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Another half day, another mock draft. I wouldn't normally drop two mock draft posts on you in one day, but this second one comes from a person I have oodles of respect for. Doug Farrar at Yahoo has the St. Louis Rams getting a potential steal of a deal with their pick in his mock draft. Naturally, Julio Jones is off the board, so Farrar has Devaney going defense.
And the pick is: North Carolina DE Robert Quinn.
A very interesting pick indeed, and if Quinn did fall to the Rams at #14 it would have to be considered an upset. Not all that long ago, some mockers had Quinn as a top five pick. Kiper had Quinn off the board prior to 14th in one of his last mocks. From Farrar:
When Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo ran the New York Giants' defense, he did it with an ungodly rotation of linemen that included Michael Strahan and "should-have-been-Super-Bowl-XLII-MVP" Justin Tuck(notes). Quinn may drop to the Rams under the right circumstances after missing the entire 2010 season in the UNC agent scandal, and if there's one guy who would know how to maximize his talents, it's Spagnuolo.
Spags and Flajole did a pretty good job mixing their starters and the roster pieces behind them last year. Quinn would give the Rams another elite pass rusher on the other side of Chris Long, a speedy guy similar to Aldon Smith.
Quinn missed the 2010 season thanks to a suspension, depriving him of one more season of development. However, with James Hall in place, the Rams wouldn't need Quinn as a three-down player in his rookie season.
Jones and A.J. Green were picked by Washington and Cincinnati, at #4 and #10. That seems to be conventional wisdom right now as to where those receivers will be selected. There are a few outliers, notably Wes Bunting from the National Football Post. He has Jones picked at #4 by the Bengals and Green at #6 by the Browns. He has the Rams taking Cal DE Cameron Jordan.
Mock drafts should all come with a huge red warning label attached: for entertainment/discussion purposes only. Don't get bent out of shape about the picks in these mock drafts; they are designed only to make you think about players and teams.
Discuss.