Quote
PHDram
AD was obviously a very good player at PITT but clearly undersized by NFL standards. More times than not a guy his size flames out in the NFL. He was NOT considered a top 5 pick. Moreover, the rams had no real need for a DT at the time plus OBJ was still on the board. The pick reportedly came down to OBJ and AD. Drafting AD was no slam dunk. Finally, lots of players look like great picks on draft day only to fail in the nfl so I dont care what pick it is, if you end up with arguably the the player in the NFL, its a good day. Snead (or the rams organization as a whole) deserves a ton of credit for making the pick.
Quote
spagsbacker
AD was predicted to be drafted in top 5, when he was available at #13, if any of us were GM, we would have sprinted to the podium to draft Donald. Les happened to be the GM, does not make him a shrewd GM.
go rams.
I agree with most of this. Snead and company deserve a whole lot of credit for the AD pick.
This may be a little nit-picky but it's bothered me every time people say that the Rams had no need for a DT.
That's not true if you followed what they were saying and doing that off season.
They had talked to several pass rushing DTs in free agency. In addition, they had worked out every top pass rushing DT in the draft.
They loved Easley from that year too and had worked him out which is why they snapped him up so quickly when NE let him go.
Anyway, I had predicted prior to the draft that the Rams would draft a pass rushing DT before the 2nd round and would select AD if he fell to them.
They had a need, it wasn't a surprise. But that's all an aside. I agree with your overall sentiment on the matter.