Trading down would be great for the Rams if they know who they are interested later in the first. We have a lot of holes on our roster and it would just be smart to trade down (as long as we know who we are targeting with those picks). I think the only way this is going to happen is if the Sanchez hype keeps building. As mentioned above, there is a lot of talk about how great he has looked and it isn’t totally outside the realm of possibility that Stafford goes #1 and another team tries to get into the #2 spot to grab Sanchez before Seattle is on the clock. (Denver I am looking at you…..give us your 2 first rounders and you can have Sanchez. You know you can’t trade in division with KC so we are your only hope to get above Seattle!)

On another note (touched on above), I have really been hearing a lot of pro-Monroe talk the last few days. On Sirius NFL radio they were discussing the fact that it is possible that Smith’s post-combine draft stock has started to slip a little when looking at tape. They also said (I have no idea what their source was so take it with a grain of salt) that the Rams like Monroe better than Smith. Who knows what will happen, but I think everyone should mentally prepare themselves for the possibility of a Stafford #1 pick followed by a Eugene Monroe #2 pick by the Rams. I don’t know that it will happen, but I think it is a very real possibility.

P.S. Does anyone have their own opinion of Smith vs. Monroe? Not the stuff all the pundits kept cycling around, but their own opinion. Did someone out there watch a ton of college football last year and see these guys in action? I would just be interested to hear someone’s opinion who has watched them play.

now teams will start using misdirection and media will report it.

this is fog of war for draft predicting

I was going to try to make a comparison between the NFL draft and the MLB draft, in which low-budget teams routinely pass on high-upside players that they don’t want to pay for. Case in point, the Cardinals passing on Rick Porcello last season, a top-5 talent who is already in the majors – the Cards could have had him at #19 but passed. There is a lot more freedom in this system for teams to essentially pay what they think is fair, regardless of their draft position. However, there is also a lot more freedom for low-budget teams to continue to shoot themselves in the foot by not taking advantage of their high draft picks.

With a completely unregulated market, you need a lot more time for negotiating, though. And the typical timeline from the baseball draft to a rookie’s appearance on the major league team is measured in years, not months. The NFL draft’s rigid salary slotting makes a lot of sense in terms of trying to accelerate newly-drafted players into their teams’ minicamps.

Unfortunately, you get years like this where there doesn’t appear to be that marquee player — either QB or RB — who will bring in the gate to justify a giant rookie salary. If there was one, I’d say it was Crabtree, but that’s not an endorsement of choosing him #1. (or #2).

It would be kind of cool if you could build incentives into rookie contracts that allow certain breakpoints based on how many jerseys they sell. (For example, TJ Oshie’s earnings would be rightfully as high as a rookie could get, for as many people he brings to the StL Blues games.) That’s part of the expectation behind the massive salaries for the top 5 players or so.

I know that Spags has a youth movement going and I largely agree with it. However, the Rams’ recent draft history, i.e. Barron, Tye Hill, Carriker and Long, has been, shall we say, less than stellar? I wonder how Carolina would bargain for Julius Peppers..? And has somebody else got a good MLB out there we could grab for a 2nd and/or 3rd round pick? A top notch D-Lineman and MLB would sure help solidify the defense.