He did evaluate the top guys, GRob, Matthews, Lewan, and even Martin.
He said he broke down a lot of the tape on them and his top guy was Matthews. He wasn't all that high on Lewan though. And he said GRob was a physical freak but he could see him being a penalty machine his entire career. He also like Martin a lot, I think he called him a smaller version of Matthews as an OT.
I also remember that he had Cosell on and discussed the OTs with him and for the most part Cosell deferred to Tucker who played the position. Clearly, Tucker would not have taken GRob ahead of Matthews. And there were many other guys who said the same thing. I remember speaking with Dan Shonka in a phone conversation before the draft about Matthews and he thought Fisher would take Matthews because of the family connections and he thought it was pretty much a slam dunk.
Then I remember Fisher saying after the draft that he never had Matthews as his top guy and that he even had Martin higher. That's why they tried to trade up for Martin in the first round.
Now, who knows how it all broke down within the Rams war room. I mean, were they all in on GRob or was their a big difference of opinion between scouts and coaches? The bottom line was Fisher had final say and he got it wrong. He was ultimately responsible even if Snead and his crew pushed for GRob, which I'm guessing they did.
I also remember that before the draft there was a lot of talk from the Rams that they wanted to emulate teams that picked 2 HOFers in the first round like the Bears did with Sayers and Butkus, and the Ravens did with Ogden and Lewis. And I'm thinking that's was Snead's focus. And since GRob had the most potential to be a HOFer they were willing to take the risk on the downside. Now before anyone laughs at using GRob and HOF in same sentence, let me point out that before the draft Dan Jeremiah was asked to pick one guy from the 2014 draft that would be in the HOF in 20 years and he said GRob.
So simply put, the Rams swung for the fences and struck out. And the only lesson learned here is to ask yourself the question, should you swing for the fences with the #2 overall pick in the draft? I think the smart answer is no.
~ max ~
“The consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity.” - Alexander Hamilton
