Matt Walsh, that mysterious Patriots video guy, has finally turned over all his tapes of the Patriots’ illegal signal-stealing from 2000 to 2002. According to SI.com, the eight tapes include footage of six games against a total of five opponents: the Dolphins, Bills, Browns, Chargers, and Steelers. That Steelers game was the 2002 AFC championship game.

But something important is missing from that list: the tape of the Rams’ final walkthrough on the day before Super Bowl XXXVI. This was the only tape that really mattered anymore. The Patriots had already admitted to the offenses listed above. Walsh has only proven what we already knew anyway. The Pats may be mildly punished now that these tapes have been turned over, although it is unlikely, since the NFL and various team officials keep repeating that this whole incident is a nonissue.

The point is, the alleged Super Bowl cheating will never be proven now. Walsh does not have that tape. His lawyer’s stance is that Walsh never claimed to have such a tape, and it’s our fault for assuming that he did. Spygate is over.

All we know for sure now is that Matt Walsh is an opportunistic, greedy, and thoroughly reprehensible man. Maybe he didn’t claim to have the SB tapes, but he never said he didn’t have them, either. With speculation rampant that Walsh would dethrone the hated Pats, many Rams fans had been looking to him to salvage their memories of that terrible upset in 2002. Walsh took advantage of his undeserved celebrity to tease the sports world. He cut a deal with the NFL and the Patriots that protects him from future litigation, pays his legal expenses for him, and provides him with an expenses-paid trip to New York (he currently is in Hawaii, where he has become a pro golfer). All for the sake of proof he never had to begin with.

I was never a proponent of the idea that the Super Bowl title should be taken away from the Patriots, even if that tape was found. The Rams, even at an unfair disadvantage, could have won that game if Mike Martz had not lost his head and refused to use his Hall-of-Fame caliber running back. But this is an absolutely outrageous way for Spygate to end. I don’t care that Matt Walsh did not specifically say he had proof. In the face of overwhelming speculation, he remained silent. What were we supposed to think? Walsh has conned the entire NFL and all of its fans, and he’s going to get away with it without having to pay a single penny.

It’s just not right.

Despite his illustrious record on the field with the Rams, it’s a wonder that he is with the team at all. You see, there is more to write about Little than football.

Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently wrote a column about Little’s struggles off the football field. He followed up that column with another one a week later that focused mainly on Burwell’s thoughts about Little and the public reaction to what Little had done. I would like to add my own thoughts to the discussion.

Just in case you don’t know or don’t remember what happened, let me briefly summarize. After a birthday party in his honor on October 19, 1998, Little, in Burwell’s words, “got into his SUV after a night of drinking and partying, broadsided the car of a suburban housewife and mother, ended her life, ruined her family’s life and sent himself reeling into his own decade-long private hell on Earth.” Quite a statement. And as if that weren’t enough, Little was arrested again in 2004 for drunk driving and speeding, seeming to tell people by his actions that he was unaffected by the tragedy that occurred six years earlier and that he certainly had not learned any lessons from it, least of all the need to moderate his drinking and not drink and drive. However, a jury acquitted him on the DUI charge, finding him guilty only of speeding. The explanation for the acquittal centered around the fact that two officers on the scene gave conflicting views of the arresting officer’s observation that Little was drunk.

The Rams organization was heavily criticized for not releasing or at least trading Little after the first incident, for which he did some jail time, had to perform community service, and was suspended by the NFL for eight games. Public opinion, as one might expect, was also extremely sympathetic to the victim’s family and pilloried Little in the media and on the street every chance it got. The outcry against him only intensified after the second incident. Further fueling the flames of public antipathy was the perception that Little has received special treatment from the legal system because he is a football player.

Burwell’s columns caused me to think about two widely separate occurrences in my own life that, each in their own way, relate to Little’s situation. The first one happened in 1971, when I was stationed at an Air Force base in northeastern Mississippi. I was living in a small house that I rented from a cotton and soybean farmer, who lived with his wife and son next door. The son, nicknamed Junior, was about 18 at the time and a thoroughly likeable young man, even though he was a big Saints and Archie Manning fan. To make a little extra money, Junior got a job driving a school bus to and from the town’s lone elementary school. One afternoon, a few students on his bus got off at their usual stop. Instead of going to the side of the street like the rest, one of the students walked in front of the bus. Junior never saw the child and put the bus into first gear. The child was killed.

