Bob Magaw
Footballguy
burwell wrote recent article... i'll try & edit in later, which was critical of STL drafts... i agree, but for some different reasons... i wrote below "rant"/response on a rams homer board & am cross-posting here... he used NE as kind of a harsh baseline to measure the rams draft ineptitude against, & i extended that comparison...
the tone may sound a bit negative, but coming off a 3-13 season, balanced to me means hitting on a lot of negatives... hopefully if they are healthier (it would be hard to not be), a turnaround season is possible...
if some of the criticism below is fast & loose, it should be pointed out i think STL has been better past few drafts, & some of earlier draft issues straddles multiple front office & coaching regimes (though there are perhaps some connecting threads)...
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"some positions are more important than others...
just saying team A has X amount of starters & team B has X+ number of starters can be misleading...
what is the most important part of a team... you could make a strong case that it is the lines... what is the relative strength of the rams & pats lines... it is ridiculously mismatched in favor of the pats...
it is true that pretty much every team has hits & misses... if it was easy to pick brilliantly, everybody would do it... some factors, such as injury, variance in intangibles (work ethic, passion for the game) can be hard to measure... a different story is player like wroten, who was a known risk... he could still amount to something, but i think they would like that pick back, & in general, imo character red flags are usually more problem than they are worth...
in life it is very hard to fundamentally change your self, so why would it be any different in football... if anything, they have greater opportunity to get in trouble with money & fame...
one of my biggest beefs is the lines have fallen into disrepair, & could have been reloaded before this... it can take players (ESPECIALLY on the lines) a few years to get the hang of the NFL, so if rams start now they may have to wait a few years... these players should have been in the pipeline a few years ago...
there have been some questionable free agent signings in past few years... witherspoon was a good signing (i like bell & brown), & i guess jury is out on bennett, but were chavous & glover great signings? at the times the rams thought they were closer to the playoffs than they appear now... if STL is rebuilding, older declining players are not a great fit... at least with chavous (& maybe glover is the same), i'm sure he has been a great mentor to the younger DBs... he is extremely football smart & could be a coach or draft commentator when he retires... but they could have spent some of that money on younger, higher upside guys...
another beef is i wish the rams were bigger & more physical on both sides of the ball... carriker has good size, as do pace, incognito & steven jackson... but nearly everywhere else they seem undersized... holt isn't "small", but he & bruce weren't big either, which has led to red zone breakdowns in recent years... STL has smurf LBs & CBs (bartell has good size, but there are question about him as a football player), chavous not that big for SS... i'm not recommending big, slow unathletic guys, but if you can find a player with similar speed & athleticism & better size, it can be a plus... especially on the lines...
not sure if rams really did it that often, but conversion picks like burning a third on crouch stands out in my memory... that is a high pick to take a chance like that...
not sure if it is more an indictment of martz, but sometimes it seems like STL valued speed at the expense of being a complete football player... trung candidate was really fast, but he seemed to lack many other attributes...
looking back it seems like rams have burned an inordinate amount of first rounders... candidate, robert thomas, lewis, kennedy... jackson, hill & carriker have been better lately...
one of the biggest problems with rams for years is ST... tom jackson said one time that in martz era, due to carrying a lot of WRs (& DBs due to fast break tempo), they didn't have as many LBs on game day roster as most teams, & since LBs are heart of ST, they were rolling with a positional disadvantage every week... look at the roster now, & how many quality LBs do they have, even for depth?
STL defense has been brutal for years... why? there have been years when the smaller, speedier more athletic defenders helped get turnovers (i think lovie smith's last year was tinoisamoa's rookie year)... but at a fundamental level, it is pretty simple... if you can't tackle on defense, you are going to have problems, so i hope they get playmakers on defense (like dorsey or c. long) that can tackle...
rant over...
* i have high hopes for devaney to do a good job... i'm definitely giving him the benefit of the doubt, as he comes from ATL (& TB?) & therefor isn't tainted by some of the potential mistakes of previous front offices...
i give props to the team for assembling the rosters that went to super bowls in '99 & '01, but i think they have squandered an opportunity to have left a better legacy if they had drafted more wisely in the intervening years... they were admittedly hurt for a few years by having such a great offense, ala IND for years (hamstrung on cap dollars for defense), & did get hurt by some dead money for warner & turley, among others... on the subject of the colts, despite the "disadvantage" of having a huge percentage of overall cap allocated to offense, they did great job getting relatively inexpensive players that fit their system... starting secondary... marlin jackson was highest at low 1st, bob sanders & kelvin hayden were i think 2nd rounders, & bethea day two find... that is a great TACKLING secondary... sanders really sets the tempo for his team, like a ray lewis mini-me... maybe dorsey could have that kind of impact... STL needs more of those kind of players, that can help "change the beat" from the tired one they have been hearing... the rams D has been terrible for years, & the front office, coaching staff & college scouting/pro personnel staff is running out of excuses... the problems have straddled several coaches & front office types (armey, softli), but shaw & zygmunt seem to have been constants in at least part of the decision making apparatus... & even if martz had authority on some of the picks, culpability still ultimately has to be traced back to the front office, for being complicit in it happening...
