Nice post on Rams draft picks philosophy by oldnotdead…

Here’s oldnotdead…

What the media doesn't understand is that draft picks are like money on payday. You can bank it, i.e. save it for draft day and hope you receive value for the wait, and wait some more for those picks to bear fruit. Or you can spend it on proven value. The Rams simply spend it on proven value and say screw the waiting and uncertainty. The problem with building and maintaining your roster strictly via the draft is that most rosters will age out before the team is ever completely built. Look how much turnover there is yearly on the average roster. Drafting might cover attrition and give you one or two guys to eventually plug holes in that roster.

The Ram way is to use those expensive high draft picks to trade for proven players while drafting well in the mid - low rounds for developmental talent. Look how well Snead drafts where 4 of the 9 picks are starters or rotational players as rookies. Jones, is a third round pick, Rochell a 4th round pick, Skowronek and Funk 7th round picks and it's only halfway through the season. I think we will see Bobby Brown and Jacob Harris (both 4th round) before the season is over. Snead doesn't need 1st or even second round players to build this roster.

You need only look at the OL to see what I'm saying. His approach to OL building is very old school (2nd to 5th rd, trade, or UFA). Give the rookies a year to develop then play them.

LT Whitworth - UFA 2017
LT Noteboom - 3rd rd
LG Edwards - 5th rd
C Allen - 4th rd
RG Corbett - trade
RT Havenstein - 2nd rd

Matt Stafford, via trade, Justin Hollins, claimed off waivers, Leonard Floyd was a UDFA, Jalen Ramsey via trade, Darious Williams, claimed off waivers, Robert Woods, signed as a UFA, Cooper Kupp, drafted 3rd rd, Darrell Henderson drafted 3rd rd, Jordan Fuller drafted in 6th rd, Taylor Rapp, drafted in the 2nd rd.

Yeah, who needs 1st rd draft picks other than as trade bait. Most of the Ram starters were not 1st rd picks. In fact the majority of their starters are mid or low round picks, obtained by trade or signed as FAs. I laugh at these teams struggling to build their rosters and never really catching up to the attrition leaving obvious holes in their roster.

The Rams needed Miller more than they needed 2 picks. Miller can be an immediate impact player. The odds of a 2nd and 3rd round player being impactful next year is not high. The Rams made the right move IMO.