Matt Waldman, an NFL scout and columnist for FootballGuys.com, was riffing earlier this week on what separates the great quarterbacks from the good in the NFL, the physically gifted failures from those who go on to become hall of famers. I favorited his thoughts and filed them away for a rainy day, and this rainy day seems as good as any. 

MattWaldman
I've said this before, but I think quarterbacking is a lot like actors on a stage or a jazz musicians improvising over rhythm changes.

Could Liuget be the next in a long line of failed defensive tackle first round picks for the Rams?

Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.” Einstein’s words have echoed loud and clear over the last decade of Rams drafts, especially in regards to the defensive tackle position.

The Rams brass continued using high picks on the interior of the defensive line, but none of the prospects ever panned out.

Of the three defensive tackles selected in the first round of the 2001 and 2003 drafts by St. Louis, none played more than six seasons in the Gateway City and all are currently back-ups on different teams

If history is any indication, Billy Devaney should take some caution in the now trendy pick of Illinois defensive tackle Corey Liuget as the Rams first round pick in the 2011 draft.

In 2001, the Rams used both of their first round selections on defensive tackles, taking Damione Lewis with the 12th pick and Ryan Pickett with the 29th while passing up on eventual perennial Pro Bowlers Casey Hampton and Kris Jenkins.

Lewis was the more disruptive of the two, with 10.5 sacks and 88 tackles in his five years in St. Louis but never lived up to the billing of the 12th pick. For perspective, Ndamukong Suh had 10 sacks and 66 tackles in his first season with the Detroit Lions last year.

Pickett was a dependable tackler with 176 in his five years with the Rams and played in all but five games, but also only had six sacks before moving to the Packers in 2006.

Finally there is Jimmy Kennedy, regarded as one of the biggest draft busts in the history of the Rams organization. As repayment for taking him 12th overall in 2001, he had two tackles as a rookie and a total of 68 along with four sacks over his four year career in St. Louis. He was shipped to the Broncos in 2007 for a sixth round pick and was cut from the Denver squad before the season even began.

Liuget could turn out to have an entirely different career, but the Rams need to do their homework on a player who only had eight sacks over three years at Illinois and wasn’t even the best in his conference after he was relegated to the All Big-10 second team in 2010.

If they do go with Liuget, maybe he’ll bring different results and be the one to restore sanity to the long-line of failed Rams defensive tackle picks.

Two prominent 7-round mock drafts were conducted recently -- one a marathon produced by New Era Scouting, the other a wide-open sprint with 32 participants on Twitter each acting as an assigned GM for their team. working under the hashtag #MockOne. The Rams were represented by Tyson Langland of Pro Football Focus.

The two drafts featured widely divergent paths for the Rams, prompting a side-by-side comparison and contrast. How would each draft approach affect our team’s fate in 2011 and beyond?

Round One 

Right away, you’ll see a fundamental difference in drafts. New Era’s 7-rounder stuck to the official draft order, while the phone lines between GMs in MockOne were wide open. (The follow-up to MockOne, appropriately named #MockTwo, does not allow trades.) As such, Tyson pinned his ears back and went looking for deals, finding a match with the Texans to nab his man. Our man.

I may be biased in favor of any scenario that involves picking Julio Jones, but I do have question marks about the New Era pick of Kerrigan, who seems like more of a duplicate of Long than a complement. NFLDraftScout.com writes that "Kerrigan is working hard to shed the label of being an 'effort' player," but that is still a pretty widely held perception. I will say I prefer Kerrigan to JJ Watt or Cameron Jordan, but not over Aldon Smith (and his seven foot wingspan), who I mocked to the Rams in our own non-Julio scenario. In a case of personal preference, I would choose potential over polish at this spot. 

Rams GM Billy Devaney had a lively interview with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on their PFT Live program. (We will add an updated link when and if the show gets archived.) Early in the interview, Devaney pulled the curtain back on his draft board:

A moment later, he added "middle linebacker" to his positions he considers filled, but other than that, he says, every other position is a possibility. Let your Mark Ingram smokescreen begin in earnest.

We say that in jest, but Devaney did go into some depth on the subject of giving Steven Jackson some help in the backfield, whether he wants it or not.

On Jackson's trend of 370+ touches per year: "We can't continue this pace."

On Jackson's workhorse attitude: "He'll be the first to tell you he wants it, he wants that workload. He doesn't like sitting on the bench."

On how the team will address it, though Devaney was less clear, still considering free agency an option even if the NFL . (DeAngelo Williams dreamers, this is your cue.)

The rest of the interview was wholly entertaining, including an extensive look back on the decision to draft Bradford last year, Devaney's thoughts on Bradford's ceiling in the NFL, and extending an open invitation to James Carville to come enjoy a Rams game from the owners' box -- any game except our home date against Carville's Saints, that is. 

