Mel Kiper makes up for the Alex Barron pick

Over at ESPN, hidden behind the In$ider paywall because they must not want to get too much traffic, is Mel Kiper's re-draft of the 2005 NFL Draft. Without a doubt few teams could benefit more from jumping in the WayBack Machine and getting a do-over on that one than the St. Louis Rams. You'll recall that's the draft when they selected OT Alex Barron with the 19th overall pick.

Kiper gives the Rams OG Logan Makins, who the Patriots actually selected with the last pick of the first round. No doubt that would have been a better pick than Barron; the Rams still had Orlando Pace at that point. However, the Rams did actually draft a pretty good guard that year taking Richie Incognito in the third round. It's just that Richie had his own problems, and was finally released late in 2009. 

The Rams could have done themselves a favor by selecting TE Heath Miller, WR Roddy White (though they had Holt and Bruce at the time), DE Justin Tuck (who went the third round) or even Aaron Rodgers, who was available when the Rams made their pick (they had Bulger who was fine at the time though). 

As bad as that draft was, at least the Rams did manage to get Ron Bartell and Oshiomogho Atogwe, who have since become the backbone of the secondary. And that year's draft paled in comparison to the flop that came the following April. 

Ah, hindsight. Maybe the Rams will try to acquire Mankins in free agency this year.