Oh what fun we had discussing the choice of Suh versus Bradford with number one overall pick! I wonder how many posters got suspended on that topic alone?
The Rams were coming off a 1-15 season with the bottom-ranked O and the 29th ranked D, so there was clearly an opportunity for either to help.
I wanted Suh, but in the end I guess there was no choice but to take the potential franchise QB. Couldn't trade out due to the rookie wages at the time, so Devaney really was hamstrung, despite Bradford's injury history. My guess is the defense-minded Spags would have preferred the once-in-a-decade Suh.
Personally, I blame Luck for deciding to return to Stanford for his senior year. That would have made the decision much easier.
Funny how it played out. We ended up with both (at different times). Made it to the Super Bowl with Suh, but I think Bradford had a bigger impact on the Rams' fortunes while he was here than Suh did.
In looking back, I don't think Spags ever recovered from losing Shurmur and that loss contributed to Bradford's struggles. We'll never know if the Rams would have had a better record with Suh, or whether Bradford would have had more success in a better system with a different coach, like McVay for example. (Although McVay would have been 23 at the time and that might not have gone well either.)
Lots of other what ifs. Had the Rams taken Suh, they probably wouldn't have traded away the #2 to pick to the Redskins for a draft haul and instead used it on a QB. Fisher might not have taken the Rams job, given the potential franchise QB Bradford was a big reason Fisher signed on.
After thinking about this a bit, I do think that we would have been better off with Suh and rolling the dice on another QB, whoever that would have been. But my sad realization is that we were just so bad overall, it didn't matter who we took!
