Super Armchair GM or just common sense?

Not necessarily your idea, but your philosophy. I know it’s a bunch of arm-chair gm’ing and such with an opinion like this, but I think that even when RFA’s are dominating the market like this year, there are plenty of players to be found that can help the team, not just Eagles and Giants cast-offs.

The post I put up a while ago, although you may not agree with the example i gave (Aaron Kampman), is just one of those players that the Rams could at least kick the tires on. If they don’t want to sign him, don’t. But at least be active and see who’s out there. Meet with the guy.

Hope it’s not diarrhea. They aren’t going to be doing anything drastic.

And you don’t get more of them by trading them away. Besides, he’s a good leader for the young guys they have. That’s critical for this team, they don’t have a lot of that right now. It doesn’t show up on a stat sheet, and it’s not something they’d be able to easily replace. Jackson’s value to the Rams goes way beyond carries.

No way should they trade him away for a few lesser peices.

  No one can say that it doesn’t make any sense to trade Jackson unless we give it a shot. Who knows what kind of offers we would get. We are not winning with Jackson’s play or "leadership" abilities. Besides he has had only had two outstanding years in his entire career (06’ and 09’). This is not just my opinion it is fact. Here is where SJax ranked in the NFL over the last five seasons. Overall he had average showing of 9th in yards, 18th in the league in touchdowns and has missed 11 games due to injury. Three out of five years he has struggled to get over the 1,000 barrier. This is not that great considering that 15 players ran for over 1,000 yards this year alone and a lot of them were in a two back rotation. So like I said you have to separate reality and love for a player.

  Is a 27year old top ten power back worth more than filling 2-3 starting spots on a dismal roster that will most likely be out of contention for 2 or 3 years? In my opinion, hell no. What part of rebuilding do you not understand?! When NFL network asked scouts which position is easiest to find and develop they said RB and WR. In that case doesn’t it make sense to get DE or CB plus picks for him? If management wants to build through the draft, let’s do it kind of like the Cowboys did it. Trade Jackson like they did with Walker, take the draft picks or players and run before his value drops to nothing. As much as I didn’t like the Cowgirls they were the team of the 90’s.

Adam- I would never give up on the Rams, well maybe if they sign Vick but that’s a different story. Anyway, what have we done to make me put on the rose colored glasses and think we will have more than 4 wins next year? The way it looks right now, we will have the same team out there minus a veteran starting QB and possibly minus Toggs and Little. I think 4 wins may be optimistic. So there you have it, I AM being optimistic.

From 1990 to 1999 we had one 313 yard leading rusher (1998 June Henley due to the Lawrence Phillips debacle. Other than that the lowest total we had was 637 (Cleveland Gary). In 1992 Gary had 1,125 yards, 1993 Bettis had 1,429 followed the next season by 1,025 and in 1999 Faulk had 1,381. So we had (4) thousand yard rushing performances in the 90’s nullifying your point. Other than Faulk, not one was in a winning season 6-10, 5-11, 3-13. It’s a team game and quite obviously this shows what “yards” do for you (Steven Jackson 2009 1,416 yards Rams 1-15). So yeah Jackson should be traded to fill multiple spots. I will admit trading Jackson would be like firing a best friend but, if it is best for my company it has to be done.

It’s just amazing how many guys who have never actually worked in the league, never in their life come close to running a NFL team, never been considered for a coaching spot on one of these teams, or even as a backup reserve trainer’s assistant,……but there on here talking about how stupid Devaney is for keeping Steven Jackson.

Devany has a very good reputation in the league, so does Spagnuolo. That would be from among their peers in the league (not you). If Devaney says it makes more sense to keep a playmaker like SJ39, why do you guys think it’d be smarter to make some bonehead trade for players of lesser ability? If your ego so completely overblown that you can’t see a professional football guy might have more knowledge about the team’s needs than you?

All this trying to convince people how it would be smarter to trade Steven Jackson for a 30 year old RB and 2 picks is just ludicrous. I said so before Devaney confirmed it and was releived to hear him say it. But I can’t believe how many guys on here obviously run NFL teams in the sparetime and just come on here anonymously to tell us what’s good.

This is a very young team. Besides the fact that you want playmakers on your team and not just players….and besides the fact he provides the excellent kind of leadership you need to get a young team going in the right direction…..

when you’re trying to get the team to buy in and go in a new dircetion (because of new coaches), you want and need them to trust you. By telling them we’ll ride SJ39, but then trading him away for lesser pieces, you’re sedning the compltely wrong message to that young team. You don’t take your ONE offensive supstar in his prime and let him go for something less….or even let him for something that might sound equal….because they have rallied togehter and bought in together and Jackson represents the single best possible player they could put back there at RB.

Look whats going on in NYJ right now. They let Thomas Jones walk because they didn’t want to pay him. And them they go and hire LTomlinson for probably not much less money.

Thomas Jones had a vastly better year than Tomlinson. The Jet players are not real happy that the management let Jones go for someone who is at this point not the player Jones was. They downgraded, and the players know it.

You don’t want thsi team to become cinvinced it’s about money, or you’ll be the eastern version of the old AZ Cards, where they couldn’t be good even if they want to (and they didn’t want to) because everyone knew the management wasn’t sold out to win at all costs.

