First Jonah Jackson from the 2020 draft:
64. Jonah Jackson - IOL - Ohio St. - 6'-3" 306 lbs. - A technician with decent strength that can play anywhere on the inside. Needs to be more consistent. Plays with an edge.So I had him with a 2nd round grade. And I still think he struggles a bit with consistency. So there is that. He played 3 years at Rutgers, then transferred to Ohio State. Between the 2, he started at RG, LG and OC. Only 3 games at OC for Rutgers, but still some experience at OC.
He was my 4th rated IOL in the draft as well.
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Colby Parkinson, also from the 2020 draft:
146. Colby Parkinson - TE - Stanford - 6'-7 252 lbs. - Big with a big wingspan, he will torture defenders in the middle of the field and the endzone. Not a great blocker and needs to get stronger.I obviously had a late 4th/5th round grade on him. So he really did improve his blocking, the Rams know him from scouting the TEs that year (they did draft Hopkins) and from playing him in the division.
He was my 8th rated TE (my #1 TE was Brycen Hopkins, so even I swing and miss lol ) That 2020 TE class was hot garbage as a whole FWI.
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My 2020 big board:
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I had Jackson 33rd on my Rams specific vertical stacked board, Parkinson at 87th.
Not to toot my own horn, but also on that vert stacked board I had:
Terrell Lewis @ 11, Van Jefferson @ 20, Cam Akers @ 28, Brycen Hopkins @ 39, Terrell Burgess @ 61, Jordan Fuller @ 149.
Wait, someone just informed me that none of these guys are still with the Rams...oh, well...I...nevermind, I am actually terrible at this and now want to go crawl in a hole.
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As far as Steve Avila. He makes sense as a OC. As a Soph at TCU, he spent some time at RT, but mostly at OC. As a jr. he had over 700 snaps at OC, then as a senior, another 899 snaps at OG. So the majority of his college snaps were OC.
2021 First-Team AP All-Big 12 - yup, the year he was a fulltime OC. Didn't make the list as a RG as a Senior. Just food for thought.
Where it gets a little fuzzy for me, is if he was a AP all big 12 OC, then why did TCU bring in a transfer to be the starting center and move Avila to OG? Unless the OC was the best they could get in the portal, so they moved Avila to OG to have the best possible lineup? Does that make sense? maybe.
So maybe the Rams let Avila with OC experience and Jackson with a bit of OC experience duke it out for OC and LG. I know one thing for sure, they didn't pay Jackson and Dotson all that money to sit behind Avila and Shelton. The line will be AJ, JJ, Avila, Dottie and Havs. Lots of angry behemoths out there. Add in a 253 lb. top blocking TE...wow, get your popcorn, if McVay abandons the run, the headlines will write themselves and he will have no one but himself to blame.
This offense could be what would happen if Mike Martz and Jon Robinson had a baby. Exciting, right?
Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way. - Ragnar Lothbrok
