Stock Watch: St. Louis Rams rising fast; First 2 Draft picks will be huge.
By Bo Martin
Unlike during the regular season, the St. Louis Rams are starting to have a solid buzz surrounding them as an organization. With Jeff Fisher taking over the reigns in St. Louis, multiple reports have cited Gregg Williams to follow. Williams has quoted Fisher as being one of his best friends in the coaching world and likely believes something special is coming to St. Louis a lot sooner than later.
Gregg Williams is notorious for his complex, effective defenses that feature blitz packages that are difficult to identify and cleverly disguised coverage schemes. Moving to St. Louis wouldn’t exactly be a loss of talent for Williams, coming from New Orleans, as he would have young cornerstone players in Chris Long and James Laurinaitius to build around. The Rams had the 26th ranked defense last year.
In addition to the possible addition of Williams, the Rams are also reported to be interviewing OC Brian Schottenheimer to run their offense. Every team that Fisher has coached has produced very gritty run offenses, when you think of guys like Eddie George and Chris Johnson (when he was popularly referred to as CJ2K) you have to take into account that Fisher was coaching them during their most dominant seasons. Schottenheimer has been known as a ground and pound OC while with the Jets and while he wasn’t effective there, mostly because of the inconsistency in the QB department, he could find himself great success with a QB like Sam Bradford, and ultimately back in HC conversations.
The Rams, however, are not without holes. The could use a formidable addition to their WR corps, some help on the O-Line, secondary help, solid OLB’s, and they probably need to start looking for a back to replace Stephen Jackson here in the next few years. With WR’s Dwayne Bowe, Marques Colston, and some other role type receivers entering free agency, a case could be made that the Rams should skip over Justin Blackmon and draft the soon-to-be perennial pro-bowler Matt Kalil, to man the blindside tackle position.
The Rams aren’t going to fix their holes quickly, but they can patch them, while building this team around a group of jaw dropping football players. All the personnel issues aside, it starts with assembling the dream team of coaching staffs. Things seem to be underway.
2 round Draft Projections:
First Round: Matt Kalil, OT, USC
Lets Keep Bradford healthy… enough said.
Second Round: Dwight Jones, WR, UNC
6-4, 220. Jones plays to his size and has really emerged this season for the Tarheels. Seems as though there is mixed reaction towards him and this could be a reach in some eyes. I , however, see Jones as a great NFL prospect who could really be that go-to receiver for the Rams in the future.