I love getting excited about the possibilities and potential of some of our late round picks. You can really see why the Rams drafted them and how they will fit. The potential is exciting and the more you read or see videos of their skills the excited you get. They may even have movements where they excel in a preseason game.
The reality strikes and if they show enough in the preseason they end up on special teams and are active for games. And after a season of not really seeing them play we kind of forget about all of the great traits that prospect demonstrated and not longer are excited about their potential. This is where I think we miss the boat.
All the cool things we got excited about are still there and the prospect now has a year in the Rams system with great coaching and development of the body as a full time job. Late round guys with great RAS scores would be drafted much higher if they had all the other boxes like level of competition and performance over multiple years checked off. But a late rounder with a high RAS score is missing something and needs to be developed before they are ready to play. Hardy falls into this category.
Now a late rounder with a moderate or low RAS score can be a diamond in the rough. Fuller would be an example. His athletic abilities are pedestrian and will not wow anyone. He was drafted low because of he doesn't fit the ideal athletic requirements for his position. However he excelled on the field in a major college football program and was captain of his team, one of the top teams in the country. He already knew how to play and quickly got up to speed in the Rams system. While he is still the exception to the rule being a 6th round pick who became a year 1 starter is is much easier for a player to make the jump when they have been a team leader against top competition and excelled on the field.
My point is that I look at Hardy this year like I look at Garret and Harris from last year. I am still excited to see how Harris and Garret perform and I force myself to remember all the reason I was excited about them last year. I can't wait to see what a year of being developed under the Rams coaching staff has done to their games. I expect, though I would love to be surprised, that I next season I will need to remind myself about all the great attributes Hardy brings to the table and look forward to his develop next preseason.
