NFL Draft '12: My Early Top 10

Written by: Michael Handshear


I LOVE the NFL Draft.  Waking up the morning of the NFL Draft is kind of like the adult version of waking up on Christmas morning:  the air is thick with anticipation, and you can't wait to unveil the new presents that have been so perfectly wrapped for you.  It's a time for new beginnings and renewed hope. 
   
I've convinced myself to feel this way year after year, despite the Rams ruining every draft day with their comical blunders of talent evaluation.  It's hard to draft as poorly as the Rams have in recent years.  The 2006 draft may be the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) example of the Rams ineptness.  In 2006, the Rams were able to accumulate five picks in the first three rounds.  With those picks, they selected (in order) Tye Hill, Joe Klopfenstein, Claude Wroten, Jon Alston and Dominique Byrd.  This draft was five years ago.  These players should be in their prime and the core of the Rams future.  Not one of these players is on the Rams roster.  Even better, not one of these five players are even in the NFL.  Pretty amazing.  I imagine any of us could pick five names out of a hat and had better success.


The Rams now have a new regime in place (again).  This one does come with a bit more experience and cache than its predecessors.  No one is saying that Jeff Fisher is Vince Lombardi, but he certainly isn't Steven Spagnuolo or Scott Linehan either.  Fisher has already put some strong coordinators in place, and the Rams are in the midst of finding their next general manager.  The general manager will (obviously) be a huge piece to the organization and after that hire is in place, we'll begin to get some insight on the new staff's draft strategy.  As Anthony stated in his first Mock "there several events between now and the draft (playoff results, Senior Bowl, free-agency, and the combine) that can shift draft boards, but it’s never too soon to start speculating.”  With that repeated, here's a quick look at my predictions for the Top 10:


#1: Colts - Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford - My take: Stating the obvious here.  Let's move on.

#2: Rams - Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma St. - My take: The Rams simply CANNOT pass on Blackmon here.  Yes, the Rams need help at OT.  Actually, the Rams need help in a lot of areas.  But, the gap from Blackmon to the next WR is huge, and this gives Sam Bradford the true playmaker he needs.  And, this pick gives the Rams a unique physical WR that they haven't had through their entire time in St. Louis.  I say that with all due respect to Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt.  Those guys are great, potential Hall of Fame players, but they weren't really playmakers after the catch and didn't bring the physical red-zone presence that a player like Blackmon can.  In the NFL in 2012, having players like Blackmon is crucial to any offense.  The Rams should keep the #2 pick, take Blackmon, and not look back.

 

 

#3: Vikings - Matt Kalil, OT, USC - My take: An easy pick for the Vikings, who are in great need of help in pass protection.  If the Rams pass on Kalil, it'll take the Vikings brass about thirty seconds to hand Roger Goodell an index card with Kalil's name of it.

#4: Browns - Trent Richardson, RB, Alabama - My take: Robert Griffin III would be the sexy pick here, but I think the Browns stick with Colt McCoy and take the safe choice.  Richardson has a chance to be a monster from Day 1 as a rookie.

#5: Buccaneers - Morris Claiborne, CB, LSU - My take: Claiborne is a complete CB, with the size and speed to excel early in his career.  Doesn't have the return skills of last year's #5 pick from LSU, Patrick Peterson, but could have a similar impact for the Bucs.

#6: Redskins - Robert Griffin III, QB, Baylor - My take: I have doubts about Griffin as a pro QB, but Mike Shanahan can't go another year with the combination of Rex Grossman and John Beck.  This gets the Redskins faithful very excited, but I'm not sure it gets them very many wins in 2012.

#7: Jaguars - Michael Floyd, WR, Notre Dame - My take: Floyd had some off-field issues at Notre Dame, but has the prototype size (6-3 / 224) for an NFL WR.  The Jags are about as desperate for a playmaker as the Rams, and there is always a team that reaches for a WR in the 1st Round.  The Jags are that team this year.


#8: Panthers - Quinton Coples, DE, North Carolina - My take: Coples strikes me as a bit of a head-case, but he did pile up solid numbers as a DE/DT at UNC.  He's an elite physical presence at 6-6 / 285, and the Panthers could easily sell the local product to their fan base.