I saw Junior later that same day. His parents told me what had happened and that Junior was inconsolable. Indeed he was. Crushed might be the better word. As I think about the whole thing now, more than thirty-five years later, a chill runs up my spine. Junior remained inconsolable for the rest of the two years that I was there. I never found out what happened to him. I worry that the demon of this event has lived with him all his life. I think that this is what Leonard Little has been feeling.

The second occurrence was of a more personal nature. My previous wife, a woman to whom I was married for 23 years, suffered from alcoholism. Now, let me say that, both from training and personal belief, I regard alcoholism as a disease, not something an individual chooses to do. There isn’t enough space here to explain why, so just go with me on that. She drank and drove, usually to the local package store and back home, always while I was working. I eventually took her car keys from her after she had promised several times to never do it again. Ironically, while she struggled against alcoholism almost all of her adult life, her drinking accelerated after our son was killed in a single car accident after he had been drinking at a party. She died in 2002 directly as a result of long-term alcohol abuse. That, I believe, is a fate that Leonard Little also struggles against.

So, you see, I can’t look at the Little case dispassionately, as if he was just another football player mired in legal and personal problems. Just as I felt for Junior, and for the family of the child who was accidentally killed, and for my wife of so many years, I feel for Leonard Little. What he did was wrong, and tragic, and stupid, but I believe that he is a victim in all of this as well. I don’t know if Little suffers from alcoholism as such, but he seems at the very least to have a problem with drinking. Alcohol affects exactly those parts of the brain that mediate skills like judgment, planning, and foresight. It’s easy for me to understand why someone who has been drinking thinks that he can drive safely home.

I truly hope that Leonard Little has turned the corner and is sincere both in his contrition and his efforts to overcome his problems with alcohol. Right now I believe he is. But his challenge will be to sustain his positive momentum. As I learned from watching my wife’s struggles, it will be a battle that he will fight every day for the rest of his life.

And he will never be alone. His personal demon will see to that.

While the merits of each individual selection are still being debated, some more than others, it’s undeniable to me that the Rams had a plan going into the draft and that they worked that plan throughout the weekend. For better or worse, that plan will have a direct bearing on the team’s fortunes in 2008.

The strategy that the Rams’ brass employed had several elements, as follows: fill specific position needs, increase team speed, add players who have demonstrated character and a sense of commitment, and create competition at several positions to bring out the most in each player. Let’s look at each element.

1) Fill specific position needs: Going into the draft, it was clear that the Rams needed immediate help at DE and WR, and that the depth on the offensive line had to be improved. With the always-uncertain status of Fakhir Brown, it made sense to acquire another CB. Other depth needs, such as at LB, safety, and FB, were also there to be addressed. A less obvious but equally important set of deficiencies on special teams also required attention.

Chris Long was clearly the best available DE in the draft and his acquisition provides a big boost to the defensive line. His versatility will allow Jim Haslett to be very creative with the position and to achieve the primary aim of exerting more pressure on opposing QB’s. Donnie Avery and Keenan Burton bring speed and youth to an undermanned and aging WR corps, and they provide a challenge to Dante Hall in the return game. While each has his shortcomings, which the coaching staff will earn their pay to address, they add a vertical dimension to the attack that was conspicuously absent last year (remember all those 4-yard out patterns?) Greco and Scheuning are excellent picks for the offensive line. Two maulers, they add depth and have the ability to boost the running game. Justin King adds speed and depth to the CB position, although he needs time to refine his man-coverage skills. Whatever the opinion of others, the Rams felt that WR was a higher priority than LB, so the somewhat overrated Dan Connor was not drafted in the second round. The depth issue at LB was addressed in the seventh round with the selections of Chamberlain and Voroba, although I suspect that, if either of them does in fact make the final roster, it will be as a special teams player. Both are highly regarded for their tackling, and Voroba was seen by some observers as a possible mid-round choice.

2) Increase team speed: The Rams last year were about as slow-footed a bunch as I have ever had the displeasure of watching. Plays took forever to develop, and opponents stacked the box with impunity, daring the Rams to try to run past them. Avery, Burton, and King, a former WR, have speed to burn, and each is capable of returning kicks as well as adding quickness to his position. Their acquisition adds a new dimension of excitement that has been missing since the heyday of the GSOT.

