The 2012 NFL Draft is just...eight months away, so it's naturally time to thinking about what the St. Louis Rams should focus on this year. Well, as resident draft underling to 3k, I figured I might as well start cranking out my weekly draft posts. I did these all-Rams mocks last season and they started some good conversation, so I decided to bring them back. I hope you enjoy them. A few notes and the draft after the jump (You can follow the draft year-round at Mocking the Draft).
My first and only commandment about these is thou shalt not bitch about reading about the draft this early in thy comments. If you don't want to read draft stuff, just skip over this post. There are people who enjoy reading about this kind of thing so please don't complain. Anywho, to start off I decided what the rams' needs/wants are at this point in the season, and I came up with the following list (not in order) :
Backup QB (I miss you Thad)
RB (Sjax Caddy and Norwood are all getting older, and they aren't exactly the healthiest bunch)
Number one reciever
Speedy game changing reciever (some people might point out that McDaniels offense doesn't require a number one reciever or a speed reciever, but to those people I say look what he did with Randy Moss and pre-DUI manslaughter Donte Stallworth.)
a dependable TE not named Billy Bajema
DT (Robbins and Bannan are old)
OLB (Leber seems alright but we can't get away starting Brady Poppinga two seasons in a row)
CBx2 (Al Harris is old, Fletcher and Bartell both have had injury troubles, and Justin King is still Justin King)
So with these in mind, I present to you my first wildly speculative and totally inaccurate all-rams mock of the season.
1: Zach Brown, OLB, UNC: Brown is a speed demon at OLB, and he can cover and rush the passer like crazy. He is the perfect compliment to Laurinaitis in the middle. Oh, and to give you an idea of how fast he is, there have been reports that he can run a sub 4.4 forty.
2: Juron Criner, WR, Arizona: Criner is a beast that can move the chains, go deep, and make the spectacular catch to bail out Bradford every once in a while. He would be too good of a weapon to pass up.
3: Donnie Fletcher, CB, Boston College: Fletcher has size (6'1 200 lbs) and he can cover. I see no reason why he couldn't become at least a solid starter in the NFL.
4: T.Y Hilton, WR, Florida International: Hilton has blazing speed, and he could provide the home run threat this offense is so sorely lacking. If you haven't heard of him, you will.
5: Devon Still, DT, Penn State: Still is a big run stuffing defensive tackle, who will probably end up going a round higher than this, but what the hell it's my mock.
6: Leonard Johnson, CB, Iowa State: I'm going to be honest, I haven't seen Johnson play. However, he does have size (5'10 195 lbs), and he was an all Big XII second teamer, so at this point I would want to take shot on him.
7: (from Browns in Greco trade): Kevin Koger, TE, Michigan: He's been a solid blocking TE for Michigan, and I suspect he was underutilized as a reciever in the Rich Rod offense. He could end up being a solid number two/blocking TE, which would be good at this point in the draft.
7: Jeff Demps, RB, Florida: Demps is a small back, but he has blazing fast speed and he is younger than Jerious Norwood so this would be a decent pick at the end of the seventh.
Well that's all for today folks. Give me some feedback in the comments.