2011 NFL Mock Draft: St. Louis Rams

I held off on doing the St. Louis Rams team mock draft because I knew that 3k of turfshow time was going to interview with us and I wanted to see what he had to say before I did this mock, but since that’s come to pass I figure now’s as good a time as any to release our Rams full team mock draft.

First lets go over some of the needs the Rams have:

WR: This is probably the most glaring need of the Rams, especially considering they have a young franchise Quarterback now with Sam Bradford. Ultimately the Rams and their fans hope that A.J. Green and/or Julio Jones falls to them at 14th (or close enough for them to move up without giving up a lot of draft picks), but I don’t think that’s likely to happen.

Interior OL: The rams are pretty set at the tackle spots thanks to the drafting of Roger Saffold and Jason Smith (though Smith hasn’t been great) so that’s not a big issue, but they do need help in the interior of the offensive line. It’s been reported the Rams will traged interior Linemen early in the draft, we’ll see if that’s true.

OLB-specifically Strong side linebacker could be upgraded. This could even be classified as a major need. Spags hails from the Eagles and the Giants, two teams that didn’t typically spent a lot of early picks on linebackers so that influence might cause the Rams to shy away from LB early.

DL-The Rams have a pretty good Defensive line, but it has some serious age and depth issues. Chris Long is fine, but James Hall and Fred Robbins are both aging quickly and their eventual replacements need to be found. 1st round DL is a definite possibility because the value at 14 will probably be best with one of the top DL in this draft.

RB-Steven Jackson is very good, borderline great running back so he’s not an issue, but the depth at Running back is a bit scary and a late round running back pick could make a lot of sense.

I’m not predicting trades in this mock.

I like to use an outside draft website to create an artifical value and in this case I’ll use walterfootball’s predicted round for players for any pick after the second round.

1st Round pick 14: Cameron Jordan, DE, Cal

Cameron Jordan is a player I think will remind Spags of Justin Tuck has a DE who is very good against the run, a plus pass rusher, and also has the verastility to line up inside as DT and rush the passer. Jordan’s stock skyrocketed after the Senior bowl, but it should have always been pretty high. He’s not a dynamic speed pass rusher, but he can play the run very well and also develop into a good pass rusher. Jordan is a good fit in a 3-4 or 4-3.

2nd Round Pick Stefen Wisnewski, G/C Penn State

I’ve thought for awhile that he could be drafted in the first round, and I prefer him to Pouncey, but there seems to be a lot more interest in Pouncey than there is Wisnewski, though I think that’s backwards, but what do I know? Anyway, in a mock draft we conducted with participats from 6 different NFL draft sites alternating picks Wisnewsiki lasted past the Rams in round two, so I thought maybe it’s possible it happens on draft day. At this point though he’s great value and also fills a position of need and you can’t ask for anything more on draft day then that.

3rd Round: Terrance Toliver, WR, LSU

I think the best WR could be available here would be North Carolina’s Greg Little, but apparently he has been rubbing some teams the wrong way so ‘”ll pass up on him for the Rams. Toliver has very good size at 6-4 and 211 pounds and good speed for a receiver his size. The biggest problem with Toliver is that his production has never met his talent, but neither did Dwayne Bowe and he went in the first round, and let’s face it the LSU quarterbacks aren’t exactly great. Still you’d like to see more production for such an impressive physical specimen. Worth the risk in the third round with no great OLB available here, and in fact as we “reported” (well reported what other people reported) Tolliver is creeping up into the second round discusssion around the league because his talent is tempting.

4th Round-Marcus Gilchrist, DB/Return Man Clemson

I recognize that OLB is a big need for the Rams, but I just can’t see great value in an OLB outside of the second round in this draft and its’ not like the Rams are one player away from being a Superbowl contender, so they should continue to add quality players across the boad. Marcus Gilchrist is strong, versatile (played both safety and CB in college and returned kicks) and has good speed. Gilchrist could be an excellent special teams player. He ran a 4.45 4o yard dash and also put up 26 reps on the bench press. He represents good value here for the Rams who could use more help in the secondary.

5th Round: Da’rel Scott, RB, Maryland

Scott weighs over 210 pounds and ran a 4.35 40 yard dash at the combine. Wes Bunting has said that some scouts like him as a first round prospect, so here he would be an absolute steal with his huge potential. Scott wasn’t super productive in college, but he only had 125 carries this year which cut into his production.

6th Round DeAndre Brown, WR, Southern Mississippi

Brown is 6-6 inches and runs a 4.60 40, which isn’t speedy, but he did break his leg in winter practice in 2009. He’s only now two years removed from the injury and his potential is very high if he can ever get back to his top end speed. Three years ago he had 67 catches for 1117 yards and 12 TD. Then he broke his leg and had 785 yards receiving and 9 touchdowns, but had a bad year this past season with only 305 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Rams could look at taking a low risk high-reward kind of player late if they don’t luck into Julio Jones in the first round.

Round 7: Mark Herzlich, OLB, Boston College

In the first two rounds of this mock draft the Rams take players who are considered very safe players as players who will be productive and useful in the N.F.L. even if they never become pro-bowlers. But after that they get a bit risky and go for a lot of potential high impact players, with the exception of Marcus Gilchrist who is a solid all around player who will contribute somewhere.

Herzlich is not listed in walterfootball’s top 15 rankings, which is also a possibility with scouts. A former lock for the first round before his cancer, Herzlich has huge questions marks around him because no one really knows how his bone cancer will effect his health moving forward and whether or not he can become the player he once was, but at this late in the draft it’s definitely worth a gamble. Herzlich’s strengths are not in his athleticsm, but his instincts and intensity. He has 10 INT in his last two years from the linebacker position to go along with a ton of production across the board. Herzlich didn’t show off well at the combine (4.91 yard 40 yard dash, among other things), but he was strong 29 reps at the bench press and speed has never been his problem. Worth a risk this late.

Let me know what you think.

Or if you want to submit your own team mock draft to be posted on the site, or wish to write for NFLmocks you can contact me at bartolisj@mail.com

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