NFL Trade Deadline: Should The St. Louis Rams Trade Jason Smith?
by Ryan Van Bibber on Oct 14, 2011 8:37 AM CDT
in 2011 NFL Trade Deadline
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PrintJason Cole at Yahoo! Sports has an article out today opining on players that should be traded. Trade talk is everywhere with the NFL trade deadline set for next Tuesday, October 18, and Cole steps into the foray with some interesting suggestions. He pitches the St. Louis Rams put one of their younger players on the block: Jason Smith.
I hesitate to call Jason Smith a bust, but he's has certainly failed to live up to his lofty draft status as the second player picked in a woeful 2009 draft class. The Rams continue to wait for Smith to develop the consistency required of an NFL offensive tackle, but it just doesn't seem to be happening.
Part of the problem with Smith is the matter of having the attitude and mean streak required of an NFL offensive lineman. One former Rams player recently told me that in 2009, he recalls telling one of his teammates that Smith would not last in the NFL. The addition of Harvey Dahl is supposed to help Smith with that aspect of his development, but so far, it's led to an ill-timed confrontation with Ray Smith, of all players.
Smith isn't a bad player. Like his fellow 2009 draftee Aaron Curry, he just is not meeting expectations. A fresh start might be good for him, and that's exactly what Cole suggests. Trading Smith would free up the Rams to find another tackle, be it in the draft or elsewhere, who can make an impact. It would also free up considerable cap space, and therein lies the rub. Another team may be unwilling to take on Smith's hefty price tag for middle of the road play.
Anyway, it's just a suggestion. Who from the Rams would you look at trading this year?
Oh, and if you're looking for cornerbacks on Cole's list...forget it. There's really nothing that can help the Rams at cornerback until next year.
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I remember when we drafted him, everyone raved about him
being a beast, and dominating. In hindsight, I’d rather have BJ Raji or Brian Orakpo creating havoc on the other side of the ball, and talking about getting rid of a RT who we didn’t draft to play LT…
Mulligan!
I really wanted Aaron Curry
But I also thought trading down for Oher would have been great too.
Such is the life of an armchair GM.
Oher not doing too good
he is way overrated because of the movie about him. He is below average at best at pass blocking and his run blocking is good, but not overly impressive to me.
YES
Jason Smith is a BUST.
Not to sure on what would happen with the Cap. But if there was a way to get rid of him and accumulate draft picks, I’m all for it.
If you can turn shit into non shit (even just a 7th rounder)
You do it
by King Sam Rules! on Oct 14, 2011 8:58 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
There's how you shoulda known he would bust
He beat Goodell in “who can have the stupidest f*cking smile here”
by King Sam Rules! on Oct 14, 2011 9:00 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
no way
unless we can get some good picks for him he might as well stay here. It’s not like we have too many OT. Besides how many great picks have we had in the 5-7 rounds
Trade him for Brandon Marshall
who said he’d only be playing a quarter and a half on Sunday, before getting ejected. The way I see, that’s more than Smith was going to give us
+1
"The only thing better than watching the Rams win is watching the Rams win with my wife."
The Pledge
I Pledge to stand firm as a true, loyal and eternal Rams fan
To write, Blog and share it all with my Ram Brothern
To read and absorb all the great material on TST
To discreetly comment, reply and be respectful in doing so
To accept and welcome the opinions of all fans from the other teams fan sites
To weigh all the facts given and explore new ones
And realize that being a Rams fan is a true blessing
What's going on with Brandon Marshall?
Is the demanding a trade? I missed those news…
He's not demanding a trade,
but he was talking about going back and playing with the emotion like he used too. The kind of playing with emotion that would cause him to do some dumb things at times. We don’t really know if he is being serious about this or if he is just expressing some more frustration because our QB situation sucks and he doesn’t really have a good QB to get him the ball.
Interesting that you guys bring this up though, as many of us over at the Phinsider had been debating about if we should trade Marshall for picks to try and help us with ammo to get a QB in the draft next year (fingers crossed for Luck). You guys were one of the teams that we talked about who might be willing to make a trade for Marshall. Do you think that you guys would be interested in him?
Also, we could trade you one of our 2 young CBs, Sean Smith, as well. He’s a pretty good coverage corner, 6’3" and 214lbs, but his biggest flaw is that he doesn’t get a lot of interceptions. So if we were to trade you guys both those players, what would you be willing to give up for them draft pick wise? We would probably be looking for at least a 1st rounder for both of them.
Now, neither have been even talked about being traded, this is just a hypothetical question for my own curiosity. Do you think the Rams would be interested in trading picks for these guys?
"Why don't you put that in a memo and entitle it 'Shit I Already Know'!" - Sarge from Red vs. Blue
I can't brain today, I have the dumb.
