Rams draft rewind: Finding the starters

by Ryan Van Bibber on Jun 16, 2010 3:31 PM CDT in 2010 St. Louis Rams offseason

ESPN's Mike Sando had a 2009 draft retrospective, looking at the starters and impact players for the St. Louis Rams, and the other NFC West teams. Naturally, James Laurinaitis gets a mention as one of the most promising players. Jason Smith and Laurinaitis are both projected starters for the Rams this season.

CB Bradley Fletcher, the Rams third round pick last year, played his way into the starting lineup last year, showing real potential and making himself the favorite to reclaim the starting CB job opposite Ron Bartell. That would give the Rams three starters from last year's draft, an impressive feat compared to the results of prior drafts. Let's take a look back at the starters manning the roster from previous drafts, going back to the 2004 NFL Draft, since no current member of the team comes from any draft prior to that, except for long snapper Chris Massey picked in the 7th in 2002.

For all the turmoil that marked 2008, it really was a watershed year for the Rams, the start of the rebuilding process thanks in part to the arrival of Billy Devaney in the team's personnel office. The Rams first and second round picks from '08, DE Chris Long and WR Donnie Avery, are both starters. Third round pick John Greco is in competition for a starting job as the right guard this year. David Vobora, the second round pick, was a starter last year. At the moment, he's been replaced by offseason free agent addition Na'il Diggs, though it's not set in stone yet. You could technically count Justin King since he's working with the first team right now, but I'm going to default back to the 2009 lineups where appropriate for the purpose of this exercise. The number in parentheses is the total number of players selected.

2008 Draft Picks (8)
2010 Starters: Chris Long (R1), Donnie Avery (R2)
On the bubble: John Greco (R3), David Vobora (R7)
Role players: Justin King (R4), Chris Chamberlain (R7), Keenan Burton (R4)
Gone: Roy Schuening (R6)

2007 Draft Picks (8)
2010 Starters: Clifton Ryan (R5)
On the bubble: none
Role players: none
Gone: Adam Carriker (R1), Brian Leonard (R2), Jonathan Wade (R3), Dustin Fry (R5), Ken Shackleford (R6), Keith Jackson (R7), Derek Stanley (R7)

2006 Draft Picks (10)
2010 Starters: none
On the bubble: Mark Setterstrom (R7)*
Role players: Victor Adeyanju (R4)
Gone: Tye Hill (R1), Joe Klopfenstein (R2), Claude Wroten (R3), Jon Alston (R3), Dominique Byrd (R3), Marques Hagans (R5), Tim McGarigle (R7), Tony Palmer (R7)

* I put Setterstrom on this list since he's not technically out for the season due to injury. Were he healthy, he'd be competing for the starting RG job.

2005 Draft Picks (11)
2010 Starters: Ron Bartell (R2), Oshiomogho Atogwe (R3)
On the bubble: none
Role players: none
Gone: Alex Barron (R1), Richie Incognito (R3), Jerome Carter (R4), Claude Terrell (R4), Jerome Collins (R5), Dante Ridgeway (R6), Reggie Hodges (R6), Ryan Fitzpatrick (R7), Madison Hedgecock (R7)

2004 Draft Picks (7)
2010 Starters: Steven Jackson (R1)
On the bubble: none
Role players: none
Gone: Anthony Hargrove (R2), Brandon Chillar (R4), Jason Shivers (R5), Jeff Smoker (R6), Erik Jensen (R7), Larry Turner (R7)

Kind of depressing, no? This isn't anything we haven't already said before: bad drafts have put the Rams in a deep hole. Two consecutive drafts in which the team was able to find legitimate starters represent two important milestones on the long road back to respectability.

Take a look at the draft picks no longer with the Rams that are starters. Hargrove, Chillar, Hedgecock...all those guys could have helped the Rams but for one reason or another were jettisoned. More alarming are the strike outs on picks from the first day of the draft: Adam Carriker, Brian Leonard, Tye Hill, etc. The Rams might have managed more than a single win last season if they hadn't whiffed on those picks.

Another note: the Rams should never draft players named Claude.