3) Added character and commitment: None of the new Rams has, to my knowledge, any character issues. I have not seen a single reference to an arrest, an upcoming hearing or trial, or any problems with substance abuse. This is a welcome change from the days of selecting people like Claude Terrell, Dominique Byrd, and Claude Wroten, and one that I attribute to the presence of Billy Devaney. It can’t be the influence of Linehan, since he chose Wroten and Byrd in the draft two years ago. Linehan has now eagerly jumped on the company character bandwagon, but I wonder that, if left to his own devices in the last year of his contract, he would have seen nothing but imagined talent, ignoring character issues, in order to try to save his job. Each Ram draftee has a history of commitment to football, an example that I hope will rub off on players like Wroten.

4) Creating competition: The addition of Avery and Burton puts the pressure on Hagans, Looker, Stanley, Caldwell, and Williams, to step up or be gone. Greco will push everyone except Pace, especially, I hope, Barron, who more than anyone else on the team needs a well-placed boot. He and Scheuning will put particular pressure on Dustin Fry, the C/G who by his own admission, “just couldn’t get it” all last year. I’m counting on King to pressure journeyman David Macklin right off the team. Macklin is a journeyman at best, and that is an insult to journeymen. Having watched him with the Cardinals, I nicknamed him “Bonfire,” for obvious reasons. Chamberlain and Voroba hopefully will add some aggressiveness to special teams coverage units.

I don’t know how these draft picks will work out. No one does. I do know that now is the time for the position coaches to start earning their money and for the Rams players to step up. Personally, I’m happy that, at least for this year, the Rams’ draft seemed to have direction and purpose.

The Super Bowl symbolizes the end of things: a champ is crowned, the crowd filters out of the stadium and then there is no more football for seven months. The draft, on the other hand, is a sign of what’s to come. Players being added to the roster, depth chart re-shuffling, a boost (or jab) to fans’ confidence… The draft is the beginning of things and, with luck, a beacon of hope at the prospect of a new season.

So it is with a heavy heart that I must concede that I have little hope left. Saturday’s draft left me broken. Sure, things got off to a good start with the Rams making the smart, if unspectacular, pick of Chris Long in the first round and biding their time until the second round. But then the Rams, like homestate hero Truman, dropped the bomb. With the second pick of the second round, your St. Louis Rams select… Donnie Avery, WR, Houston.

I imagine that many of you had the same reaction I did. You know, jumping up and down (I had already been standing for several minutes in anticipation; otherwise, I imagine I would have exploded from my seat), punching walls, screaming. I can’t tell you what I said that day, because, frankly, MVN won’t let me print it. Let’s just say that there were very few words in the next 10 minutes that would make it into a PG-13 movie.

It was a perplexing pick. The Rams, with holes all over the field, choose to go with receiver, an offensive skill position where they already have at least two capable players. And further, the Rams, having decided to select a speedy receiver to stretch the field, pick Avery, a relative unknown with big names like DeSean Jackson and Limas Sweed still on the board (in addition to the flashy possession-types like Malcolm Kelly).

In the days since the draft, a lot of folks have come around on the Avery pick. Sure, they say, Avery was ranked much lower than the others, but what do those ESPN “experts” know anyway? Wasn’t an offensive playmaker a team need? Admittedly, Avery’s got speed to burn. Hell, the kid’s lightning in a bottle - a 4.2 40 doesn’t exactly grow on trees, you know? And yes, the Rams saw the chance to use his return skills in a weak wide receiver crop and with Dante Hall seemingly on the way out. So why am I still feeling cheated?

Pardon me, Rams fans, but I don’t buy the high draft grades or the flowery praise for the “new” Scott Linehan. I don’t buy the front office’s desperate attempts at justifying it. And I certainly don’t buy the arguments floating around that the Avery pick was, and still is in retrospect, the right move to make. (more…)

And it has all gone downhill from there.

It began with the outrageous selection of WR Donnie Avery in the second round. Avery has little going for him besides his speed, and he will be little more than a kick returner for several years.