28 "Phinsider Feud" Points
by Chupathingy on Oct 14, 2011 11:39 AM CDT up reply actions
1st rounder?
No chance the Rams even consider giving that up. The Rams really aren’t interested in trading picks of any kind, but hey, you never know.
It's put up or shut up time for these WR's. Someone's going to have to perform or else they'll all be hitting the street. ESPECIALLY YOU ALEXANDER
Well, like I said.
Nothing is even being considered in reality, but I was just asking as a hypothetical as we had been talking about who we could trade for picks and the Rams were brought up as you guys have some need for WR and CB.
"Why don't you put that in a memo and entitle it 'Shit I Already Know'!" - Sarge from Red vs. Blue
I can't brain today, I have the dumb.
28 "Phinsider Feud" Points
Woeful 2009 Draft? Not for us Lions fans.
Matthew Stafford QB, Brandon Pettigrew TE, Louis Delmas S, DeAndre Levy LB, and Sammie Lee Hill DT.
Four solid starters and one important rotational player on the D Line. And all five guys are still developing and getting better.
Nope, we like the 2009 draft just fine thank you.
My 2011 Lions season prediction: 12 wins and 4 losses. I made this prediction the week after the New England preseason game. It's looking a little pessimistic right now.
Lions fan since 1968.
Through the bad, worse, and ugly years [most of them I guess].
I just shake my head when some fans and gurus try and excuse a team’s lousy draft in 2009 by blaming the whole draft class. There were lots of good players who are becoming stars in the NFL from that class.
My 2011 Lions season prediction: 12 wins and 4 losses. I made this prediction the week after the New England preseason game. It's looking a little pessimistic right now.
by NorthLeft12 on Oct 14, 2011 10:52 AM CDT up reply actions
2009 Second round
Smith may be on his way to being a bust, in which case I say trade him before he becomes an Alex Barron clone. But the guy we picked in the second round that year (Laurinaitis) turned out to be a pretty damn good player. So, I wouldn’t say the 2009 draft was a total loss for the Blue and Gold.
no
we need to trade the offensive line coach.
give smith and company someone who can get results.
the talent is there just not being utilized fully.
Agreed
Not only has Smith regressed but the OLine as a whole has regressed. I would think that that would fall more on Loney and maybe even McD and less on just Smith.
"SJAX" - The extra strength cleaner that fights off that Stubborn, Stingy Defense
Interesting,
because you mentioned Curry, that he was recently benched on a passing down in favor of… You guessed it… David Vobora.
Pipe dream
Because Pittsburgh is on the list in the linked article as a potential suitor for Smith, would be awesome if the Rams could extract Antonio Brown from them for Smith. Would save money (not counting the cap hit), and provide a speedy WR and return guy.
Does any else remember........
the last time some-one called themself the battering ram. We traded him for nothing and he went on to hall of fame career in Pittsburgh. No don’t trade him, trade the o-line coach.
"The only thing better than watching the Rams win is watching the Rams win with my wife."
The Pledge
I Pledge to stand firm as a true, loyal and eternal Rams fan
To write, Blog and share it all with my Ram Brothern
To read and absorb all the great material on TST
To discreetly comment, reply and be respectful in doing so
To accept and welcome the opinions of all fans from the other teams fan sites
To weigh all the facts given and explore new ones
And realize that being a Rams fan is a true blessing
smith IS NOT jerome "the bus" bettis!!
nor is he even close to orlando pace. smith isnt going to the hall of fame brother, the guy is a bust im sorry. im sure they could pry wr brown from the steelers, or better yet more draft picks. seems like the steelers never miss on there picks, so they could part with some. lol
by Mark Jaramillo on Oct 14, 2011 10:40 AM CDT reply actions
My point is
not to trade him, yes hes not even alex baron, but you never know. He may wind up being a serviceable lineman for us, not some-one else.
"The only thing better than watching the Rams win is watching the Rams win with my wife."
The Pledge
I Pledge to stand firm as a true, loyal and eternal Rams fan
To write, Blog and share it all with my Ram Brothern
To read and absorb all the great material on TST
To discreetly comment, reply and be respectful in doing so
To accept and welcome the opinions of all fans from the other teams fan sites
To weigh all the facts given and explore new ones
And realize that being a Rams fan is a true blessing
Trade him if you can
I believe the salary cap is calculated against what you have at the end of the season. Getting rid of Smith and that huge contract should help. I just can’t see any takers for him considering his huge contract and bad play.
too bad green bay wouldnt take him...
considering chad clifton went down with a significant injury. he is old, and might be a career ender. smith is what? 25? but ya right! pipe dream here. i bet devaney would call up the gb gm, ask if they would want jas…….CLICK!……“hello…….HELLO!?”. haahaa!
by Mark Jaramillo on Oct 14, 2011 11:03 AM CDT reply actions
Anything that could be done to get rid of Smith and his horrendously huge salary would be of great benefit to the Rams.