** after thinking about the size issue on lines (or lack of), i can see how the downside in the tradeoff with having big, physical, mauling OL in a power run attack, is they may not be as fast, agile or athletic in pass defense (& guys that are big & athletic like pace & walter jones don't grow on trees)... certainly in the martz era, rams were a predominantly passing attack, & pass blocking skills were at a premium... STl needs a more balanced breed of OL that can run & pass block... it sounds like saunders sytem is based on martz, but much more balanced, with run & pass (think steven jackson as proxy for priest holmes & LJ... but KC had multiple pro bowl OL, like roaf, shields & waters)..."
the tone may sound a bit negative, but coming off a 3-13 season, balanced to me means hitting on a lot of negatives... hopefully if they are healthier (it would be hard to not be), a turnaround season is possible...
if some of the criticism below is fast & loose, it should be pointed out i think STL has been better past few drafts, & some of earlier draft issues straddles multiple front office & coaching regimes (though there are perhaps some connecting threads)...
________________________________________________________________
"some positions are more important than others...
just saying team A has X amount of starters & team B has X+ number of starters can be misleading...
what is the most important part of a team... you could make a strong case that it is the lines... what is the relative strength of the rams & pats lines... it is ridiculously mismatched in favor of the pats...
it is true that pretty much every team has hits & misses... if it was easy to pick brilliantly, everybody would do it... some factors, such as injury, variance in intangibles (work ethic, passion for the game) can be hard to measure... a different story is player like wroten, who was a known risk... he could still amount to something, but i think they would like that pick back, & in general, imo character red flags are usually more problem than they are worth...
in life it is very hard to fundamentally change your self, so why would it be any different in football... if anything, they have greater opportunity to get in trouble with money & fame...
one of my biggest beefs is the lines have fallen into disrepair, & could have been reloaded before this... it can take players (ESPECIALLY on the lines) a few years to get the hang of the NFL, so if rams start now they may have to wait a few years... these players should have been in the pipeline a few years ago...
there have been some questionable free agent signings in past few years... witherspoon was a good signing (i like bell & brown), & i guess jury is out on bennett, but were chavous & glover great signings? at the times the rams thought they were closer to the playoffs than they appear now... if STL is rebuilding, older declining players are not a great fit... at least with chavous (& maybe glover is the same), i'm sure he has been a great mentor to the younger DBs... he is extremely football smart & could be a coach or draft commentator when he retires... but they could have spent some of that money on younger, higher upside guys...
another beef is i wish the rams were bigger & more physical on both sides of the ball... carriker has good size, as do pace, incognito & steven jackson... but nearly everywhere else they seem undersized... holt isn't "small", but he & bruce weren't big either, which has led to red zone breakdowns in recent years... STL has smurf LBs & CBs (bartell has good size, but there are question about him as a football player), chavous not that big for SS... i'm not recommending big, slow unathletic guys, but if you can find a player with similar speed & athleticism & better size, it can be a plus... especially on the lines...
not sure if rams really did it that often, but conversion picks like burning a third on crouch stands out in my memory... that is a high pick to take a chance like that...
not sure if it is more an indictment of martz, but sometimes it seems like STL valued speed at the expense of being a complete football player... trung candidate was really fast, but he seemed to lack many other attributes...
looking back it seems like rams have burned an inordinate amount of first rounders... candidate, robert thomas, lewis, kennedy... jackson, hill & carriker have been better lately...
one of the biggest problems with rams for years is ST... tom jackson said one time that in martz era, due to carrying a lot of WRs (& DBs due to fast break tempo), they didn't have as many LBs on game day roster as most teams, & since LBs are heart of ST, they were rolling with a positional disadvantage every week... look at the roster now, & how many quality LBs do they have, even for depth?
STL defense has been brutal for years... why? there have been years when the smaller, speedier more athletic defenders helped get turnovers (i think lovie smith's last year was tinoisamoa's rookie year)... but at a fundamental level, it is pretty simple... if you can't tackle on defense, you are going to have problems, so i hope they get playmakers on defense (like dorsey or c. long) that can tackle...
rant over...
* i have high hopes for devaney to do a good job... i'm definitely giving him the benefit of the doubt, as he comes from ATL (& TB?) & therefor isn't tainted by some of the potential mistakes of previous front offices...
i give props to the team for assembling the rosters that went to super bowls in '99 & '01, but i think they have squandered an opportunity to have left a better legacy if they had drafted more wisely in the intervening years... they were admittedly hurt for a few years by having such a great offense, ala IND for years (hamstrung on cap dollars for defense), & did get hurt by some dead money for warner & turley, among others... on the subject of the colts, despite the "disadvantage" of having a huge percentage of overall cap allocated to offense, they did great job getting relatively inexpensive players that fit their system... starting secondary... marlin jackson was highest at low 1st, bob sanders & kelvin hayden were i think 2nd rounders, & bethea day two find... that is a great TACKLING secondary... sanders really sets the tempo for his team, like a ray lewis mini-me... maybe dorsey could have that kind of impact... STL needs more of those kind of players, that can help "change the beat" from the tired one they have been hearing... the rams D has been terrible for years, & the front office, coaching staff & college scouting/pro personnel staff is running out of excuses... the problems have straddled several coaches & front office types (armey, softli), but shaw & zygmunt seem to have been constants in at least part of the decision making apparatus... & even if martz had authority on some of the picks, culpability still ultimately has to be traced back to the front office, for being complicit in it happening...
** after thinking about the size issue on lines (or lack of), i can see how the downside in the tradeoff with having big, physical, mauling OL in a power run attack, is they may not be as fast, agile or athletic in pass defense (& guys that are big & athletic like pace & walter jones don't grow on trees)... certainly in the martz era, rams were a predominantly passing attack, & pass blocking skills were at a premium... STl needs a more balanced breed of OL that can run & pass block... it sounds like saunders sytem is based on martz, but much more balanced, with run & pass (think steven jackson as proxy for priest holmes & LJ... but KC had multiple pro bowl OL, like roaf, shields & waters)..."
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