Then, as my fellow writer Brett pointed out to me many times, St. Louis was given a second chance because LB Dan Connor was still on the board at the beginning of the day today. The Rams have quite a pressing need at that position, and Connor would have been a very solid and useful pick. Instead, our favorite Sheep used their third round pick, 65th overall, to take OT John Greco out of … Toledo? Greco is an unknown, unproven entity. He, like Avery, would certainly have been available later on in the draft. However, bad as this pick was, it does at least fulfill a need. Given the number of times Marc Bulger ended up on his back in 2007 (37, in case you forgot), bolstering the O-Line was a good idea, even if it wasn’t a good idea to do it with this particular choice.

The Rams earned themselves a slight reprieve by taking CB Justin King of Penn State in the fourth round, 101st overall. King was one of the best cornerbacks remaining at that point. He will be a good complement to the team though he will probably play nickelback for the most part. So, after the fourth pick, the Rams had made a couple of good picks and a couple of bad ones, and the draft still looked salvageable.

And then they dropped the stinker. Some genius at Rams park traded the second pick in the 5th and 7th rounds in return for the Packers’ fourth-rounder … and took a wide receiver, Keenan Burton from Kentucky.

Really? Two wideouts, in the second and fourth rounds? The Rams have a pressing need at linebacker still and could use some depth at safety, yet they are trading up to get a second wide receiver? This was a shocking and absolutely terrible move. The draft officially went down the toilet when Burton’s name was called, and nothing, absolutely nothing, can recover it anymore.

Not, of course, as if the Rams would even try to recover it. Having lost their 5th rounder in the quest for Burton, St. Louis proceeded to trade both of its 6th rounders to get the Titans’ 5th rounder. And then they used it to take guard Roy Scheuning of Oregon State at 157th overall. This is a guy who wasn’t just injured in 2007; he spent most of his time in the hospital getting treated for pneumonia. While I sympathize with him and wish him the best of health for the future, the fact remains that he was not worth trading up for. Not even a little bit.

So, here we are, Ram fans. The linebacker spot still has not been filled. Two wideouts have been taken, both at least one round early. Trades were made, and immediately squandered. St. Louis will not pick again until the 7th round, when it will have picks number 10, 21, and 45 — the last of which will be the last pick of the draft, often known as Mr. Irrelevant. So, St. Louis has two more chances to take a legitimate linebacker (I’m going to give up on safeties entirely), and the only linebackers available will be 7th-round quality.

The second day of the draft has been a colossal failure for St. Louis. Barring some kind of absolutely unexpected brilliance from Keenan Burton or Roy Scheuning or any of the others, 2008 will be little more than par for the course for this, our favorite but oh-so-mediocre team.

Once the Dolphins answered the question of who was going to be the first pick overall earlier in the week, attention shifted to the Rams.  Would they select Chris Long, Vernon Gholston, Glen Dorsey, or even Darren McFadden, or would they make a trade-down deal with Kansas City, New Orleans, or Atlanta?  New Orleans created a bit of a stir by lowballing the Rams with the offer of their first pick, the tenth overall, and OT Jamaal Brown for the Rams’ first pick, an offer the Rams wisely rejected.  Nothing developed on any other trade front.  Late yesterday evening draft reports began to surface that the Rams were moving away from selecting Glen Dorsey and that, in fact, Chris Long would be their first pick.

And that’s exactly what happened.  In the end, after all the research and discussion, the Rams’ War Room opted for the safe, solid pick in what I believe was not only a needs-based selection but also a public relations move.  The Rams obviously needed a defensive end, for reasons that have been well-documented.  But they also needed to recover from  a series of poor defensive line selections, marked by the choice of such stalwarts as Jimmy Kennedy, Damione Lewis, and Ryan Pickett.  Indeed, many commentators said that the Rams’ failures in selecting defensive linemen made the choice of Dorsey a suspect one, especially given his injury history.  Clearly, the sentiment was there that if the Rams chose Dorsey, and he was injured in 2008, there would be public relations hell to pay. Devaney and Linehan would be skewered by that pick and thoroughly roasted in the media.  I believe that, in the end, neither wanted to take that risk.

Long’s selection has been widely applauded by Rams’ fans, as it should be.  Even though I believed that Dorsey would have been the better, and more dynamic, pick, I am not at all unhappy about having our defensive line anchored for the next ten years or so by Howie’s kid.  This is the return of Grant Wistrom.

