical conditions that we’re talking about — he was really exciting to be a Day 3 guy, a guy who we had basically circled after taking Ernest (Jones) at No. 103, saying, ‘This is a guy we’re going to target tomorrow.'”
 

CGI_Ram

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Excerpt from a recent Athletic article:

“Since 2015 — that’s when we started our internal scouting system, called ‘JARS’, we have 5,000 different defensive backs that we have (measurables) on,” said Jake Temme, who is a data and analytics manager for the Rams. “And within our internal mechanism for doing weight-adjusted/athleticism (measurements) — called RSDI (Rams Standard Deviation Index) — he was in the top 10 percent for the cornerback position.”

In that five-year data span, the Rams, said Temme, found there were just four players who satisfied all of the following conditions they use to evaluate defensive backs within their database (which Temme discovered by programming a query of these conditions into the system): The player was drafted, the player was 5-foot-10 or taller, the player was equal to or heavier than 180 pounds, the player jumped 40-plus inches vertically in testing and the player broad-jumped 10 feet or more and the player ran a 4.40-second-or-less 40-yard-dash when averaged between six different times collected between official and unofficial recordings.

“Those four players are Jalen Ramsey, Obi Melifonwu, Derwin James and Robert Rochell,” Temme said. “Pretty rare guy, athletically, to get that late in the draft … I think, in particular, when you’re talking about a guy who we had a ton of scouting on, who then satisfies the physical conditions that we’re talking about — he was really exciting to be a Day 3 guy, a guy who we had basically circled after taking Ernest (Jones) at No. 103, saying, ‘This is a guy we’re going to target tomorrow.'”

Bumping this.

Awesome clip there @Merlin (y)

Rochelle in pretty good company there. Here’s hoping it translates to the NFL field. Having Ramsey/Williams there to mentor him is a gold mine.