Rams blew it. Had a chance to get two dominate players and came away with only one. Jason Smith and Rey Maulaluga would have been the wise choice. I like Laurinaitis, he will make plays but not over the best MLB in the draft. What were they thinking. A team that has been repeatedly run over by opposing running games and they don’t get the guy who has a chance to make the opposing teams RB leave brown stains in his pants. That was dumb.

Truth is we don’t know which LB is goin to be the better. We’ll know next January. My first thought was Laurinaitis but MOST of the talking heads indicated RM was the better choice. If we get two impact players from day 2, we’ll be lucky. The 49ers, Cards, and Seahawks all had better days than we did. In the words of Scubby Do, Rut Ro!

Why did so many teams pass on the “best” MLB in the draft? Because he was not, a 2 down MLB with little speed. Playing in USC’s talented defense vaulted him in ESPN’s eyes. The guy has never had to fend off a blocker, just run free from sideline to sideline, just like Laurinaitis (or any college MLB for that matter), so let’s let them play for a season or two before we all say maulaluga is superior.

I say hats off,great job billy.Our whole division drafted quite well. not a buckeyes fan ,saw laurenatis play several times,A STANDOUT!walterfootball.com gave rams A-.probably the best grade we have received since the move to st.louis.

The biggest questions should not be about the draft but what is to come. I for one would have preferred to see the Rams trade the #2 for more picks. I see however a move to soldify the weakest areas, beginning withe the big OT and the LB from Ohio State. The rest, well, evaluation and time will tell. As for the rest of the AFC West, Arizona has had a tendency to mess updrafts and SF and Seat have had very benign drafts for the past 10 years. Again, wait and see.

Crabtree’s skills are undeniable. So are Terrel Owens’. I wonder if the 9ers just drafted TO v2.0. I guess Ike should be able to help out in that regard.

Our first day picks were solid. They both have potential to become stars down the road in the NFL.

Our second day however, was rotten. Players with injury issues and lack of playing time abound. The one interesting pick was Null, although it it very difficult to gauge how a Div. II prospect will develop over time in the NFL.

There were many jewels to be mined on the drafts second day and with the 2nd overall pick in both round 3 and 4, we should have done much, much better, even in a year with depleted talent. I really wonder sometimes what scouts look at and where they focus their energies when it comes to talent evaluation.

Ilovebirdies is absolutely right.

Relax. Mr. Devaney may know a little more than me about football. We will see what happens.

Drafts come and go, most of the players have talent, either physically or football specific. The REAL question is how well the players get coached.
With great coaching this draft could result in 4 maybe 5 starters. Without good coaching, Maybe two at best. Lets see what they do with the talent.

Calm down, let’s revisit this say…in January. Name recogonition doesn’t trandlate into Football productivity, there is a reason that Billy D. has this job and not anyone of us.
At least we are not saying who is this? Like we did when George Boone drafted someone from Outasight U. that no one ever heard of and Billy B. standing by his side laughing because he liked Boonie’s JOKES!!!

I wish Mr. Devaney would tell us which teams he thought were going to take Null off the board. If there were none, why did we waste a 6th round pick when we could have signed him as a free agent? Anybody out there know which other team or teams were likely to draft Null? If not for the Null pick, I would have rated the Rams above average for their draft choices. But I just can’t understand the Null pick. Even if you think he is going to be a good quarterback in this league, you could have gotten him as a free agent and drafted a player who would not be available through free agency. I must be missing something. Please comment if you know why this was a smart 6th round pick.

I live in SoCali and watch every USC game all the way back to the OJ days. Rey Mauliuga plays way out of control a lot. He had a tendacy to pick up major 15 yard unsportsman like penalties at the wrong time in many games. Also he never should up in “big” games!!

A couple of things. Maybe Laurinatis and Maualuga are both real good ILB’s, and just maybe the Head Coach had input on which one he wanted to work into his system. I hope and fully expect that’s what happened. My problem with Maualuga was that he seemed undisciplined ON the field and he would end up out of position, but he had 2 OLB’s (Cushing and Mathews, both drafted ahead of him, in the 1st round) covering his back and making plays too. So if the choice for the Rams, who have to be building a new defensive outlook from the ground up, is taking a little more boring, little more system oriented guy versus a guy who’s out there blowing up people on some plays, but not where he’s supposed to be on other plays, I’m not going to second guess 5 months before either of them strap on a helmet in a game that counts for something.