OK, so the Rams are playing it safe and solid, and catering to the fans.  Well, they must have thought that their mission was accomplished, because then they went ahead and selected Donnie Avery, the wideout from Houston.  This choice was still echoing in Radio City Music Hall when the criticism began. Linehan was looking for a receiver with top-end speed and when the time came for the Rams to make their second choice, I think Rams’ fans were expecting to hear “DeSean Jackson” or “Limas Sweed,” perhaps.  Avery was rated way down the list of receivers, so far down that spending a second round pick on him just doesn’t seem to make sense.  Personally, I think he will be a super addition to the team, and the Rams filled a huge need by taking him.  But it seems that the positive PR gained by the Long pick was immediately dissipated by the choice of Avery.  Within minutes after the selection I was seeing all manner of negative comments about Devaney and Linehan in various blogs.

So, one up and one down, at least in the public eye, so far for the Rams.  With this kind of start, anything is liable to happen on Sunday.  We at Ramblings will be working overtime to both keep you informed and to give your our take on what our Rams are doing to get back into contention in the NFL.

It should be reallllly interesting!

First, the good: Avery has fantastic speed, having recorded a 4.2 second 40-yard dash. He racked up more than 3,000 yards for Houston over his career, becoming just the third player in school history to do so. He poses a deep threat, due mostly to his speed, and he had 41 catches of 20+ yards in college — and he has improved with every passing year. Moreover, he represents the answer to a problem that has been nagging St. Louis for quite a long time now: special teams. He averaged 28.3 yards on kickoff returns during his senior year, and will almost certainly improve on the 23.6 yards/return the Rams averaged in 2007. NFL.com says that Avery has great change-of-direction capability, good hands, and that he excels at sideline catches. He is also very sudden getting into his routes when not pressed too hard by defenders.

And now, the bad: according to NFL Draft 101, Avery is a weak route runner, an essential skill for any receiver but especially in St. Louis’s scheme. He tends to dance too much when jammed up front instead of pushing his way through the DB, and thus loses valuable time. He becomes distracted when forced to make catches in a crowd of defenders, and he lacks any substantial yard-after-catch ability unless he is in the open field. He is also an ineffective blocker, at best.

NFL Draft 101 had Avery ranked 10th among this year’s wide receiver class, but he was the first drafted. Avery does not merit his high second-round status; he would most likely still have been available in the third round. Conventional wisdom had the Rams taking an offensive lineman with their second pick, but the stampede for them in the first round probably forced the Rams to take a receiver instead (no less than 10 O-Linemen were taken among the first 31 picks, including the #1 overall pick, Jake Long). They could still have gone after tackle Carl Nicks of Nebraska, or they might even have done better taking a defensive back this round, such as Brandon Flowers (who went 35th overall) or Curtis Lofton (37th).

In the long term, Avery may develop the skills he lacks right now. His yard-after-catch ability especially should improve with practice, given the speed he already possesses. But in the short term, Avery will be little more than a kick-return specialist, not worth high-second-round pick money, and not really an essential need-filler for the Rams, who have much bigger holes to take care of first.

This pick is best described as puzzling (well, there are other words that better describe it, but I can’t publish them here). Certainly Avery shows much potential, but he will not be ready to step into our dearly departed Isaac Bruce’s shoes at the beginning of the season. And with so many more pressing needs, why take him so early? It’s … puzzling.

Will the rest of the picks be this … dumb, too? Check back tomorrow as we here at RAMblings continue to analyze the most exciting weekend of the offseason.

This is an extremely exciting pick. Long is an explosive, versatile player who fulfills an immediate need for St. Louis, and he will help the team immensely. He will be a difference-maker from day one, and the DLine, which showed sparks — but only sparks — of adequacy in 2007 should experience marked improvement in 2008.

There were essentially two camps going into today (besides the almost universal agreement that a trade down would be the best option) : those who campaigned for Chris Long, and those who wanted LSU DT Glenn Dorsey. Dorsey, though an excellent player in his own right, was ultimately a wrong pick for St. Louis because he did not represent an immediate need. The Rams had so many holes that bolstering the tackle position would have been impractical. In addition, questions lingered about Dorsey’s health because of a stress fracture in his leg. The entirely healthy Long will represent much-needed speed and power off the end, where he will presumably work opposite veteran Leonard Little.

Pending contract negotiations, Chris Long is now a St. Louis Ram. Congratulations to him and to the Rams for making the right pick. And, after the dismal performance of recent years, here’s to the promise of the beginning of a turnaround in 2008.

