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Let's talk realistically about Sneadfish's drafting for the Rams...

It would seem that the week one blunder against a decent, but not elite, Vikings team has put forth the torches and pitchforks for an angry, perhaps disenfranchised fanbase that grows weary of promises and press conferences and simply wants results for this long suffering franchise. Although this week's contest was a potent catalyst for what we're all feeling and recognizing right now, I would argue that the trouble began shortly after Jeff Fisher's arrival in St. Louis.

Fresh off running another incompetent front office out of town, the Rams sought Jeff Fisher - the FREE AGENT. he was a highly touted, highly professional commodity, and he had just CHOSEN our destined crew. He said all the right things early (which isn't that hard to do), and then he announced as our General Manager: Les Snead, this wiz from Atlanta who had just a sensational head of hair. The mantra was there for us, it just needed a specific set of words before we could hang it on every banner, doorway, and metal Arch we could get our hands on. And then the 2012 NFL draft came and brought with it truly an epic paradigm shift: We traded down from #2 to #6 and got 3 (2 additional) 1st round picks and another 2nd! Glory at Rams Park! This front office had waltzed into their first draft, doing nothing short of turning one premium pick into a whole bunch of premium picks. And lo! A new tagline befell Rams Nation: Keep Calm and Trust SneadFish, our aggressive, two-headed maven of NFL talent acquisition. And these words we said - because we believed them - at every juncture that merited their use.

So now, let's take a brutally honest look at what came from that momentous day and what their drafting from that trade onward has taught us fans.

On balance, the most accurate way I can characterize the quality of our drafted players on the whole is to say: we got some good players, some better players, and some stinkers(or rather, missed opportunities). I think Snisher gets a pass on drafting a little too often because we DID in fact improve our roster through that trade. What I'm starting to realize is that just because you bump a current guy off a really bad roster doesn't necessarily mean you're good. It just means you're at least better than a really bad guy, plain and simple. It also makes you seem better to fans of that team because their standards are inherently lower than they should be. Case in point: one of my favorite Rams, Stedman Bailey. He's been really good in the limited time we've seen him, this much is true. But we're used to Donnie Avery, Brandon Gibson, and Mardy Gilyard. He's far more promising than any receiver we've had in years with the exception of Amendola, but we need to also realize he isn't some top-10 receiver. I'm not knocking him, just illustrating a point.

Some actually look like they'll be really good. I'm very excited for Alec Ogletree, for example, as I think he's gonna turn out awesome and be a true playmaker for years to come. Some are flat out mistakes. I don't believe this has a more unequivocal representation than Isaiah Pead, who was not only a reach, but subsequently a bust. That was a blown 2nd round pick in a talented draft. Why should we be angry about a head-scratching pick like that? Well, for example, taking Pead meant passing on Lavonte David, who came off the board before our next pick. This is after passing on the likes Bobby Wagner and Mychal Kendricks. OLB continues to be a hole and Pead never caught on and probably won't any time soon. Same goes for Quick, to a lesser extent. It was really nice to see him put it together the other day, but it's taken quite some time, and it was one game. More importantly, they passed on Alshon Jeffrey, who was a known commodity, so even if Quick puts together a few consecutive solid games, we'll always have to ask why we took the project over the proven commodity?

The Michael Brockers pick (and hell let's say Aaron Donald as well for the same reasons) brought solid players, good players, maybe one day great players. Here's my point, you'll always have a chance to add good D linemen, and in theory it makes a great D line, but

A) We've seen that even at its best, a defensive line 'winning games singlehandedly' is mostly hyperbole, and that assumes they live up to the billing. Week one, I'd say they were pretty pedestrian.

B) It means you have to go further in the draft to fill needs. What was one of the most repeated mock draft selections last year? Say it with me: "HaHa Clinton-Dix to the Rams at 13". Since Safety is and continues to be a glaring hole and we went with the shiniest new defensive tackle, we still sorely need a starting caliber safety and HHCD fell to a team which was immediately lauded for its patience in drafting him.

See, I think this is one of the mistakes the media makes when heaping praise on the Rams in the offseason. Games are won and lost in the trenches, and the Rams have been loading up on new talent there. And while that adage is probably true in a sense, games aren't won and lost only in the trenches. You need a Quarterback, a secondary, talented and reliable receivers, outside linebackers, and solid depth at ALL POSITIONS. Instead, Snead and Fisher display a proclivity for passing on positions of need when their respective draft class is strong and coming away with obscure prospects, sometimes in off years. Remember 2012, when we wanted so badly to be excited about our draft haul, but we weren't really sure who some of these players were or why they were taken so early? Luckily Fisher and Snead were there to be our talent translators, letting slip tidbits to the media about how Brian Quick was basically Terrell Owens, and Isaiah Pead was shades of Ray Rice (from a talent perspective, anyway). Remember how EVERYONE knew that 2013 was a strong year for safeties, which was one of our biggest needs? We watched Eric Reid go right to the enemy while we waited on classic Fisher nepotism to kick in so all we would come away with was TJ McDonald.

See, this is where I draw the distinction, and moreover this is how I can best summarize my take on what the net result of Snisher's drafting has meant for our team: We're better than we were, which was really an inevitability after the trade. It'd have been next to impossible NOT to improve with all those high draft picks, but we could have been better. A lot better. Now obviously hindsight is 20/20 and it would be silly for me to recite every single elite football player we might have taken, but here's my contention: when you get in a habit of reaching in the draft, it eventually catches up with you. Put another way, my biggest gripe stems from the fact not that they have reached on talent but that they so routinely get 'that feeling' about a guy and snatch him up earlier than he would have went, all but keeping us from stockpiling true stars. Pundits aren't always right, but they provide a decent baseline to start from. No, you can't get every pick right, you're always going to get some duds, but if you make a habit of spending your early round picks on guys you are sure the draftniks had wrong, and you're the only one who sees it. you'll either achieve a legendary team, or more likely,a small number of them might pan out and you'll see a lot of names you could have easily had when you look at that season's Pro Bowl roster.

Look, I know this ended up being way too long, but as the current front office continues to manage our football team, reality is setting in. The trade was exactly what this team needed to jump the roster batteries. We watched players make flashy plays against the backdrop of the horrid team to which we had become accustomed. We had, not a top defense, but certainly the makings of one! The team was young, ergo, they'd all reach their potential and play together for years! We had a shockingly successful first year against the NFC West. As the afterglow of year one fades, regression becomes the norm, and players we could have drafted are predictably tearing it up elsewhere, and you're left with the truth that while the treasure trove of the RGIII trade yielded us some quality players, a truly shrewd front office would have gotten us better players.