The St. Louis Rams missed out on the first pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. A Colts loss in the season's final week gave St. Louis the second pick in the draft, for the second time in three years. It's a nice consolation prize, and the consensus seems to be that the Rams can make a lucrative draft day trade for the second spot with teams likely to covet Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III.
Yesterday, ESPN's John Clayton told 101 ESPN radio in St. Louis that draft day trades are likely to start with the second pick in the draft, the Rams' spot, because of RG3. The second spot won't fetch as much as the first pick will this year, but it should be more than enough to help a Rams team in need of an injection of youthful talent. If you think about the price Atlanta paid to move up to the sixth spot for Julio Jones last year, you can get a pretty good idea of what the second pick might fetch this year ... and it would likely be more than the first-, second- and fourth-round picks in 2011 and the first- and fourth-round picks in 2012 that the Falcons traded.
Of course, this is all predicated on Griffin entering the draft this year. Chris Mortensen of ESPN believes that RG3 will indeed declare by the middle part of next week.
Mortensen also maintains his belief that Griffin will be the second overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.
The new low, low prices for top ten picks in the NFL Draft removes the trepidation many teams had about trading up into the top part of the draft.
The second pick in 2011, Von Miller, received a four-year, $21 million deal. The third pick, Marcell Dareus, received a four-year, $20.4 million deal. Trading into the second spot would remove any doubts for a team wanting Griffin.
As for why Griffin will be coveted, check out his scouting report from Mocking the Draft.