I agree with this article.
As a long time NFL fan watching & diving deep into most things NFL Its apparent to me that if I were a GM I would be drafting heavy early each draft primarily centering in on defensive players. Teams selecting highly drafted players in the first & 2nd days of the draft ...a defensive player can usually go to work day one & produce @ a much higher rate than most all offensive players with some rare exceptions like RB's. The D's earn their paychecks while the O's often than not just play like
.
I will go back to some of our past Ram drafts here: 2012 draft where the Rams drafted 6 players 3 (O's)& 3 (D's)with their first 6 selection in rounds 1 thru 4. The D's Brockers/ JJ & Tru
all pretty much started & were outstanding picks. The 3 (O's) Quick/ Pead & Givens:huh:.
Take a look @ 2013, 2 first round picks (O) TA who was a #8 overall pick & (O)Tree who was a very late #30 pick. Tree started day1 & has produced playing SSLB, then WSLB & then MLB the last four seasons. The (O) player has yet to play to the level of tree as they move into their 5th seasons. In addition look at the next 2 players selected (D) TJ McDonald & (O) Stedman Bailey. The D started day one & produced @ a high level for 4 seasons when healthy.
2014 (O) GRob vs (D) AD event both high first round picks same draft & look at the difference in production. Different as night & day the (D) d
ominant in early production of the defensive player. Going deeper into the 2nd day of the 2014 draft Rams drafted (O) Mason & 2 (D's) Joyner & Alexander. I'll let you figure out who has produced more & who has the brighter future going forward.
The 2015 Ram draft was pure offense thus ONLY 2 of the 9 picks are considered starters. Both are coming off bad sophomore slumps too. Snead still retain 6 of these O picks going into their 3rd season but the only D player of this draft Hager a 7th rd LB'er has been a ST ace & played in all of our goal line defense since his arrival. Hager also is the first off the bench reserve for Tree the last 2 season. Snead is still waiting on those O's to consistently produce.
Of the six 2016 draft selections all but 1 were O's. The 1 D, a 6th rd LB'er Josh Forrest came in as a rookie & claimed our starting SSLB'er post.Rotating with Nickle Joyner. Forrest produced nicely until his ACL tear injury. Josh IMO has a bright future here & could replace starter Mark Barron with his 10 million cap hit in 2018 when the Rams will be looking under couch cushions for coins to pay Aaron Donald & Alec Ogletree.Meanwhile the rest of those 2016 offensive picks languished in mediocrity @ best.
The fact that these young offensive players take so much time to produce
particularly the OL'ers in our modern times due to the
NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (
CBA). A ton of cap $$ put into non productive O players is close to a crime on use of the limited cap funds.
Rams have a full contingent of draft selections in 2018 based on the above I wound be very reluctant to select an Offensive left OT in the first half of the first round & repeat the above of the last 6 drafts listed above. I would lean the most
dominating defensive corner or DL (in case the Aaron Donald matter goes sour) to fit Wade D to replace the 31 million $$ departing CB Trumaine Johnson or possibly AD. Once the first day has concluded I making a OLT my #1 find on day two.
