Thanks to those who replied as I appreciate the dialogue and perspectives shared.
I am really excited about the talent being assembled and truly don't feel we are too far away. I am, however, concerned about a few factors. First, I look around and see that very often consistently strong teams have a very, very good QB. Second, successful teams always seem to retain their own good players as opposed to losing them in FA and we have quite a few of our own to retain next year, meaning any cap space saved will likely be valuable later. Third, should Nick end up to be to "mediocre," it could force the Rams into a tough situation; overpay for him on the open market for the long-term or have no viable option for a QB and no draft capital to get one without mortgaging the future.
In my mind, we can do something about the QB scenario THIS year. Yes, we would possibly bypass one of two highly touted WR's in a deep WR draft (IMO, they won't be available) as well as a highly touted OG in a deep OL draft. We have a team right now that can be very competitive, likely even playoff bound, but is an unlikely Super Bowl candidate. Additionally, we would not need to spend a 2nd-4th round pick to reach for a QB in a terrible QB draft in hopes they might sometime turn into something. Use the pick on the OL, CB, WR, or LB this year and "spend" it next year as part of a trade up. I think the team should protect itself long-term.
If one of Cook, Jones, or Hackenburg are deemed to be "franchise" QB's next year, I would like to see the Rams at least have the ammunition to get them. I also suspect we'll be drafting outside of 20 next year, thus needing quite a bit of draft capital to do so. I don't believe that pick and anyone we might get at 10 this year would do it. I do think, however, that our 10 this year would fetch a first next year and quite a bit more (in this year's draft or next). Some have alluded we wouldn't know what pick it would be next year and that is true, although there could be some educated guesses based on whom the trading partner is. I suspect trading our own first, one acquired for this year's pick and one of our two seconds next year would give us enough draft capital to move up quite far next year regardless of where we would be starting from. If that's the price for a franchise QB, I take it.
