Trung Canidate was the St. Louis Rams first round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. Having won the Super Bowl that year, the Rams had the last pick of the first round. They also had a pretty good running back on the roster at that time, a guy named Marshall Faulk.
In August, Faulk will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Trung Canidate will be more than 8 years removed from his last NFL snap.
To this day, I don't think anyone, at least anyone not in the Rams draft room on that fateful day in April 2000, can tell us why the team used their first round pick on Canidate. Sure, in the year 2000, the notion that running backs were over-drafted and valuable starters could be had elsewhere had yet to take hold like it has to the degree in today's pass-first NFL. Funny thing is, the Rams were a pass-first team with a future HOF running back.
Canidate was eventually traded to the Washington Redskins, where he started for 10 games. The next season, he was replaced by Clinton Portis and was never active on an NFL roster again.
The 2000 NFL draft marked a downward slide for the Rams. They managed to draft a useful player here and there, but never hit on a first round pick again until taking Steven Jackson in 2004. The 2005 draft produced some talent with Ron Bartell and Oshiomogho Atogwe, but unremarkable was the rule for Rams drafts until things started to turn around in 2008. Missing on 7 of 8 first round picks (Alex Barron is considered a miss by this assessment) is a recipe for disaster, like say something along the lines of 6 wins in three years.
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