On the idea of passing on guys because nobody will draft them and you’ll sign them as a free agent, there are two problems with that, one small but one not so small. The first one is maybe another team is thinking just like you and they’ll draft the guy so you miss out. The other, bigger problem is that undrafted guys are FREE AGENTS. They can negotiate with any of the 32 teams. If you’re Kelly Nunn, and the Rams want to talk to you, but so do the Ravens and the Vikings, you think you’d jump to sign on with a team that’s farther from the playoffs than anyone but the Lions? But when you draft him, he’s yours to try out first.

agents

in pulp fiction, as “the wolf”, expertly played by harvey keital, ever so eloquently states, “let’s not start —— each other’s —— yet”! out of respect for readers, i won’t finish that quote, but if you’ve seen that movie, you know where i’m going…so…shuddup folks! no way to tell who’s a good draft or a bust right now! we’ll see which players pan out down the road. absolutely no way to know now. the o-line and lbs needed help and that was addressed in rounds 1 and 2. if the coaches can’t develop/motivate them, then it’s the coaches inability to coach, not the team’s inability to draft. bernie is the only writer who actually makes/takes the wait-and-see approach, and he’s right. we don’t know anything yet. we’re the show-me state, let’s see what happens before we get too excited or upset yet.

im sick and tired of hearing complaints of laurinaitis over maulaluga. james was the top mlb last season and put up very good numbers again this year. to say he is number 2 to a linebacker that got ran all over against oregon state in a very weak pac 10 conference is just plain luaghable

Its hard to say from a Rams fan stand point how the Rams drafted but I will share with you is this: what matters on why one player is picked over another is how they will fit into the system of that head coach. Some players might have the athleticism way off the charts but if they don’t possess the qualities that the coach in this case Coach Spags and our GM they know what they want, how to apply these players to the play book that now is in place at Rams Park. I have read many of the publications and the pundits who basically said that the Rams had an average draft, well are they looking at if from a purely athletic stand point or one of the new scheme and direction this team is taking. Also how a coach motivates and teaches are the key in taking someone with great or average potential and maximize every fiber in their body……………I am just happy that the NEW Rams have direction, leadership, and a new feel about them…..

Put me with the wait and see crowd. The NFL, has too manyt players, who signed on as undrafted free agents or got drafted in the later rounds - only to blossom into full fledged pro-bowlers.

If you check the scouting reports, all of these plyers’ reviews are on the upside. If you’ve been following the Rams’ recent history, this new coaching staff, has potential! Combine those two factors and ‘homers’, likee me become optimistic.

Com-on! We let Pace go a couple of weeks ago and drafted a rookie(Smith) that we have to pay 2 million more a year to than Pace. plus We had to fill a hole in the first round that we created ourselves. The 2nd overall pick should hav been Curry then Laurinaitis in the secound. How much better would our defence have gotten not to mention bigger!No Pisa can’t play sam backer! And how good is a rookie Left Tackle going to play in his 1st year?Yep he’s the future and we are already goin to pay him more than Pace(A future hall of famer) We could hav done better!

Maualuga is not a three-down player, has had off-the-field problems and is not a locker-room leader.

Laurinaitis is a three-down player, brings no baggage and will all but definitely be a team leader.

Those who love Maualuga so much and want to watch him play are free to watch the Bengals games.

Before the draft everyone was saying that Jason Smith and James Laurenitis were ’sure fire pics. I didn’t think there was any way either Mauluga or Laurenitis would be available to the Rams. This may well be the best draft in the past 11-12 years. It’s too easy to Poo=Poo the drafting squad. by=but Apgnola and Devaney and I will hoot and holler when five of the 7 draftees are big time players by the fourth weekend games. and I haven’t even seen the 15 free agebts they got! There’s going to be some real fist pumping going on in the Ram Nation startign in july!

Good grief guys! We got a batch of players with credentials and awards. Laurinitis is the most awarded linebacker in the country, and plays with his head all the time. Maualuga is nothing but a heedless assassin. Being a UCLA grad and fan, I did not appreciater Maualuga trying to render our freshman QB unconscious with a dirty hit. Maualuga is going to get a rep and lots of flags right away in the NFL.

Now to another matter: BYU absolutely killed UCLA last season. True, we weren’t very good, but they literally wrecked us. And a good part of the reason was the size and ability of their O-line, two of whom are among our fifteen UFA’s - Ray Feinga, Guard at 6′4″ and 337 pounds, and tackle David Oswalt at 6′8″ & 330 pounds. Both of these guys can play. In addition, other OL guys in the magnificent 15 practically make up an entire OL.

I also loved the pick of Dorell (Darell?) Scott, and the comments about his work ethic. Just what we needed for the DL. I am not trying to assess the other teams’ drafts, we’ll find out about that soon enough, but I think the whole weekend worked out great for our RAMS. I’m starting to feel really positive about the upcoming season.