Rams second round draft pick: Donnie Avery, WR

Call me skeptical but this reeks of a typical 2nd round reach by the rams, because of raw skills...whether it be klopfenstein or fisher or late first rounders robert thomas and trung candidate, the rams stupidly go for speed and athleticism over proven ability to play football. sigh...

Taken from B. Miklasz -

POST-DRAFT TAKE: Rams officials say Avery is similar to ex-Rams great Isaac Bruce. Avery will bring the explosiveness and game-changing speed St. Louis needs to open up its offense.

PRE-DRAFT REPORT:

Hands: Catches the ball effortlessly. Snatches passes outside his frame, and can get low and catch passes near the ground. Shows great concentration to look balls all the way in. Attacks balls, rarely allowing passes to get to his chest. Tracks deep passes well, leaping to catch balls at their highest points. Grade: 8.0

Patterns: Reaches top speed so quickly, defenders often are on their heels the entire game. With great downfield speed, cornerbacks are in bail technique before he gets five steps off the line. Is explosive in and out of breaks. Shows good flexibility in hips and knees to drop weight and separate out of breaks. Grade: 7.5

Run after catch: Has the speed to score on any touch. Is tough to tackle in the open field because of elite quickness, speed, vision and shiftiness. Must improve lower-body strength; gets tripped up by ankle tackles he should break. Nobody catches him from behind. Grade: 6.5

Release: Must strengthen upper body to escape jams of long-armed cornerbacks. Can dodge jams with quickness and explosiveness; has a natural body shake to dance off the line before cornerbacks get their hands on him. Sometimes dances too much. Grade: 7.0

Blocking: Must improve in this area. Lacking blocking skills have more to do with size than desire. Is a scrappy, tough player who works hard. Grade: 5.0

Bottom line: Avery can change a game with just one touch. Once he gets stronger, he no longer will get bounced in traffic and will become an effective blocker. Avery is sure to be a star at pre-draft workouts and could sneak into the bottom half of Round 1.

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Avery had a very productive college career, with almost 1500 yards receiving last year. I'd say that qualifies as proven ability to play football....

The Rams were in desperate need of speed at WR. They no longer had any ability to stretch the field, and that hurt the offense greatly. Avery has elite vertical and lateral speed.

I'm sorry, I know some may not like this pick, but with the character issues of some of the other WR's, I think it's just fine. The War Room had him rated at number 31 total on their "hot 99" list....

was never going to be taken until the 3rd or 4th round by anybody else.  I don't mind Avery.  I DO mind the round in which they took him.  

The only thing that makes me think that this may not have been a mistake is our history in drafting WRs. We hardly ever miss. The Rams said in 2003 that they had Kevin Curtis as the number 2 WR in the draft behind either Andre Johnson or Charles Rogers and that pick worked out really well.