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2020 Draft Thread


holt_bruce81

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25 minutes ago, btfd16 said:

Joined this forum as a sophomore in HS (different username). Now 26 and we've been to a SB. So glad I get to complain about these little things instead of losing.

Right? I been here since 2008! Got me feeling like an old man! ( I'm 29 for another month hahaha)

 

But we've seen the lowest of the lows, and almost the highest of the highs. I always tell Rams fans... yea the SB didn't go our way,  but nobody can ever take the emotion we felt when beating the Saints. I was standing in my Atrium watching it and started getting tears in my eyes. My kids didn't know what was going on hahaha. After everything we been through, at the end of the day we still have come so far from the billy devaney days.

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Jesus.  We've got some real ***hole fans.  I suppose every fanbase does.  But it was nothing but complaints and McVay bashing in the chat of that stream for the official Rams post-round coverage with Sarina that had McVay and Les on.

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1 hour ago, jrry32 said:

Me too.

He can do it all. He can play over the slot, he can play split or single high, and he can play in the box. Versatile, tough player and a very good athlete.

He even got snaps at DE (I believe out of a two-point stance) at Utah.  If we're running zone, which I expect us to, he's a really nice fit as that 3rd safety/nickel back.  Dude's instincts and mental processing are nuts.  He's a really heady player.  The popular comp has been a Damarious Randall type.

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Some good talent should be available at our next pick. If the Rams don’t take an O-lineman in round 4, I’m pretty confident they go the entire draft without taking one. 

Prince Tega-wanogho, Hakeem Adeniji, Netane Muti, Nick Harris are guys that the team either met with or FaceTimed. 

 

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I watched a lot of Van Jefferson over the years. Here are my thoughts on him:

  • He's roughly 6'1.5" 200 pounds with relatively long arms, adequate speed, great quickness for his size, and adequate play strength.
  • Like Cooper Kupp, he's a very sure-handed WR who easily snatches passes away from his body, will make difficult catches in traffic, and can come up with the football with a defender on his back. However, he is not a guy who will win a lot of jump balls.
  • Van makes his money with his route running, quickness, savvy, and technical prowess. His father was a NFL WR and a long-time NFL WR Coach. Van is a very well-schooled WR who has an array of releases and understands the nuances of route running. He uses leverage to tilt DBs, subtle fakes to get them to open up in the wrong direction, and efficient footwork to create separation at the break point.
  • Van is a smart and reliable WR who will be where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be.
  • He's not afraid of a contact and will make difficult catches knowing he's going to take a big hit.
  • Great body control makes him effective on the sidelines and on back-shoulder throws.
  • Great red-zone target who will make difficult catches in traffic and ratchet open windows with his quickness and route running. Like Cooper Kupp, he'll be effective in the red-zone because he's sure-handed and very, very good at quickly uncovering.
  • He's an adequate blocker. He's not Robert Woods or Cooper Kupp in this department. Maybe they can help him develop here.
  • His YAC skills are also only adequate. He has some elusiveness and can pick up yardage when hit in stride, but he's not going to break through tackles like Kupp does.
  • He's not very physical while running routes and can have his game disrupted by physical CB play. He wins with quickness, not physicality.

Ultimately, I think Van is a Z or a Slot WR in this scheme. I think he could play the X, but he would be less effective there, as it would allow more physical CBs to rough him up. Letting him and Kupp play off each other as the SL and Z WRs will give defenses nightmares. With their route running abilities and football IQs, Goff will be a kid in the candy store. It will be tough to keep both guys covered at the same time. Van is pro ready and is capable of having a very productive rookie season if he earns a big role.

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Here's my objective opinion on Akers (waited until after the draft ended for the night, made sure I wasn't emotional lol, and reviewed a few of his games again):

  • Great scheme fit if we plan to continue to run a lot of outside zone. Explosive one-cut runner with the speed to house it.
  • Similar player to Darrell Henderson. Henderson is a bit more elusive, but Akers is bigger and more powerful.
  • Legitimate threat in the passing game. Has the speed to stress LBs and the hands to be counted on to catch what you throw him.
  • Willing and effective pass blocker. He's a compact, well-built kid (5'10" 215 pounds). He'll step up and blast a LB or a DL. Needs to improve on keeping his head on a swivel, as he misses delayed blitzers.
  • Powerful runner with strong leg drives who finishes runs with authority. Very much a North-South runner. Can jump-cut in when needed to avoid defenders behind the LOS, but he's not going to be overly elusive in the open field. He's more of a linear athlete. Once he plants, he goes.
  • Ran behind a really bad OL in an offense that didn't maximize his skill-set.
  • Could see the frustration seeping through late in the season. Early in the year, he was throwing his body around whenever the team needed it. Against Florida in the last game, he chose to protect himself on some plays. Hard to blame him with how bad things were at FSU.
  • Fumbles were a problem. He needs to clean that up.
  • Vision is there, but due to the OL problems, patience might need some work.

