St. Louis Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo gave an interview on Jim Rome's show today passing along lots of interesting information. Coach Conners has the highlights in this fanpost. One comment in particular stood out to me, pertaining to Alex Barron.
Well, there’s a lot of layers there. We wanted to move [Jason] Smith to left tackle, and he should fare well there, and Barron wanted to play left tackle as well.
Most of us were focused on Barron's knack for penalties and his seeming unwillingness to become a player burning with desire on every snap of the game. Those are certainly issues in the Rams' decision to trade Barron, the "layers" the coach mentioned, but there's a little bit of Occam's Razor at play here.
Barron was better suited at LT. The Rams had Jason Smith, last year's second overall pick, that they want to move there. Smith is also a better fit on the left side than he is on the right, especially if the Rams do some work out of the shotgun with Sam Bradford at QB. Barron was a better left tackle than he was a right tackle. Saffold will have a rookie adjustment period, but he profiles as a better right tackle than a left tackle, though he could probably play both spots.
A case of too many left tackles or a player who just wouldn't play at full tilt, either way he's gone now.