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den-the-coach
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The_Zone
On drafting Mack instead, Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda. But lets face it, The Rams needed a LT and coming out, Most if not all the draftniks said this kid was very good. you look at the tape and his athleticism and you say, WOW. This kid has some movement for a big man and has some strength to go with it.
Jake Matthews should have been the pick, they kept comparing Robinson's Ceiling to Matthews floor, but Matthews football IQ was off the charts and although he had some hiccups as well, he has now adjusted. Rams were clouded because the kid went to Auburn where Snead was an alum and Jeff Fisher's son Trent played on that team as well. Also I put this selection on Paul Boudreau who apparently pounded the table for Robinson, I did not have an issue with the Rams not taking Mack, but Matthews was the pick and I can guarantee you the current regime would not have made that mistake.
Robinson was a rational pick at the time. The chances it had something to do with Auburn are zilch...NFL grown-ups don't do that. Boudreau apparently did pound the table for Robinson, but then that's like Hanifan, who without Vermeil there never picked a single decent lineman his entire time with the Rams (go look at the list sometime). (At least Boudreau got better in 2015 at picking linemen...Hanifan never did). In the era of spread offenses, the majority of 1st round OL taken from about 2013 on have struggled. (OL used to be safe 1st round picks, but not anymore). So given all that, I put it all in a bit of perspective and tend to be less gutshot about the Robinson pick than some.
On a separate topic. In the end, Whitworth is better than Matthews would have been. That's 6.6, 308 pounds v. 6.7, 325 pounds (a bigger line suits Kromer), and 7 penalties and 5 sacks allowed last year (JM) v. 5 penalties and zero sacks last year (AW).