Again, nothing new, but I think looking at it from this perspective gives you an idea of the direction this franchise is headed. The 2010 draft class is a big one, and already two players - OT Rodger Saffold and QB Sam Bradford - are expected to be starters this season. How this latest group pans out has a lot to say about how soon the Rams establish themselves as a winning franchise.

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Comments

Whoa, backup a minute...

Wasn’t David Vobora the last player drafted in the 7th round in 2008 and became ‘Mr. Irrelevant’?

Go Rams!

"We can't run. We can't pass. We can't stop the run. We can't stop the pass. We can't kick. Other than that, we're just not a very good football team right now." --- Bruce Coslett, New York Jets Head Coach circa 1990s

by Nbr1RamFan on Jun 16, 2010 3:57 PM CDT reply actions

Yes!

You will notice that he has an (R 7) next to his name in the summary of that draft.

by CaliRamMan on Jun 16, 2010 6:17 PM CDT up reply actions

Sweet jesus...

That 2006 draft gets more and more depressing every time I see it. Ah, the good old days.

"Now there are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours of sleep; never play cards with a guy who's got the same first name as a city; and never go near a lady who has a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese." - Coach Bobby Finstock

by FailureDrill on Jun 16, 2010 4:34 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

Such is the NFL

If you don’t draft, you don’t compete

You don't seem to want to accept the fact you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In *St. Louis* his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition. Well, *Steven Jackson* was the best.

by 3k on Jun 16, 2010 4:38 PM CDT reply actions

Better

Whaooo! First, the coach staff of those years couldn’t get Ray Lewis to be a starter. second, Carriker is going to start with the Redskins and B. Leonard is a very good role player with Cinciny. Incognito is going to play with Miami. And I could name a coule of other role players but that is for an other day. I beleive the Ram fans are short sighted and the coaching staff in the past was horrible and the people picking the players were accountants.

But I see a good future for the Rams because the coaching staff is better and the people picking the players are better.

by JL67 on Jun 16, 2010 5:55 PM CDT reply actions

Sam Bradford and James Lauranaitis

One proven player, the other hopeful. The rest of the 2009 and 2010 draft picks are suspect. I’ll say right off that Jason Smith has so far been a big disappointment to me. He didn’t play enough to make a statement and two injuries (at least one major) already. Avery is also fragile and is no Desean Jackson. Saffold’s already hurt without contact. And how can we really know anything about Fletcher after so few games and coming back from serious injury? Keith Null is a consummate flop. I’ve seen way too much of him. My guess is Nully doesn’t make the final cut. Vobora? Third string on a last place team is about right. I’m thinking Burton won’t make the final cut either. And yet, most people consider the last two drafts to be good… It just shows how low we’ve sunk and that we’ll make excuses for anything. Where’s Trung Canidate? Our abysmal drafting seemed to start with him.

by RamChop on Jun 16, 2010 10:52 PM CDT reply actions

Your comments begin to sound more and more like Ed every day.

If you are not Ed, you sure are so much like him it’s spooky.

by andyrose on Jun 17, 2010 12:38 AM CDT up reply actions

He is edpjr

He just changed his handle to get a cooler little avatar picture thing

I should be working right now...

by gorams77 on Jun 18, 2010 11:30 AM CDT up reply actions

Granted the values of the players were all over the place

But 2005 and 2004 weren’t horrible compared to the later Linehan years.

The House of Spears reigns supreme

by Eric Nagel on Jun 17, 2010 5:59 PM CDT reply actions

Horrible?

I look at those two drafts and see quite a few talented players on those drafts, but the Rams found ways to manage those players off the team. As a team, we would be in better shape if the Rams had kept Chillar and Hedgecock, filling one severe hole and having addressed the need to get Karney before there ever was a need. Sadly, I would like to have included Incognito and Barron but sadly despite a world of talent, I don’t know if there are any coaches in the world save for Lombardi himself that could make a good player out of those two.

There were talents in those drafts, but we mismanaged ourselves out of it. Ugh…

by kickasskeever on Jun 20, 2010 11:20 PM CDT up reply actions