#9: Dolphins - Riley Reiff, OT, Iowa - My take: I'm making this pick, forecasting that the Dolphins already have signed Matt Flynn to be their most recent QB of the future.  With Flynn in place, they'll take the next best OT on the board to protect him.


#10: Bills - Dre Kirkpatrick, CB, Alabama - My take: Yes, the Bills already have a solid secondary.  Yes, Kirkpatrick is an off-field risk with his recent drug possession charge.  But, Kirkpatrick is an elite talent and a game-changer that the Bills can't pass up at this spot.

Anthony posted his Early 1st Round Mock Draft last week: http://ramsaddiction.blogspot.com/2012/01/early-mock-round-1.html

Feel free to disagree with both of us in the comments.

Denver Rams…Hopefully

I am a very passionate, impulsive, and somewhat illogical Rams fan who grew up in St. Louis and now resides in Denver, Colorado.  I’ve been living in Denver now for five years, and I have a unique perspective when it comes to the team I love because not only do I see things from afar, but also, I live in Broncos Country.  I haven’t converted to Broncos blue and orange, but this year made it difficult.  Because the Rams are so horrible and have been for the majority of their existence in St. Louis, hanging around a fan base of Broncos fanatics that are obsessed with the team really tests my patience.  The 2011 season was also very compelling from a Denver perspective with the insane Tebow-ness that polarized the nation.  Thus, it has been a challenging year from my perspective to stay loyal to my Rams.

Watching both teams this year has been interesting for two wildly opposite reasons.  I started thinking how the Broncos got to this point this year after a dreadful 2010.  I began to realize that the Broncos team of 2010 and the Rams team in 2011 have some very eerie similarities.  I want you to think about this for a second.  The Denver Broncos in 2010 had the 2^nd worst record in the league, had little to no reason to watch the team before the season even began, had a horrible defense but one good pass rusher, played uninspiring football, had a questionable WR core, could not get a free agent without over paying, had a young quarterback on their roster with a prestigious college career, and fired their coach at the end of the season.  Does any of this sound familiar?  The 2011 Broncos, as you all know, hit the jackpot with being a compelling team, gaining tons of national attention that may help them build a motivated team that people actually want to watch, and now has a legit coach that people believe in.  What a difference a year makes.  I am not going to tell you that the 2012 Rams are going to be the 2011 Broncos, but the similarities above are rather interesting.  With the Rams having Sam Bradford, Chris Long, James Laurinaitis, and Jeff Fisher in comparison to Tim Tebow, Elvis Dumervil, Von Miller, and John Fox, the similarities continue with age, tenure, results, and upside.  These teams are more similar than you would have thought. 

That line of thinking, or you may call it dreaming, is what every Rams fan has fantasized about every off-season the last ten years.  The 2011 Broncos are what Rams fans are really searching for—an ascending team that has a lot to look forward to in the next several years.  Unfortunately, it seems that consistent misses in the draft and debilitating injuries have put us farther in the hole year after year.  But, every year Rams fans go into the offseason with non-justified optimism.  I remember in 2007 thinking that even though the Rams selected the 5th defensive lineman taken with the 13^th pick in Adam Carriker, that he would be the piece that would catapult us into a deep playoff run.  As we all know, that didn’t happen.  With hindsight being 20/20, and looking back at that 2007 draft and seeing Darrelle Revis selected with the very next pick, it makes it harder and harder to believe the Rams will do anything in the draft to improve the team because we have had the revolving door in the war room on draft day for several years.  Like him or not, which the majority of Denver hates this man more than Cleveland hates LeBron, Josh McDaniels’s 2010 draft gave the team two starting WR’s in Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas, two sixteen-start offensive lineman, and Tim Tebow.  Those selections have driven the Broncos to be a compelling, playoff-winning team.  What a difference a year makes.  Well, I am hopeful for a Denver story in St. Louis in 2012.  I just really hope so.

Written by:  Jon Wekerle