Overall, I think he's a really nice scheme fit who should create an effective 1-2 punch with DH.

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2 hours ago, The LBC said:

Just remember, no matter how bad of a draft experience you're having...

at least you're not THIS GUY:

Caution: NSFW language

hahaha well it's Hubbs and Barstool. Their job is literally to rile people up and be a schtick. Like SAS and Skip on steroids. I'd be great at it. 

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12 minutes ago, holt_bruce81 said:

Some good talent should be available at our next pick. If the Rams don’t take an O-lineman in round 4, I’m pretty confident they go the entire draft without taking one. 

Prince Tega-wanogho, Hakeem Adeniji, Netane Muti, Nick Harris are guys that the team either met with or FaceTimed. 

 

Yep. Looking purely at the OL, there's still good talent on the board. We have Prince Tega Wanogho, Tyler Biadasz, Darryl Williams, Ben Bartch, Saahdiq Charles, Keith Ismael, Danny Pinter, Calvin Throckmorton, Nick Harris, Netane Muti, and Shane Lemieux all still available.

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2 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

Yep. Looking purely at the OL, there's still good talent on the board. We have Prince Tega Wanogho, Tyler Biadasz, Darryl Williams, Ben Bartch, Saahdiq Charles, Keith Ismael, Danny Pinter, Calvin Throckmorton, Nick Harris, Netane Muti, and Shane Lemieux all still available.

They probably stay away from Biadasz at this point right? There’s clearly something wrong medically. 

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4 minutes ago, holt_bruce81 said:

They probably stay away from Biadasz at this point right? There’s clearly something wrong medically. 

I'm not sure. We seem to love Wisconsin OLs. There will come a point where the juice is worth the squeeze. We drafted David Edwards after he dropped like a rock due to medical issues dogging him in his final year at Wisconsin last year. But, of course, I don't know how bad the medicals are. 

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I feel like if we do take one then the 4th is probably where we've (more or less; like I said, I feel like Les has felt handicapped with the inability to freely trade-around like he normally does) planned all along.  The only time I've felt like we might have been gearing to take one and got cut off just prior was when Denver took Cushenberry right in front of us.  Granted, much of this opinion is from the OL that we visited with, but Peart was very clearly a 3rd-round-at-best guy.  We really didn't suffer any losses from last season to this season on the OL and the staff was perfectly fine taking the OL we had into last season before injuries struck us.

Throckmorton could be a guy that many of us have undervalued and may not actually be outstanding in the sense that it upgrades on one of the projected starters, but he has across-the-line versatility that I think could definitely appeal to Kromer in that as long as he stays healthy, it's like having a +2 in the OL depth via 1 man.

I'm minorly hopeful that we do come out of tomorrow with Biadasz just because it would signal that there's a definite tie between someone one our staff and someone on-staff at Wisconsin, who have been an OL factory, so it would mean that even in future years where a guy from Wisconsin has injury flags we'd have an inside track on gleaning the knowledge on him with that regard (it's a mutually beneficial relationship if McVay's system churns out highly-potent offenses and there are guys from the same college program on that line; keeps their guys getting drafted, which helps them in recruiting).

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4 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

I'm not sure. We seem to love Wisconsin OLs. There will come a point where the juice is worth the squeeze. We drafted David Edwards after he dropped like a rock due to medical issues dogging him in his final year at Wisconsin last year. But, of course, I don't know how bad the medicals are. 

It's a hip thing (and a shoulder thing).  https://thedraftnetwork.com/articles/tyler-biadasz-nfl-combine-2020

That said, we have Blythe on a 1-year deal.  So there probably does reach a threshold for us where, if they bought hard enough on the 2018 tape and believe that the decline in 2019 can be attributed to the hip injury, then it may be worth it to them to spend a pick on the hope that if given a "redshirt year" he can heal back to 2018 form.

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