Stay tuned to us at RAMblings for more coverage of the draft and further analysis of this and all the other Ram picks.

It seems that the Saints, perhaps invigorated by the papal visit, are anxiously trying to move up in the draft to nab state hero Glenn Dorsey. As things stand now, New Orleans looks like the most likely suitor for the Rams’ first round pick, second overall. With the Falcons sitting at the third pick and with a gaping hole at defensive tackle, there is no guarantee that the Saints could trade up to the Raiders’ or Chiefs’ spots at 4 and 5, respectively, and still have a shot at Dorsey. The hype says the Falcons will draft Matt Ryan; logic says otherwise.

The Rams could surely benefit by moving down to the Saints’ spot. They’d likely still have a crack at a top tier defensive lineman, like Derrick Harvey of Florida, or a top tier offensive tackle. And the extra picks could help shore up the depth along the offensive line, in the secondary and at all three linebacker spots. Picking up a couple standout special teamers wouldn’t hurt, either.

But this will be a tough deal to make happen. NFL Teams typically use a value chart when trading picks. Basically, you want the point value of the picks you give up to be roughly equal to the point value of the picks you get in return. If the Rams stick with the trend, they would likely be trying to squeeze out of the Saints a package something along the lines of their current first rounder (1,300 points at #10), their second rounder (500 points for #40), their third rounder (200 points for #78) and a couple picks in the ‘09 draft (a second and a late rounder, perhaps) for the Rams’ first round pick (2,600 points at #2). (The Saints don’t have a fourth round pick in 2008.) That’s a pretty steep price to pay, even for a player of Dorsey’s caliber. How far in their rearview windows have the Saints put the Ricky Williams fiasco?

So the Rams are faced with this conundrum: they have needs at several positions, they may not have the cap space to adequately deal with the second pick in the draft and they have a lack of interest in their pick. Not exactly the best prospects. It’s obvious the Rams need to see what they can do with this Saints deal, no matter how tough it will be.

To aid and abet the Rams’ plans - as always - we here at RAMblings are attempting the kind of out-of-the-box thinking you’ve come to expect. Here are a couple more options the Rams should look into, likely or not.

Trade down with a different team.

Just because a Saints trade may be out of the question doesn’t mean the Rams can’t keep looking to trade out of the spot. Atlanta offers an intriguing option because swapping picks would likely only require them to give up their second rounder (perhaps with a Rams late round pick to even the trade a bit). The Falcons (and Arthur Blank) are reportedly hot after Dorsey, and with word out of Rams camp suggesting more and more that Dorsey’s the pick, Atlanta may be forced to act.

The other potential trade partner mentioned in the past couple weeks, Baltimore, now looks less and less likely. The Ravens have expressed interest in acquiring Matt Ryan, and conventional wisdom had suggested he was headed to Atlanta. If the Falcons switch over to Dorsey, Ryan could potentially last all the way until the Ravens pick at #8.

The one wrench thrown in the plans could be Kansas City’s deal that shipped Jared Allen to Minnesota for a bundle of picks. Many mocks assumed that Kansas City would choose an offensive lineman with the #5 pick, but with Minnesota’s #17 now in their pocket, Kansas City could pick someone like Ryan and wait until later in the round to select their lineman (maybe someone like Pitt tackle Jeff Otah). If the Ravens are still committed to maneuvering to get Ryan, they may not find a more willing trade partner before the Chiefs come up than the Rams. It’d be a steep price for Baltimore, but it’s a deal that could definitely benefit the Rams and potentially help out the lame duck Ravens offense.

Trade for a player.

I’m going to put myself out on a limb here. Yes, I’m going to put myself out in the open and go against the grain and, basically, disagree with everyone who’s running a football franchise these days: Draft picks are overrated.

There. I said it.

I’ve been waiting to get that off my chest for some time now, but it seems especially appropriate right now. Look at the trades of picks for players the past couple years: Randy Moss cost a fourth rounder, and we know what he went on to do; Jonathan Vilma, always a solid starter, cost a fourth rounder this offseason; Pacman Jones, at least as talented as he is troubled, also cost a fourth. It makes little sense to me why teams are so set on gambling on unproven talent in the draft instead of pursuing proven NFL players. Sure, these guys have their own issues, but all three can play in their own right. Just a couple weeks ago, I was perplexed why the Rams were looking at Chris Long instead of inquiring what it would take to bring Jared Allen (the defensive end just traded from the Chiefs to the Vikings) to St. Louis. In the end, he commanded a pretty penny, but the fact that the Rams were sitting idly on the sideline as a top tier guy at a need position was on the market was confusing and disappointing.