>Updated: Watch a clip of Devaney discussing the decision to draft Bradford #1 in 2010.  

More video from NBC / PFT: MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

How much influence does Spagnuolo and his pillars have on Billy Devaney's draft board?

In Marvin Austin, you might see a defensive lineman with immense physical gifts, ferocity, and untapped skills who, in the right scheme and with the right coach, could explode as one of the best players of the draft. Or, you might see a greedy, self-absorbed idiot who knowingly broke NCAA rules by taking money from agents or boosters or both, and tweeted about how he planned to spend it, losing a full year of eligibility. 

In Jonathan Baldwin you might see a long, lean and well-muscled receiver who can go up and get the ball with the best of them, and could be a huge weapon in the red zone, perhaps the next Brandon Marshall. Or you might see a player with continuing self-control and maturity issues who faced indecent assault charges in college, and who lashed out at a scout for delivering a poor Pro Day assessment.

In fact, you might see only the positives of one and only the negatives of the other. But the question is, do either of these players pass Steve Spagnuolo's "Four Pillars" test? At this point in the Rams' growth, do they have to?

This was the subject of a long talk Saturday evening between myself and @Sheilds3L, who was strongly considering both players in the second round of the National Football Post's ongoing twitter mock draft.    

Shields3L
@RamsHerd I don't think devaney would take Austin or Baldwin, but I have to admit both are extremely tempting. I've been pro-Baldwin 4 a yr

Scene: Rams Park, Purpose: off season strategy meeting.  Devaney clamoring for a DT, Demoff screaming out shouts for the need to upgrade at Guard while McDaniels pleads for a better weapon at WR for his guy behind center. Then Spags breaks out his draft board….top of the board, you guessed it, equipment manager. Well good, now that’s settled. Yes, the Rams had a great turn around in ’11 going from 1-15 to 7-9 but until Spags and his lieutenant’s focus their attention on what wins games this franchise will continue to struggle in meritocracy.                                                       

When a new coach takes over often said coach wants to make their presence felt, Spagnuolo is no different. Bring in your assistants…sure, adjust the roster to fit the style of football you want played…okay.  I believe that is where it needs to end. It is a fine line between managing and meddling and Spags crossed that with his firing of equipment manager Todd Hewitt and then again later when he decided to let go of assistant strength coach Chuck Faucette.  It sends the wrong message throughout the organization (which consists of more than just players). This has never sat well with me.  For a take on it from someone who is around the Rams check out this excerpt from St. Louis Post-Dispatch Rams reporter Jim Thomas’s chat this past week.

Really… really, you mean to tell me two gentlemen as smart as you can’t figure out how to divide $9 billion! Really. Gimme an abacus, 4 hours and I’ll get it done. You’re acting like the older brothers who took the cool toy away from their younger brother only to have mom come in and say, “alright, now no one gets to play with it”.    Better figure it out and play nice boys, Judge Nelson‘ll send you both to your rooms with no super. USA Today with some good insight into what went down in court this week.

Judge: Both sides at risk if NFL, players don't find own solution

NFL's task: Convince judge to butt out of its labor dispute   

Julio Jones is a beast. Given. Also beastlike; the Johnsons, Andre and Calvin. Arguably the top 2 WR’s in the league right? Bothhave top flight QB’s
right? Okay quick  math quiz; how many playoff games have any of them won thus far into their careers….exactly 0 playoff wins combined. Not that the Rams shouldn’t go WR with #1 if Jones available but our boys in Blue & Gold have a BUNCH of needs. Will points out some good options in his post from earlier this week.

RamsHerd Mock Draft Selection

WR Randall Cobb, Kentucky's lone representative on ESPN's all-SEC team.

The two elites in this year's draft class -- AJ Green and Julio Jones -- are well known. And the second tier of receivers usually consists of -- in any particular order depending on the scout and the team -- Jonathan Baldwin, Torrey Smith, Leonard Hankerson, and Titus Young. But as more and more game tape is pored over, we're starting to see some newcomers creeping up into the second-round receiver discussion.

One of the risers is Kentucky WR Randall Cobb, who has already been mocked to the Rams by Todd McShay (perhaps after reading it here on New Era Scouting's 7-round mock).

hamilton_justin
holy crap...latest mock draft has Randall Cobb going to the Rams. Fav Cat of all time playing for my fav NFL team.

An example of a player whose profile has been buried by his team's poor performance, Cobb was one of the few bright spots on a 6-7 Kentucky team. Cobb brings a skillset wholly different from any of the other receivers in these upper rounds -- think of a poor man's Percy Harvin in powder blue who can run the ball from a shotgun set, play QB, or just go downfield and make secondaries look foolish after the catch. (Check out the catch and run through traffic starting at 0:50 of this reel.)

Video: Cobb's 2010 highlight reel