I think it’s obvious Steven Jackson is more important to the Rams than any other team, but I can’t understand the shortsightedness of wanting to trade him this year. You don’t get players that special very often, this is exactly what you want to build around. Without him you literally have nothing to build around, a QB getting older and with more injuries, a WR corp that has yet to mature, no TE to speak of, and whoever plays the RB will be a huge step down. It’d be foolish to trade Jackson at this point.

You tell ’em Coach. Build around your playmakers and draft more (Suh).

   First Coach, I hope you are right and I am dead wrong. Second, didn’t Devaney help draft the biggest bust in NFL history (Ryan Leaf)? All that we have to do is watch Cleveland and Detroit in 2010 to see how stupid we have been just sitting around at 1-15 not making any changes. Mark my words they will improve a ton! Why? Because they improved their teams through free agency. If you want to go purely the draft route, look at the 90’s Cowboys. Oh my god! Those idiots just traded away Herschel Walker he was the only good player on the roster! And he was. Who would they ever get to fill his shoes? In rolls Emmitt Smith. Go ahead and say “no one is that stupid to give up that many players and draft picks” but, how will we know unless we shop him.
  
   I am not an NFL GM but, I am successful business man. I can see we have something that most teams would pay handsomely for. He obviously wasn’t a difference maker this year for the Rams nor has he been for his entire career. We have gone a combined 15-64 since he became our starter. We need good players and as many draft picks as we can get. RB’s are a dime a dozen and there were 15, one thousand yard backs in the NFL last season. He will be on the downside of his career in 2-3 years. These are the facts and NOT my opinion. Does keeping him outweigh getting a hard to find pass rushing defensive end and a high draft pick? Or a playmaking CB and a 2nd and 3rd round pick? Time and time again I have listened to scouts say that good RB’s and WR’s are the easiest position to find in the draft. Because, what you see is usually what you get. This makes him much easier to replace than finding a playmaker at DE or CB.
  
   I respect your opinion as well as most people who post on here. But I have given you several good reasons, based on fact to trade him away. Thousand yard backs are everywhere in the draft if you don’t believe me look at the last 10 drafts. Then tell me how many great corners and D-ends came out in that same time period. I am not posting here because I hate the Rams. We need help at nearly every position and this is a way to get multiple good, maybe great players for giving up one good running back. Playmaker is just a word. How many O-Line or D-Line playmakers are there? Yet if you don’t have them, no one can make plays. Go Rams!

Also I would bet the Jet’s don’t even bat an eye after losing Jones. Who cares if a few players or fans get mad, if you have a good coach which they do, it wont matter. They will be in the playoffs again. They are one of the few teams left that play “old school” smashmouth running and good defense in a passing league. We will see iif THAT hurts them in the future.

there’s a lot of things in your post that (while very respecful) might cloud the issue.
For example, what is your point about Devaney drafting Leaf? Obviously he wasn’t the only one who was wrong about Leaf both in and outside of the Chargers organization, but what has that got to do with anything?

Are you saying Devaney’s draft credibility is lower than yours or mine after picking Leaf? I guess you could if you want to but for me, after hearing him talk about it, I’m of the opinion he learned a lot from that mistake.

If you have your mind made up that Devaney drafted Leaf so he must have questionable judgement, then I won’t be able to change it. Just don’t forget to include the many, many other people who deserve to be in that same bucket of doubt…..the ones who were on the Chargers Staff that wanted Leaf, and the Pundits who came out publicly and said he would be a great pick. I figure that’s going to be thousands of inside people at least. In fact, who’s left? Did anyone make the call that leaf would bust?

In any event, there are a lot of people that think the Rams should trade away Jackson. Thing is, they’re all on message boards and not on NFL teams. I’m sure you’re a success, don’t doubt it at all, and I am too…but does that mean anything? I don’t get how it relates.

Yes, I get that they could get a lot for him, that goes without saying, but your points kind of work against each other. You seem to imply it would be foolish to pass up a Hershall Walker deal just because Jackson is ther only playmaker on Offense. But you say thousand yard backs are everywhere in the draft. If they’re that cheap, then doesn’t it make sense why no one would offer a Hershell Walker deal?

……“Go ahead and say "no one is that stupid to give up that many players and draft picks" but, how will we know unless we shop him”….

Devaney knows there isn’t any Hershell Walker deals because he has fielded many offers for Jackson (he said this in an interview about a couple of weeks go) so we know he’s not flying blind as to what Jackson’s value is and there’s no need to shop him.

He’s made a judgment that Jackson is more valuable to the Rams, playing for the Rams, than he would be in a trade right now. I am in complete agreement with him, and for the same reasons he has.

You’re free to disagree and formulate all kinds of reasons why Devaney’s wrong. That’s fine, that’s the fun of these boards.

Even though I think your ideas about Jackson’s value and “playmakers” are completely and totally wrong, I do appreciate the fact you’re respectful when you discuss it. Thanks for that. All someone needs to do is see all the name calling on other boards to reminded why this place is a gem on the ’net. Good contribution.