Entertain this thought process for a second (as far-fetched as it is, it’s hilarious, to say the least): the Rams are in need of an explosive playmaker. Torry Holt is playing on a gimpy knee and will for the rest of his career. Drew Bennett is and always has been a possession receiver. There’s no clear slot wideout, and the backup running backs (Brian Leonard and Antonio Pittman), while capable, are not particularly exciting.

But what’s that? The Saints have come calling for the Rams’ #2 pick. And, lo, what else? Saints fans have turned on the once-savior Reggie Bush? A running back who’s played the slot several times in his two years with the Saints? I smell a trade that could benefit both sides…

Of course, I’m mostly just being ridiculous here. Saints management hasn’t shown the least sign of dissatisfaction with Bush, and the Rams’ chances of acquiring him are slim-to-none. But just for the sake of argument, what if the Rams were to trade their first rounder to the Saints in exchange for their #10 pick and Bush? The Rams could even offer to swap picks in a later round or throw in a second day pick to sweeten the deal for the Saints. The Saints hold on to their picks, the Rams pick up a playmaker at a need position (and get depth at another) and still have a first rounder to use on a defensive lineman.

Now, I’m not saying Bush is the Rams’ only trade option. But the Rams could easily pull off a trade for a veteran at a need position with a non-first-round pick and concentrate on picking the best available player on the board when their name’s called.

Just one more day until draft day, people. Get excited.

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If you’re looking to beef up your draft knowledge before Saturday arrives, head over to MVN’s NFL Draft University for all your draft needs, including the MVN writers mock draft in which I took part. For the record, we MVN writers are 1/1 so far on picks, and while mine may not go exactly as planned, we’ll have to see. Happy drafting, all!

The football community will be abuzz with discussion of the pick in the coming days, but for the St. Louis Rams, this means only one thing: they’re on the clock.

The Sheep have the second overall pick and will be the next team to pick someone in Saturday’s first round of the 2008 draft — unless somebody trades up.

Trade rumors have been scarce this offseason; the second pick wasn’t nearly as enticing this year as it would be other years, it seems. But New Orleans has recently revived the trade talk, intimating in highly ambiguous terms that they would like to move up the pecking order if possible. It seems the Saints are interested in keeping LSU standout Glenn Dorsey in Louisiana. And, if they make the Rams an offer in order to get him, the Rams may just accept.

Saints GM Mickey Loomis has been less than forthcoming about exactly what he would offer in a prospective deal, and it is highly possible that nothing will ever materialize and that the Rams will end up making the second overall pick. In fact, any trade would probably involve too much of a sacrifice on the Saints’ part, and it probably will not go through. But boy, it would be nice if it did. The Rams have pressing needs at all kinds of positions on both sides of the ball, and gaining a couple of picks and a player or two would be worth sacrificing either Glenn Dorsey, Vernon Gholston, or Chris Long.

Assuming that nothing happens, though — the most likely scenario — the Rams are now face-to-face with a situation that has been brewing for months. All three of the top defensive linemen in this year’s class are still available at #2. Only one will be coming to St. Louis in 2008. This discussion has been played out again and again over the last few weeks, but in case you missed it, feel free to check out Hal’s and my differing opinions on how the first pick should be used. Also be sure to read over Brett’s Draft Opus, in which he previews not only the Rams’ first pick but all their other picks as well. And, as always, for knowledgeable debate about your favorite Sheep, check out the board at stlouisramsx.com.

And, of course, keep your fingers crossed that the Rams don’t draft a tight end. Because we really just don’t need another one.

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In other divisional news, the Seattle Seahawks have released All-Pro running back Shaun Alexander. Although Alexander’s game was slipping in recent years due to recurrent injuries, he was a Ram killer in his prime. It is no exaggeration to say that he single-handedly decided more than one game in this heated NFC West rivalry. The Seahawks’ new backfield will consist of T.J. Duckett and Julius Jones.