Kiper was never an NFL scout or GM or even a player. He can watch millions of hours of film reacting to college player's relative success against like competition and give an opinion on what he sees. And he does. And sometimes it's entertaining. But it isn't an expert analysis in any way. Plus, he doesn't know all the ins and outs of any particular team's needs, but instead, offers a generalized view of each team's needs or desires. I'll take this board's draftees over Mel every time and appreciate all the work they do. They watch college games specifically for talent who might help the Rams. If you want outside insights I would go with Charlie Casserly who was a big time GM who has actually made giant trades and moved up, down or out of draft positions to get targeted picks.
All that aside, let's look at Mel's thinking...our Rams with Woods, Kupp, Jackson and Jefferson have a NEED at WR. So not true. We could pick up a speedster somewhere to blow the top off defenses when Jackson retires or gets injured. We might look to get a Megatron type, but that kind of guy, if there ever was another one, would be a first round top ten pick. I predict we add someone with raw skills deep in the draft or undrafted FA. So nah Mel, we ain't jumping on a WR at 57. We might need some help at edge and DE, but I can see us drafting these guys later or signing FAs after the draft. But, to predict Snead to jump on an ILB is plain silly. Especially one who runs a 4.71. We like our LBs to be fast like Littleton.
The next thought is that all the draftniks spend a majority of their time trying to mock an accurate first round. And they're not great at that. So, after a few surprises the accuracy goes down from there. To nail a pick perfectly in the middle of the second round is nearly impossible. And if Mel Kiper were given the first 56 picks and had to give his educated guess at that point I bet he would miss. I think we trade down myself into the 60s. Snead like to predict a range and has many possible picks in mind and trades down just enough slots to guarantee he gets his target in that range while adding picks. This is smart.
Mel is not.
