The prince of hair pieces rolled his post-season re-grades for the 2011 NFL Draft. It's an update to the grades he gave teams in the days immediately following the draft last April. Not surprisingly, Kiper drops the St. Louis Rams' grade from a B to a C, and regardless of what you think about Kiper, it's hard to disagree with a tougher assessment of the Rams' draft class.
After all, the draft record is one of the reasons the team is hunting for a new GM.
Here's Kiper's assessment:
Summary: The selection of Robert Quinn deserves a little context. Although I had wide receiver as the top need on the St. Louis board, this really wasn't a team in position to forgo future draft choices to trade up and get the likes of Julio Jones. So when Atlanta moved up and got Jones at No. 6, St. Louis was stuck at No. 14 with no obvious wideout help available in that value range. I didn't have defensive end as a top need, but Quinn represented an exceptional value at No. 14, and I think we started to see why late in 2011. Remember, this is a guy who sat out all of 2010. Had he played, I think we're looking at a certain top-five overall pick. With Quinn and Chris Long on the edges for the future, the Rams have a pass rush in place for years to come. After that, however, the draft got a lot spottier in terms of production than I would have guessed. Lance Kendricks should become a pretty good player but didn't exactly explode in 2010. Same goes for Austin Pettis and Greg Salas, who put up almost identical stat lines in 2011. However, both came on late and couldn't crack a wide receiving corps that really wasn't that good. After that, there isn't much to speak of. All in all, although I love Quinn's future, it was a pretty weak class given that the Rams needed immediate help for their big holes and didn't get much. It could get better, but it's a little weaker than it looked eight months ago.
Four of the eight players drafted were dumped before the end of the season. Only seventh-round pick Mikail Baker was let go because of injury. I suspect that Austin Pettis won't last long either, which discards a third pick.
Brick Top's rookie review will be up later today for your perusal.