Sometimes ya get porked on 1st round picks. It just seems to happen to the Rams more often than to other teams for some reason. An Orlando Pace type only comes along about once per decade.
by StephenStrange on Oct 14, 2011 11:23 AM CDT reply actions
While I certainly agree that Smith hasn't lived up to expectations...
…I have to cut him some slack because of the position swap he endured. It just seems like the second you mess with someone’s position as far as which side he lines up, it just never works out.
I know he had some bad days on the left side (Dwight Freeney making him grasp at air comes to mind), but you have to let the guy work through it. Lord knows he’s athletic enough. More so than Saffold, who hasn’t been bad, but doesn’t have the ceiling that Smith has.
As a matter of fact, if Saffold keeps having outings like the Washington game, they might send Smith to the left anyway. It’s not like we’d have anything to lose at that point.
"I was just letting the shots fly. You know, I don't leave any bullets in the chamber."
"Everything negative- pressure, challenges- is all an opportunity for me to rise."
-Kobe Bryant
Chris Mortensen: "You know it's the 'Show-Me' State right Sam?"
"Pshh, 'Show Me.' (smirking) Yeah, I've heard that."
-Sam Bradford
by TrojanRam on Oct 14, 2011 11:24 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
my thing with what you said trojan...
is jason had every opportunity to try and get his LT position back, and never could beat out roger saffold. and spags would never bench saffold, or move him, like he benched smith earlier on this season. jason just doesnt have the tenacity you need. remember last yr when jason got dinged in the head? how many gms did he miss? he couldnt even pass the test. hes soft.
by Mark Jaramillo on Oct 14, 2011 11:42 AM CDT up reply actions
I agree but...
…If he’s soft, then what is he doing on the right side? That’s normally reserved for the nastier of your two tackles since it’s the strong-side run.
The finesse tackle needs to be on the left side. The one with quicker feet/speed. The latter sounds like Smith to me, and the former sounds more like Saffold.
I’m not sure how true it is that J. Smith had every opportunity to get his job back, but if he did then the Rams coaches aren’t making much sense to me. Then again, Loney is the OL coach.
"I was just letting the shots fly. You know, I don't leave any bullets in the chamber."
"Everything negative- pressure, challenges- is all an opportunity for me to rise."
-Kobe Bryant
Chris Mortensen: "You know it's the 'Show-Me' State right Sam?"
"Pshh, 'Show Me.' (smirking) Yeah, I've heard that."
-Sam Bradford
"whats he doing on the right side"? you ask?
well its either jason smith or adam goldberg! you decide. who is getting paid more.
by Mark Jaramillo on Oct 14, 2011 4:01 PM CDT up reply actions
The Problem
isn’t so much the bad play. That may be able to be fixed. It is the huge salary. If Jason would just approach Devaney saying " I want to help this team. What can I do. " Yeh, right.
No. I'm afraid hanging onto Smith will eventually result in an injury to Bradford. That would be a mega-disaster.
by StephenStrange on Oct 14, 2011 11:32 AM CDT up reply actions
would he be willing to do that though?
knowing full well this contract he has now, would certainly be his last big payday. he wont restructure, like douglas said, he will run this contract out. he wont restructure.
by Mark Jaramillo on Oct 14, 2011 12:03 PM CDT reply actions
That's the question
He is only a third year pro. A new environment may be just what he needs. In not wanting to restructure (as Long did) he is alienating himself from his teamates. Look, I understand his agent fought for the money in that contract and is still guiding him to this day and of course doesn’t want less money himself, but for the good of the team, HELP.
The good of the team?
Jason Smith and his agent know he will never perform up to expectations so they are going to milk the contract for whatever they can. Clearly Smith doesn’t have the fire in the belly we are hoping for or he would have displayed it by now which leads me to what really ticks me off. NFL teams go through arduous character and profiling interviews before investing in high level draft picks. I am not saying the Rams are alone here because Jamarcus Russell is the poster child for a character assasination but you would like to think the Rams could flush out whether or not Smith had any semblance of a mean streak.
Point 2 – Please don’t call him a bust until after he gets traded. LOL!
Trade candidates for Smith? I would think the Packers due to the Clifton and Bulaga injuries + Steelers + Bears.
there were times where jason gave up a sack...
and the other guys on the line were clamoring to pick sam up off the turf, and jason’s just there staring at sam like hes waiting for sam to get up and call the next play. sometimes i wished bradford would have gotten up, went straight to jason…and kicked him right on the freakin nuts!
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