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4. The draft. Again, hindsight, but man. You know you need a LG, an upgrade at RG and I'm sorry, but you know you can upgrade your OC. So what do you do? Trade back and back and draft a 3rd S. I get it, I love Rapp, loved him all the way back in 2017 and have the posts to prove it, but with the #2 and #3 OCs on the board, Daulton Risner on the board, OL might not have been a bad option. BTW #2 OC is the 2nd ranked OC by PFF for the Saints, Risner has yet to give up a sack as a RG for Denver and #3 OC is a LG for GB and has yet to yield a sack or a QB pressure. I love the Evans/Edwards picks, but they were never the finished products Risner, McCoy or Jenkins were. The other headscratcher, Henderson, I like the pick and his tape is good, but I'm guessing the Rams had a very good idea what was wrong with Gurley at the time. So why not aim towards a more all around back like Montgomery or Mattison (who is thriving in Minn behind a OZS line as a backup to Cook). I'm not gonna hammer on Greg Gaines, but if Phillips real plan is to play the run on the way to the QB, then why get a 34 NT with absolutely no juice to get to the QB? And on top of that, overdraft him by at least a round. IDK, I'm probably being to harsh, but when you keep trading away 1st and 2nd round picks, you need to not waste 3rd and 4th rounders.
So it seems like a bunch of stuff to me that could have been avoided. These are all self inflicted wounds. I get no one saw Havs and Whit regressing, but regardless there were things that could have been done to weather that storm. but believing an IL with an unproven Noteboom, unproven Allen and a poor Blythe seems like an avoidable mistake. Now with all the injuries, Goof could get beaten into David Carr. Same with how to manage Gurley's snaps and or touches better so he doesn't go an entire 4th quarter without getting the ball. Same with adjusting the offense. Don't set your players up to fail just to prove you can do it your way.
You refer to Noteboom and Allen as unproven, which they were, but somehow simultaneously make an argument for Risner, McCoy and Jenkins who would have been more unproven as rookies.
I don't think there was anything wrong with their strategy per se. The idea was to build the OL with mid round picks and let them develop for a year. NB was a 3rd rounder; Allen was a 4th rounder. Those aren't late round draft picks.
It's fairly normal for a coaching staff to have more confidence in a 3rd or 4th round pick that they've developed for a year than a 2nd to 3rd round rookie. That's where the current year help was.
The only issue is, did they miss on Noteboom and Allen?
If it's a mistake to rely on Noteboom on the basis that he's unproven, you're not correcting that mistake by drafting a MORE unproven guy one round earlier. I say it's harsh because it seems more about your bias as a draft expert towards the players that you liked versus the ones the Rams chose.
Also as an aside, Phillips has been making a serious commitment to play the run this year. Guess which D is 2nd in the league in Opponent Yards Per Rush Attempt?
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2019 10:16AM by dzrams.
